Who's Sorry Now (2008) (19 page)

‘I shall go into the business with you, Papa,’ said nine year old Marta.

Papa smiled at her and tweaked her curls. ‘Then I shall just have to be patient and wait for you to grow up. And what about little Lela who is sitting so quietly beside me. What is it you want to be, my precious?’

Lela hugged him. ‘I want to be with you, Papa.’

Everyone smiled at this simple ambition, but then Marco’s face darkened as again he addressed Luc. ‘Why your father tell his drivers to take their vans on my rounds? He want to kill my business?’

‘Papa,’ Gina cried, appalled by the sudden turn in the conversation.

Luc frowned. ‘I wasn’t aware they were doing that. Would you like me to mention your objections to him? Perhaps the drivers have done this without telling him.’

Papa snorted his disbelief. ‘Your papa no fool. He know what go on.’

‘I’ll speak to him.’

A small silence fell, no one quite knowing what to say. Gina thought it was as if Papa had been gearing himself up for an argument and when his comments were met instead with reason and politeness, all the air went out of him, rather like a punctured balloon. Gina and Luc exchanged a secret smile.

They ate breast of chicken in a delicious tomato and basil sauce and when the meal was over Luc helped to carry the dishes into the kitchen and offered to wash-up, which Carlotta absolutely refused to allow.

‘No, no, this is women’s work. Gina and Carmina will help me.’

The younger children were dispatched to bed while the older ones helped Carlotta clear away and then settled in a corner to read or draw, or continue working on a jig-saw. Papa got out the chess board and challenged Luc to a game. Gina was thrilled, as she interpreted this as some sort of acceptance on her father’s part, if not entirely approval. It was but an opening gambit, however.

Papa came at last to the point. ‘So what are your intentions with regards to my daughter? We worry much about Gina because she is special, not like other girls.’

‘She is special to me too,’ Luc said, and Marco eyed him suspiciously.

‘She has been very sick,’ Momma said, wiping her hands on a tea towel as she came in from the kitchen.

‘Momma!’ Gina cried, ‘
Papa
!’ But neither of her parents were listening.

Luc said, ‘I know, and I’m delighted to see that she is better now.’

‘She still needs special care,’ Marco explained. ‘She gets tired easily. Doing too much, staying out too late, is bad for her.’

‘I understand.’

Gina hated it when they discussed her as if she were an object, as if she weren’t sitting here listening. ‘Luc doesn’t want to hear all of this,’ she protested.

Momma flapped the tea towel to shush her. ‘He must know how things are. You are different from other girls.’

‘Stop saying that! I’m not different, I’m not. I’ve no wish to be different. I can walk, I could earn a living if only you’d let me. I might even learn to dance one day, if someone can teach me.’

Luc smiled as he squeezed her hand. Seated in the far corner of the room, Carmina made a small sound of disgust in her throat. Everyone ignored her.

Papa sternly remarked, ‘And she is good girl. Her momma and me want her to stay that way.’

‘
Papa
!’ Gina was appalled and deeply embarrassed that he should presume to say such a thing.

‘So do I,’ Luc said, sending her a reassuring smile. ‘Gina and I are good friends. Isn’t that enough, for now?’

Papa seemed a little nonplussed by this sensible answer. ‘So you not wish to marry my beautiful daughter?’

Gina cried, ‘
Stop it
, Papa! That’s enough. This is Manchester, not Italy. You don’t ask such questions, not so soon. We just want to see each other, to go out, and would so like your approval.’

Carmina, who had remained silent throughout the entire meal, spoke up at last. ‘He can’t possibly marry Gina.’

They all looked at her, surprised by the fact she had even spoken, as much as at her choice of words.

‘Why could he not?’ Momma wanted to know, since no one else seemed willing to ask.

‘Because I am pregnant with his baby, so Luc will have to marry me.’

Chapter Eighteen

‘You
slept
with her?’

