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start school?’ he asked gruffly, sitting back down, shaken by the realisation that he had wanted to kiss that quivering mouth of hers again. He reminded himself that, aside from being on the opposite side of the fence, she was not the sort of woman he was attracted to. ‘Does she enjoy it? Does she have friends?’
    Julia breathed deeply and began answering his questions while she rummaged in the cupboard for a saucepan and busied herself with chopping mushrooms and onions, efficiently preparing a light pasta dinner for them. Something that could be cooked and eaten within the hour, after which he would have no excuse to stay. His presence in the kitchen was wreaking havoc with her normally very unruffled nervous system and the sooner he cleared out the better.
    â€˜And was she happy?’ he asked when his plate had been deposited in front of him and he had poured them both another glass of wine. ‘Here? With Caroline and your brother? Did she ever ask about me?’
    Julia glanced across the table to him. ‘I don’t know. Iwasn’t living under the same roof, so I don’t know what questions she asked or didn’t ask about you.’
    â€˜And you didn’t have any thoughts on the matter?’ he pressed on mercilessly. ‘The three of you were perfectly content to erase my existence? What about your brother? Did he share the same cavalier attitude?’
    â€˜We’ve been through all this,’ Julia said tightly.
    â€˜And we’ll go through it again. Tell me.’
    â€˜Caroline felt as if she was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,’ Julia sighed, closing her knife and fork and propping her chin on the palm of her hand. ‘You want to make her out to have been without any morals, but she was afraid that if you knew about the pregnancy, about the baby, you would take Nicola away from her. She said that you were fiercely family-oriented, that you came from a big, close family and that the thought of sharing the up-bringing of your child with another man would have been unacceptable to you. And Martin loved her. He agreed because he only ever wanted what made her happy. I know you don’t want to hear any of this, but you did ask.’
    â€˜Was she that scared of me?’ he asked and Julia hesitated, not knowing whether he really wanted an answer or whether he had just been thinking aloud, turning over the thought in his mind.
    â€˜Answer me!’ he commanded, which was Julia’s cue to spring to her feet and begin clearing away the dishes.
    â€˜You frightened her,’ she said eventually, her eyes flicking to his own shuttered, brooding gaze. ‘Or maybe I should say that you overwhelmed her.’
    â€˜And I suppose she lost no time in confiding all these girlish secrets to you?’ he asked acidly. ‘Instead of confiding in me and trying to make a success of our marriage, she sought comfort in the arms of a stranger and foundrelease in pouring out her problems on any receptive ear she could find, just so long as it wasn’t mine!’
    â€˜Stop making yourself out to be the angel, Riccardo!’ Julia snapped, only realising afterwards that she had called him by his name, conferring an intimacy on the situation between them that she strenuously resisted.
    â€˜Oh, but I was the angel,’ he said smoothly. ‘There were times when I could easily have taken a lover, when the thought of returning to the house and to a wife who made love as though under sufferance would have been incentive enough, but I didn’t.’
    â€˜What a saint,’ Julia muttered under her breath.
    â€˜Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that.’
    â€˜I said that I’m feeling rather tired. Do you want to arrange another day for you to come over and see Nicola? I know that she’s going to one of her little friends’ for tea tomorrow, but perhaps the day after? Or maybe some time on the