Not Just a Convenient Marriage (7 page)

‘Charlie’s growing up,’ she protested. ‘He’ll soon be able to defend himself.’

‘Soon? Like in about ten years? If he stays here with us I’ll give him a job and make sure someone is always watching over him. He’ll live with us, and be safe. Can you make him safe in any other way?’

‘No,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t, but—but can we base a marriage on that alone?’

There was a challenge in his eyes, silently reminding her how she’d trembled in his arms.

‘We can make it work—if we want to. I give you my word that I’ll be faithful. If I make a bargain I keep it to the limit. No wriggling out of it.’

‘A good businessman,’ she murmured.

‘It’s amazing how often the rules of good business work well in life,’ he said. ‘You’re an accountant—you should know that as well as I do. If someone is reliable and trustworthy when handling your financial affairs they’ll be reliable and trustworthy in other ways too.’

Part of her was pulling back, but another part was ready to agree as long as she could find her place in his arms. Indecision wrenched at her. If only, she thought, there could be a blinding revelation to help her.

But there would be no revelation. She and she alone could make this choice. Damiano had reminded her that she was a businesswoman with a clear-eyed view of life. But suddenly her view was blurred and she was torn in many directions. How could she choose?

The path stretched ahead of her, winding and twisting, promising, threatening, warning, tempting. And always at the end of it stood Damiano, his arms reaching for her.

‘Say yes,’ he told her.

‘I—I don’t know—’

‘Say you’ll marry me. Say it, Sally. You know that you must.’

‘I—I don’t—I can’t—’

‘Sally,
Sally.
’

The urgent cry from upstairs made them look up to see Pietro at the top of the stairs.

‘It’s your cell phone,’ he called. ‘I can hear it ringing in your room.’

‘Thank you, I’m coming.’

‘Let it ring,’ Damiano said.

‘No, I have to answer it.’

She didn’t have to, but suddenly she needed to escape him with his power to fill her with confusion. She ran up the stairs and into her bedroom where her cell phone was shrilling. She answered and heard a male voice.

‘Sally, it’s me, Jim.’

Jim was the friend who’d alerted her to the job she’d applied for back in England. At any other time she would have been thrilled to hear from him.

‘Jim, I’m sorry but just now—’

‘Just listen, it’s urgent. I’ve got good news. The job’s practically yours. I overheard the boss talking, and you’re the top candidate. I don’t know why you had to take off just now, but you should get yourself back here fast.’

‘I can’t—’

‘You’ve got to. This is your big chance. Get on the first plane out of there.’

She drew a long, shaking breath, turning her head to look at Damiano, who was standing in the door, watching her.

‘I can’t,’ she repeated.

‘For pity’s sake, why not?’

‘Because—because—I’m thinking of getting married.’ The words seemed to emerge of their own accord, drawn out of her by the intensity of Damiano’s expression as he looked at her.

‘Jim? Are you still there?’

‘Yes, trying to believe what I’ve just heard. You? Married?’

‘Does it sound so incredible that I should marry?’

‘It does when you’ve got a great future here. This is one of the most important firms in London and they really want you. You could end up a partner. It’s the big break you’ve always wanted.’

‘Yes,’ she said slowly.

‘Sally, this is the chance of a lifetime, and if you pass it up it will never come again.’

Chance of a lifetime,
said the voice in her head.
Never come again.

‘Sally, do you understand? This is it. The big moment. Seize it, or you’ll regret it for ever.’

‘For ever,’ she murmured.

Damiano was still watching her. Their eyes met. The silence seemed to sing about her, echoing throughout the world.

‘Sally, are you still there?’ Jim’s voice was sharp.

‘Yes, I’m still here. And I—I have to tell you—that I’m staying here. Goodbye.’

As she set down the phone Damiano laid his hands on her shoulders.

‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ he said.

‘Neither was I. It just suddenly seemed—inevitable. I don’t know why.’

She had been taken over by another self, with a will that was stronger than hers. And there was no way she could fight this other creature, because she knew in her heart that it was herself; another aspect of her inner nature, yet still herself. It wore a different mask, but the eyes that gazed on a world grown suddenly confusing were her own.

‘I don’t know why,’ she repeated softly.

‘I do. Because it
is
inevitable. Don’t pretend not to understand. We were in tune with each other from the moment we met. You fitted in, with Pietro, with me, with everything. Can you deny it?’

‘No,’ she said slowly. ‘I can’t deny it. That first evening—it was as though we could read each other’s mind.’