‘No, I didn’t, I swear it,’ Luc insisted, his face scarlet with embarrassment and barely controlled rage.

Papa Bertalone had generously allowed the young couple to slip quietly away to talk, following the uproar resulting from Carmina’s announcement.

‘Momma and I will speak to Carmina. I think you have some explaining of your own to do with Gina.’

The pair were sitting on a folded market trestle amongst the building works by the market hall. Not the place Luc would have chosen to open his heart but Gina refused to walk any further with him.

His worst fears had been realised. Carmina had taken her revenge for his rejection by accusing him of seducing her. And he was not in a good position to deny it. He’d already admitted that they were together in his car, in a tight clinch. How could he prove that he hadn’t gone all the way? He really didn’t know how to cope.

Carmina had carried out her threat. It was her word against his, and why would Gina believe him? Carmina was family.

Now she listened to him white-faced, saying nothing as he reminded her how he’d believed she’d finished with him. He tried to explain how Carmina had attempted to seduce him, but didn’t feel his story came out quite right. The explanation sounded lame and insincere, as if he were making excuses.

‘You swore to me that you’d never even kissed her. Why did you lie?’ Gina asked, the pain in her voice almost more than he could bear.

‘I didn’t want you to be hurt. It was all a mistake, a bad one, but it meant nothing. It wasn’t important. Nothing really happened, I swear it.’ He grasped her hands but she tugged them away.

‘Not important to you perhaps, but it was to Carmina. And is to me.’

‘I hoped you’d never find out. I wish to God you hadn’t. I swear I never wanted her. I don’t care about Carmina, it’s you I want. You know that in your heart, Gina.’

‘So why did you make love to her?’ The question seemed to be torn out of Gina against her will, but Luc’s angry response was instant.

‘I
didn’t
!’

‘Carmina says you did.’

‘Then she’s lying! Why do you believe her and not me?’

‘Because she’s my
sister
!’

Gina couldn’t take any more. She got up and began to walk away, her limp never more pronounced than in this moment of acute distress. Luc rushed after her to grab her by the arms.

‘What can I do to convince you it didn’t happen?’

‘Of course, it happened. She’s
pregnant
, Luc.
Pregnant
! You’re the one who’s lying.’ Panic and misery made her voice sound shrill, even to her own ears. ‘I believed you the first time when she accused you of two-timing me. I can’t believe in you any more. I can’t
ever
forgive you for this.’

She ran from him then, sobbing as if her heart would break. Luc let out a howl of anger and frustration. He set off after her, calling her name but Gina ignored him, only trying to run faster and Luc stopped, realising he was making things worse by chasing after her and he’d no wish for her to fall.

He put his hands to his head as if he would tear his hair from his scalp, the truth of her words finally sinking home. He felt like a man drowning, floundering in deep water, gasping for air. He’d lost her. All his hopes and dreams, his plans for a bright future with the girl he loved were as ash in his mouth. A moment of stupid folly had cost him everything.

Later that same afternoon, Papa Bertalone paid a visit to the Fabrianis to discuss the matter in full, addressing the problem rather as he would a business proposition. Carmina had made her charge against the boy, Marco explained, and how could Luc deny it? Marco pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that he wanted no shame reflected upon his family. Their son had deeply offended two of his daughters; both Carmina and Gina were heartbroken, their young lives in ruins, and reparation must be made. If Carmina was expecting his child then there was only one possible solution: Luc must do the honourable thing and marry her.

The Fabrianis made no difficulties. They agreed with Marco’s view of the situation and assured him that their son would indeed do the honourable thing. He would marry the girl, and with all speed.

Luc protested but the two older men ignored him, leaving him to stand before them white-faced as he was accused of bringing shame upon the entire Italian community. He listened in silent anguish as they made decisions on his future, his mother sobbing into her handkerchief. He tried again to put his side, accusing Carmina of lying out of jealousy, which was true, but his words fell on deaf ears.

