To Deceive a Duke by Amanda Mccabe Page B

Miss Clio. It is most pleasant to see you again.’
    Clio swallowed past the dry knot in her throat. Where was that grappa when she really needed it? ‘And you, your Grace. Father is always so happy to have someone new to Santa Lucia to show off his villa.’
    ‘I’m honoured to be allowed to see it. I haven’t yet had time to see any of the sites of Enna properly.’
    ‘I think there are too many to see “properly” in a decade,’ Clio said, surprised to find that she could chat politely with him. ‘We have been here many weeks now, and my family have not even been to the castle. We’ve just seen it from a distance.’
    ‘It isn’t Greek , of course,’ her father said dismissively. ‘Just thirteenth century. Far too new for me.’
    ‘But lovely, or so Rosa says,’ Clio answered. Rosa also said it was haunted, just like Clio’s ‘cursed’ farmhouse, but she didn’t mention that.
    ‘Rosa?’ Averton asked.
    ‘Our cook,’ said Clio. ‘Her family has lived in Santa Lucia for generations. She seems to know every inch of the land.’
    ‘Then if she says the castle is worth seeing, she must be right.’ Averton glanced at Clio, his expression unreadable under the shadow of his hat. ‘Perhaps you would care to accompany me there after luncheon, Miss Clio? We could discover it together. And you, too, of course, Sir Walter.’
    Her father laughed. ‘Oh, no, not me! I have work to do on things that are truly old. But you two must go. Clio has been wanting to see it, have you not, my dear?’
    ‘Well, yes, but…’ she began.
    ‘Then it is settled. Now, you really must let me show you the mosaics, Averton. Especially the mermaid in the baths. So extraordinarily well preserved.’
    Clio watched helplessly as her father led Averton away. It seemed she was now committed to an outing with the Duke. Or was it with Edward?
    Either way, she would have to watch her step very carefully. Any unwary move in this slippery game they played would send her tumbling right down into a new abyss.
    ‘Just don’t push him off the battlements, Clio,’ Cory whispered. ‘That would surely not be polite.’
     
    Edward nodded as Sir Walter pointed out the sections of his villa, the old peristyle hall, the long space where the women had their weaving looms, the walled gardens. Helistened closely, yet his attention was not on the ancient past. It was on the all-too-near present.
    Clio sat with her younger sister in a pavilion, her dark red hair cast in shadow, her face unreadable. Servants scurried around them, setting up their luncheon, yet she was an island of stillness.
    She had agreed to show him the medieval castle, but how did she feel about that? About spending yet more time with him? How did he feel about that?
    Edward frowned, nudging at a bright mosaic tile with his boot. Self-examination was not what was needed now; action was. He thought of the dark house on its poor street, of what he had learned in his secret space there. Santa Lucia was not safe for Clio, not if she kept wandering off on her own in the hills. He could warn her again, but would she ever listen?
    Truly, Clio Chase was maddening! Every time he determined to stay away from her, from the complications of her fierce intelligence and lithe body, of her tangled past, something pulled him back to her. Pulled them together.
    Just like this castle outing. Perhaps it was one last chance, a chance for him to persuade her at last to leave things alone. Persuade himself to leave her alone! If talking did not work…
    Then more drastic measures were called for.

Chapter Nine
    C lio led the way up the steep stairs carved in the rocky hillside, the only access to the castle, conscious at every moment of the Duke’s footsteps close behind her. Despite the fact that he was a tall man, he walked softly, gracefully, an ever-present ghost. His movements were light, stealthy, as unpredictable as the clouds overhead, and as always when he was near her senses were poised