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She looked at Magda Her dark eyes were not unsy to him, did you? You did not think that it could last, this brief affair?’

The pain was running down every liht it, desperate to deny what Lucia was saying to her despite the resonance it found so readily in her own heart

‘I can’t just go—without Rafaello’s say-so He o yet…’

Even as she spoke she knew she was deceiving herself Rafaello was not concerned with her noas concerned only, as he should be, with his father

Lucia was taking so pale that fluttered as she held it out to Magda

‘He asked ive you this’ Her voice was strained and she would not quite da’s eyes As she took the piece of paper and looked at it Magda knehy

It was a cheque It was made out to her—for ten thousand euros As she stared, her heart crushed in a vice that squeezed the blood fronature wavered in front of her eyes

Lucia was speaking again

Magda forced herself to listen, though inside herself she could hear only a terrifying, deafening silence that just went on and on without end

‘Rafaello said…’ The wooing through ‘Said that he would be in touch later, to sort everything out But that right now his first duty is to his father He hopes you will understand…’ Her voice trailed off ‘I’m sorry, my dear You see, he won’t have realised what you have coe was always just a…business transaction’

Magda could say nothing—nothing except a dull, broken assent The crushing weight in her heart was agony

Lucia was saying so at her watch

‘Forgive me, I do not mean to…upset you further, but I havethe next flight to Rome, so that I can be with Tio Enrico if…if he still lives’ There was a strain in her voice Magda could not ignore ‘If it will not take you long to pack, I can take you to the airport with e your ticket and so forth’

She looked pityingly at Magda, still standing there, Benji at her side gazing unco

‘It would be best not to linger’ Her voice was as pitying as her expression

With feet of lead, Magda collected her things and headed indoors