"I"m going to take Harvey for a long walk," Ava a.s.serted, keen to demonstrate her independence and her lack of need for his presence. It was a downright lie, of course, but it helped to sustain her pride.
CHAPTER TEN.
BOXES of decorations lit ered the big hal . Ava was using a stepladder to dress the tree and cursing the fact that her careful y laid plans were running behind schedule. It had taken most of the day to have the tree fel ed, brought to the castle and safely erected in the most suitable spot. A towering specimen of uniform graceful shape, the tree looked magni cent, but she had had to search the at ics for two hours before she final y tracked down the lights.
Her generous mouth took on an unhappy tilt. After the tragedy of the last Christmas celebrated at the castle three years earlier, al the festive decorations had been bundled away without the usual care and at ention and some items had emerged broken while others appeared to have been mislaid. It saddened her to recal that the last time she had dressed a tree Ol y had been by her side and in ful perfectionist mode as he argued about where every decoration went, adjusted branches and insisted on tweaking everything to obtain the best possible e ect. In truth, Ol y had adored the festive season as much as Vito loathed it.
To be fair, though, what happy memories could Vito possibly have of Christmas? When he was a boy, his mother had walked out on his father and him shortly before Christmas and his father had refused to celebrate the season in the years that fol owed. Ol y"s demise at the same time of year could only have set the seal on the same time of year could only have set the seal on Vito"s aversion to seasonal tinsel. Ava did not want to be insensitive towards his feelings.
The night before, Vito had fal en into bed beside her late on and in silence. She did not know where he had been or what he had been doing and even after she made it clear that she was stil awake he had not o ered any explanation. For the rst time as wel he hadn"t touched her or reached for her in any way and she had felt ridiculously rejected. Her faith in her insuperable s.e.x appeal had dive-bombed overnight. She had started wondering if there was more depth than she knew to his comment that being with her was "hard work". She inched at that disturbing recol ection. That tabloid story combined with her distress over her mother"s ba ing let er and the emotional mood engendered by her reunion with her sisters could not have helped to improve that impression. Vito was not accustomed to complex relationships with women. Perhaps he was get ing fed up with al the problems she had brought into his life and forced him to share. He might even have reached the conclusion that he would be quite content to wave goodbye to her after the party. Last night, she thought painful y, she had felt as though he had withdrawn from her again, his reserve kicking back in when it was least welcome.
Her mobile phone rang and she pul ed it out of her pocket.
"It"s Vito. I can"t make it back for a couple of days so "It"s Vito. I can"t make it back for a couple of days so I"l stay in my apartment. I should mention though that I"ve set up a meeting for you with some people for the day after tomorrow. Wil you stay home in the morning?"
"What people? Why? What"s going on?" Ava prompted, striving to keep the sound of disappointment out of her response. He was a workaholic-she knew he was. He might have worked shorter hours the previous week to be with her but it would be unrealistic to expect that s.e.xual heat and impatience to continue. And to start imagining that maybe another woman had caught his eye or that he wanted a break from the woman he had, perhaps unwisely, invited to stay in his home, was equal y reasonable.
"I"m bringing a couple of people I want you to meet,"
he advanced.
Her brow furrowed, surprise and curiosity a.s.sailing her. "Do I need to dress up?"
"No. What you wear won"t mat er," he said flatly.
Who is it? she was tempted to demand, but she restrained her tongue. Vito already sounded tired and tense and she didn"t want to remind him that she could be hard work in a relationship. Relationship, get you, she mused irritably as she dug her phone back into her pocket and selected a ne gla.s.s angel to hang on the tree with careful ngers. A casual a air was a relationship of sorts but not of the lasting, deep kind that led to commitment. She was with a guy who didn"t commit and commitment. She was with a guy who didn"t commit and didn"t lie about it either. A whole host of far more beautiful and sophisticated ladies had pa.s.sed through his life before she came along and not one of them had lasted either. He was thirty-one with neither a marriage nor even a broken engagement under his belt and she was the very rst woman to live at the castle with him.
At that acknowledgement, her mouth quirked. And what was that concession real y worth? She had had nowhere else to stay and it was more convenient for her to organise the party while she lived on the premises.
