Chapter 209

• ALLY whooshed out an exhausted breath once the young housemaid had left. She sank onto one of the deeply cushioned sofas and, laying back her head, closed her eyes, trying to allow the pills to do their job and ease the vice-like tension across her brow.
• She had never been in such an awkward position before. She felt as if she was betraying every principle she had clung to all of her life. Honesty and openness had been tossed aside for subterfuge and mendacity. How long could she maintain this appallingly dangerous charade? What if she had to meet her twin’s lover face to face? Would he see the swap for what it was? After all, he had been her sister’s lover. The physical intimacy they had shared, even if it had only been on a few occasions, would surely give him an edge Vittorio did not have, having only met her the once.
• Even thinking about Vittorio Vassallo set her nerves jumping all over the place. He was going to be sleeping on the other side of that door—the door that she had not yet locked. What if he took it upon himself and came in to claim his mock mistress? She wouldn’t put it past him. She had seen the attraction in his black-as-night gaze every time it rested on her, reluctant as it was. He was fighting it just as much as she was, but for totally different reasons. He would think it beneath himself to sample his brother-in-law’s leftovers, but she had much more to lose—her virginity, for one thing. Even though she was twenty-five years old, she had never taken a lover. There had been plenty of opportunities, but her natural reserve had made her cautious around men. And her responsibilities towards her twin had made it almost impossible at times to have a life of her own. It had only been during the last year or so that she had felt an easing of the burden, and even so it had all blown up in her face yet again.