‘Damned cheek!’
‘Well, face facts. You don’t know the first thing about the lemons you grow, not even what type they are. How often do they need watering? How long between planting and harvesting? How often do they flower? The whole prosperity of this place depends on intensive knowledge, or your harvest will fail. And I didn’t spend years working myself to a standstill to see you throw it away.’
‘If that’s your way of asking me to hire you, you’re making a very bad job of it.’
‘Don’t waste my time with that sort of talk. I’m not asking you to hire me. I’m telling you. You don’t have a choice.’
‘The hell I don’t!’
‘That’s right, you don’t. You need me, that’s the plain fact, so why waste time?’
‘And you did it all on your own, did you? Without you there’s no one except the “workhorse” you mentioned?’
‘No, I had a staff of three gardeners, but they’ve gone except for that one. The other two left when the place was sold.’
‘How interesting! They both made the same sudden decision, did they?’
‘They did.’
‘And both left on the same day?’
‘In the same hour.’
‘What a remarkable coincidence! I wonder exactly how it came about.’
Her ironic tone left no doubt of her meaning, and Vittorio’s eyes darkened.
‘You mean, I take it, that I encouraged them, in order to harm you?’
‘It seems pretty clear.’
He moved towards her so suddenly that she couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back, although it maddened her to yield so much as an inch. She found her back against the wall.
‘Listen to me,’ he said, in a soft, deliberate voice, full of menace. ‘You are very confused about what is clear and what is not clear, so I am going to make several things clear to you.’
‘This conversation is over,’ she said, trying to move sideways and away from him.
But he stopped her by placing both hands on the wall, on either side of her.
‘No, this conversation is not over until I say so, and I have decided that there are things you must hear first.’
‘And I say I don’t want to, so you will move away and let me go right now.’
‘Will I, indeed? And who is going to make me? You? Try it.’
She would have been mad to try. Even though he wasn’t actually touching her she had a fierce sense of the wiry strength in his body, and knew that she was no match for him. To fight would merely be undignified.
His eyes were fixed on her face, following her thoughts exactly. He grinned, and it was an alarming sight.
‘Nor will any of the others help you against me. Do you think they will?’
Dismayed, she knew the answer. In the eyes of the household, he was still the master.
‘So you will stay here and listen to me, and when I am quite sure that you have understood I will let you go.’
‘Then get it over with,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘The first thing is this. You have accused me of being prepared to damage this place because of my contempt for you. I told you before, I put my life’s blood into the estate and hell will freeze over before I do anything to harm it. What you suggested would be an act of petty spite, and it’s an insult that I won’t tolerate.’
‘Then perhaps you should have heard yourself say it,’ she flung at him. ‘You were delighted to have caught me out. Admit it.’
‘Of course I admit it. But I didn’t catch you out. You caught yourself out, thinking you could come out here and take over when you know nothing. Your arrogance is unbelievable. That’s why they left, because they are knowledgeable men and they don’t sell their services to ignorance. Expecting them to do so was your insult to them. They wouldn’t tolerate it, and why should they? You think I drove them away? On the contrary, I begged them to stay. Not for you, but for the estate, for the earth and the things that grow here, that need tending and loving, and which are more important than their pride, or yours.’ He took a shuddering breath. ‘Or mine.’
The last words sounded as though they were wrenched out of him. For a moment his attention seemed to wander, as though he’d side-slipped into another world. Then he forced himself back with an effort.
‘Just so that you understand, I do not descend to acts of spite, and I won’t tolerate the way you just spoke to me. Don’t ever do it again or you’ll be sorry.’
‘And that’s supposed to make me hire you, is it? Threatening me?’
‘You need me, damn you.’
‘I don’t think so. You’ve got the thing you came to find, so now get out of here. Do you hear me? Get off my property.’
Angel spoke bravely but her heart was hammering at what she could see in his face. For a moment she thought Vittorio would lose control, but at the very last second he mastered himself. A shudder went through him. His hands fell from the wall and he moved away from her. She had a strange feeling that his strength had suddenly drained away.
‘Your property,’ he said bitterly. ‘Yes, it’s your property now. I wish you joy of it.’
‘Liar!’ she flung at him in a shaking voice. ‘You wish me nothing but misfortune and misery.’
‘How astute of you!’
‘Get out of here now, and don’t come back.’
He gave her one final look of hatred. Then he was gone.
Angel had expected a disturbed night but, to her surprise, she slept like a log. The apparently hard mattress was the most comfortable she’d ever known.
Awaking early, she found the room still in darkness, but with slivers of light creeping between the cracks in the shutters. Pushing one of them open, she saw the softly growing light of early dawn. Entranced, she watched the sea, so still that it had an unearthly quality.
It was perfect, she thought, smiling.
Almost perfect.
The fly in the ointment was Vittorio Tazzini, a dangerous man who had taken against her in a way she didn’t understand. True, she owned the home that had once been his, but she hadn’t stolen it. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to sell, but had been forced to by debts. Even so, he must have money left over, enough not to have to dress in such a down-at-heel manner.
He was a mystery, but one she didn’t intend to let worry her. She’d thrown him out. Now she must put him out of her mind. It should be simple enough.
But it wasn’t; she knew that already. He had the kind of presence that wouldn’t be easily dismissed. He wasn’t handsome—well, not in the ordinary way, she corrected herself. His nose was too prominent, his mouth too grim, his cheeks too lean for conventional good looks. What he had was all his own, a kind of dark inner force, unforgiving, implacable. He would be a bad enemy.
Yet she wasn’t afraid of him. Far from it. For years the men she’d met had been too much alike—smooth, full of glib talk and meaningless compliments, all seeming to come from the same insipid mould: photographers, television producers, minor actors, models, young men with little personality but the kind of regular features that passed for good looks, flashing cheesy smiles, always performing with one eye on her, the other on the camera, and their inner eye on the impression they were making.
She’d