it looked, creamy and flawless. Such a contrast to the ugly boots she wore on her feet.
Dragging his thoughts out of the gutter, Rafe tried to absorb what she was saying. ‘You have not seen her,’ he echoed blankly. ‘I do not understand.’
‘Ashley phoned me,’ she explained. ‘She said her mother was ill and was there any chance that I could come here and look after the gallery for a few days while she went to England. She said she wanted to leave immediately. That she was worried about her mother and she’d leave the keys with the caretaker of her apartment.’
‘So you crossed in transit?’
‘In a manner of speaking. But Ashley’s mother and I live in different parts of the country.’
‘Ah.’ He nodded. ‘So your sister had every reason to believe that she would not be found out in her deception.’
‘I suppose so.’ Clearly she didn’t want to admit it, but Rafe could see the acknowledgement in her face. She shook her head. ‘I can’t believe she’d think she’d get away with it. I could have phoned Andrea. I could have found out she wasn’t ill for myself.’
‘But you did not?’
‘No.’ Tess shrugged her slim shoulders and her hands dropped to her sides. ‘Ashley knows I was unlikely to do that, in any case. Andrea and I have never been particularly close.’
‘Yet you must have been very young when your mother died,’ he probed, and then could have kicked himself for his insensitivity. But it was too late now and he was forced to explain himself. ‘I assumed this woman—your father’s second wife—would have cared for you, too.’
Tess shook her head. ‘Andrea has always been a—a delicate woman,’ she said. ‘Having two young children to look after would have been too much for her. I went to live with my mother’s sister. She’d never married and she was a teacher, too.’
Poor Tess. Rafe made no comment, but it sounded to him as if Andrea Daniels was as unfeeling and as selfish as her daughter. ‘It seems we have both been deceived,’ he said, softening his tone deliberately. ‘It is a pity your sister does not carry a mobile. Marco’s is switched off.’
‘But she does,’ exclaimed Tess excitedly, animation giving her porcelain-pale features a startling allure. Her smile appeared and Rafe had to warn himself of the dangers of responding to her femininity. ‘Why didn’t I think of it before? She gave me the number when she moved to Porto San Michele.’
Rafe expelled a harsh breath. ‘You have the number with you?’
‘Of course.’ She swung about and headed back into the office where she’d left her bag. She emerged a few seconds later, clutching a scrap of paper. ‘Here it is. Do you want to ring her, or shall I?’
Rafe realised suddenly that, almost without his volition, they had become co-conspirators. She was now as anxious to know where her sister had gone as he was. But once again he reminded himself not to get involved with her, however innocently. She was still his enemy’s sister. In any conflict of wills, she would choose Ashley every time.
‘If you wish that I should make the call, then I will,’ he told her politely, but he could hear the formal stiffness in his tone. ‘Even so, perhaps it would be wiser for you to phone her. If she hears my voice…’
‘Oh. Oh, yes.’
He didn’t elaborate but Tess understood at once what he was saying. The animation died out of her face and she averted her eyes. It was as if she’d just remembered that she owed him no favours either. That however justified he felt, she had only his word that Ashley was to blame for his son’s disappearance.
With an offhand little gesture, she returned to the office, only to emerge again a few minutes later, her expression revealing she had had no luck. ‘Ashley’s phone is switched off, too,’ she said, and Rafe could see she was losing faith in her sister. She heaved a sigh. ‘It looks as if you were right all along. What are you going to do now?’
Rafe wished he had an answer. There was hardly any point in saying what he’d like to do. ‘Continue searching, presumo,’ he replied at last, choosing the least aggressive option. ‘There are many holiday resorts between here and Genova. It is possible that your sister hired an automobile at the airport. They could be anywhere. It will not be an easy task.’
‘Mmm.’ Tess was thoughtful. A pink tongue circled her lower lip and Rafe realised she didn’t know how provocative that was. ‘Will you let me know if you find them?’ she asked ‘I mean—find Ashley.’ Becoming colour scored her cheeks. ‘You know what I mean.’
Rafe knew what she meant all right. What he didn’t know at that moment was whether he wanted to see her again. She was far too young for him, far too vulnerable. Despite her being the older, he’d stake his life that Ashley was far more worldly than she was.
The notion annoyed him however. What in the name of all the saints was he thinking? She wasn’t asking to see him again. She was asking if he’d keep her informed about her sister. Va bene, he could get his assistant to do that with a phone call. Providing he found out where her sister had gone…
‘Si,’ he said abruptly, buttoning his jacket in an unconsciously defensive gesture and heading for the door. He turned in the doorway, however, to bid her farewell and was surprised by a strangely disappointed look on her face. With her slim hands clasped at her waist, she looked lost and lonely, and before he could stop himself he added, ‘Perhaps you could do the same?’
Her green eyes widened. ‘I don’t know where to reach you,’ she said, as he’d known she would. Maledizione, he hadn’t intended to give her his phone number. How easily he’d fallen into the trap.
He would have to give her his card, he decided, reaching into his jacket pocket. That way Giulio could handle it and he needn’t be involved. To give her his mobile number would have been kinder, obviously, but why should he put himself out for the sister of the woman who had seduced his son?
He took a few paces back into the gallery and handed the card to her. Her fingers brushed his knuckles as she took it and he couldn’t deny the sudden frisson of desire that seared his flesh. He wanted her, he thought incredulously. Combat boots and all, she attracted him. Or maybe he was feeling his age and seducing her would give him some compensation for what her sister had done to Marco. What other reason could he have for the feelings she inspired?
Whatever, he dismissed the idea impatiently. He was obviously having some kind of midlife crisis because girls like Tess had never appealed to him before. He liked his women young—well, reasonably so, but far more sophisticated. They wore designer dresses and heels, and they’d never dream of going out without make-up on their faces.
Vigneto di Castelli, his card read, and he watched Tess’s expression as she looked at it. ‘You have a vineyard,’ she murmured. ‘How exciting! I’ve never met anyone who actually owned a vineyard before.’
Nor had her sister, thought Rafe drily. He was too cynical to believe that Marco’s background hadn’t figured in Ashley’s plans. He still had no idea what her ultimate intentions were, of course, but he suspected that a pay-off would be part of it. He’d encountered the ploy before with his daughter. But fortunately Maria had been eighteen, not sixteen at the time.
‘It is a small operation, signorina,’ he said now deprecatingly. ‘Many
