Lucy Gordon - The Italian’s Cinderella Bride

She couldn’t see him very well, but well enough to know that he was everything she’d hoped and more; lean, straight, with a power that he kept leashed, but not completely hidden.

They were one in the heart before they were one in the body, and neither of them asked more.

She knew that the protective side of him was so strong that even now his fears for her troubled him, but they were slipping away as his desire for her took control of him, until at last he forgot everything but the urgency of claiming her.

She was ready for him, so that the moment of their union was easy, an inevitable coming together, that made the world stop for the briefest second before starting again with a fierce urgency that didn’t let up until they were both exhausted.

Ruth thought she cried out, or the voice might have been his. There were no words, only the triumph of coming home and knowing that it was the right place at last.

Afterwards he propped himself on one elbow to look down on her. His face was suffused with his love but, being Pietro, he had to ask her worriedly, ‘Is everything all right with you?’

She smiled. ‘Everything’s wonderful with me. Stop worrying. It doesn’t depend on Gino.’

‘How did you know I was thinking of him?’

‘Because I know you. You worry about things, all the time. But he can’t affect us. I wanted you to know that. Gino can give me some information, but he can’t touch me here.’ She laid her hand over her heart. ‘Don’t you believe me?’

‘I couldn’t bear to lose you-not now.’

‘You never will.’ She put her arms up around his neck. ‘I’m not even going to go away tonight.’

The last throw. A perfect six.

According to Mario, Gino’s email had given no indication of when he would arrive.

‘Or he may not arrive at all,’ Ruth observed next morning. ‘He might back out, like last time. I hope not. I want this out of the way and done with.’

‘Suppose you don’t remember the missing bits?’

‘Then I’ll manage without them.’ She smiled at him. ‘If only you knew how unimportant all that seems now.’

‘I’d better call Mario and tell him we’re not coming in.’

His manner was still troubled, and she knew that only one thing could truly ease his mind. As he turned to the phone she began to get out her books to do some work. But then a sound made her look up.

Gino was standing there, watching her.

How many times in her dreams-nightmares?-had she turned to find him there, looking just as he had once before, as handsome as ever, just as she remembered him?

Now he was here, a fantasy brought to life, for he was unchanged: tall, slim, a slightly hesitant smile on his face. That hesitancy had always been part of his charm. This was Gino, just as she recalled him.

And yet-something was different, something wrong, if only she could pinpoint it. There was no time to analyse it now. Her heart was beating with some emotion she didn’t understand. It was too much like fear.

Gino was looking puzzled, and she realised that he’d never seen her looking like this before.

‘Ruth? It is Ruth, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it’s me. Hallo, Gino.’

She had the sensation that her mind had split into several sections, each one working at full stretch, noticing something different. Gino stared as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. Behind him was a young woman who might have been pretty if her make-up hadn’t been too lavish and her dress too tight. Above all Ruth was aware of Pietro, holding himself still and tense, watching them.

‘I want you to meet someone,’ Gino said with an awkward laugh. ‘This is Josie, my fiancée.’

He emphasised the last word, very slightly, and drew the girl forward, positioning her just in front of him, almost as though he wanted her to protect him. And that, of course, was exactly what he did want, Ruth thought.

She could almost have laughed aloud. For a while she had adored this man, thought the sun rose and set on him. Now he was afraid of her.

And in that moment she identified the subtle difference that had troubled her from the start. Gino looked shifty. The shiftiness was there in his eyes, in his smile. It was there in the fact that he could only face her with another woman to stand between him and trouble. It had probably always been there, had she not been too infatuated to notice it.

Behind the façade of the shining knight, he was a coward.

It was the word ‘coward’ that did it. Suddenly the world grew dark, shuddering around her.

‘Oh God!’ she screamed. ‘No, no, no !’

Dimly she could sense Pietro’s alarm, his look of horror as he rose and came to her. But his face faded, replaced by Gino, not as he was now, but as he’d been that night, handsome, shining, full of adoration for her before the world had fallen in on them.

‘No,’ she cried. ‘I don’t believe it-it can’t be true-’

Gino didn’t say a word. He only looked at her uneasily as his worst fears were realised.

‘You-’ she gasped ‘-you- you ran away and left me .’

She was back in the car park, and suddenly all the things that had been obscure were horribly clear. The thugs knocked her to the ground, kicking her. She screamed to Gino but he was running away as fast as he could. At the last moment he looked behind him, his face full of terror, then ran on faster than ever, abandoning her to her attackers. Then she passed out.

‘You left me to their mercy,’ she repeated slowly.

‘Ruth, what is it?’ Pietro was there, holding her, providing the one sure point in a disintegrating world, the way he always had.

‘When we were attacked in the cark park, he just ran away.’

‘That’s not true,’ Gino began to bluster. ‘I went to get help-you told me to-’

‘No, you saved your own skin,’ she said, staring at him as though seeing him for the first time, which, in a sense, she was.

‘You don’t know what happened-you don’t remember-’

‘I do now. It’s coming back. I could have died because you abandoned me. Get away from me. ’

She cried out the last words because Gino had made a protesting gesture towards her. But Pietro was there, warding him off.

‘Stay away,’ he said firmly.

‘Look, it wasn’t as bad as she says-’

‘Yes, it was,’ Ruth choked. ‘I’m surprised you came to the hospital to see me even once-’

‘I-I had to find out how you were-’ he stammered.

‘No, you wanted to find out if I was safely dead, so that I couldn’t give you away. When I couldn’t remember anything you must have thought luck was with you. That’s why you dashed back to Italy so fast.’

‘I did what was best for you,’ Gino tried to plead. ‘It just upset you to see me around, so I left-for your sake.’

‘You lying, cheating jerk.’ The words burst from the girl at his side. ‘You told me she’d broken your heart.’

‘No wonder you’ve kept away this year,’ Pietro snapped. ‘You were afraid I’d find out what a worm you are, and fire you. And you were right to be afraid. The sooner you’re out of this place, the better. Get out and don’t let me see you again. Ever.’

‘Oh, now look-be reasonable-’

‘Reasonable?’ Pietro echoed savagely. ‘You think-’

‘No, Pietro, stop.’ Ruth laid a hand on his arm. ‘Forget it. Let it go.’

‘Let it go? After what he did to you?’

But the clouds that had descended on her so fast were retreating just as quickly in the face of the truth. She could stand up and speak strongly, still holding on to Pietro, but now as much to reassure him as to claim his support.

‘But it doesn’t matter, don’t you see?’ she said. ‘ He doesn’t matter. It’s over. Finished. We’ve found out what we wanted to know, and we can take it from there.’