‘She’s mad about me for some reason, and I stupidly let her kiss me because I thought I’d lost Gina. I swear I did nothing more.’ He didn’t exactly say Carmina was a slut, but then nobody was listening to him anyway.

‘You will marry the girl and there’s an end to the matter,’ his father told him. ‘And if you are upset over getting the wrong daughter, you should have thought of that before you dropped your trousers. Serve you right, you stupid boy! Perhaps you will think twice in future.’

So much for family sympathy.

Luc ran up to his room, slammed and locked the door behind him. Then sitting on his bed he picked up the photo Gina had once given him, holding it in shaking hands. It showed her leaning against their favourite tree in the park, the wind lifting her short bobbed hair, a glow of happiness in her cheeks. She looked so heartbreakingly lovely he could hardly bear to look at it. In that moment he stopped being brave and became a boy who had just lost the love of his life, and cried.

Carmina was triumphant. It couldn’t have worked out better if she’d planned it herself. The fact that Gina had sobbed her heart out into her pillow all night didn’t trouble her in the slightest. All was fair in love and war, wasn’t that how the old saying went? Besides, hadn’t she suffered too? Carmina thought that she deserved this victory after what she’d been through.

It had taken her days, weeks, to get over the shock of what Alec Hall had done to her. She’d considered reporting him to the police, except that would be far too embarrassing. They’d ask her a lot of personal questions, like why she’d let him kiss her in the first place, why her skirt had been half way up her thighs.

Carmina supposed it was partly her own fault for teasing and flirting with him, although not for a moment had she meant it to go so far. She still couldn’t quite work out how the situation had got so out of control. It wasn’t her fault entirely. She wouldn’t so much have glanced in Alec Hall’s direction had Gina not stolen Luc from her. Her sister was really the one to blame. She’d started this war.
 

Carmina rather liked the sound of that word. War! Because that’s what it was. A battle for the love of one man, and she intended to be the one to win, no matter what weapons she needed to use, what lies she had to tell.

Now Gina was sitting up in bed, her breakfast abandoned on the bedside table.

‘Ooh, aren’t you going to eat that?’ Carmina asked, and picking up a sausage began to nibble on it. ‘Waste not, want not. Anyway, I suppose I’m eating for two now.’

Gina looked at her, her lovely cinnamon eyes filled with tears. ‘You did this deliberately, didn’t you? You knew that I loved him, and that Luc loved me. You just wanted to spoil things for me. I realise now that’s what you most enjoy doing. It’s what you’ve done all my life, pretending to be friendly and sisterly and really being entirely selfish. You positively enjoy taking advantage of my stupid innocence.

‘I remember you wanting to play with my doll because you’d broken yours, then breaking that too. And you’d turn down the corners of my favourite books, even when I asked you not to. Whatever game we were playing you always had to win. Things had to be done
your
way, to suit
you
. It spoiled things for you when I got polio, didn’t it? You couldn’t boss me around any more.

‘Then when you heard I’d been seeing Luc, you were so furious you said he was only going out with me because he’d think me
easy
! You claimed to be trying to protect me, when all the time you were planning to grab him for yourself. This is the meanest trick you’ve ever pulled, Carmina.’

‘You’re right, I did want him. Because he’s
mine
!’ she hissed. ‘Luc belongs to me. I had him before ever you laid eyes on him. Did he tell you
that
?’

If it were possible Gina’s face paled still further, yet what did it matter what had happened before she’d met him? It was the fact he’d been with her sister while supposedly still going out with her, that’s what hurt the most. He’d told Gina that he loved her, yet had
sex
with her sister. Even if it was during a period when he’d wrongly believed Gina had finished with him. How could she ever trust him again? And how could she ever trust Carmina?

‘I know you never gave him that letter, as I asked you. You lied to me about him two-timing me, then made it come true by seducing him yourself.’