And what a fool! She could have screamed as she realised how evident her excitement must have been. He had made her want him, and he’d known it.

She closed her eyes, fiercely willing herself to hold onto the anger, so that it might defend her from the other feeling, the shattering awareness that tonight she had been alive in every part of herself, truly alive for the first time.

She didn’t want to feel like that about Rinaldo, and she would resist it with everything in her power. She pulled herself together. It would be over soon. This was an aberration, that would be forgotten when she returned to England and reality.

A freezing shower made her feel a little better. Then, as she wrapped a towel around her, she grew suddenly alert, wondering what had happened to her wits. The date of the carnival had always seemed familiar, and now she knew why. This was the day of the partners’ meeting, at which David would arrange for her to be offered a partnership.

It must have happened this afternoon. He’d probably been trying to get through to her ever since.

She could have laughed aloud at the way Italy had hypnotised her into forgetting something so important. She had even left her mobile phone behind to go to the festival. All she had to do was check her messages.

She did so, and stared at the result.

There were no messages from David.

But there were four from her secretary at her home number.

She thought of Jenny, a motherly woman and a tireless worker, of whom she was very fond. Why was she making such attempts to contact her when David was silent?

Perhaps the other partners had been awkward about accepting her, and even now David was arguing with them, defending her.

She dialled Jenny’s number quickly, and was answered at once.

‘Thank goodness you called,’ Jenny said in a relieved voice. ‘You’re not going to believe what I have to tell you. Are you sitting down?’

‘Sure. I’m sitting on the bed. Now, tell me.’

‘This afternoon David announced his engagement to Erica.’

In the first moment of shock Alex said the only words that came into her head.

‘Who the blue blazes is Erica?’

‘His secretary. It’s funny how nobody knows her name, but that’s what she’s like. Little brown mouse. Fades into the wallpaper.’

Now Alex remembered a pale, wispy girl she had sometimes seen in David’s office. And this little nonentity had ousted the glamorous, high-powered Alex Dacre?

‘There’s something else,’ Jenny said. ‘David has vetoed your partnership.’

Alex uttered a very rude word.

‘There was a meeting this afternoon. Everyone thought making you a partner was just a formality, but he wouldn’t consider it.’

‘What?’

‘He said they couldn’t rely on someone who stayed away so long-’

‘But he told me to stay as long as I needed!’

‘I know. We all know. Nobody believes it for a moment. It’s just an excuse. He says you can stay on as an employee-’

‘He knows I won’t do that,’ Alex snapped.

‘Right. He doesn’t want you around after the way he’s treated you. He can’t fire you, but he can make your life uncomfortable until you leave.’

‘What would he have done if I hadn’t obligingly come to Italy?’ Alex asked grimly.

‘He’d have thought of something. His kind always do. But you made it easy for him. All your accounts have been assigned to other people now. Officially it’s “during your absence”, but-’

‘But I’ll never get them back. Damn him! Half those accounts only came to the firm because I went out and fought for them.’

‘I know, and he hates that. You’ve become too strong. You’ve become competition, and David’s a very vain man.’

‘Thanks for putting me in the picture Jenny,’ Alex said, breathing hard.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to plan my revenge in the dark.’

‘What?’ Jenny gave a gasp of shock.

‘I’m part Italian, don’t forget. We plot in the night and we keep our stilettos shining. Perhaps you should tell him that. It might give him a sleepless moment or two.’

‘Oh, Alex, I know you must be terribly hurt, but is he really worth it?’

‘No. I’ll call again later.’

When she’d hung up Alex was still for a long time.

In truth, she wasn’t hurt at all. She’d agreed David wasn’t worth it and it was true. She’d blinded herself to his true nature, but at heart she’d always known the kind of man he was, cool, self-centred, ruthless where his own interests were concerned.

It hadn’t mattered because she had believed herself to be the same.

But she knew better now.

She could have laughed aloud at the thought of mourning the loss of David.

Here was the true reason why he’d been so understanding about her prolonged absence. It had exactly suited him. He must have been planning to oust her from the firm even before she left.

She would waste no time in grieving, but swallowing the insult was another matter.

She noticed a small clay figurine by the side of the bed. The next moment the room shuddered under the impact as it hit the far wall and smashed.

She regarded the damage, feeling a great deal better.

‘Alex! Are you all right?’

Gino was knocking on her door, calling her.

‘I’m fine,’ she called out, hurriedly putting on a light dressing gown.

She opened the door. Rinaldo was there too, in the background, but it was Gino who stormed in, grasping her hands, and saying, ‘What was the noise? Did something fall? Are you hurt?’

She freed herself and picked up some of the pieces.

‘It was only this,’ she said.

Rinaldo came in and examined the dent in the wall.

‘Impressive,’ he said. ‘You must have thrown it with some force. Remind me to duck.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not aiming anything at you.’

‘No, you wouldn’t have missed me, would you?’

‘Stop trying to provoke me,’ Alex said, feeling strangely calm now that she’d gotten it out of her system. ‘I’m sorry for the damage to your wall.’

‘Was there any special reason for the violence?’ Rinaldo asked, ‘or did you just feel that way?’

She looked at him, her eyes kindling.

‘I just felt that way.’

Nothing on earth would have persuaded her to tell him the truth at that moment.

Gino was alone in the kitchen, tucking into a hearty breakfast when she went down next morning. Alex regarded him sardonically, amused to see that he could hardly meet her eye.

