Sara Craven - Bartaldi's Bride

“I have a house,” Guido replied. “But it is not a home. I have a great name, but no heir. I have relationships, but not with a woman who can fill my heart to the exclusion of all others. Are those good enough reasons?”

Clare looked down her nose. “It all sounds a little cold-blooded to me.”

“But you are so wrong,” he said softly. “As my wife will discover for herself once I have her in my bed….”

SARA CRAVEN was born in South Devon, England, and grew up surrounded by books, in a house by the sea. After leaving grammar school she worked as a local journalist, covering everything from flower shows to murders. She started writing for Harlequin in 1975. Apart from writing, her passions include films, music, cooking and eating in good restaurants. She now lives in Somerset.

Sara Craven has recently become the latest (and last ever) winner of the British quiz show Mastermind.

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CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Endpage

THE weather in Rome had been swelteringly hot, with clear blue skies and unremitting sunshine, but, as she drove north, Clare could see inky clouds massing over the Appenines and hear a sour mutter of thunder in the distance.

Out of one storm, straight into another, she thought ruefully, urging the hired Fiat round a tortuous bend.

The first storm, however, had been of human origin, and had brought in its wake an abrupt termination to her contracted three months in Italy teaching English to the children of a wealthy Roman family.

And all because the master of the house had a roving eye, and hands to match.

‘It is not your fault, signorina,’ Signora Dorelli, immaculate in grey silk and pearls, had told her that morning, her eyes and mouth steely. ‘Do not think that I blame you for my husband’s foolish behaviour. You have conducted yourself well. But I should have known better than to bring an attractive young woman into my home.

‘At least you may have taught him that he is not irresistible,’ she’d added with a shrug. ‘But, as things are, I have no choice but to let you go. And the next tutor will be a man, I think.’

So Clare had packed her bags, said a regretful goodbye to the children, whom she’d liked, and expressionlessly accepted the balance of her entire fee, plus a substantial bonus, from a sullen Signor Dorelli, his elegant Armani suit still stained from the coffee she’d been forced to spill in his lap at breakfast.

If it had been left to him, Clare reflected, she’d have been thrown, penniless, into the street. But fortunately his wife had had other ideas. And no doubt the enforced payment had been only the first stage of an ongoing punishment which could last for weeks, if not months. Signora Dorelli had had the look of a woman prepared to milk the situation for all it was worth.

And he deserves it, Clare told herself. She’d spent a miserable ten days, at first ignoring his lascivious glances and whispered remarks, then doing her damnedest to avoid him physically altogether, thankful that her bedroom door had had a lock on it.

But, however spacious the apartment, she’d not always been totally successful in keeping out of his way, and her flesh crawled as she remembered how he would try to press himself against her in doorways, and the sly groping of his hands whenever he’d caught her alone.

Even his wife’s suspicions, expressed at the top of her voice, hadn’t been sufficient to deter him.

And when he’d found Clare by herself in the dining room that morning, he’d not only tried to kiss her, but slide a hand up her skirt as well. So Clare, outraged, had poured her coffee over him just as the Signora had entered the room.

Which was why she now found herself free as a bird and driving towards Umbria.

That hadn’t been her original plan, of course. Common sense had dictated that she should return to Britain, bank her windfall, and ask the agency to find her another post.

And this she would do—eventually. After she’d been to see Violetta.

A smile curved her lips as she thought of her godmother, all fluttering hands, scented silks and discreet jewellery. A wealthy widow, who had never been tempted to remarry.

‘Why confine yourself to one course, cara, when there is a whole banquet to enjoy?’ she had once remarked airily.

Violetta, Clare mused, had always had the air of a woman who enjoyed the world, and was treated well by it in return. And, in the heat of the summer, she liked to retire to her charming house in the foothills near Urbino and recuperate from the relentless socialising she embarked on for the rest of the year.

And she was constantly pressing Clare to come and stay with her.

‘Come at any time,’ she’d told her. ‘I so love to see you.’ She had wiped away a genuine tear with a lace handkerchief. ‘The image of my dearest Laura. My cousin and my greatest friend. How I miss her. And how could your father have put that terrible woman in her place?’

But that was a well-worn path that Clare, wisely, had not chosen to follow.

Laura Marriot had been dead for five years now, and, whatever Clare’s private opinion of her stepmother, or the undoubted difficulties of their relationship, Bernice seemed to be making her father happy again, and that was what really counted. Or so she assured herself.

But John Marriot’s remarriage had put paid to their cherished plan of Clare joining him as a partner in the successful language school he ran in Cambridge. Bernice had made it clear from the first that this was no longer an option. She wanted no inconvenient reminders of his previous marriage in the shape of a grown-up daughter living close at hand.

Perhaps the physical resemblance to her mother, which was such a joy to Violetta, had been one of the main factors of her resentment.

Every time Bernice had looked at Clare, she’d have seen the creamy skin, the pale blonde hair, the eyes, dark and velvety as pansies, flecked with gold, and the wide mouth that always looked about to break into a smile that Laura had bequeathed to her daughter.

And her possessive streak had been equally unable to handle the closeness between John and Clare. The fact that they were friends as well as father and child.

It had not been easy for Clare to swallow her disappointment and hurt and strike out for herself as a freelance language teacher, but she’d been fortunate in finding, almost at once, her present agency.

Resolutely putting the past behind her, she’d worked with total commitment, accepting each job she was offered without comment or complaint, establishing a track record for reliability and enthusiasm.