Lucy Gordon - Gino’s Arranged Bride

What did it matter that Gino and Alex had exchanged private phone numbers, and she hadn’t known about it?

On that first day the two women and Nikki went to see the ‘haunted’ house. It was about a hundred years old, a great barn of a place, but solidly made.

‘Does it really have a ghost?’ Laura asked.

‘A woman murdered her faithless lover here years ago,’ Alex said. ‘Now she’s supposed to wander for ever, wailing. If she exists, I feel sure Nikki will find her.’

But Nikki had nothing to report, even seeming to feel cheated. She managed to convey the impression that in a well-ordered house there would have been a ghost.

‘But even without a ghost, it’s a lovely place,’ Alex pointed out. ‘Of course, it needs some work. There’s no electricity or running water, but that’s easy to arrange. And when it’s been redecorated, just think how it would look.’

Laura said nothing. A chill fear was gathering in her stomach, spreading out to encompass all of her. Alex was telling her that she and Gino could return to the farm and live here.

Obviously that was her plan. Rinaldo seemed to be a disagreeable man, and perhaps her marriage to him had disappointed her. Now she regretted driving Gino away, and was tempting him back.

Laura pulled herself together, telling herself to be sensible. But how often had she already told herself this in the short time since she’d been here? Too often. Last night Alex and Gino had been absorbed in each other’s company, today there had been the hint of secret conversations.

Well, what else had she expected? She’d always known the truth.

On the second day Nikki went with Rinaldo and Gino to watch the gathering of the harvest. Alex took Laura into Florence.

‘I have to go first to see my employer,’ she said.

‘Your employer?’

‘I can’t just be a farmer’s wife. I was an accountant in England, and now I’m learning Italian accountancy in the office of a man called Tomaso Andansio. Sometimes he gives me things to take home and work on. Today I have some files to return to him.’

She stopped at a set of offices in the Via Bonifacio Lupi, and introduced Laura to Signor Andansio as ‘my sister-in-law’.

She was treated as an honoured guest, offered coffee and cakes while Alex was going over the files she’d brought with her boss. Then Signor Andansio himself showed her around the building, which was a place of great historical interest. It was an enjoyable visit.

But as she was returning to the office where Alex worked, she saw, through the open door, Alex answer her mobile with the soft words, ‘Ciao, Gino.’

Then her host drew her attention to a picture on the wall, and she heard no more of the conversation until Signor Andansio turned away for a moment, and a few words reached Laura clearly.

‘No, I haven’t said anything yet-I have to wait for the right moment-no, caro , I want to explain this to her myself-promise that you will leave it to me.’

She hung up. When Laura entered the office a few moments later nobody could have told her inner misery from her smile.

Mercifully there was no need for private conversation as they had lunch with some friends of Alex’s. It extended deep into the afternoon, so there was only the journey home to get through, and they managed that by discussing the lunch.

At home Nikki was waiting with an eager account of her day. Laura listened attentively, trying not to watch Gino and Alex to see if they were talking. She saw nothing that would have aroused her suspicions normally, but these conditions weren’t normal.

For the first time she knew the bitter destructiveness of jealousy, and wished she could be anywhere in the world but here.

Alex was obviously tired, and as soon as the meal was over Rinaldo suggested that she go to bed, in a peremptory way that was almost an order. She smiled and agreed.

Laura also chose an early night, bidding the brothers goodnight and leaving them together while she went up with Nikki. When she had seen the little girl to bed she returned to her own room and sat by her window, wondering what had happened to her life.

Down below she could hear Gino and Rinaldo talking in Tuscan, their voices sounding contented.

Does Rinaldo know? she wondered. Does he suspect? Is that why he’s so ill-tempered?

After a while the voices stopped and she heard them come upstairs. A click of the latch and Gino was there with her.

‘You’re not in bed yet,’ he said.

‘No, I waited up. I was watching the night. It’s different from England, so much blacker and more velvety.’

He was pulling off his clothes.

‘You’re right. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Have you ever seen anywhere as lovely as Tuscany?’

‘No,’ she said quietly. She was sick at heart.

He’d stripped naked now, and slipped his arms about her.

‘I’m glad you’re still up,’ he said, nuzzling her neck.

‘I waited because I wanted to talk to you,’ she said, trying not to respond to the excitement he could create in her so easily.

‘What is there to talk about?’

‘How can you ask?’ she said. ‘We came here for a reason-to sell the farm.’

‘Mm!’ he said against her hair.

‘You’ve been talking to your brother for days. Haven’t you-decided anything yet?’ It was hard to talk while he was touching her purposefully.

‘It’s not easy to value the place until the harvest is in,’ he murmured. ‘We shall have to stay a little longer for that. I thought you liked Belluna.’

‘It’s a beautiful place but-Gino, please-I must ask you-’

‘Not now,’ he murmured against her neck. ‘I’ve been thinking of this all day.’

Of this, she noted. Not of her.

‘Gino-’

‘Hush, kiss me-kiss me-’

She should be strong and refuse, but his lips were already against hers and she was kissing him whether she meant to or not.

She felt her nightdress slip to the floor and then he was taking her to bed and making love to her with a vigorous ardour that left her no chance to think, or to be aware of anything but the shattering sensation of having him inside her, driving her on to more and more pleasure.

It was only afterwards, when he was deeply asleep on the other side of the bed, and she lay alone and sad, that she wondered whether not giving her a chance to think had been the idea all along.

Laura dreaded the next day when she must smile and talk and try to seem normal, but in the event she was allowed a little merciful solitude. Rinaldo and Gino went to Florence. Alex rested, and Nikki joined her new friends in the kitchen, learning to cook.

Laura took the car that had been placed at her disposal, and drove out to explore the landscape. By a stream she stopped and got out to walk, hoping that her mind might become clearer.

By the time she returned to the vehicle she had recovered her courage. What did they think she was, to sit idly by while they decided her fate and informed her at ‘the right moment’? Was she supposed to be such a fool that a little cynical lovemaking could silence her fears?

She drove back to the house. Rinaldo’s car stood outside, so Gino and Rinaldo must have returned. But when she walked onto the veranda she could see only Gino, sitting with Alex, a grave look on his face.

They both smiled when they saw her, but she could sense their unease.

‘I’ve come to say that I want to go home,’ she said simply. ‘I need to go back to the guest house, and Nikki must return to school. It’s been kind of you to have us-’ she nodded to Alex ‘-but now it’s time for us all to leave-if Gino will come with me.’

She thought she heard Alex murmur, ‘Oh, no,’ as Gino rose to his feet in consternation.