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He expelled his breath in a savage hiss 'It's in the past Let us bury it forever I should never have told you that I knew-'

'But you did,' she interrupted eain!'

'We have to' He surveyed her ashen pallor and his dark features tightened 'I accept that I wasthat the decision you made cost you no pain Clearly it did if the subject still causes you such distress, but you have to accept that we are each the products of a very different upbringing and I a froe what I feel, but I can learn to put those feelings behind o'

In a passion of pain and bitter frustration, Ashley rose to her feet Strive as he could, his judgemental attitude of reproach and a complete inability to understand ehtened her beautiful eyes to lus behind you and try concentrating on what you should be feeling?'

'Meaning?' he prompted drily

'Where the hell were you when I needed you?' Raw emotion shrilled from the embittered demand 'Where were you, Vito? I was nineteen years old and there was nowhere I could turn! You got nant You walked out You married another woman And you say that you I-loved me? Well, the only response I have for you now is… where were you, and where was that love when I needed it?'

He was rigid with shock, all the natural vitality bleached froolden skin His classic bone structure stood out in harsh relief, his dazed dark eyes twinned nakedly with hers as he was finally forced to take account of his own sins of omission

Ashley drew in a deep shuddering breath 'You don't live in the real word, Vito You never have and you never will,' she conde, supportive family and an obscene amount of money You know about as much about how the rest of us live as a cartoon character! In the whole of your life you have never been in a position where you had no easy choice So, you can afford to have ideals set in stone You've never had to wonder where your nextto survive… and that's when ideals get compromised!' A dark rise of blood had banished his pallor He raised a not quite steady hand and brushed away the tears streaking her cheeks In one of those lightning-fast switches of mood that disturbed her, she found herself within an ace of throwing herself into his ariven in to it had not Vito abruptly withdrawn his hand and straightened again, having belatedly mastered the shocked turaze

A soft knock on the door prefaced Elena's carefully slow entry 'I do hope I' the two principal guests' 'Ashley will join us in ahiuided the older woman out of the room

In the buzzing silence he left behind, she fought harder than she had ever fought for self-possession and calht, and she trembled beneath the awareness that in less than thirty-six hours she would be Vito's wife

'We should reach the villa in another hour' Vito settled back in his seat, having enjoyed a long and apparently effortless conversation with their driver, Bandu, in Sinhalese The house in the hill country had been in the Cavalieri faenerations He, had dropped that fact casually as they boarded the plane in London, e

Even after a nerve-racking hour, Ashley was still on the edge of her seat at the sheer death-defying style of driving in Sri Lanka Bandu wove in and out wildly at what see on his horn with gusto and nal Behind theh with pineapples, unconcerned by the ja up to its rear In front was an incredibly dilapidated lorry A lanky youth was sleeping precariously on top of the sacks, quite unaware that a sack near hiular intervals beneath their wheels An ancient olda basket of fish on his head, jay-walked out in front of them at an unbelievably leisurely pace and actually stopped to adjust the load he carried Ashley vented a stifled shriek, certain they would hit him, but Bandu simply swerved violently and continued on

'Driving in Colombo requires nerves of steel,' Vito co with reaction, Ashley suppressed a yawn

'You are still tired?' Vito looked politely astonished 'A bit' Yet she had slept throughout ht Perhaps that hy none of this see had taken place yesterday and they had spent the night on the plane She couldn't understand why she was still so tired Possibly it was the i to accept that she was now Vito's wife

It didn't seem possible Ashley di Cavalieri The Press had been outside the church, dealing yet another shock to her syste True, Vito had not said it would be, but she had assue, he would prefer a register office and an absolute minimum of frills

As a result, she had been quite unprepared for the delivery and last-own and equally unprepared for the bouquet, the two hundred guests, the private party afterwards and the exquisite wedding cake flown in specially froone beyond shock She had played a starring role in the sort of grand bridal soap opera that she had never dreamt she would experience At the back of her mind screamed the awareness that today, thanks to the power of the media, her entire family would learn that she had married

Her norance of the proceedings Her father would be furious that that sahbours Susan would be offended And Tim? Ashley's soft mouth took on an anxious curve Her brother would probably be very suspicious of the extraordinary speed and secrecy hich the e had taken place

The streets, crammed to capacity with children, cattle, bicycles and every other possible for road clirew in paddies along the way and in every direction palainst the deep blue unclouded sky

A trio of dark-skinned girls, wrapped in colourful sarongs, stood washing themselves at a standpipe by the side of the road Bandu braked to avoid the staggering steps of a naked little toddler starinned Children were the same the world over The attraction of water play was universal

'What a beautiful child' She craned her neck to catch a last gli toddler

'The Sinhalese are a very attractive people' Solint lit his perceptive gaze Suddenly conscious that she had accidentally jettisoned her role of indifference to children, Ashley avoided his eyes and stiffened

A few ated drive through a grove of cassia trees Ashley climbed out into the hot, still air and dazedly studied the building before her Dropped into an English village, it would have looked perfectly at home there It had all the solid charm of a Victorian country house with the addition of a wraparound veranda to perreater enjoyment of the tropical climate

'My great-grandfather bought the estate from a British planter I turned the tea plantation over to a workers' co-operative,' Vito explained 'But I retained a considerable amount of land to ensure the seclusion of the house'

An astonishing nureet thenity does not require this number of staff?'

Vito sent her a stinging look of reproof 'Employment is far from plentiful here While wealth may cushion me from what you choose to call "the real world",' he derided

in an undertone, 'I follow a policy of providing work for as many people as possible'

Scorched by the rejoinder and flushed, Ashley was propelled forward todrawn-out process Such chattering friendliness could not be swiftly concluded All but the youngest spoke good English and it was clear from Vito's questions that he ell acquainted with each and every one of them

Another yawn crept up on Ashley Seeing her stifle it, Priya, the small, rounded housekeeper, se bedrooany furniture in the colonial style But Ashley barely had the tie photograph of Carina set in prominent position beside the enormous bed

Quick as a flash, Priya registered the source of her sudden tension 'You want that I should remove?' she pressed anxiously 'I did not like to without instruction'

'Oh, please leave it there' Alar so easily read, Ashley forced a casual sry sensations Were there photographs of Carina everywhere? Was she expected to lie in Vito's ar down at her froe intertwined inside her

After Priya had finished showing her the adjoining bathroo pride, Ashley said that she wanted to lie down for a while and refused the offer of refreshraph, she reflected fiercely There could be no stronger ree She rather thought that Vito, who excelled on small sensitive details when he so desired, would have tactfully banished the photos had this been a different sort of alliance And why did she kid herself that Carina was the one on the sidelines?

It was she, Ashley, as on the outside If Carina hadn't died, Vito would still be with her They would have had children by now Dear God, why did she persist in denying the obvious? Why shouldn't Vito have come to love his first wife? They had shared so round and outlook He held her hest possible esteem and spoke of her only rarely but then with repressed but strong emotion In every way they had been very well matched Why couldn't she face up to the fact that Vito had loved Carina? Until now she had flatly refused to accept that Vito ht reasons' supplied by their similarities Jealousy and resentment had blinded her Once he had called Carina a very dear friend Ashley had been the infatuation, Carina the woman he turned to and finally stayed with And suddenly she was agonisingly conscious that all Vito wanted from her was a baby and a quick exit from his life From the outset he had made it abundantly clear that that was the only use he had for her now

A small sound roused her from an uneasy doze She sat up abruptly as a la Vito, dark and devastating in a white dinner-jacket, surveyed her froht frown pleated his ebony brows, a look of spurious concern in his searching gaze 'Are you ill?' he enquired