She checked the rooms set aside for the party. The estate joiner had done a ne job with the Santa grot o for the younger children and the nativity set with life-size gures, which she had hired to place in the opposite corner, added a nice touch about the true meaning of Christmas. The room next door was decorated with a dance theme for the teenagers and rejoiced in a portable oor that lit up. On the day there would be a DJ presiding. Across the hal lay the bal room where the adult event would take place with a manned bar and music. The caterers had already placed seats and tables down one side and the local orist would soon be arriving to instal the festive ower arrangements that Ava had selected.
She found it hard to get to sleep that night even with Harvey sleeping at the foot of the bed. Persuading the dog from his station waiting at the front door for Vito"s return had been a chal enge. That she could have been return had been a chal enge. That she could have been tempted to join the dog in his vigil bothered her. It was never cool to be so keen on a man and it would not be long before she betrayed herself and he recognised the fact that she had fal en for him. Then he would feel uncomfortable around her and he wouldn"t be able to wait to get rid of her. She would leave after the party with dignity and no big departure scene, she told herself fiercely.
A couple of restless nights in succession ensured that Ava slept in the morning that Vito was bringing company back and she had to wash, dress and breakfast at speed.
By the time she heard the helicopter ying in over the roof of the castle, she was pacing in the hal . With a woof of excitement and antic.i.p.ation, Harvey stationed himself back by the entrance again and Ava suppressed a sigh at the sight.
Vito strode into the castle with three other men, a reality that took Ava aback and she hung back from greeting him. Even so her entire focus was on Vito as she drank in his darkly handsome features and the lithe power of his wel -built body sheathed in a dark designer suit.
"Miss Fitzgerald?" A stocky man with a tired but familiar face was smiling at her and extending his hand.
"It"s been a long time."
Ava was stunned: he was the solicitor, Roger Barlow, who had represented her when she was on trial three who had represented her when she was on trial three years earlier.
"Possibly longer for her," the older blond man behind him quipped, catching her now free hand in his. "David Lloyd, senior partner with Lloyd and Lloyd Law a.s.sociates in London."
"And this is Gregory James," Vito introduced the nal man in the group, a thickly set balding bearded man, with grave courtesy. "Gregory and his rm were responsible for upgrading the security on the estate after the break-in we suf ered here five years ago."
Ava nodded, while wondering what al these men had to do with her. Was her solicitor"s presence a simple coincidence? She glanced at Vito, belatedly noticing the lines of tension grooving his mouth, the shadows below his eyes. Barely forty-eight hours had pa.s.sed since she had last seen him and he looked vaguely as if he"d been to hel and back, she thought in dismay, suddenly desperate to know what was going on. Why on earth had he brought members of the legal profession home with him?
Vito suggested they al adjourn to the library where everyone but him took a seat. "I asked Greg to come here and meet you personal y, Ava. He"l explain what this is al about."
"I saw those photos of you in the newspaper on Sunday," Greg James volunteered, studying her with calm but curious eyes. "I read the story and I was very shocked but curious eyes. "I read the story and I was very shocked by it. I was at the party here that night as wel and I had no idea there had been an accident until I read about it. I left the party an hour before midnight to catch my ight to Brazil where I had my next commission."
"Greg had no idea you"d been tried and sent to prison for reckless driving because he was working abroad for months afterwards," Vito explained. "But after he had read that newspaper he phoned me and suggested we meet up."
"You weren"t the driver that night," Greg James informed Ava with measured force. "I saw what happened that evening outside the castle. I thought I was seeing a stupid argument between people I didn"t know ... with the exception of Vito"s brother. I had no idea I was witnessing anything that might be relevant to a court case and I thought no more of it until I learned that you had gone to prison over what happened that night."
Ava"s lips had fal en open and her eyes were wide.
Her heart was beating so fast she almost pressed a hand against it because she was feeling slightly dizzy. "What are you talking about? How could I not have been the driver? And what argument did you see?"
David Lloyd leant forward in his armchair. "Ava ...
your defence at the trial was hampered by the fact that you had no memory of the accident. How could you protect yourself when you remembered nothing?"
"As I said, I left the party early," Greg continued. "I"d "As I said, I left the party early," Greg continued. "I"d arranged a taxi pickup and while I was waiting for it on the steps outside I saw an argument take place around a car. There were three people there ... you, Vito"s brother, Ol y, and a large woman in a pink dress."
"Three people," Ava almost whispered with a frown. "A large woman?"
