The Lady's Man

Was he telling the truth? Caterina suspected that he probably was. After all, she knew how thick he’d become with Damiano, exerting his evil influence all over the place—even on such unlikely matters as her love life, as she already knew to her painful cost. Yes, she decided reluctantly, he probably was in the right.

But only as regards her brother’s papers. Regarding another small matter he had-definitely overstepped the mark.

She narrowed her blue eyes at him and a little belatedly demanded, ‘And now, if you don’t mind, kindly let go of my arm!’

‘My pleasure.’ With an amused smile he released her instantly. ‘Now,’ he observed calmly, ‘I can finish what I was doing.’ And, turning away, he resumed his search through the papers.

Caterina watched him, hating him, though there was this much to be said for him—at least she knew exactly where she stood with him. For he clearly disliked her every bit as much as she disliked him. And, strangely, there was a perverse satisfaction to be had in the way they were able to clash so openly.

Still, they had never before clashed quite so openly as now—and certainly never with such unleashed physicality. Feeling that band of steel around her arm again, she shivered. Savage! she thought. How dared he lay a hand on her? The only reason why she hadn’t demanded instantly that he release her was that she’d been so taken aback at the insolent black nerve of him.

‘Here it is.’ Matthew had found the document he’d been looking for. As he drew it out of the pile and laid the pile back on the desk, he cast her an amused look from the corner of his eye. ‘Funnily enough,’ he observed, ‘this is a report concerning the garden party. The very event you wished to see me about.’

‘Not you. My brother.’

‘Ah, yes, your brother. Well, in this particular case, that amounts to the same thing. As I told you, he’s put me in charge of the arrangements.’

‘Congratulations. That’s quite a coup.’ Her tone was cutting. ‘You’ll be taking over his duties as head of state next.’

‘I’m afraid I couldn’t spare the time.’ The gibe simply amused him. He held her eyes for a moment, enjoying her frustration—was there no way she could ruffle this wretched man’s feathers? Then he continued, ‘Your brother felt the garden party needed a new look this year. And I’m more than happy to take on the job.’

No doubt he was. The annual Montecrespi garden party, held each year in mid-July to celebrate the Duke’s birthday, was one of the highlights of the European social calendar. Guests flocked from far and wide—from the United States, even Australia—for the honour of drinking vintage champagne and eating smoked salmon and truffles and wild strawberries, while at the same time rubbing shoulders with princes and earls, ambassadors and prime ministers and the cream of the entertainment world.

For as long as Caterina could remember, the transformation of the palace gardens into a suitable venue for this starry event—which had always been held in July, for the old Duke’s birthday had been then too—had been left in the capable hands of Baron Igor. But the old man had recently died and someone was needed to fill his shoes. Caterina had been aware of this, but she certainly hadn’t known that Matthew Allenby had been assigned to the job.

A sad thought struck her. In previous years she would have known. But these days she and Damiano were not so close any more—all thanks to the débâcle over her love life last September, a débâcle created by Matthew Allenby. And she found herself reflecting, not for the first time, that she would very much like to pay him back for that.

She told him now, disparagingly, ‘Well, like I said, congratulations—though I must say I’m surprised you were given the job. I wouldn’t have thought it was quite in your line.’

‘No, it isn’t, I suppose. It’s not strictly architecture. But I quite enjoy getting involved in a bit of simple design from time to time. And it won’t be too demanding. I’ll be able to fit it in between other things.’

Of course. She had forgotten. This was Matthew Allenby, the human dynamo, who never had fewer than a score of projects running at any one time. In another man she would have admired the sheer energy and scope of him, but in Matthew Allenby it was simply one more aspect to despise. Especially since she knew—though of course he was unaware of this—that some of the projects in which he was involved were of a rather dubious legitimacy.

Oh, yes, she knew things about him he had no idea she knew!

‘Well, that’s all very interesting.’ She smiled cut-tingly as she said it, just in case he might delude himself that she actually meant it. ‘However, you were wrong to assume that my problem concerning the garden party falls within your sphere of influence. You see, it was nothing to do with the design side of things that I wanted to speak to my brother about.’

She delivered him a cool look. He wasn’t as omnipotent as he liked to think!

Or maybe he was. With a cool look of his own he informed her, ‘I think you’ll find that it probably does concern me. You see, it’s not just the design side of things I’ve been put in charge of. Your brother has asked me to handle the whole lot.’