‘“I shall dance only with you, amor mia’,” she tossed his words lightly back at him. “‘And you must dance only with me.”’

‘I know, I know,’ he said shamefacedly. ‘It was festival. I got carried away-’

‘Yes, I saw you being carried away-by three of them. Naturally you couldn’t resist.’

He eyed her suspiciously.

‘Are you being very nice, or should I prepare for boiling oil to drop on my head?’

‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ she teased.

He seized her hand and kissed it. ‘I adore you.’

‘No you don’t. You adore your three companions of last night. At least, there were three that I saw, but I wouldn’t be surprised if-’

‘Yes, well never mind that,’ he said hastily. ‘Truly, carissima, it meant nothing. That’s how festival is, all those demons and goats-’

‘And the wine,’ she said, smiling at him fondly.

‘Well, the wine plays its part, but it’s mostly the atmosphere-the feeling that anything could happen, and you’re going to let it happen, and who knows how the evening will end?’

Alex was silent. Gino’s words struck home in way he could never imagine. Last night’s feeling of heated sexuality had pervaded her too, giving everything a sharper edge, making her feel things it might have been better not to feel, and even rejoice in them.

But now it was the clear light of day.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, seeing her face and misreading it. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘Why not? I do understand. It was festival. You never stick with the person you came with. Otherwise it’s no fun.’

‘Bless you for a sweet, forgiving darling.’

He planted a swift kiss on her mouth, and Alex let him. It wasn’t unpleasant. It wasn’t anything.

‘You know I adore you more than life, don’t you?’ he asked. ‘You’re the one I dream of-’

‘Except during a festival,’ she couldn’t resist saying.

‘Can we put that behind us?’ he asked, harassed.

‘I’m sorry, Gino dear, but I can’t help laughing. You’re such a ham.’

‘I bare my heart to you and you laugh,’ he said plaintively. ‘Ah, well!’ He struck his breast theatrically. ‘Ridi, pagliacco, ridi! Laugh, clown, laugh, though your heart is breaking.’

‘Clown is right,’ Alex said severely.

Then, with a quick change of mood that was one of his characteristics, Gino said, ‘Don’t go back to England, Alex.’

‘Gino-’

‘You’ve changed since coming here. I’ll bet you don’t even recognise yourself any more.’

It was true. Gino’s perceptions could be disconcerting, but she wasn’t ready to trust him with the truth any more than Rinaldo.

‘You can’t return to that other life,’ Gino urged. ‘You don’t belong there any more.’

To throw him off the scent she quickly resumed her bantering tone.

‘You stop that. I told you, I see through your little schemes.’

‘Please, cara-’ he begged in comical dismay.

‘You’re as bad as Rinaldo. The two of you set it all up before I arrived. I wouldn’t put it past you to have tossed a coin for me.’

It was a passing remark but Gino’s alarmed gulp told her everything.

‘You did!’ she accused.

‘Yes-no-it wasn’t like that.’

‘I’ll bet it was exactly like that. You cheeky pair!’

‘You’re not annoyed?’

‘I ought to be, but oh, what the heck! I suppose I should just be glad you won.’

Emboldened by her matter-of-fact attitude Gino grinned and said, ‘Actually I didn’t.’

‘What?’

‘Rinaldo won, but he didn’t take it seriously. He claimed he thought I’d been using my two-headed coin or he wouldn’t have played. Anyway, he said he wasn’t interested and I could have you.’

‘Oh, really!’ she asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

‘But aren’t you glad you got me instead? Come on, admit it. You like me better than Rinaldo.’

‘I like anybody better than Rinaldo.’

‘I behaved badly, leaving you with him last night, didn’t I? I’m sorry if he offended you.’

‘I may have offended him,’ she said vaguely.

‘I wonder if that’s why he’s gone.’

‘What?’

‘Yes, he left early this morning. Something about checking out some second-hand farm machinery, but I didn’t know we needed any. He just upped and went.’

She should have been glad of the breathing space. Instead she felt as though she’d been dealt a blow.

They had unfinished business. Rinaldo knew that as well as she did. And he’d simply gone off and left her stranded in limbo. For a moment she looked around for something else to throw.

Then she forced herself to calm down and conceal the storm inside. That must remain her secret until she understood herself better.

She took a horse and rode for miles, noticing how the corn had grown since she first saw it, how the olives and grapes were flourishing in the sun.

How she loved the sun! It was as though she had only discovered it in Italy. There was sun in London, but it beat down in fierce strips of ugly road, baking pavements, suffocating. Here sunshine was fresh air and freedom, and a new awakening.

Her options were simple. She could return to England and fight, or she could stay here and fight. It was fighting either way, no question.

The prizes were uneven. A cold, soulless place in the firm, or another firm. There were plenty who would be glad to have her.

Or she could abandon London and everything she had worked for. All those years of striving for the best, the best clients, the best apartment, the best clothes, the best invitations-all gone to nothing.

In exchange she would have a life here, in a country that had seized her heart, in daily contact with a man who was rude, hostile, unrelenting, a man who’d rejected her out of hand without even seeing her, but who also troubled her heart and her restless body.

‘Nonsense!’ she said aloud. ‘I’m damned if I’m going to fall in love with him! Who the hell does he think he is?’

After a while she made up her mind. It felt less like taking a decision than facing the inevitable. Mounting her horse she galloped back to the farm and began to pack. The following morning, in the teeth of Gino’s protests, she drove herself to the airport.

There she handed the car in at the local branch of the rental company. An hour later she was in the air, on her way to England.