Priceless (51 page)

The Grand Cru
had another VIP on board. This one arrived quietly and in a box.

Randon placed the little Ricasoli Virgin in the room that had once contained his erotic collection.
The Virgin
would be the perfect painting with which to begin the art collection for his new church, the construction of which would begin any day. The travertine marble was waiting to be transformed for the glory of God.

Randon crossed himself as he backed out of the room and began to operate the lock. But then he stopped. He reopened the door and went back in. The room was entirely empty but for
The Virgin
and one other familiar item. The inro …

Randon fingered the carved ivory. Carrie Klein had made a note of how the box opened and Randon referred to it now.

He tipped the mementoes hidden inside out for one last inspection. In just a few days he would hand them over to the police. He had decided that the time had
come. The builders for his masterpiece, his very own church of the rock, had been paid in advance. His lawyer was authorized to act in his absence. Randon sat very still in his sanctuary and considered the ordeals ahead. It would not be pleasant to spend the rest of his life in prison, but right now an innocent man was suffering for his sins. Axel Delaflote had already spent more than five years in jail. Randon could not allow that man to continue to pay for his crimes.

Or could he?

Opening the inro one more time, he tipped Odette’s heart-shaped pendant out into his palm. So shiny. Cheap as it was, he remembered how pretty it had looked as it had rested in the perfect dent between her collarbones. He held a lock of hair in his other hand. This was her hair. The lightest of the three locks. The one with the bounciest curl. He pressed the hair against his mouth and relished the silkiness as it slid over his skin. And then he was back in that room, feeling her white flesh beneath his hands. His fingers closing around her throat. Deciding in the end to use her scarf to finish her off because those finger marks might send him to jail.

“Please, please don’t. I won’t tell anybody,” Odette begged him across the years.

Suddenly, feeling 100 percent himself again for the first time since he’d come out of his coma, Mathieu Randon echoed her promise. “I won’t tell anybody either,” he said, and smiled.

Poor old Axel Delaflote would have to stay in jail.

Randon instructed his captain to sail on toward Capri.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I feel very lucky to be able to make my living as an author. Not only because I don’t have to change out of my pajamas to go to work but also because my job brings me into contact with so many wonderful people. For their advice and support with the business of writing
Priceless
, I’d like to thank:

John Tiller; Robert Brooks of Bonhams; Bella Bishop of Sotheby’s; Dillon Bryden; Adam Gahlin; Victoria Routledge; Serena Mackesy; Guy Hazel; M. Finkelkraut; American history expert Peter Dailey; emergency police procedure consultant James Waller; my agents, Antony Harwood, Tony Gardner, and James Macdonald Lockhart; copy editor Justine Taylor; my editors, Carolyn Mays and Kate Howard; and the still lovely Nat Wilde, who is nothing like the character to whom he lends his name.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thirty-two-year-old O
LIVIA
D
ARLING
was born and raised in Cornwall. At the age of eighteen she met an Italian art student in St. Ives and ran away to Tuscany in hot pursuit of him. The love affair didn’t last, but Olivia’s sojourn in Montepulciano inspired a much more enduring passion for Vino Nobile. She lives in London.

“Vintage
is a wonderful, intelligent blockbuster that has it all: sex, intrigue, glamour, a page-turning plot, and lashings of champagne!”

SOPHIE KINSELLA,

New York Times
bestselling author of
Confessions of a Shopaholic

“Champagne, shenanigans, skullduggery and grand cru sex … 
Vintage
has three heroines you genuinely care about, love-to-hate villains, and a parade of gossipy detail. Don’t wait for the beach to enjoy this fantastic beach read; open up a chilled bottle of sparkling wine and enjoy it now!”

HESTER BROWNE,

New York Times
bestselling author of
The Little Lady Agency

Don’t miss

Available now

“Lies, lust and libation fuel this early summer beach read.… Darling’s sly wit veils numerous jabs at celebrities and popular culture, and her pitch-perfect description and characterization draw readers into the complex world of vintage wine.”

—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Intoxicating, effervescent, and extravagant … Irresistible.”

—Reader to Reader