her second night, she’d swallowed her pride and asked if she might at least have the book she’d bought at the airport returned to her.
‘I wouldn’t want to affect your negotiations by dying of boredom,’ she’d added sweetly.
She’d received a stony look, but he had silently inclined his head, and the thriller in question was on her bedside table when she went upstairs.
And last night, as she’d risen and bade him goodnight, he’d said to her amazement, ‘You may borrow more books from the Count’s library, if you wish. Domenica will escort you there to make your choice.’
‘Oh.’ Maddie hesitated. ‘Well—thank you. But couldn’t someone else do that?’
His brows lifted. ‘Why?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t find her particularly congenial.’ Which was putting it mildly. The girl seemed to radiate resentment and disapproval.
‘It is not essential that you should,’ he said. ‘What matters is that her family has served the Valieri faithfully for years.’ He added coldly, ‘I remind you of this in case you are considering the offer of another deal.’
Leaving her to retreat upstairs fuming.
And, once back in her room, to wonder why his boss had decided to make such a concession at this particular time.
Unless, of course, he was hoping some slight act of kindness and consideration on his part might persuade her to speak on his behalf at some future point. If so, he would be severely disappointed.
He is Crime. I am Punishment.
I never realised before that I could be so vindictive, she thought. But perhaps I never had sufficient cause.
She was roused from her reverie by the sound of voices outside and the rattle of the key in the lock. The door opened and Domenica came in, lips pursed in annoyance, accompanied by the girl from the kitchen who’d come for the lunch tray.
She looked flustered today, a strand of dark hair escaping from her cap, and a faint pink stain like fruit juice smudged right across the front of her white overall.
Maddie deduced from the brief exchange that it was the girl’s less than pristine appearance that had aroused Domenica’s disapproval.
Domenica handed the girl the tray, then turned to Maddie. ‘You wish for books, signorina?’ she enquired without enthusiasm. ‘Andiamo. Let us go.’
She chivvied the kitchen girl out of the room, with Maddie following. Halfway along the corridor, she paused, nodding at a door and giving some terse instruction.
As the door opened, Maddie could see over Domenica’s shoulder that it was a storeroom for household linen, but that one section of the floor to ceiling shelving seemed to be devoted to staff uniforms. There were the neat black dresses and pretty organdie aprons worn by the maids, and next to them, grey and scarlet waistcoats, dark trousers and white shirts which suggested there were indeed male indoor staff, even if she’d never seen them.
Maddie wondered caustically if Andrea the Thug came here for his gear and decided it was unlikely.
There were rows of shoes and boots too, but the largest section by far was occupied by the starched white coveralls and caps for the kitchen staff, where the hapless girl, now sniffing a little, was making her selection.
Maddie turned away, tightening her sash. Clothing, she thought, biting her lip. Heaps of clothing behind an unlocked door offering a perfect disguise, and only a matter of yards away. If only she’d known. Yet what could she have done? Broken down her own door to reach it?
Besides, it hardly mattered now. Not when she was leaving anyway.
She heard the storeroom door close again. When the girl had disappeared, she said quietly, ‘Weren’t you a little hard on her?’
Domenica shrugged. ‘She is sciatta. Untidy. His Excellency would be angry to see her wait on you so.’
‘But he hasn’t,’ Maddie pointed out. ‘He didn’t.’ Because he’s never around, as I know to my cost.
Domenica’s mouth curled. ‘His Excellency sees everything.’ Her tone brooked no argument, while her expression suggested that Maddie should mind her own business.
When they reached the gallery, Domenica ignored the staircase descending to the sala below, leading the way instead to the far end where another archway waited with a narrow corridor beyond.
They appeared to have reached a dead end, but Maddie was beginning to know better and was unsurprised when the stone wall ahead turned out to be another door.
It would take a ball of string to find my way out of this labyrinth if the opportunity ever occurred, she thought ruefully, as she was conducted down a winding flight of stone steps. Thank God I