"The last thing you remembered before the accident was running down the steps towards Ol y"s car," her former solicitor reminded her helpful y.
"The large woman fol owed you outside and a row broke out between you al ," Greg James supplied. "That"s why I noticed the incident. The lady in the pink dress had obviously had too much to drink. She was very angry and she was shouting al sorts at you and the boy."
Vito spoke up for the rst time. "I"m sorry but I think the lady in the pink dress was your mother. I also saw her leave the castle in a rush. I a.s.sumed she"d had another argument with your father. To my everlasting regret I didn"t go outside to check on you and Ol y."
"My ... mother?" Ava was repeating while studying Vito with incredulity. "Are you trying to suggest that she was driving?"
"Oh, she was de nitely driving that night," Greg James declared with complete con dence. "I saw her in the driver"s seat and I saw her drive o like a bat out of hel as wel ."
Nausea stirred in Ava"s tense stomach and she dimly Nausea stirred in Ava"s tense stomach and she dimly registered that it was the result of more shock than she could handle. She skimmed her strained gaze round the room as if in search of someone who could explain things because her brain refused to understand what she was being told.
"With su cient new evidence we can appeal your conviction," David Lloyd informed her seriously. "My rm specialises in such cases and Vito consulted me for advice yesterday. He didn"t want to raise false hopes."
"Mum couldn"t have been there ... it"s not possible,"
Ava whispered shakily. "It couldn"t have been her. I mean, she was banned from driving and she"d stopped drinking."
"She fel o the wagon again at the party," Vito countered heavily. "I can con rm that. I cal ed on Thomas Fitzgerald yesterday and your mother"s husband confirmed that he caught your mother drinking that night and that they had a colossal row from which she stormed o saying that she was going home. He a.s.sumed she was get ing a cab and he was simply relieved she"d left without causing a public scene."
Ava blinked rapidly and studied her linked hands. Her mother had worn a pink dress that night but that surely wasn"t acceptable evidence. "If she was in the car what happened to her after the crash?"
"Obviously she wasn"t hurt. We can only a.s.sume that she panicked and pul ed you into the driver"s seat before she panicked and pul ed you into the driver"s seat before eeing home. She would have known that Ol y was dead."
"A woman in a pink dress was seen walking down the road towards the vil age about the time of the crash."
Roger Barlow spoke up, somewhat shyly, for the rst time since his arrival. "The police did appeal for her to come forward but I"m afraid n.o.body did."
"Ol y wouldn"t have let her drive his car. She wasn"t al owed to drive, she wasn"t insured," Ava mumbled in a daze. She was horrified by the suggestion that her mother had not only abandoned her at the crash site while she was unconscious but had also moved her daughter"s body to make it look as though she had been the drunk driver who had run the car of the road into a tree.
"You did try to reason with the woman and so did the boy but she wouldn"t listen. She kept on saying that she was sick and tired of people trying to tel her what to do and she repeatedly insisted that she was sober. She was determined to drive and she didn"t give Vito"s brother a choice about it. She pushed him out of her way and just jumped in the driver"s seat and slammed the door. He yanked open the rear pa.s.senger door and ung himself in the back seat at the last possible moment and the car went o down the drive like a rocket," Greg James completed with a shake of his head while he studied Ava"s pale shocked face. "You were the front seat pa.s.senger. You weren"t driving, you de nitely weren"t driving that car that night ..."
driving that car that night ..."
"Roger drew my at ention to the fact that there were other inconsistencies in your case," David Lloyd informed her helpful y. "The police found a woman"s footprints in the mud by the driver"s door although you were stil out cold when the ambulance arrived. One of your legs was also stil resting in the foot wel of the front pa.s.senger seat and the injury to your head was on the left side, suggesting that you had been bashed up against the pa.s.senger window."
"When your mother"s husband came home later that night, your mother had locked herself in the spare room and was refusing to answer either the phone or the doorbell," Vito informed her level y. "When did your mother final y come to see you in hospital?"
Ava parted bloodless lips. "She didn"t come to the hospital. She came down with the u and I was home within a few days and receiving outpatient treatment."
"And how did she behave when she saw you again?"
"She acted like the accident hadn"t happened. She got very upset when ... er ... Thomas lectured me about how I"d kil ed Ol y and ruined my life."