‘And we could.’

‘About some things, not everything.’

‘Well, you know I’m a conniving character. But you’ll always manage to get one step ahead. I’m more afraid of you than you ever will be of me.’

She stepped back and regarded him with her head on one side. ‘That sounds like a pretty good basis for marriage. I reckon I can take the risk.’

‘Good. And I do have one virtue. I’m a man of my word. You’ll gain from this marriage, I promise.’

‘I believe you.’

He leaned towards her and she braced herself for the passionate kiss that was inevitable now. But his lips brushed her cheek for only a moment before he stepped back.

‘We have a long road to travel,’ he said quietly. ‘And we need to take our time. There are things that can wait until you are ready.’

She understood his meaning. There would be no passion between them until she was safely in his possession. And perhaps he was right, she thought. His touch could excite her more than she wanted to admit, but she would be cautious and keep that to herself. He had predicted that she could get one step ahead of him, and he was more right than he knew. She made a mental note to keep things that way. At least for now.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A
S
LONG
AS
she lived she would remember the sight of Pietro’s face when Damiano said, ‘How would you like it if Sally stayed with us for ever?’

For the moment the boy’s expression was blank. ‘For ever?’ he echoed, as though trying to understand what the word meant. ‘For ever?’

Of course he doubted, she thought. He dreaded to be abandoned again.

‘For ever?’ he repeated.

Damiano nodded in her direction. ‘Ask her.’

She dropped to one knee so that she could look Pietro in the eye.

‘I’m staying,’ she said, ‘for as long as you want me.’

‘But that’s for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.’

‘Then that’s how long I’m staying.’

He gazed in disbelief. ‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘And—you’ll be—my mother?’

‘If that’s what you want.’

‘We’re getting married,’ Damiano said.

Pietro’s shriek of delight hit the ceiling and the next moment he’d flung his arms around Sally’s neck, squeezing her so tightly that she gasped. She hugged him back, filled with pleasure at his welcome.

Then her joy was doubled when Damiano dropped to one knee, wrapping his arms about them both. For a moment the three of them stayed like that, locked together like the family they wanted to be. From his expression Sally knew that she’d given him exactly what he wanted. As if to confirm it he mouthed, ‘Thank you.’

‘When’s the wedding?’ Pietro demanded as the three of them eased apart. ‘Tomorrow?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ Damiano said.

‘Oh, please, let’s have it tomorrow.’

‘We have to get through some formalities first. Sally’s English and we must get paperwork from England. But don’t worry. She’s ours now, and we won’t let her go.’

Pietro nodded. ‘Ours,’ he said. ‘All ours.’

‘All yours,’ Sally said fondly. ‘And Toby’s, of course.’

‘Yes, yes, yes, I’ll go and tell him. Toby—
Toby!’

When Pietro had scampered away she said, ‘It’s lovely to see him so glad. But what do I have to do about papers?’

‘You need to produce your English birth certificate, and a document stating that you’re free to marry. They’ll be taken to the nearest Italian Embassy to be translated and sent to us.’

‘So much to do? Goodness, I must go back to England at once, and see to all this.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Damiano said. ‘I have a lawyer in London who can take care of everything.’

‘But—’

‘I said no. There’s a lot for you to do here.’

She groaned. ‘I see what it is. You think I won’t come back. Do you trust me so little?’

‘I trust you completely. I know you mean to come back, but something might happen while you’re over there to make you stay. Look.’ He pointed out of the window to where Pietro was in the garden, talking excitedly to Toby.

‘I’ve never seen him so happy,’ he said. ‘I’ll do what I must to keep him that way. If you return to England he’ll be afraid, even if I tell him you’re coming back. I won’t put him through that.’ He gazed at her intensely. ‘Would you?’

‘No,’ she sighed. ‘I hadn’t thought of it that way.’

‘Give me the details and I’ll contact England now.’

After that things moved fast. He emailed his English lawyer, who called back that night to say the paperwork was in hand and he would bring it personally.

‘Then we’ll go to the local Civil State Office, and ask them to publish the banns,’ Damiano told her. ‘After another few days we’ll be free to marry.’

‘All this delay and formality just because I’m English,’ she mused.

‘But of course,’ Damiano said. ‘You’re a deeply suspicious character. I’ve always known that.’

‘Then I’m surprised you bother with me.’

‘Ah, well, that’s my problem. I have a weakness for suspicious characters.’

