Free Desire Has No Mercy by Violet Winspear Page A

tones… a new, strange, unlooked-for world which she must come to terms with; to touch and feel and somehow accept. She had been sarcastic about the room, but there were signs of good taste in all its aspects. Colours and furnishings in no way clashed, and irresistibly her gaze was drawn to the bed where the silk cover was still disarranged from her tussle there with Rome.
    Defiance and consternation swept through Julia, and she thought again what a naive idiot she had been to actually believe that a man with Rome's temperament would bring a wife to his home and then treat her as if she were his ward.
    She looked at the Medici mirror in her hand and felt an urge to smash it, but instead with a sigh she replaced it on the dressing-table, where there were little porcelain boxes in various sizes, with charming patterns of flowers and peacocks. Over by one of the windows stood a peacock-back chair in ivory canework and on a small table nearby a lovely figured clock in porcelain. Against a wall was the towering shape of a wardrobe in ivory wood and on impulse she went and opened its doors. She stood there stunned, for on rows of hangers were dresses and suits of various lengths, for daytime and evening wear. On a rack there was a selection of lovely Italian shoes, and on another a line of matching handbags. There were gloves, silk scarves, and a vanity case with diamond initials.
    Feeling sure she had stumbled on the wardrobe of a girlfriend of Rome's, Julia was far less certain when she saw that the initials were JCD, standing for Julia Caroline Demario!
    She swallowed a dryness from her throat and bent down to open a long white box that lay under the dresses. Swathed in sheets of tissue paper was a black diamond mink wrap, soft, shining and incredibly expensive. An envelope jutted from a sleeve and out of pure curiosity Julia opened it and drew out the card inside. Rome had written on it: 'I found out that while you were in Naples you visited the Tonio Gulli fashion house. As they had your measurements it wasn't difficult to get you kitted out with these garments. You'll wear them, of course.'
    With a flash of temper she ripped the card into pieces. It was typical of Rome to assume that like his other women she'd be thrilled to be given the dresses and the mink wrap —like someone he was keeping who had to be kept sweet with presents!
    Julia slammed shut the wardrobe doors and when she swung round there was a rap on the bedroom door and Giovanni entered with the baggage. The larger case of pigskin was Rome's and the manservant took it to him. Julia was standing there as if she wanted to pick up her own cases and make a dash from the house when someone else came into the bedroom. The woman was wearing a discreet beige-coloured dress with a lacy cap pinned to her hair, and it was her hair that caught Julia's attention, a flamboyant ginger at which Grandma Van Holden had always frowned, though Lucie Jennings had been too good a nursemaid to be dismissed because of her hair.
    'Lucie?' Julia could hardly believe her eyes… it seemed incredible to see right now someone from out of the past whom she had last seen when she was fifteen, when Lucie had left Grandma's employ to marry a ship's steward. Julia approached her and caught hold of her hands, as if only touch would make her real.
    'My dear Lucie, what are you doing here? In Italy of all places… in this house?'
    'Your husband hired me, Miss Julia.' Lucie still had the sprightly voice that matched her hair. 'He found out where I was working in New York and he—'
    'But you're married, Lucie!'
    'I'm a widow, miss.' Lucie looked sombre for a moment. 'My Bert died when the
Maria Ives
went down. You must have read it in the papers? There was a collision with one of them oil tankers and only a few passengers and crew survived. It happened eighteen months ago.'
    'I'm so sorry, Lucie. I had no idea your husband was on that ship.'
    'There you are, miss, what is to be will be, as the