"She wasn"t upset enough to come forward and admit that she was the driver," Vito breathed, his tone one of harsh condemnation.
"I think we have a very good chance of, at the very least, having Ava"s conviction set aside as unsafe," David Lloyd forecast with a.s.surance. "I"m happy to take on the Lloyd forecast with a.s.surance. "I"m happy to take on the case."
"And obviously I"l take care of the costs involved," Vito completed on an audible footnote of satisfaction.
The other men were al heading straight back to London again in the helicopter. As the trio stood chat ing together Vito approached Ava, who was stil frozen in her armchair showing al the animation of a wax dummy. "I real y do have to get back to the o ce, bel a mia," he imparted, searching her blank eyes with a hint of thwarted masculine frustration. "I pushed a great deal of work aside to deal with this over the last couple of days. I didn"t want to bring it to you without checking out the evidence first."
"I know ... you didn"t want to raise false hopes," she said flatly.
"Natural y al this has come as a shock but say the word and I"l stay if that would make you feel bet er ..."
"Why would it make me feel bet er?" Ava parted sti lips to enquire. "You"ve already done more than enough for me. I"l be fine."
Vito remembered tears running down her face that day in Harrods and silently cursed. Amazon woman didn"t need anyone, certainly not him for support. He stepped back, anger glimmering in his stunning dark golden eyes, his strong bone structure taut with self-discipline. "If you need me, if you have any questions, phone me," he urged, knowing he wouldn"t be holding his breath for urged, knowing he wouldn"t be holding his breath for that cal to come.
"Of course." Ava looked up at him as if she were trying to memorise his features. In truth she was in so much shock and pain, she felt ut erly divorced from him and the struggle to maintain her composure was using up what energy she had left.
As soon as she heard the helicopter overhead again, Ava went and got her coat, col ected Harvey from the hal and went outside, her feet crunching over the crisp snow that had frozen overnight.
To Ava, it seemed at that moment as though Vito had unleashed another nightmare into her world. In the same week that Ava had lost the man she had believed was her father, she had been confronted with the horrible threatening image of a mother who might have sacri ced her youngest daughter to save her own skin. Was it true?
Ava asked herself wretchedly. Was it true that Gemma Fitzgerald could have done such a thing? Was that what her mother"s distraught let er was al about? Gemma"s own guilt, guilt so great she couldn"t even face the prospect of seeing Ava again?
Ava"s head was starting to ache with the force of her emotions. She tried to imagine how she would feel without the ever-present burden of feeling responsible for her best friend Ol y"s death. She couldn"t imagine it, her own guilt had long since become a part of her. But the pain of thinking that her mother might have stood by the pain of thinking that her mother might have stood by doing nothing while her daughter was reviled, tried and sentenced to a long prison term in her place was greater than Ava thought she could stand.
Yet Gregory James had been so sure of facts, so certain of what he had witnessed that night. He said that Gemma Fitzgerald had been driving. And his description of the scene he had witnessed before the car set o rang more than one familiar bel for Ava. Her mother had been a forceful personality and, under the in uence of alcohol, her temper and her determination to have her own way would have been wel -nigh unstoppable. Growing up in such a troubled home, Ava had seen many scenes between her parents that bore out that fact. Few people had been strong enough to stand up to her mother, certainly not kind, always reasonable Ol y. Ol y wouldn"t have known how to handle her mother pushing him away and climbing into his car drunk. He wouldn"t have wanted to create a scene. He wouldn"t have wanted to hurt or embarra.s.s Ava by cal ing for help to deal with her obstreperous mother. But he wouldn"t have wanted to leave Ava alone in that car either at the mercy of a drunk and angry driver ... and that would have been why he threw himself into the back seat before her mother drove of and, unhappily, also why he had died.
Ava let the tears over ow and sucked in a shuddering breath in an e ort to regain control of her turbulent emotions. Harvey licked at her hand and looked up at her worriedly and she crouched down and hugged him her worriedly and she crouched down and hugged him for comfort. She felt so weak and helpless.
What had Vito"s motivation been in pushing forward the prospect of trying to clear Ava"s name with such zeal? Was it for her sake or ... his own? Was he more interested in cleaning up her image to ensure that his own remained undamaged? Had he resented the charge that he was sleeping with his brother"s kil er enough to move heaven and earth to prove that that had not, after al , been the case? She reminded herself that had Gregory James not rst contacted Vito, the possibility that she had been unjustly imprisoned would never have occurred to Vito. Just like everyone else he had believed Ava guilty and he had never forgiven her for it ...
