‘I believe you,’ he said.
Giorgio glanced at them curiously. ‘Hey, do you two already know each other?’
‘No,’ Natasha said quickly, before Mario could speak.
‘Really? I feel like I’m watching a fencing match.’
‘It’s more fun that way,’ she said lightly. ‘Go on telling me about Verona. Unless, of course, Signor Ferrone has decided he doesn’t wish to employ me. In which case I’ll just pack up and go. Shall I?’
She made as if to rise but Mario’s hand detained her.
‘No need for that,’ he said harshly. ‘Let’s get on with the job.’
‘Yes, that’s the only thing that matters,’ she said, falling back into the chair.
For a moment he kept his hand on her arm. ‘So we are agreed? You will stay?’
‘I will stay.’
MARIO RELEASED HER. ‘As long as we understand each other.’
Natasha drew a tense breath as the bitter irony of those words swept over her. They had never understood each other. Nor could they ever, except on the lines of mutual defensiveness and mistrust.
She turned to Giorgio, assuming her most businesslike tone.
‘So it’s time I consulted with the Publicity Manager. Tell me, what are my instructions?’
‘We must go on a trip around Verona,’ he said, ‘studying all the significant places. Especially the balcony. These days you can even get married in Juliet’s house. And afterwards the bride and groom always come out onto the balcony for the photographs.’
‘Useful,’ she said, taking out her notebook and beginning to write. ‘The balcony scene is the most famous part of the story.’
‘Yes, people love to imagine Juliet standing there, yearning for her lover, saying, “Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo?”’
‘She doesn’t say “where”,’ Natasha objected. ‘She says “Wherefore”. It means “Why?” She’s saying “Why did you have to be Romeo, a Montague, and my enemy?” In Shakespeare’s time, if you wanted to know why someone had behaved in a certain way, you’d say—’ she assumed a dramatic attitude ‘“—Wherefore did thou do this, varlet?”’
‘Varlet?’ Giorgio queried.
‘It means rascal. You’d say it to someone who’d behaved disgustingly.’
Giorgio gave a crack of laughter. ‘I must remember that. Rascal—briccone.’
‘Or traditore,’ Natasha observed lightly.
‘Aha! So you know some Italian words?’ Giorgio said eagerly.
‘One or two,’ she said with a fair assumption of indifference.
‘I’d give a lot to know how you learned that particular one,’ he said cheekily.
‘You’ll just have to wonder,’ she chuckled.
Mario wasn’t looking at her. He seemed completely occupied with his wine.
A man appeared in the doorway, signalling to Giorgio.
‘I’ve got to leave you for a moment,’ he said. ‘But I’ll be back.’ He laid a hand on Natasha’s shoulder. ‘Don’t go away. I have a very good feeling about this.’
‘So have I,’ she said. ‘I’ll be right here.’
When Giorgio had gone, Mario refilled her wine glass.
‘Be cautious about Giorgio,’ he said. ‘He turns on the charm as part of his trade.’
‘But of course,’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s a form of show business. No harm in that.’
‘As long as you’re not taken in.’
‘I’m not. These days, nothing and nobody manages to deceive me.’
He raised his glass to her in an ironic salute.
‘This is quite a coincidence,’ he said. ‘I wonder which of us is more shocked.’
‘We’ll never know.’
‘Just now you were very determined to say we didn’t know each other.’
‘Would you have said differently?’ she asked, watching him.
‘No, but I doubt I’d have said it so fast or emphatically. You denied knowing me as though your life depended on it.’
‘But we didn’t know each other. Once we believed we did but we were both wrong. You thought I was easy to fool or you wouldn’t have wasted your time on me. You never reckoned on Tania turning up and showing me what you were really like.’
‘I admit I once had a relationship with Tania, but it was over.’
‘Was it? I don’t think she believed that. She still felt you were hers. That’s why she felt so betrayed when she saw us. No, it was me you were planning to leave. That’s why you kept hinting about something you wanted to tell me. You said it wasn’t easy, but then it’s never easy to dump someone, is it?’
He turned very pale. ‘Isn’t it? You dumped me without any trouble.’
‘Dumping you was the easiest thing I’d ever done, but that’s because you gave me cause.’
‘But the way you did it—vanishing so that I could never find you. Can you imagine what I went through? It was like searching for a ghost. I nearly went mad because you denied me any chance to explain—’
‘Explain what? That you were fooling around with both of us? If you’d been the man I thought you— Well, let’s leave it there. You weren’t that man and you never could be. It’s best if we remain strangers now.’
‘Remain?’ he echoed sharply. But then his voice changed to wry, slightly bitter acceptance. ‘Yes, we always were strangers, weren’t we?’
‘Always were, always will be. That’s a very good business arrangement.’
‘And you’re a businesswoman?’
‘Exactly. It’s what I choose to be. Capisci?’
He nodded. ‘Capisco. I understand.’
‘From now on, it’s all business. The past didn’t happen. It was an illusion.’
‘An illusion—yes. I guessed that when you vanished into thin air. And now you’ve reappeared just as suddenly.’
‘Another illusion. I’m not really here.’
‘So if I look away you’ll vanish again?’
‘Perhaps that’s what I ought to do.’
‘No,’ he said with a hint of suppressed violence. ‘No! Not again. You could never understand how I— Don’t even think of it. Capisci?’
‘Capisco. I understand very well.’
‘Promise me that you won’t leave.’
‘All right.’
‘On your word of honour.’
‘Look—’
‘Say it. Let me know that I can trust you this time at least.’
‘Trust me this time? As though I was the one who deceived— You’ve got a nerve.’
‘He’s coming back,’ Mario said hurriedly,