Broken Chord by Margaret Moore Read Free Book Online

after younger women too? It was a gamble and she knew it. The first symptom of what might happen had been evident this morning. He would want more than she was prepared to give him. There were limits, and before the wedding he’d better realise exactly what they were.
    She called, “Come” in answer to a knock, and blonde, gorgeous, Jean Pierre came in with his box of tricks.
    “Jean Pierre,” she trilled, “I want to go two shades lighter. Tell me I’m right.”
    Jean Pierre gave her a broad smile. “Of course you’re right. It will look divine. Let me get my colour chart out and we’ll choose exactly the right colour for you.”
    Another knock on the door and Guido came in. “Darling, I’m just off to Lucca. I’ve got some stuff arriving.”
    “Anything lovely?” She tried to keep the tone of her voice neutral but inwardly was still quite angry with him.
    “Nothing suitable for us, I’m afraid. Besides the house is getting rather full.”
    “Will you be back for lunch?”
    “No, I’ll spend the afternoon cataloguing and making a few contacts. I’ll be back well in time for dinner. Have a lovely day.”
    Ursula’s eyes swivelled round to look at Jean Pierre who was studiously ignoring them. He was such a vicious little gossip, which was another reason she loved to have him. He always gave her the latest updates on all sorts of interesting situations, but it would be wise to keep her temper under control in front of him. “And you too, my love,” she said with a big smile at Guido.
    They blew kisses to each other while Jean Pierre diplomatically searched in his case. Guido had ignored him as usual and he felt slighted, as he always did on these occasions. After all, who was Guido to give himself airs? Everyone knew that he’d come up from nothing. All that crap about his aristocratic family origins might fool Ursula but it didn’t fool him. Only after the door had closed did he speak again, and then in such a hurt tone that she laughed, “Jean Pierre, stop sulking, take no notice of Guido. You know what men are like. He only has eyes for me. He probably didn’t even see you.”
    “That’s a comfort.” Jean Pierre kept his counsel, but he knew when someone was available and he had thought that Guido might be, when he’d first met him. It wasn’t the sort of thing that Ursula would notice, but he did.
    He thrust a colour chart at Ursula.
    “Well, here are the two colours I suggest. We could use one or both, you know, gently shaded in. What do you think?”
    “Both please. I love that shaded effect. You don’t think it’s too light?”
    “Well, it is much lighter but with your amazing skin colour it will look great.”
    “You’re such a flatterer. I do hope you’re telling me the truth.”
    “The whole truth. Why should I lie?”
    “Dear boy, let’s get on with it and tell me all the latest news.”
    Jean Pierre began happily to mix his potions.
     
    Piero drove through the town in a pristine car. He had done a fewchores while waiting for the car to be washed and have the glass on one of the front headlamps replaced. Marianna not only drove without a driving license, she wasn’t even very good at it. Along the road that led from the town to the Villa, a short distance of perhaps two kilometres he ruminated on the startling news he had heard in the bar where he’d stopped for a coffee. Roberto, Marianna’s unsuitable boyfriend, had been the victim of a hit and run accident in the early hours of the morning. It must have happened on his way home from the villa. He’d been on foot, because earlier Marianna had brought him to the villa in her mother’s car. No-one knew exactly at what time it had happened, but Piero who had heard him leave, guessed it must have been at about three. Roberto hadn’t been discovered until first light when a farmer driving out to take a load of fodder for his chickens had come across the young man, unconscious, at the side of the road. He was still alive