Pressed close against him, the warmth of his neck beneath her lips, it was easy for her to agree with what he said. Yet still the doubt lingered.

'I could never enjoy an idle life,' she whispered.

'Then you will only have a night nurse for the children, and look after them yourself during the day when I am busy!'

His words took her by surprise and she pulled back and looked into his face. It held a teasing expression, but more besides: a promise of love and tenderness, of a shared and happy future.

'I hadn't thought of children,' she said slowly.

'But you wish for them?'

She saw the anxiety in his eyes and instantly nodded. 'Of course. I would like a family, Filippo, if you would have no objection.'

'Do you expect me to have?' With a grin he pulled her close again and for the next few moments neither of them spoke.

When sanity returned, Filippo led Erica to an armchair and gave her a drink. As if afraid that her proximity could disturb him, he stood himself several yards away and deliberately gave her an account of the work he did, as if to rea.s.sure her that what he had said before was true.

To begin with, Erica enjoyed watching him more than listening to him; thrilled to see him sitting opposite her, so handsome and so much a man of control. But gradually she began to concentrate on his words and soon became absorbed in the glimpse he was giving her of his business life. It certainly seemed to be complicated, with many different companies vying for his time.

'It's like being at the helm of a ship,' she remarked, when he finally lapsed into silence. 'You can't' steer the boat without all the ratings doing their jobs, and they can't take the boat anywhere without you at the helm. I can see why you're never bored, Filippo.'

'You needn't be bored either. If you are not entirely satisfied by the bringing up of our family, then you must concentrate on your work as a jewellery designer.'

'Wouldn't you mind?'

'Not as long as you are free when I am free, and providing you will promise me that you will not desert me for an office.'

'I can make my office anywhere. I'm sure you can find an empty room for me here and fit it up with a jewellery bench and my equipment.'

He smiled. 'I will see you have a workroom in all of my homes. You will not be the first Italian Countess to become famous in a career. We have many women of ill.u.s.trious names who have established themselves.'

'Mainly in couture,' she said.

'And in other professions too, though perhaps they are not as well known. It is fitting that as a Rosetti, with all the Rosetti jewels at your command, you should be engaged in designing and making other beautiful pieces.'

'I might expect you to buy them all,' she teased.

'Naturally I would expect to have first choice,' he said calmly.

She giggled. 'I believe you would. But be careful, darling, it might cost you a lot of money.'

'I like that,' he said quickly.

'That it might cost you a lot of money?'

'No,' he said with a slight shake of his head. 'That you called me darling and it came so naturally from your lips.' He made a move towards her, stopping as there was a knock at the door and a man came in.

'Danny!' Filippo exclaimed, and went towards him. 'It slipped my mind that you were arriving tonight.' He led him forward and introduced him to Erica. 'I think you have already met each other the first time you came to lunch.'

Erica remembered and nodded. This was the American who was responsible for organizing the showing of the Rosetti Collection in America.

'I hope you don't mind me barging in on you,' he was saying, 'but there are some last-minute details I want to check over on the insurance side.'

'These insurance companies are a nuisance,' Filippo said impatiently. 'If you had allowed my own insurance company to handle it-'

'You are already taking enough of a risk in letting the Collection be shown,' Danny interrupted, 'without taking on the insurance too.'

'You have a.s.sured me there is no risk,' Filippo said with a sharp smile.

'Oh, sure,' Danny said hastily. 'But I know you look on the jewellery as priceless from a family viewpoint.'

'I have only one priceless possession,' Filippo replied, and looked at Erica.

The American stopped, astounded. 'Do I offer my congratulations?' he asked hurriedly.

Filippo nodded. 'At the moment it is not official. We are waiting to tell Erica's father.'

'I won't say a word to anyone.' Danny glanced from Erica to his host. 'I wouldn't have barged in on you if I had known. If you'd like me to come back another time...'

'Not at all,' Filippo said and, moving over to an ornate gilded desk, took out some papers from the drawer. 'Here are all the clearances you wanted. I suggest you look at them and let me know tomorrow if there is anything else that is necessary.'

