Lucy Gordon - Rinaldo’s Inherited Bride

‘My brother is very popular,’ Rinaldo observed. ‘But he is more pursued than pursuing.’

‘You don’t have to excuse him to me,’ Alex said cheerfully. ‘I’m glad of the chance to sit quietly for a bit.’

‘Let me order you some wine.’

‘Not wine, thank you.’

‘Mineral water?’

‘What I’d really love most of all at this moment,’ she said wistfully, ‘is a nice cup of tea.’

Rinaldo made an imperious gesture to a passing waiter, spoke a few words of Tuscan and handed over a note. The waiter nodded and scurried away.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Alex said admiringly. ‘You haven’t managed to summon up tea in the middle of a wine-drenched festival?’

‘We’ll have to wait and see.’

In a few minutes the tea arrived and she sipped it in ecstasy.

‘Nothing ever tasted as good as this,’ she sighed. ‘Thank you.’

Then her eyes widened in horror.

‘Oh, goodness, look! Over there. Montelli. He’s been following me around.’

‘Shall I leave you free to talk to him?’

Rinaldo made to rise but Alex stopped him with a hand on his arm.

‘Don’t you dare. I rely on you to get rid of him for me.’

‘Thus confirming my poor reputation. Do you know that I’m commonly held to have taken you prisoner and kept you apart from the world?’

‘Well, that was the original idea, wasn’t it?’ she teased.

‘I really can’t remember,’ he said self-consciously.

Montelli reached them, beaming in a way that didn’t hide his anxiety. He would have taken Gino’s seat but Alex dumped her bag on it too quickly for him.

‘ Signorina , what a pleasure! It’s so hard to reach you these days.’

‘Yes, I’m afraid I keep my phone turned off,’ she said. ‘You must blame this lovely country which is taking all my attention.’

‘Indeed, Italy is ideal for a vacation, but perhaps a fair-skinned northerner shouldn’t live here permanently.’

‘How kind of you to be concerned for my welfare!’ Alex said, with a dazzling smile. ‘Would it really trouble you if I decided to stay?’

At this hint that she might not sell at all, Montelli paled visibly.

‘Well of course we should all be delighted-good heavens, you’re drinking tea. Is this fellow too mean to buy you a proper glass of wine?’

‘Far too mean,’ Rinaldo said in a voice that suggested he might be enjoying himself.

‘How shocking. Signorina , let me take you somewhere and buy you champagne.’

His hand clutched her arm determinedly. The next moment his yell split the air and he was frantically dabbing hot tea from his trousers.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Alex exclaimed unconvincingly. ‘I can’t think how it happened.’

He gave her a look of wild accusation but was too wise to speak, and scuttled away.

‘Why didn’t you come to my rescue?’ she demanded of Rinaldo.

‘I never saw a woman less in need of rescue,’ he said, with a grin. ‘ I could hardly have thrown tea over him.’

‘It was an accident.’

‘Of course. I’ve had a few such accidents myself.’

‘I’ll bet you have!’

Now the procession had finished and the streets were full of revellers. Somewhere in the distance they could see Gino, flowers in his hair, dancing with three partners at once.

‘What does he think he’s doing?’ Rinaldo demanded.

Alex chuckled. ‘I think he’s making sure that he won’t commit sacrilege the next time he goes to church.’

‘Shall I fetch him for you?’

‘What for? He’s a free agent.’

‘And you? Are you free? With a fiancé in England?’

‘Yes,’ she said hastily, struggling to remember David’s face. ‘I meant that-Gino-’

‘Gino and you spend a lot of time together.’

‘Only because you put him up to it,’ she retorted with spirit. ‘Leave him alone. Let him enjoy himself.’

A dancing couple nearly crashed into their table.

‘If you’ve finished your tea, perhaps we should move,’ Rinaldo said. ‘It isn’t very safe here.’

She followed him out of the piazza and down side streets until they reached the river, where a blessedly cool breeze was blowing. He took her arm to steer her to the water’s side, and they stood there for a moment enjoying the night air.

Looking down into the waters of the Arno, Alex wondered at the change in herself. Her light tan made her dark blue eyes seem larger. She could see that much in the ghostly figure who looked back at her from the dark water.

No, she thought. Not so much a ghost as an echo of another self that she might have been. Perhaps still might.

‘What are you thinking?’ Rinaldo asked suddenly.

‘About myself,’ she said, still looking down into the water. ‘Wondering who I am.’

‘I too have wondered that. You are not the person I thought at first.’

‘Nobody could be that woman,’ Alex said, looking at him with a faint smile. ‘She came out of a horror story.’

He nodded. ‘I never thanked you.’

‘For what?’

‘Looking after Brutus. Seeing things about him that I ought to have seen. I let him live too long. I should have done it weeks ago, but I blinded myself to the signs because I couldn’t bear to part with him.’

‘Was that why you asked him to forgive you?’

‘Yes,’ he said in a low voice.

‘He was your wife’s dog, wasn’t he?’

‘I suppose Gino told you.’ His lips curved in a tender, reminiscent smile. ‘Maria came to our wedding clutching this ridiculous puppy, and she held onto him all through the service because if she put him down he wandered off, and if she handed him to someone else he cried. She said he was the start of our family, that we would have many children and many dogs. But it didn’t happen that way.’

He did not add that now he had nothing left of his wife, but Alex sensed that he did not need to. One by one, those he cared for had been taken away from him. Only Gino was left, and despite the brothers’ affection she sensed a distance between them, born of the fact that they were opposites.

‘You must be so lonely,’ she said impulsively, reaching out to touch him.

He looked at her, then at the place where her hand lay on his arm. For a moment she thought he would put his own hand over it, but then a smile came over his face. And when she saw it she knew she had blundered.

It was as implacable as an iron door slammed in her face.

‘Not at all,’ he said cheerfully, moving his arm away from her. ‘Not at all.’

She cursed her own stupidity for going one step too far with this awkward man. At the last moment he had flinched away from her sympathy, as she should have known he would, retreating into mistrust.

Through the silence she was intensely aware of the unease that swept him as he recalled everything he had confided to her, the way he’d lowered his guard, forgetting that she still represented danger.

She thought vainly for something she could say to bring his mind and heart back to her, but it was too late. He had turned and was heading away from her, along the narrow street.

‘Let’s go and find Gino,’ he called back over his shoulder.

‘N EVERmind Gino,’ she said desperately. ‘I don’t own him, and he’d be the first to say so.’

‘Is that why I see the two of you fooling around together all the time?’ He spoke ironically, and there was a touch of the old edge in his voice as he added, ‘I wonder what you’ll tell your fiancé.’

‘I shan’t mention it at all. There’s no need.’

‘What a very cool race the English must be. If you were my woman I’d want to know that you’d been flirting with another man.’