and I had decided to make our own arrangements for the future,’ Luka answered in a clear voice.
‘We’ll get back to that but first can you answer the question? Did you have concerns about Paulo’s dealings?’
‘I had never really given Paulo much thought,’ Luka answered, though his voice was not quite so clear as he delivered his response.
‘Did Sophie tell you that she had concerns about her father’s activities?’
His already pale face bleached and he looked into Sophie’s eyes briefly. He had sworn to tell the truth but he could not have Sophie’s own words be the reason for Paulo being put away.
‘No, she did not.’ For her, Luka lied under oath.
‘So what you did discuss that day?’
‘I really can’t remember,’ Luka answered.
‘Because you were busy in the bedroom?’ His lawyer was working more for Malvolio, Luka knew it now. Luka didn’t have anything to hide so the lawyer would work to secure his father’s freedom by throwing Paulo under the bus.
‘I’m confused,’ the lawyer continued. ‘On the afternoon in question you said to your father that you were going to end things with Sophie, yes?’
‘Yes,’ Luka answered. ‘However—’
‘Malvolio was upset,’ the lawyer broke in. ‘In fact, you got into a fight when you spoke poorly about the woman he had chosen with care for you. You said that you did not want to marry a peasant of his choice. Correct?’
Sophie closed her eyes and then forced them open as Luka was forced to admit that, yes, that had been what he had said.
‘I was trying to separate myself from my father—’ He didn’t get to finish.
‘You told your father that you preferred the more glamorous, sophisticated women in London to Sophie. Now do you see the reason for my confusion? Sophie Durante came to your home...’
‘My father sent for Sophie so that he could move the souvenirs to Paulo’s,’ Luka said. He could see what had happened now. Six months locked up, two of them spent in solitary, had given him a lot of time to think. His father hadn’t been hoping to get Sophie and him together, Luka was sure of that now. Malvolio must have been tipped off about the raids and would have wanted the souvenirs out of his home and in Paulo’s.
Only no one wanted to hear his truth.
‘Sophie Durante heard that you were about to renege on your promise to marry her. She turned up at your home on a Sunday afternoon to dissuade you and you ended up in bed that same afternoon, or rather you had sex in the kitchen.’
‘No.’
‘You are saying nothing happened in the kitchen?’ the lawyer checked.
‘As I have said, I had had a fight with my father, Sophie was sorting out the cut above my eye...’
‘Oh, I see—you were bleeding so profusely that she was left with no choice but to take off her dress to stem the bleed...?’ the lawyer asked, and Sophie sat burning with shame, completely humiliated as the courtroom laughed.
‘My father had suggested that Sophie come over before I told him that I did not want to get engaged. He wanted her out of Paulo’s house so that he could move—’
‘Did Sophie Durante want to be out of that house too?’ the lawyer interrupted. ‘Was Sophie concerned that her father was engaged in criminal activity? Did she tell you she wanted to get away from him?’
Luka broke into a cold sweat, he could feel it trickle down his back. He was doing everything he could to stay calm, to somehow give his version of events, but there was no right answer.
His father had a brilliant lawyer, so too did he, and he was, Luka could now see, being used to discredit Paulo.
If he answered yes to the question then he put Paulo away for life.
‘No.’
‘You are under oath,’ the lawyer reminded him.
‘No, she did not say that.’ Luka’s voice was clear as he decided that bedroom talk had no place in the courtroom.
‘You did tell your father, though, that you were not going to go ahead with the engagement?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you told Sophie the same. Yes or no?’
‘Yes.’
‘Luka.’ The lawyer really was the smiling assassin as he looked at his youngest client, whose father was paying the hefty bill. ‘How can you expect the court to believe that there was no conversation—?’
‘We were otherwise engaged.’
‘After you had ended things?’
‘Yes.’
‘Nothing was said about her father?’
Luka did what he had to.
‘There really was little conversation.’
‘It makes no sense.’
The lawyer was about to pounce again but Luka got there first and turned to the judge and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I think that Sophie might have been trying to get me to change my mind about ending things by trying to seduce me so I took what was on offer.’ He looked out towards the jury and then back to the judge as he shamed her. ‘Am I on trial for my libido?’
The laughter that went around the courtroom ended the testimony.
But as Luka left the stand she did not look at him.
Luka knew that he might have saved her father from conviction by his own daughter’s words.
But it might just have killed the two of them.
SOPHIE, EVEN DAYS LATER, could not bring herself to look at Luka as the defendants stood to hear their fate.
‘He didn’t mean it.’ Over and over Bella said this to Sophie, who had held in her formidable temper since Luka had said those words. ‘The lawyer gave him no choice.’
The villagers sniggered as she passed, there were whispers everywhere she went, but now, as the verdict was about to be delivered, there were no smiles or laughter in court.
All knew that the six-month break they’d had from Malvolio’s clutches might end today.
‘Luka Romano Cavaliere—non colpevole.’
Despite her anger, Sophie let out a breath of relief and she did lift her eyes to look at him. She didn’t expect his eyes to be waiting for hers, yet they were. For a small slice of time they stared at the other and the courtroom faded.
He gave her a nod that apologised, that said he would explain things, that soon he would be with her.
‘Here comes the verdict for Malvolio,’ Bella whispered.
‘Malvolio Cavaliere—non colpevole.’
‘No!’ Bella gasped, and Sophie clutched her friend’s hand as the fat brute smiled over in their direction.
Malvolio had wanted Bella for a long time.
Pandemonium broke out as, terrified now and determined to appear loyal to Malvolio, the spectators in the courtroom applauded. Sophie simply lowered her head and tried not to weep.
She knew what was coming.
Her father was so frail he could hardly stand.
Paulo Durante—colpevole.
Her father