The Devil to Pay Read Free Page A

crossed his arms over his broad chest and was glowering. His eyes flashed suddenly, and she was jolted back to cheek-burning reality as he flicked a dismissive hand in her direction.
    “ Via ! Shoo!”

Chapter Two
    Rianna dropped her suitcase in front of the living room window so she could see the road outside. It was a narrow street of terraced miners’ cottages built a long time before most people had cars. Parking was a nightmare, and there were frequently raised voices on the issue, not to mention stolen traffic cones and mysterious “disabled parking” zones painted hurriedly under cover of darkness.
    It was ironic, but parking was one problem she didn’t have. Having no taxed vehicle at her disposal equaled zero hassle, but she was concerned about Bracchi’s driver getting any stick. It would be so embarrassing!
    “Don’t look so nervous, bach !” Her grandmother sat on the edge of the mauve velvet sofa and wrung her hands in direct contradiction to her own advice as the sound of shrieking and flying Lego came from the kitchen. “The kiddies will be fine. Maisie’s taking them to pre-school for the next five mornings and Dai said he’d take them to the park in the afternoon. Uncle Fred’s got a DVD thing from the car boot sale, so it looks like you’re redundant here anyway!”
    “Oh, Gran, it’s brilliant how everyone’s rallied round so quickly. I know the kids will be okay, they adore you, but I’m worried about the strain on you. It’s only been a couple of years since your little stroke and you know what the doctor said—”
    The older woman smiled broadly and put her hand into the pocket of her pink floral housecoat. “Rubbish and nonsense! Those kids aren’t yours, remember, however protective you are. Now, take this, just to borrow mind—they’re precious to me—but I think they might bring you some luck.” She produced a plain black box and opened it to display a single strand of Venetian crystal beads. “They’ll go with anything,” she said as she handed it over. “And I’ll be very offended if you say no.”
    Rianna smiled. Her first reaction was to refuse the loan as her gran knew she would. But those beads... She had always loved them. They weren’t valuable, but they still caught the light in their myriad facets and magnified it many times over with flashes of aqua and crystal petroleum, qualities equaling any of the minerals she had seen at the quarry. They were beautifully clear and sparkled just as they would have done on her grandparents’ wedding day.
    She touched their cool hardness for a moment. “Would Grancha have minded?”
    “Not one bit.” Mrs. Peters sighed. “If your grandfather was still here, he’d be giving you a much better send-off than this. He’d be proud, really he would, proud his best girl has grown up to be so clever and achieved so much with so little.” Rianna swallowed as her grandmother’s eyes shone brightly with the threat of tears. “And don’t you think he’d have been such a good great grancha to those little ones?”
    “Yes, Nan,” Rianna replied softly and bent to give her a hug. Their silent embrace was brief as within a few seconds, Rianna spotted a black shadow outside the house and quickly snapped the jewellery box shut. “Heck, the car’s here, I’ve got to go.”
    “Yes, don’t keep them waiting!”
    Rianna pushed the box into her handbag, grabbed her coat and called out toward the kitchen. “Fiona… Gavin…Come wave me off with Nan, will you?”
    A blur of snatched kisses and sticky hugs on the wet slate doorstep was Rianna’s farewell, as the dark-suited hulk she assumed was Gianpiero stood waiting by the passenger door of a black Mercedes. The windows were blacked-out and the neighbours’ net curtains went into overdrive. Rianna could almost hear the gossip already: obviously not the welfare officer, so it must be drugs. There would be some almighty inquisitions over the garden fence in the next few