Lucy Gordon - Gino’s Arranged Bride

She put down the lamp quickly to go into his arms, and as they held each other tightly she felt the shadow between them finally pass away.

‘There’s so much I wanted to say to you,’ he said, ‘But I could never forget that you only married me for Nikki’s sake.’

‘I thought I did. I had to tell myself something like that, as a kind of protection. I was scared to admit how much I loved you, even to myself. I couldn’t believe that I really meant anything to you.’

He kissed her. ‘You were right when you said that I had to come back. You’re wiser than I. You knew the past had to be dealt with. Even though I loved you, it wouldn’t have been complete without this.’

He took her face between his hands, searching it anxiously. ‘What happens now?’

‘I called England this afternoon, to tell them they can buy the house. We can use the money to put this house in order.’

‘It’s all settled, isn’t it?’

‘It was settled before we arrived. Alex chose this place ages ago, but do you know why? Look.’

She picked up the lamp and went to the window, staring across the valley to where they could see the lights of the house he’d just left. Some of them were on, but there was one darkened room, where he could just see a gleam of light, as though an answering lamp had come on.

‘We’ll always be within sight of each other,’ Laura said. ‘When it’s dark, we can look out and see their lights, and they can see ours. It had to be here and nowhere else.’

She raised the lamp high, moving it back and forth. As Gino watched, incredulous, the pinpoint of light in the far building, also moved back and forth, as though in answer.

‘Who’s doing that?’ he asked.

‘Alex of course,’ she said calmly.

‘You and Alex-friends?’

‘Friends and allies, as sisters ought to be. Look.’

She moved the lamp again, and back through the darkness came the answer, the ancient, unmistakable message, that he’d thought never to find again.

It was the same message that he’d discovered in Laura’s arms, in the circle of her love, and it was wonderfully, overwhelmingly right that it should be she who evoked it for him now, shining across the darkened valley.

All’s well. Welcome home!