Her phone rang and she answered it. It was her sister, Bel a.
"Are you al right?" Bel a asked worriedly.
"Not real y," Ava admit ed, swal owing one hiccup only to be betrayed by a second audible one.
"I"l come and pick you up," Bel a told her bossily. "You shouldn"t be dealing with this on your own. Where"s Vito?"
"He had to go back to London," Ava explained, feeling a twinge of guilt at that statement when she recal ed his o er to stay. But what would he have stayed for? So that she could weep al over him instead? Prove how much very hard work she could be even in what was supposed to be a fun lightweight af air?
to be a fun lightweight af air?
Her sister"s home was a former farmhouse on the far side of the vil age, a cosy home l ed with scat ered toys, a chubby toddler cal ed Stuart with an enchanting smile and a wal covered with photos of children in school uniform and crayon drawings.
"Excuse the mess," Bel a urged. "Dad came over last night to talk about this. He"s appal ed by what Vito had to tel him. To be honest we were al just grateful that Mum disappeared that night without making a big scene.
You know what she was like ... we a.s.sumed she"d caught a cab home. Al of us were drinking, none of us were driving. We"d arranged a mini cab for midnight to take us back."
Ava sipped grateful y at the hot cup of tea Bel a had made her. "Do you think it"s true?"
"Wel , I always had a problem get ing my head round the idea that you could be that stupid and I never could work out why Ol y was in the back seat without a seat belt when you were supposedly driving. But in the end we al just a.s.sumed you"d gone a bit mad for a few minutes and that few minutes was al it took to wreck your life," Bel a remarked in a pained tone. "I"m so sorry, Ava."
"You don"t need to be. It"s done now. I mean, the police thought I was guilty too."
"I do remember Mum being real y weird about it al ,"
her sister con ded with a grimace of discom ture. "Now her sister con ded with a grimace of discom ture. "Now I can understand why. No wonder she felt guilty. It was an incredibly cruel thing for her to do to you ... you not being able to remember the crash delivered you straight into her hands."
Ava hugged the friendly toddler for security, stil freaking out at the belief that her own mother could have taken advantage of her like that.
"I know I shouldn"t interfere," the smal blonde woman remarked gingerly, "but I don"t think Vito liked being referred to as your lover in that of hand voice you used."
"Oh." Ava went pink. "I didn"t know what else to cal him."
"He"s very volatile, isn"t he?" Bel a murmured re ectively. "I never saw that in him before. In fact I used to think he was a bit frozen and removed from al us lesser mortals, but yesterday it was obvious that he was absolutely raging about what Mum had done to you. I expect he feels horribly guilty-we al do now."
"I don"t want his guilt," Ava proclaimed and blew her nose. "After the party I"l be going back to London."
"Oh, Ava, must you?" Bel a pressed. "Gina and I were looking forward to get ing to know you."
"I would have enjoyed that." A tremulous smile formed on Ava"s lips as her sister gave her a hug on the doorstep. "But I can"t hang on Vito"s sleeve much longer -it"s get ing embarra.s.sing."
Ava returned to the castle. The caterers phoned with a Ava returned to the castle. The caterers phoned with a query and the owner of the rm asked to cal out that afternoon to run through the nal arrangements for the party one last time. Grateful to be occupied, Ava used her visit as a distraction from her harried thoughts. The bot om line in her relationship with Vito, she had almost told her sister, was that he didn"t love her. They didn"t have a future together. Vito had not once mentioned anything beyond the Christmas party and she wasn"t planning to hang around being pathetic in the hope that he suggested she extend her stay. She would get over him, it wouldn"t be easy but she would manage it. But the very prospect of a life shorn of Vito tore at her like a vision of death by a thousand cuts.
Vito phoned at supper time and asked in a worried tone how she was. His tone set her teeth on edge and she a.s.sured him that she was perfectly al right. He said he"d probably spend the night at his apartment and she didn"t blame him. He was fed up with al the ha.s.sle and drama she created around her, she decided painful y. She went to bed early, longing for the bliss of sleep, which would set le her tired, troubled mind.