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expectantly, sending  a smiling nod of acknowledgement. 
    ‘Terri’ The child corrected impatiently.
    'No, no, no,' Maria shook her jet-black head as she heaved her incredible weight out of the chair. 'Teresa— Teresa’ she insisted, and bent to plant kiss on Terri's cheek before waddling from the room with her happy laughter still shrill on her lips.
    'She's nice!' she exclaimed, and, to an already emotionally tattered Cass, it was like having her only ally turn on her. 'Do you think she knows that horrid man?''
    'No doubt.' Cass quelled the desire to smile in triumph. Maria might have won favour in Terri's eyes, but Carlo Valenti was still right out in the cold as far as his daughter was concerned. 'Since this is his house, and that is one of his beds you're sitting on, I should think she knows him very well.'
    'Oh.' Not sure she liked the idea of that, the little girl let her eyes go on a curious scan of the room. Cass watched her with the ache in her heart turning to a throb. She looked so sweet sitting there like that, cuddling the great big rabbit, her little face all brown eyes, and the mop of unruly black curls tumbling in all directions. It was as though all that Italian breeding in her had suddenly leapt into startling life in the bright, gay luxury of the room. Big eyes moved and paused, moved and paused, taking in everything and revealing nothing.
    'Had a nice nap?' Cass asked lightly when it became clear that Terri was not going to make a single remark about the room.
    Terri didn't answer, flicking her a questioning glance instead. 'Where's that man?' she asked. 'I'm hungry. Do you think he'll feed us?'
    'Oh, I should think so—if we can make ourselves presentable enough, that is,' she added, running a rueful eye over the child's disreputable state. 'How about a bath?' she suggested.
    Terri shuddered. 'Ah, no, Cass!' she wailed predictably. 'I don't want a bath!'
    With a threatening growl which set the small child giggling as she scrambled out of the bed and ran, Cass gave chase, letting the child run off some energy before catching and scooping her up in her arms to haul her off to the bathroom, unaware of how their playful laughter rang out beyond the closed suite door and into the room opposite, where Carlo Valenti sat behind his desk, his face carved in deep, still lines of thought.
    The bathroom was big, stylish and inviting, with the same mixture of cream and green as in her own allotted room. A huge sunken bath held pride of place in the middle of the tiled floor, and the moment Terri saw it she changed her mind about a bath. Incredulous at the sheer size of it, she knelt at the side to watch eagerly the water gushing out from concealed taps set in the deep basin wall.
    By the time she was stripped of her clothes and ready jump in, the bath was full, and, with a gleeful squeal, she landed fearlessly in the middle of the clear tepid water. Ten minutes later, and Cass had joined her, clothes and all, when a splashing contest had already drenched her anyway. And for the next half an hour they were just aunt and niece again, sublimely content with each other.
    But the problems which faced Cass were never far away from her mind. And neither—she soon found out—were they from Terri's.
    Wrapped in soft towelling robes they'd found hanging behind the bathroom door, one a bright sunshine-yellow,  other plain white, Cass was kneeling in front of Terri, lowing a comb through the child's shiny wet curls while all around them hung their wet clothes, dripping on to the fancy bathroom floor.
    A small clean finger came up to trace a gentle pattern over Cass's cheek. 'Who is he?' Almost as though she knew the truth was going to rock her little world, Terri put the question with a deep and throbbing reluctance.
    Cass swallowed, the tears backing up behind each other. So, she thought heavily, this is it. The moment she had been dreading for a year now.
    Did she lie, or did she tell the truth?
    'Who would you like