Lucy Gordon - A Family For Keeps

'Yes, she told me. She also said that your sister kept rescuing it. She seems to have defended my right to be part of my daughter's life, despite everything he did to blacken me.'

'He cast you in a bad light whenever he could. I suppose he had to, in order to explain why he had no contact with your family. But, as you say, Bianca defended you.'

He stopped quickly as Rosa came back to say that Carlo was sleeping. She spent the next hour going through the books Julia had bought her, showing them to Vincenzo and carefully explaining any points that he might find too difficult to understand. Julia watched him with fascination, liking the way he didn't talk down to the child.

After that Carlo woke up and they all played magnetic fishing. Carlo went at it with great energy and crowed with delight whether he succeeded or not. Vincenzo was unaccountably clumsy, while Julia and Rosa, both equally dextrous, went head to head in a hard-fought challenge.

'I think that's a draw,' Vincenzo said at last through his laughter as the two competitors solemnly shook hands.

The phone rang. Yawning, he answered it.

'Gemma! Are you having a good day? Oh, I see-yes, it's a tough situation-you'd better stay. Don't worry, I can manage. I'll just take my orders from Rosa. Ciao.'

He hung up. 'Gemma's elderly mother is feeling poorly and she wants to stay there tonight.'

'Lovely!' Rosa bounced with joy. 'Now Julia can stay with us. I'll make up the bed in Gemma's room.'

'Rosa,' Vincenzo said hastily, 'you're supposed to ask our guest what she wants to do, not just mow her down with a bulldozer.'

Rosa turned astonished eyes on Julia. 'But you do want to stay, don't you?' she asked in a puzzled voice. 'I mean, you don't really want to walk home alone in the cold and dark.'

'She wouldn't be alone,' Vincenzo said. 'I'd walk with her.'

'No way,' Julia said. 'You can't leave Rosa and Carlo here alone.'

'No, I can't, can I?' he realised.

'You see?' Rosa said triumphantly. 'And you don't want to do that walk alone, do you? Because it's terribly cold and terribly dark and you might fall into the water and you wouldn't like that.'

'I might even get lost and that would never do. It's very kind of you to ask me.'

'That's all right, then.' Rosa bustled away.

Julia choked with laughter, barely able to meet Vincenzo's eye.

'It looks like you're stuck with me,' she said.

'Oh, we've both been given our orders. She's a very assertive little character.'

'She always was,' Julia remembered. 'Even when she was Carlo's age she was strong-willed.'

'I wonder where she gets that from,' Vincenzo said wryly.

'No, you don't. You think you know.'

He grinned. 'It may have crossed my mind.'

'I'd better go and help Rosa.'

Together they put fresh linen on the bed in the snug little room. The look Rosa gave Julia was brim-full of delight.

We could be a family, she thought as they settled down for tea. I'm dreaming and if I pinch myself I'll wake up. But I don't want to.

Nothing happened to spoil it. A lull fell on the evening and they watched cartoons on television until it was bedtime.

Rosa departed with Carlo, then came back in her pyjamas.

'Carlo wants you to say goodnight to him,' she said, taking Julia's hand.

But they found him already asleep. Despite her efforts she felt her eyes blur as time shifted back to another dimly lit bedroom, another two-year-old, sleeping in perfect trust and confidence.

'Goodnight, my darling,' she whispered, leaning down to kiss his cheek. Suddenly she couldn't resist adding the words she had always said, all those years ago. 'Angels keep you.'

'What did you say?' Rosa asked quickly. 'It sounded like English.'

'Yes, it was English. I don't suppose you understand that, do you?'

'Not very well, but I've started English lessons at school. The teacher says I'm the best in the class.'

Of course you are, she thought, because English was your first language. At two and a half you knew three hundred words, and the last words you cried out to me were in English.

Rosa hopped into bed and held out her arms. Julia hugged her fiercely.

'Say it to me too,' Rosa begged as she lay down to be tucked in.

' Buonanotte , mia cara. Speroche gli angeli ti custo-discano. '

'No, like you did before, in English.'

'Goodnight, my darling. May the angels keep you.' She kissed her child, and sat there holding her hand until Rosa went to sleep. Even then she sat there, brooding, full of joy and sadness.

At last she backed quietly out of the room, and closed the door.

As she returned to the main room she could hear the phone ringing again, and then Vincenzo speaking in an angry, impatient voice.

'Look, don't call me at home, and especially during Epiphany. Don't you people have any families? I've told you before, the answer's no, and it's going to stay no. Goodbye!'

He hung up firmly.

'Well, that's telling them,' Julia said, going in and settling herself comfortably on the sofa.

'Someone wanting to buy the palazzo for a hotel,' he growled. 'It's like trying to swat flies. Kill one and there's a dozen others.'

'Piero once told me that you were dead set against it.'

'That's putting it very mildly indeed.'

'It's a pity. It would make a wonderful hotel.'

'Are you out of your mind? Sell my home?'

'Of course not. You turn it into a hotel.'

'Using what for money?'

'You get investors. Why not? Look at the Danieli. It started its life as a palazzo, in the fourteenth century.'

'That's true.'

'Put yours to use. Bring it back to life. Isn't that better than letting it fall into ruin?'

'It's already doing that.'

'So put a stop to it now. There's still time to restore it before things get worse.'

'Ah, now I see. You're touting for business. Mind you-it's an idea.'

'I don't know why you've never thought of it before.'

'Because I'm the world's worst businessman. All I saw was fending off the sharks who thought I was desperate enough to sell at a knock-down price. I just wanted to make enough money from the restaurant to keep my head above water, but that's not enough, long term.'

'No, and the best way to beat the sharks is to steal their ideas. You'll have your home back, not as it was, but more than you have now.'

'People don't live like that any more,' he mused. 'Not in the modern world. They either go into business, or the place goes under.' He smiled. 'Maybe it floods when there's nobody there to protect it.'

She nodded, smiling back at him.

'I'm getting dangerously light-headed,' he mused. 'You're filling me with crazy ideas and they're beginning to sound sensible.'

'Of course. I'll be your first backer.'

'Have you got any money to invest?'

'Not money. These.' She held up her hands. 'I'll renovate the frescoes for nothing, and that will be my stake. You'll have to do the place up and get some suitable furniture. It might be best to open it a wing at a time, and move the restaurant in there almost at once.'

'And what about the pictures that were sold?' he demanded. 'Even with investment I couldn't buy them back. Or do we open with bare patches on the walls?'

'Of course not. You put up copies, which is what you'd have to do even if you had the originals. The insurance company would insist.'

'And you're going to knock me out some copies, are you?'

'Certainly. I do a mean Veronese, and my Rembrandt is even better, although I must admit my Michelangelo isn't so hot.'

'Your-?'

'But we can put those in a dark corner and people won't notice. And don't forget you still own some pictures, stored upstairs. You can either hang them or use them to raise more cash.'

The words were pouring out now as the excitement of the idea gripped her. For a moment she was all artist and planner. Vincenzo regarded her with wry admiration.