Moth to the Flame Read Online Free PDF

first day's sightseeing was spent touring St
    Peter's.
    Accordingly she found herself walking slowly up the Via della
    Conciliazione and into the huge Piazza which Bernini had designed
    centuries before. This was the scene she had glimpsed so many
    times on television at Easter and other festivals, and today the
    square seemed almost deserted in contrast, with the knots of
    tourists concentrating their ever-busy cameras on the famous
    colonnades and their statuary.
    For a moment she felt almost disappointed because it all .. seemed
    so familiar, and then she saw someone going up the steps in front of
    her towards the church itself, and its sheer immensity took her by
    the throat.
    She spent the rest of the day touring the church itself, exploring St
    Peter's from the dizzying view over Rome from the tiny balcony
    high up in the dome, to the early Christian grottoes. She wandered
    around the Treasury, gazing in awe at some of the priceless
    treasures which had been presented to the Vatican over the
    centuries, her imagination constantly stirred by them, in particular
    by the cloak that legend said the Emperor Charlemagne had worn at
    his coronation. Later, as she stood before Michelangelo's exquisite
    Pieta, shielded now from possible vandalism behind a glass screen,
    she felt involuntary tears welling up in her eyes. No photograph or
    other reproduction could do it justice, she realised.
    She was physically and mentally exhausted by the time she had
    seen everything she wanted to see, and it was a relief to find a taxi
    and make her way back to the apartment, her mind still reeling from
    the overwhelming size and magnificence of the church.
    As she went into the foyer of the apartment block, she looked
    towards the porter's cubicle to smile at the man who had wished her
    a cheerful happy day as she left that morning, but it was a strange
    face looking back rather sourly at her through the glass partition,
    and she guessed that the shift must have changed. She felt rather
    foolish as she rode up in the lift. You simply did not go round in
    Italy beaming at strange men, she reminded herself sternly as the lift
    halted and the door opened.
    Glancing at her watch, she supposed it would still be some time
    before Jan returned, although she had little idea of the sort of hours
    her sister worked. Sure enough, the apartment was empty as she let
    herself in, and yet she had the immediate feeling that it was not
    quite as she had left it.
    Again, she found her eyes travelling to the vase of red roses, and
    her heart gave a small painful thump as she saw a large white
    envelope leaning against it. Cool it, she told herself. You're getting
    as bad as Mim with her premonitions.
    The envelope was addressed to her and it was Jan's writing. She
    could not repress a feeling of alarm as she tore it open, and the
    contents were hardly reassuring.
    'Darling,' wrote Jan, 'Sorry to leave you in the lurch like this, but I
    must go away for a few days. Big brother is out to make trouble,
    and I simply can't risk waiting any longer. Next time I see you, I
    shall be Signora Vallone. Wish me luck. Yours. J.'
    Juliet stared down at the note, her heart pounding, then a sudden
    feeling of anger overwhelmed her and she tore the paper into tiny
    pieces. Her own sister was getting married, and these few curt lines
    of explanation were all the announcement or involvement that she
    could hope for. And for Mim, of course, it would be even worse. ,
    It had apparently not occurred to Jan that her sister might wish to
    witness the ceremony, even if she was dispensing with such
    luxuries as bridesmaids. 'She had not even permitted her to meet the
    bridegroom before the wedding took place.
    She went through to the kitchen and disposed of the torn fragments
    and the envelope in the refuse bin, telling herself to calm down.
    There was little point in wishing that Jan was other than she was.
    She had always been very lovely and very selfish, and the spoiling
    that her