English Rose for the Sicilian Doc by Annie Claydon

Author:Annie Claydon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DARKNESS WAS FALLING as he drove up to the site, parking his car next to Rose’s. The offices looked as if they were empty, the windows shuttered and locked, and when Matteo tried the door, it didn’t budge. Walking back over to her car, he leaned on the front wing, rocking it, and the alarm obligingly started to screech.

Almost immediately a light showed inside, and a door opened and then closed again. Then the shutters moved at one of the windows, and Rose peered out. Matteo waved at her and heard the sharp snap of the shutters closing again.

‘What are you doing?’ She came running down the steps, pointing her remote at the car, and the alarm cut off suddenly, leaving only the rustle of night creatures that had been disturbed by all the commotion.

‘I came to see you.’ Hanging back wasn’t going to get Matteo anywhere, she would just smile and tactfully send him back the way he’d come, and he strode to the door of the office and walked inside.

He could feel Rose getting more and more agitated as he walked through the darkened main office and through to the corridor beyond, aiming for the strip of light shining beneath the door at the far end. He opened it, wondering what he’d do if it turned out that he was wrong.

But he wasn’t wrong. Sitting on a stand, next to an array of modelling knives and a chunk of modelling clay, sat a model of Aemilia’s skull, obviously produced by a 3D printer from the CT scans. Rose had already started the model, and blobs of clay were positioned around the skull to show the depth of the soft tissue that would have encased it.

‘So you decided to do it.’

‘Yes. But I’m about to go home.’ She bit her lip nervously, and when Matteo turned to look at her it seemed as if she’d been crying. His heart almost burst at the thought of her here alone, weeping over a task that was too hard for her.

‘That’s a shame. I’d have liked to see how this is done.’

She stared at him for a moment. ‘Matteo, what are you doing here?’

He almost relented. Almost told her that he’d just come to see whether she wanted a nightcap, and would she like to go to one of the cafés in town for half an hour, before she went home. But that would have been a wasted journey.

‘I just want to know...’ He took a step towards her and she almost flinched. ‘I’d really like to know why you think that you couldn’t share this with me.’

‘I’ve been busy.’

He laid his fingers lightly on her arms. She was trembling.

‘Rose, this is hard for you, I can see that. But we’ve done this together up till now—won’t you let me give you a little support?’

‘I don’t need...’ Suddenly one tear rolled from her eye and she brushed it away almost guiltily.

‘Don’t lie to me, Rose.’ It was just a little lie, the kind that people told every day.

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