The American took the papers and glanced through them. 'I'll take them back to my hotel and study them, then I'll return and make a final check on the whole Collection. It's still being guarded, of course?'

'Of course. A round-the-clock watch.' Filippo put his hand in his pocket and took out the leather case which Erica had given him earlier. 'I have one piece with me,' he explained, holding it out to Danny. 'The stone was loose and it has been re-set.'

Danny took it and lifted the lid. 'Magnificent!' he murmured, and moved over to stand beside one of the table lamps. He turned the brooch round to look at the back, nodding as he saw the quality of the workmanship. Unexpectedly he took out a jeweller's eye piece and, fixing it to his eye, began to examine the brooch.

'There is no need to inspect it quite so closely, my friend,' Filippo said drily. 'I can a.s.sure you the emerald won't fall out now.'

The American went on looking at it, then slowly took out his eye-piece and slipped it into his pocket. 'I can see you still don't trust our security arrangements, Conte,' he said with an ironical smile.

'Why do you say that?' Filippo asked in surprise.

'Because of this.' Danny tapped the brooch. 'Taking out the real emerald and putting in a dud one doesn't indicate much faith in us.' He glanced at the emerald again and then at Filippo, who was looking at him in utter silence. 'I can see I have surprised you, Conte,' he continued with a slight smile. 'I guess you didn't know I was an expert in jewellery, but you don't get to handle the stuff I have to handle without learning what's real and what isn't. Though this stone is a wonderful colour and expensive, I don't doubt, it isn't an emerald.'

Filippo was silent and there was something about the look on his face and Erica's too that told Danny his words had come as a total surprise.

'You mean you - you mean you didn't know the emerald's a fake?'

'No,' Filippo said quietly.

'It can't be!' Erica burst out. 'It never left my possession except to go into the safe, and I watched Signora Botelli put it there. The emerald can't be a fake. No one touched it except me.'

As she spoke she was aware of the American flinging a look at Filippo. 'We'd better call the police, Conte.'

'Not for the moment. Leave me to deal with this. If you will return to your hotel I will telephone you later.'

Danny looked as if he were going to protest. Then he thought better of it and silently hurried out.

As the door closed behind him Erica jumped up. She went to reach out for the brooch but before she could touch it, Filippo picked it up and snapped the case shut.

'Sit down, Erica,' he said, his eyes hard as jet. 'We have a few things to talk over.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Even months afterwards, when the troubled happenings were a thing of the past, Erica could never clearly remember the sequence of events that followed the discovery that the emerald was false. But she was glad that memory shrouded the horror which, even a long time later, could awaken her from her sleep in a cold sweat.

Alone in the vast drawing room Filippo made her tell him everything she had done with the brooch since he had given it to her to repair. But no matter how often she repeated her story, there was no discrepancy in it and no indication of where or how the real emerald could have been stolen and a fake one put in its place.

'It was never out of my sight,' she reiterated. 'Even when Signora Botelli put it in the safe, I was there.'

'Did you put it into the safe, or did she?'

'I did. The Signora unlocked the door, of course, but I put the emerald away, and then took it out again later.' She stared at Filippo. 'No one touched the brooch except me. I can't think what happened. Are you sure it was the real stone when you gave it to me? Perhaps the fake one was put in before you-'

'No,' he said heavily. 'Danny personally examined each piece - he was months doing it - and after every item was verified, it was sealed. I broke the seal of this box myself before I gave you the brooch.'

Erica's heart was pounding so loudly that Filippo seemed to be talking from a long way off. She could not believe this was happening to her. She blinked her eyes and shook her head, hoping the scene would change and she would find it had all been a dream. But Filippo remained standing quietly in front of her, while the brooch remained on the table, its green heart flashing. But not a real heart, she knew; an imitation one; a piece of green gla.s.s in place of a priceless jewel.

'You think I stole it, don't you?' she whispered. 'I'm the only person who had the chance.'

'Do not talk like a fool,' he said. 'You didn't do it.'