‘Me too. So much more interesting than the other sort.’

They laughed together, and she knew a feeling of warmth and pleasure. The future looked hopeful.

In two days the lawyer arrived from London with the paperwork and the formalities were completed. A date for the ceremony was settled, two days before the end of Carnival. It would take place in the wedding suite of the Palazzo Leonese.

‘You’ll need some new clothes,’ Damiano observed. ‘The hotel dress shop will take care of all your needs. Don’t worry about the bill.’

She found Helena, the manageress, ready with a supply of elegant clothes, one of which was clearly a wedding dress of pale cream satin. The sight of herself wearing it took her breath away.

So Cinderella can go to the ball, she thought. But what happens when midnight strikes?

She remembered how Damiano had annulled his marriage. Clearly Imelda had brought it on herself, but Mario’s words, ‘It was like he wiped her out of existence,’ rang ominously.

Fulfil Damiano’s desires and he would treat you with a warmth and charm that could overwhelm you. Offend him and you would cease to exist.

But then she looked back into the mirror at the new self she was becoming, a self she had never dared hope that she could be, and everything else was forgotten.

‘Beautiful,’ Helena said. ‘Now you need another gown for the celebratory ball.’

She tried on three, walking back and forth before the mirrors. One had an innocent but fashionable simplicity. One was plainly cut, suggesting a woman of severe intelligence. Another was flamboyant, low in the bosom, daring, completely unlike the way she usually saw herself.

‘I’ll take this one,’ she said.

‘Good for you,’ said a voice behind her.

She turned and saw Charlie.

‘Thought I’d come and see how you were doing,’ he said. ‘Do they do men’s clothes here as well?’

‘Certainly,’ said Helena. ‘If you will come this way.’

It was no surprise when Charlie made a large choice. He looked handsome in everything, especially the suit he would wear to give her away.

‘How much is it?’ she murmured to him.

‘I didn’t ask. Damiano’s paying.’

‘Of course,’ she sighed. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

‘I can’t imagine,’ he said with an impish grin. ‘You’ve had a fantastic piece of luck, so make the most of it.’

Fantastic piece of luck, she thought. Is that what it is? If all I cared about was money I suppose it would be luck, but—but—oh, I wish I knew what to think.

When they had finished Helena showed them the bill, the size of which almost made Sally dizzy. But she signed it. Even her own actions didn’t seem in her control these days.

‘Everything will be delivered tomorrow morning,’ Helena announced.

‘Can’t I take anything with me now?’ Sally asked. ‘The house is just next door and Damiano might want to see them.’

‘No, make him wait,’ Charlie said. ‘When a man’s that crazy about you it’s best to play hard to get.’

Crazy about you.
The words sang ironically in her ears.

It was what the world would think, but Damiano wasn’t crazy about her.

Well, I’m not crazy about him, she thought defiantly. So that makes everything all right
.

Damiano was out when they went home. He arrived an hour later. She hurried to meet him so that they could talk without Charlie.

‘Did it go well?’ he asked. ‘Did you find what you wanted?’

‘Yes, thank you. Here’s the bill. It’s much larger than I wanted it to be. I didn’t know that Charlie—’

‘I told him to go and get something for himself. We don’t want him at our wedding looking like a down and out.’

‘I suppose so, but look at the amount. He said you were paying.’

‘Naturally, but in a couple of days you’ll have all you need in your own bank account.’

‘I don’t have one here.’

‘You do now. Here.’

He handed her a bunch of papers, which she examined, first with a smile, then with a gasp of horror.

Damiano had not only opened an account, he’d deposited a large amount of money.

‘What’s the matter,’ he asked, seeing her dismay. ‘Isn’t it enough?’

‘Enough? It’s far too much. I never asked you for money.’

‘That’s irrelevant. A man naturally makes his wife an allowance.’

‘I have money of my own, which I shall be bringing from England.’

‘Good. But I consider myself indebted to you, and I pay my debts.’

‘Which you will do by protecting Charlie. I don’t want your money. I shall transfer it back to you.’

‘And I shall tell the bank not to move it,’ he said, sounding exasperated.

‘Thus making a fool of me.’

‘Not nearly as big a fool as you’d make of me if you refuse to take anything from me. That lump sum is my wedding gift. After that I shall make a monthly payment. Don’t you realise that if you refuse it the gossip will be all around Venice in no time? How will that make me look?’

‘Does your reputation depend on giving money to me?’

