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CHAPTER ONE

INSTRUCTING THE TAXI driver to wait Cesare Saracino swung his long legs to the wet pavement and headed towards the sely deserted narrow high street his dark eyes grim with determination

His investigator had tracked down her ed mother's home address with no difficulty at all

Personally he couldn't see Jilly Lee actually returning here neverin a flat above a butcher's in a s hts the colamour

She wouldn't be here but her one since her sneaky disappearance from the villa Jilly Lee-a soft and silly name for a first class bitch-would be made to pay He'd find her and haul her back to Tuscany, demand reparation force her to put her hunt for a wealthy husband and her thieving activities on hold and do the job she'd been hired to do

His , Jilly Lee wouldn't be in harness for long Nonna was visibly growing alled him to have to adhtened considerably

'There are no signs of clinical disease ' her specialist had inforrand'?' 'Thirty years'

'And one by one she will have seen ly frail and so the will to live dwindles, there is less and less to look forward to'

Hating the thought that Nonna was si a congeed al company on

‘someone to read to me while I do my embroidery? And drone on in a tedious elderly way about the sters and bore one youth'?' She'd patted his hand, her smile, as ever, kind and fond ‘I don't think so'

‘someone to keep you company'

‘Rosa can do that'

‘Rosa has her hands full of housekeeping duties She can't spare the tis of' A dry look 'There are plenty of gardeners to pick -if that's orries you'

He'd taken b0th her frail hands in his ‘I spend as much time here at the villa as I can but I'm often away Of course I worry about you You took me in when I was a atrophy twelve-year-old You cared for me Let me now care for you And there's no law that says a paid coe'

He'd drafted the advertisees, sat in on the interviews and had noted the first spark of any real interest in the faded old eyes when Jilly Lee had been shown in