‘The whole lot?’

‘From top to bottom.’

Caterina narrowed her eyes at him. ‘But surely not,’ she insisted, ‘including the guest list as well?’

‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’ He smiled at her look of horror. ‘I’ve been put in charge of the guest list as well.’

But this was monstrous! Suddenly speechless, she blinked at him. The guest list to the annual Montecrespi garden party was virtually a sanctified roll of honour. There were some who would have sold their souls—and their mothers twice over—for the privilege of being on it!

The way it had always worked was that each member of the royal family submitted a list of proposed guests for the Duke’s approval and Damiano then made the final decision. Handing over this responsibility to Matthew Allenby, number one crook and social climber, struck Caterina as being about as wise as setting a wolf to guard a chicken coop!

Though it did, of course, explain why she had a problem. And mentally she kicked herself. She ought to have guessed he was involved!

She glared at him. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘I find this astonishing.’ Then as he looked back at her impassively, quite unmoved by her astonishment, she put to him in a tight tone, ‘Tell me something... The lists that were submitted by the rest of the family... were there any problems? Were their proposed guests approved or not?’

Matthew knew what she was leading up to, but he gave no hint of this as he replied, ‘The Duchess’s list was certainly approved without any problem.’ He was referring to Sofia, Damiano’s beautiful young wife, mother of the couple’s eight-month-old son.

‘And Leone’s?’

Count Leone was Caterina’s second brother, once known as an incorrigible playboy but now a happily married man.

Matthew nodded, still revealing nothing. ‘I believe the Count’s also went through without any problem.’

‘Very interesting. And the Countess’s?’

‘No problem at all.’

‘I see. So everyone else’s went through without a hitch... Then how come,’ she demanded, ‘there was a problem with mine?’

Matthew regarded her for a moment. Then he told her in a flat tone, ‘I’m afraid you included some rather unsuitable people.’

‘Unsuitable in whose eyes?’

‘In mine,’ he responded. ‘As I know they would also have been in your brother’s.’ And as he looked at her his eyes warned her not to pursue this subject further.

Caterina saw the warning and deliberately ignored it. ‘Exactly in what way are they unsuitable?’ she demanded.

‘They had certain connections.’ There was an edge of steel to his tone now. ‘Certain connections which sadly rendered them quite unsuitable to be guests at a royal garden party.’

Liar! If anyone was unsuitable it was him! But these people who had been so peremptorily crossed off her list—as she had discovered only this morning, with the party just two weeks away—had been friends of Orazio, her ex-boyfriend. And that, as she well knew, was sufficient reason for Matthew’s veto.

She thought of an old saying: my enemy’s friend is my enemy. Well, Orazio had certainly been Matthew Allenby’s enemy, for he had dared to try and expose him for the two-faced scoundrel that he was. Little wonder then that Matthew, who had so much to hide, should prefer to keep his enemy’s friends at a distance.

Caterina looked at him now, full of anger and loathing. Because he knew how to fight dirty and because he had the ear of Damiano, he had triumphed easily over Orazio, disgracing him and putting an end to his romance with Caterina and turning Caterina’s life upside-down in the process.

Damn him! Suddenly she’d had enough of this unpleasant confrontation. In a cold voice she informed him, ‘I intend to take this up with my brother. I shall have your judgement overturned and these people will be invited to the party.’

Matthew did not argue.

‘That’s entirely up to you.’

But as she looked into his eyes Caterina had a feeling that he was probably already plotting how best to thwart her. That prompted her to inform him, just to defy him further, ‘I shall make a point of having a word with him this very evening. The sooner this is dealt with the better, I feel. Yes, I shall speak to him before I go off to the Bardi dinner.’

As she added that last bit she couldn’t resist a smile. She had briefly forgotten about the Bardi dinner that was to be held in the Town Hall with herself as hostess this evening. A sumptuous affair, the purpose of the dinner was to celebrate the awarding of an important new contract to build an extension to the Bardi Home for Disabled Children, one of the many charities of which Caterina was patron. And the reason why she had smiled was that she knew something that Matthew Allenby was unaware of. Something that would not please him in the slightest when he found out.

Feigning innocent curiosity, she tilted her head at him. ‘Will you be attending the Bardi dinner?’ she enquired. Though, knowing what she knew, she was pretty certain he would not.