softly, "So you do still want him?"

"No! I just want…" She paused and shook her head.

"I Don’t have to explain my reasons to you. Those are

my terms for marrying you. It is up to you whether

or not you accept them." Please, let him refuse…

"Very well, then. We will go to your ex-fiance."s

wedding, but it will be as husband and wife."

Jodie could feel her body sag with relief. Relief?

Because of a fatalistic sense of having any more decisions

taken out of her hands? Because she had

weakly handed over control of her life to an arrogant

stranger?

"Come with me…"

Tiredly, Jodie followed him through another set of

doors that led into a very male study, and from there

into an ante-room from which two doors opened.

"This is my room," Lorenzo informed her, indicating

one door, "and this is the guest room."

He was looking at her almost as though he was

testing her, as though he was waiting for her to make

a choice. Determinedly she stepped towards the door

to the guest room and turned the handle.

Like the other rooms, it was decorated and furnished

in a plain, modern style, but all Jodie was interested

in was the wonderful large bed. Her leg was

hurting so much she was beginning to drag it slightly.

"Those doors on either side of the bed lead into a

dressing room and a bathroom," she could hear

Lorenzo explaining. "I shall have your bag sent up.

Are you hungry?"

Jodie shook her head. She had gone beyond that.

All she wanted was to lie down and feel the pain

easing out of her leg. She took a step forward and her

weak leg, already overtired from the long drive, buckled

and started to give way. Automatically she put out

her hands to try and save herself as she fell. She heard

Lorenzo cursing, and then he was reaching for her,

just managing to catch her before she hit the floor,

yanking her back to her feet so sharply that the pain

slicing into her made her cry out.

"Diablo! What is it? what’s wrong?"

"Nothing. It’s just my leg," Jodie told him, pushing

him away and trying to stand up straight. But it was

too late. Her leg had had enough and was refusing to

support her properly. She could see the way Lorenzo

was frowning. Immediately her chin tilted proudly.

"I have a problem with my leg. I was in an accident

and it was damaged. Sometimes when it gets overtired…"

She looked away from him. "If you Don’t

want to marry me because of it, then—"

"Is that what he told you? The man you were to

marry?" Lorenzo guessed. "That he didn’t want you

because of it?"

Jodie’s face burned. She had said too much — a

mistake she could only put down to her tiredness and

the stress of everything that had happened to her.

"No."

"But it was a cause of some conflict between you?"

Lorenzo continued to probe.

"He didn’t like the fact that it was…damaged." She

made an attempt at a dismissive shrug. "But then,

that’s only natural, isn’t it? Men do like beautiful

women, and—"

"It is an intrinsic part of human nature to value

beauty," Lorenzo told her. "But sometimes the greatest

beauty of all comes only through suffering and pain."

Jodie looked at him uncertainly. She was too tired

to try and analyse such a cryptic, sombre remark.

Instead, she looked longingly towards the bed.

Lorenzo followed the direction of her gaze.

"I’ll leave you now. You should find everything

you need in the bathroom, but if you do not then just

ask Pietro when he brings up your case. He will inform

Maria, and she will attend to it."

"Pietro and Maria," she said, carefully repeating

their names. "Your servants?"

"They look after the Castillo. Originally they were

employed by my grandmother. By rights they should

both retire, but this has always been their home and

it would be a cruelty to send them away now — or to

imply that they are not able to be of any use," he

added warningly. "Once I have spoken with my lawyer,

and put in hand the arrangements for our marriage,

I shall address the matter of making this place

more habitable."

They were going to be living here? There were so

many questions she knew she ought to be asking, but

right now she was too exhausted to care about anything

other than getting some sleep.

AT LEAST the bath water was hot, and the towels

Maria had brought for her, bustling importantly into

the bedroom on a stream of incomprehensible Italian

whilst she inspected Jodie with her sharp gaze, were

deliciously soft and thick.

As in the bedroom, the decor in her en suite bathroom

was very plain, but there was no mistaking the

quality of the sanitaryware or the cool smartness of

the marble covering the floor and walls.

Wrapped in one of the towels, Jodie padded barefoot

back to her bedroom and opened her case,

quickly searching through it for the nightshirt she

knew she had packed. But when she lifted her neatly

packed tops out of the case she started to frown. Her

nightshirt was there, all right, but so also was the

deliciously frivolous new underwear she had bought

for her honeymoon: bras and short knickers in floral

patterns; silk thongs that fastened with satin bows; a

sheer floral mini-slip that was so pretty she hadn’t

been able to resist it; even the cream lace and satin

basque she had bought on a sudden impulse one

lunchtime after yet another evening spent with John

refusing to do anything more than indulge in gentle

"petting".

She hadn’t known then, of course, that the reason

he had not taken their intimacy to its logical conclusion

had not been because he had loved her so much,

but because he had loved her so little. Now, thanks

to Louise, she knew that all the time she had been

aching for him and admiring his restraint he had secretly

been turned off by her.

What on earth was this stuff doing in her case? She

found the answer in a small note from her cousin-inlaw,

tucked in between the folds of her nightshirt.

It seemed such a pity not to take these with you.

You never know, you might meet someone who will

appreciate them — and you.

Jodie almost laughed out loud. Andrea had had

more of a presentiment than even she could have

guessed! As a bride-to-be, she ought to be able to find

a use for such frivolous items, but she knew that

Lorenzo would be even less appreciative of both them

and her than John had been.

She pulled on her nightgown and closed the case,

placing it on the floor before crawling into the middle

of the huge bed and switching off the light.

By rights she ought to be thinking about the situation

she had put herself into and working out how

best to extricate herself from it, but she was far, far

too tired.

Lorenzo shut down his computer and got up from the

desk where he had been working. He had e-mailed

several people: his lawyer, explaining to him his

plans — or at least as much of them as he wanted him

to know; a certain very highly placed diplomat who

owed him several favours, requesting his help in cutting

through the normal procedures so that he could

marry his British fiance.e as quickly as possible; and

the Cardinal, who was his second cousin once re-

moved. Fortuitously he already had in his possession