listened and silently digested the suavely subtle, lethal

way in which Lorenzo was dismantling Caterina’s

power base. When it came to getting what he wanted,

Lorenzo was obviously a ruthless opponent. A ruthless,

arrogant, dangerous man — who voluntarily gave

both his time and his wealth to help the young victims

of far-off wars and disasters. That wasn’t just one

man, it was two very different men inside the same

skin — like Janus, the double-faced Roman god of beginnings

and endings, from whom the month of

January took its name. Lorenzo was an enigma of a

man, and the polar differences within himself made

him toxically dangerous. But not to her. No man

would ever again be a danger to her.

"I have brought with me all the various documents

you will both need to sign in preparation for your

marriage. The Cardinal was most helpful. He suggested

the Church of the Madonna in Florence for the

service, and he has undertaken to arrange for the

banns to be read from this Sunday. Since the law is

that they must be read on two consecutive Sundays

before the marriage can be conducted, that means that

you can be married just over two weeks from today."

Banns? And a church service? Their marriage was

to be just a temporary business arrangement: it didn’t

need to be celebrated in church. A simple civil ceremony

was all that was necessary. Jodie started to step

forward, but somehow Lorenzo had managed to get

between her and Alfredo. She could feel his fingers

curling determinedly around her wrist, and she could

see the warning in his eyes as he lifted her now tightly

clenched palm towards his lips.

"You have done well, Alfredo," he said approvingly,

without shifting his gaze from Jodie. "Hasn’t

he, cara?"

His lips were caressing her knuckles, each individual

one in turn, until, helplessly, she could feel her

fingers uncurling from her palm, as though eager for

more.

"I have also prepared the necessary papers for you

both to sign with regard to the financial agreement.

There is one for you to sign, Jodie, renouncing any

future financial claim you might have against Lorenzo

in the event of a divorce, and the other which you

asked me to draw up, Lorenzo, stating that in the

event of the marriage breaking down within twelve

months of the ceremony you will pay Jodie one mil-

lion pounds sterling, plus a further million pounds for

every year after that that you remain married."

"I’ll sign the papers renouncing any future claim I

might have against Lorenzo, but I Don’t want his

money." The words were spoken before Jodie could

stop herself. She could see that Alfredo looked both

rueful and slightly embarrassed.

"Of course it is unpleasant to have to talk about

such things now, before you are even married, but—"

"I Don’t want the money," Jodie repeated.

"This is something we can discuss in private later,"

Lorenzo informed her in a warning tone, before turning

to smile at Alfredo and telling him, "You have a

long journey back to Rome, so the sooner we get all

the paperwork dealt with, the better."

"Why do we have to have a church service instead of

just a civil ceremony?"

It was over an hour since Alfredo had left, but

Jodie’s system was still in full adrenalin-producing

mode as she confronted Lorenzo across the width of

his desk.

"Why should we not? It is customary within my

family, and will be expected."

"You should have told me before. I thought we

would just be having a civil wedding. Being married

in church will make it seem so real…"

Lorenzo was frowning now.

"Our marriage will be real," he informed her. "That

is the whole point of undertaking it. It has to be

"real", as you put it, in order for me to fulfil the

terms of my grandmother’s will. Or at least, "real"

in the sense that it will be conducted as a real wedding.

We shall not, of course, be consummating it."

"No, we most certainly won’t," Jodie agreed vehemently.

"I’m beginning to wish that I had never got

involved in any of this."

"It is too late for that now, and besides, you will

be well remunerated."

"I’ve already told you I Don’t want your money.

All I want is for you to attend John and Louise’s

wedding with me."

"I could hardly have that put in the marriage contract.

As it is, there is bound to be some degree of

gossip and speculation about our relationship. You

have Alfredo on your side, though. He was obviously

afraid that your feelings had been hurt by the necessity

of legalising the financial aspects of our marriage."

"You could never hurt my feelings. You aren’t important

enough to me, and I intend to make sure that

no man ever is from now on."

"You intend to die a virgin?"

He was mocking her, Jodie knew.

"And if I do? There are more important things in

life than sex!"

"How would you know? By your own admission,

you have never truly experienced it."

Jodie had had enough.

"A woman does not need to have penetration in

order to experience sexual pleasure. Nor does she

need a man," she told him frankly.

"Is that the only way you feel able to allow yourself

to reach fulfilment? Either by your own hand or

through the use of some battery-driven device that

cannot—?"

"No! I wasn’t talking about me. I just meant… I’m

not listening to any more of this." Jodie could feel her

face burning with self-conscious colour as she covered

her ears with her hands.

"I am simply making the point that you are rejecting

something without having experienced it."

"What about you? You’re rejecting marriage, aren’t

you — at least a proper marriage? And you haven’t

been married, have you?"

"I haven’t been married myself, but I have witnessed

the marriages of others and seen what a destructive

sham the state of marriage is — how it is used

to cover greed and selfishness, and how children born

into it are left to deal with the fall-out from their

parents" deceit."

"That isn’t true of all marriages. Some Don’t work

out, yes, but there are happy marriages. My cousin

and his wife love one another very deeply, and my

parents were happy together…"

"Really? So how come this wonderful gene that has

enabled them to achieve the rare state of bliss bypassed

you?"

"It’s all down to having the ability to pick the right

partner. I realised with John that I Don’t have that

ability, and that is why I never intend to let myself

fall in love again. But that doesn’t mean I Don’t believe

marriage can work or that some people — other

people — have the ability to make the right partner

choice and to share commitment."

"Only a fool believes that sexual love can be permanent,"

Lorenzo told her challengingly, as though

he expected her to disagree with him. But Jodie was

wary of getting involved in any more arguments that

featured sex. Every time she did, a funny little sensation

deep inside her sprang into life and pulsed in

such an intimate and demanding way that she could

barely concentrate on what she was saying because

of it.

"Oh, and by the way," Lorenzo continued, "Don’t

think that I was taken in by that artful comment of

yours about not wanting the million pounds. What are

you hoping? That if you refuse it now then later,

when we divorce, you will be in a much stronger