Read Online The Truth Behind his Touch by Cathy Williams - Free Book Online

wondering where we’ve got to. He tires easily now, so we’ll be having an early supper.’
    ‘And tell me, who does the cooking? The same two girls who come in to clean?’ He fell into step alongside her, but even though the conversation had moved on to a more neutraltopic he was keenly aware of her still clutching the cardigan around her. His first impression had been of someone very background. Now, he was starting to review that initial impression. Underneath the straightforward personality there seemed to be someone very fiery and not easily intimidated. She had taken a deep breath and stood up to him in a way that not very many people did.
    ‘Sometimes. Now that Alberto is on a restricted diet, Tessa tends to prepare his meals, and I cook for myself and Tessa. It’s a daily fight to get Alberto to eat bland food. He’s fond of saying that there’s no life worth living without salt.’
    Giancarlo heard the smile in her voice. For his sins, his father had found himself a very devoted companion.
    For the first time he wondered what it would have been like to have had Alberto as a father. The man had clearly mellowed over time. Would they have had that connection? How much had he suffered because of his constant warfare with his wife?
    Irritated with himself for being drawn back into a past he could not change, Giancarlo focused on sustaining the conversation with a number of innocuous questions as they walked back down the grand staircase, Caroline leading the way towards the smallest of the sitting-rooms at the back of the house.
    Even with the majority of the rooms seemingly closed off, there was still a lot of ground to cover. Yet again he found himself wondering what the appeal was for a young woman. Terrific house, great grounds, pleasing views and interesting walks—but take those things out of the equation and boredom would gradually set in, surely?
    How bored had his mother been, surrounded by all this ostentatious wealth, trapped like a bird in a gilded cage?
    Alberto had met her on one of his many conferences. Shehad been a sparkling, pretty waitress at the only fancy restaurant in a small town on the Amalfi coast where he had gone to grab a couple of days of rest before the remainder of his business trip. She had been plucked from obscurity and catapulted into wealth, but nothing, she had repeatedly complained to her son over the years following her divorce, could compensate for the horror of living with a man who treated her no better than a servant. She had done her very best, but time and again her efforts had been met with a brick wall. Alberto, she had said with bitterness, had turned out to be little more than a difficult, unyielding and unforgiving man, years too old for her, who had thwarted all her attempts at having fun.
    Giancarlo had been conditioned to loathe the man whom his mother had held responsible for all her misfortunes.
    Except now he was prey to a disturbing sensation of doubt as he heard Caroline chatter on about his father. How disagreeable could the man be if she was so attached to him? Was it possible for a leopard to change its spots to that extreme extent?
    Before they reached the sitting-room, she paused to rest one small hand lightly on his arm.
    ‘Do you promise that you won’t upset him?’
    ‘I’m not big into making promises.’
    ‘Why is it so hard to get through to you?’
    ‘Believe it or not, most people don’t have a problem. In our case, we might just as well be from different planets, occupying different time zones. I told you I won’t greet him with an enquiry about the health of his finances, and I won’t. Beyond that, I promise nothing.’
    ‘Just try to get to know him,’ Caroline pleaded, her huge brown eyes welded to his as she dithered with her hand still on his arm. ‘I just can’t believe you know the real Alberto.’
    Giancarlo’s mouth thinned and he stared down pointedlyat her hand before looking down at her, his dark eyes as cold and