‘It depends on my behaviour, my strength, my dignity. All of which you seem determined to smear with mud.’

‘And what about my reputation?’

‘I’m behaving with the propriety a groom is expected to show his bride. You haven’t forgotten that you will be my bride, have you?’

‘Well—in a way I will—’

‘In every way. We will meet in the chapel and solemnly swear devotion to each other for the rest of our lives.’

From any other man this could be a declaration of love. But love had nothing to do with it, she knew.

Her head was spinning with ideas she didn’t understand, something that happened very often in Damiano’s company.

‘Why does this make you angry?’ he asked. ‘From any other man you’d call it generosity, but from me it makes you suspicious. Why? Did you think I’d try to imprison you by keeping you poor?’

‘No, but—well, I didn’t think you’d make it so easy for me to cheat you. With an amount like that I could make a run for it.’

‘But you won’t. Keeping you poor would have been fatal. You’d have been brooding about escape all the time.’

Instead, the knowledge that she could afford to leave whenever she liked would keep her here. He had understood her perfectly.

‘I told you,’ he said. ‘I make a fair bargain and I keep it. I respect you enough to believe that you’ll do the same.’

‘Of c-course—thank you,’ she stammered.

His words had touched a nerve. By behaving generously he’d made her as much his prisoner as if he’d locked the door. Just another instance of his shrewd and controlling nature.

He still looked doubtful but was too wise to pursue it.

He left her to go to his office, almost as though wanting to escape her. She found that Charlie had gone out again, so she went to her own room and sat studying the papers from the bank. Not for the first time she wondered what she was getting herself into. She was behaving differently, quite unlike herself.

At least, my usual self, she thought. I wonder where the other one is taking me.

After a while Charlie’s face appeared around the door.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘What have you been up to?’

He came in. ‘Mario’s been showing me around. He’s a great guy, knows all the places.’

‘All the naughty places, you mean?’

‘One or two. But he wouldn’t take me inside in case it annoyed his brother. I told him Damiano would never know. But he says Damiano knows everything. One of those dubious places actually belongs to him.’

‘But Mario still wouldn’t take you in?’

‘That’s right. Said Damiano would hit the roof. Boy is that man a control freak! You’d better watch out when you’re married to him. It’ll be “Come here, go there. Do this, do that.” He’ll keep you short of money so that...’

His voice trailed off as he saw the papers on the table. ‘What’s this?’

‘He’s arranged a bank account for me.’

‘And he’s giving you this much?
Oh, brother, you’ve really got him under your spell, haven’t you?’

‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ she said angrily. ‘He’s not in love with me any more than I am with him. It’s for Pietro’s sake, and this is his way of being fair to me.’

‘Fair? Look, Sal, you don’t have to stay here. You could take this money and run. Or is he tying it up so that you can’t?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘He’s left me with complete freedom. He’s an honourable man who deals fairly. He knows I won’t take the money and run.’

‘So you’ll stay here and get some more out of him. I’ll bet there’s plenty still to come.’

‘Get out,’ she snapped, furious at his vulgar twist on the situation. ‘I’m sick of you twisting everything to put Damiano in a bad light, so that you can justify your own selfishness.’

Charlie went to the door but before leaving he looked back at her with an ironic smirk.

‘He’s really got you just where he wants you, hasn’t he?’

Reading terrible retribution in her face, he left quickly before she could throw something at him. His determination to think only the worst of Damiano roused in her a protective instinct that she hadn’t known she had.

Why does he do it? she raged silently. Damiano’s better than that. And he’s worth far, far more.

He brought it on himself, she realised, by hiding his warmer feelings from the world. But not from her. With others his severe mask was kept in place virtually all the time. With her he sometimes let it slip, even if only briefly, suggesting the possibility of other masks, gentler, more attractive; masks that he might wear for a while before taking shelter again. Or that he might cast aside to reveal something deeper, even more intriguing.

That might happen with herself. Or it might never happen.

‘I wonder,’ she whispered. ‘I wonder.’

* * *

Damiano had another surprise for her. For three hours he vanished with Mario and Charlie, returning later to reveal that they had spent the time in the hotel.

‘The Leonese manager is leaving,’ he said as they shared a drink by the canal. ‘I’ve asked Mario to take over for a while. He’s run places for me before and he has a talent for it. We’ve been around today, with Charlie. I think Charlie might well find a place there. He met the staff and I must admit that he charmed them. He could well have a future in hotel management.’