lips. ‘If you are lying to me, I will make you suffer, do you understand?’
Her mouth was dry, her heart racing, but as an actress she was used to concealing her fear. ‘Of course I’m not lying,’ she replied indignantly. ‘That would be stupid.’
He stood up and gestured towards the door. ‘You may go, but we will be watching you.’
In the entrance hall were two men, presumably waiting to be interviewed. As Isabella walked past, she realised she knew one of them.
‘It’s Mario Chiari, isn’t it?’ she said.
He looked up at her, his eyes wide with fear.
‘I thought I recognised you,’ she went on. ‘I met you once at a party at Vicenzo’s house – do you remember?’
‘Maybe,’ he replied distractedly.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, lowering her voice so the officer behind the desk couldn’t hear.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied desperately. ‘We were picked up an hour ago but no one will tell us anything.’
‘Well, whatever you do,’ she whispered, ‘be careful of the Commissario – he’s a most unpleasant man.’
The following day, Isabella found a handwritten note in her postbox at the end of the drive.
Meet me at twelve o’clock in the usual place, Vicenzo.
He was waiting for her in the crypt. He kissed her on both cheeks when she arrived, holding her to him briefly.
‘I’m so glad you’re all right,’ he murmured, before releasing her. ‘I heard you’d been arrested.’
‘Yes. A horrid man named Guarnotta accused me of knowing you were in the Resistance. He told me your house was full of weapons.’
‘I’m sorry. That’s why I had to get you out of there; it was getting too dangerous for you to stay.’
‘So it was true – about the weapons?’
He nodded.
‘And that man they arrested – the “gardener”. He was no gardener, was he?’
‘You met him?’
‘I did. I came back briefly to check everything was all right, and he was there.’
Vicenzo looked down, ashen-faced. ‘And now he’s dead,’ he said. ‘He was put in prison, and after the Via Rasella bombing he was one of the three hundred and thirty prisoners taken to the caves and murdered.’
‘I heard about the killings – it’s just unbelievable. I’m sorry about your friend.’ She touched his arm.
‘It’s a risk we all take. You too, now.’
She looked at him nervously. ‘Why me? I’m not part of the Resistance.’
‘But you are… don’t you see? By helping me, you have shown me whose side you’re really on.’
She felt uneasy suddenly. His assumption that she was part of his group unnerved her. ‘I saw Mario Chiari, by the way, at San Vitale. He’s a friend of yours, isn’t he? A film designer, I seem to remember. What on earth was he doing there?’
‘We have been working together – getting Anglo-American prisoners out of Italy.’
Isabella was stunned. It seemed everyone associated with Vicenzo was at risk. ‘I had no idea,’ she said.
He took her hands in his and kissed them. ‘Little Bella, I need you to do one more thing for me. There really is no one else I can trust.’
She knew she should say no. He was involved in dangerous work, and now he was drawing her in even further, and it frightened her. But her love for him, her lingering sense of guilt about the girl Livia, made her feel she couldn’t refuse him. She gazed into his dark eyes, and said softly, ‘I suppose I could help.’
‘Go back to my house; upstairs in my bedroom is a list of names – members of the cell. It’s nailed beneath a section of carpet, near the chest of drawers. They will find it if they search the house. Go and get it and bring it to me, please?’
Isabella felt frightened, but exhilarated. ‘If the house is being watched, it will be dangerous. Do you really think I can do it?’ she asked anxiously.
‘I know you can,’ he said, kissing her cheek. ‘You are braver than you think.’
Isabella was jolted awake early the following morning by a surge of adrenalin, as if she was about to attend an important audition. She put on her make-up and an elegant figure-hugging dress, topped with her best fur coat. As she checked her reflection in the mirror, she looked like a movie star.
Vicenzo’s house and gardens were swarming with policemen when she arrived. She had a moment’s hesitation as she stood outside on the pavement. Should she leave now, walk away and save herself? Or go in and risk arrest? She drew on Vicenzo’s faith in her