'Somebody did,' she said flatly.

'Not you.'

'Then who?'

'I don't know.'

He put his hand to his head. It was the first sign of indecision she had seen him make and it brought home to her the depths of his anguish. He wanted to believe her, of that she was sure, but logic was making it impossible for him to do so.

'You'd better call the police, Filippo.'

'No. I do not wish to cause a scandal.'

'You won't be able to avoid it. Questioning me yourself isn't going to bring back the emerald.'

'Do you think the police will have more luck?'

They at least have more experience than you and-'

'You are right. I will call Vittorio. He's one of the men in charge. I can trust him to be discreet.'

Erica watched as Filippo dialled a number and spoke into the telephone. When he replaced it he looked more satisfied.

'He is coming over at once,' he said quietly, and went to stand by the fireplace. His face was so pale that his tan looked sallow. It emphasized the blackness of his eyes and his hair and made him look stark and menacing. Gone was the gentle lover she had always known and in his place was a man who was deliberately holding his doubts in check.

What would she think if she were in his position?

The answer was not a pleasant one and she realized how little he knew of her beyond what she had told him which, as far as he was concerned, could all have been a pack of lies. Yet even if he believed the story of her life, it still did not signify that she was the sort of person who would never be tempted to steal anything, no matter how great the provocation. Looking at herself with his eyes she saw only a frightened girl from an ordinary background who could well have decided that to be a Countess was too far out of her element for her to be happy. And if in seeing no future with the Rosetti family, she had finally succ.u.mbed to one of the Rosetti jewels... She clasped her hands on her lap to still their trembling.

'I didn't take the emerald!' she cried. 'I swear it!' Filippo took a step towards her, stopping as the door opened and a small, grizzled-haired man came in. 'Vittorio!' he breathed. 'Thank goodness you were in Venice.'

'If I hadn't been, I would have flown back.' The two men greeted one another with warmth. Vittorio was totally unlike Erica's idea of a police inspector, being insignificant in appearance and almost overwhelmed by his shiny black uniform with its brilliantly polished leather boots and cap.

He set the cap on a table, bowed over Erica's hand as he was introduced to her and then perched on the edge of a chair as Filippo recounted what had happened. He did not interrupt once, though occasionally his eyes moved around the room, giving the impression that he wasn't listening. It was an unjustified impression, though, for as Filippo came to the end of the story, he began to question him minutely. Finally, satisfied that he had learned everything he could, he turned to Erica.

'From the begining, please, signorina,' he said quietly. 'Filippo has told you everything. I can't add to it.' 'I wish to hear it in your words. We will begin from the moment you took the brooch from the Palazzo.'

Erica searched back in her mind. 'When I got home I put the case under my pillow and-'

'How did you get home? Did the Conte take you or did you walk alone?'

'Signora Medina took me in her launch. But I don't see what that has to do with the-'

'I want to know everything you did,' the Inspector repeated. 'Every single detail.'

Failing to see how this was going to bring back the real emerald, she sighed and began again. 'I left the Palazzo with Signora Medina. We both stayed on the deck of her launch and the brooch was in my handbag the whole time.'

'Did you open your bag for anything? To take out a handkerchief or a lipstick?'

'I only opened my bag to take out my front door key, and no one was with me when I did that. I was alone outside my apartment.'

'Inside the building?'

'Yes.'

Carefully the Inspector led her through the happenings of that night, not sparing her one single detail of what she had done. Many of his questions seemed pointless, but she forced herself to answer him. With so little to go on, every avenue had to be explored. Only as she came to the following day and started to tell him of the work she had done on the brooch did he allow her to tell her story without interruption. But he again insisted on minute detail when she came to the part where she had put the emerald in the safe and then withdrew it again after lunch.

'You were the only one to touch the stone?' he demanded. 'Your employer did not do so?'

'Only me,' she said, for the countless time.

'And before it was in the safe, where was it?'

'On a velvet tray beside me on the work bench. I left it on the tray when I put it in the safe. No one touched the emerald except me.'

'When you resoldered the claws how long did it take?'