more.’
‘No,’ Laura said at once. ‘You’re not wrong. I’ve been thinking the same thing. Before your letter arrived I told him he should come back here. I was so afraid that he’d sell up, then discover too late that it had been a terrible mistake.’
‘Ah, you understand him. I thought you would. You wouldn’t let him make a really bad mistake.’
‘You’re very kind,’ Laura said wryly, ‘but our marriage isn’t-as you think. Did he tell you that I proposed to him?’
‘No,’ Alex said, looking at her strangely. ‘I know that Nikki was a part of your decision, but not that you actually made the proposal. But so what?’ She gave a very Italian shrug.
‘Of course it’s important,’ Laura said, astonished. ‘It’s the wrong way around.’
Alex shrugged again. ‘Marriages happen as they happen. My own marriage was delayed because Rinaldo wouldn’t say he loved me until the harvest was in, and he could pay off the mortgage. Have you ever heard anything so absurd? Then, of course, he got impatient and harvested the grapes too soon, so they weren’t worth so much. Honestly, the foolishness of men!’
‘But I asked Gino to marry me because Nikki wanted him to be her father.’
‘And that’s the only reason? You didn’t love him? Or have you only come to love him since? You’re not going to deny that you do love him, are you?’
‘No,’ Laura said, smiling and shaking her head. ‘Of course I love him. How could any woman help loving him? Oh, sorry-I shouldn’t have said that?’
Alex laughed. ‘It’s all right, I agree with you. I love him dearly. He’s very lovable. But it’s not the kind of love I share with Rinaldo. That comes from another world. Gino is like my younger brother. In fact, he
‘That’s how I saw him,’ Laura mused. ‘Or thought I did. But for me it didn’t work. I think I was in love with him then, although I didn’t know it. By the time I admitted it to myself we were already married, and now I’ll never know how he really feels about me.’
‘You never talk about it?’
‘What is there to talk about?’ Laura asked simply. ‘If you marry without saying you love each other, the subject somehow never comes up again.’
‘And I suppose he didn’t tell you what he said in his letter to Rinaldo?’
‘No.’
‘I think perhaps you ought to know.’ Alex reached into a drawer and pulled out a sheet of blue paper, that Laura recognised as her own. But when she held it out Laura shook her head as soon as she saw the words.
‘I can’t read Italian. And besides-’ she struggled with temptation ‘-should I read Gino’s letter if he doesn’t want me to?’
‘Of course you should,’ Alex said robustly. ‘I’ve no patience with that way of thinking. How would the world ever get by if nobody ever did anything they shouldn’t? I’ll translate for you.’
Laura gave up. In truth she was longing to know what Gino had said about her.
“‘Now I have something to tell you,”’ Alex read, translating as she went. “‘The two of you always said that I would find someone of my own, who would be to me what you are to each other. I didn’t believe you, but it’s happened. Her name is Laura, and if she knew I’d described her in such a way she’d be surprised, and perhaps angry with me. We married a few weeks ago, and they’ve been the happiest weeks of my life, even though I know I’m only second-best to her. The fact is that Laura only married me for the sake of her daughter Nikki, a lovely child, who has adopted me as her father. Laura’s actually in love with another man, but he insulted Nikki so she turned her back on him, and made do with me instead.”’
Laura turned away to hide the emotion on her face. Even to Alex she could not reveal what it did to her to hear what she meant to Gino like this, at a distance.
Second-best? Made do with him? If only he knew!
Alex was still reading.
“‘Bit by bit we’re forming what I hope and believe is a happy marriage, although it may be some time before she accepts me completely. I can be patient, however long it takes, for she is worth waiting for. All my life, if necessary.”’
Alex lowered the letter and looked at Laura.
‘Is he right?’ she asked. ‘Are you in love with another man?’
‘No, of course not. Steve was just-’ Laura made a helpless gesture ‘-we went out for a while, and I would have married him for security. After he’d gone I found I didn’t mind.’
‘Did you ever tell Gino that you don’t mourn this man?’
‘No, we don’t talk about feelings. When I proposed I told him he could have all the freedom he wanted, even girlfriends, as long as he was a good father to Nikki.’
‘Good heavens!’ Alex began to laugh. ‘And you’re surprised that the poor man is confused? I don’t wonder he doesn’t discuss feelings with you. You’ve got him walking on hot coals. He still thinks you’re doing everything for your child.
‘Mind you,’ she added, turning fondly to the cradle, ‘I understand that. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for this little one. I think Gino would understand as well, because he has a father’s heart.’
She gave Laura a special smile. ‘Have you told him?’
‘I-no. I wasn’t sure myself until recently. I’m waiting for the right moment, but I’m not sure when that will ever be. I was hoping for some sign that he loved me-’
‘And you think you haven’t had it? What do you think that letter was all about?’
‘Yes, he implies it in a roundabout sort of way, but he never comes right out and mentions love.’
‘Perhaps that’s hard for him,’ Alex said shrewdly. ‘The last time he told a woman he loved her it was here, at Belluna, in front of a crowd. He went down on one knee and told her of his love. And when he’d done that, she rejected him and married his brother.’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘I should think that declaring love to a woman is the most difficult thing in the world for him, even if he were sure of her feelings. And he isn’t sure about yours at all.’
‘I should have simply told him,’ Laura said, nodding as understanding came to her.
‘So, it’s time to put it right,’ Alex said firmly. ‘You’ll have to try to forgive me, but I’m going to interfere in your life again. I’m afraid I’m just one of nature’s “fixers”.’
Laura regarded her sister-in-law and a slow smile spread over her face.
‘What did you have in mind?’ she asked.
Gino spent the day in Florence attending a meeting of local grape growers. The light was dying as he returned home in the early evening.
‘Gino.’
As he entered the house he looked around for Laura, but it was Alex’s soft voice that reached him from halfway up the stairs.
‘Where’s Laura?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know. Will you do me a favour?’
‘Of course. Just let me see Laura first.’
‘I think she’s out.’
‘Think? Don’t you know? Is she driving around alone? It’s getting dark.’
‘Look for her later. I need you to go over there,’ she pointed to the house facing them on the far side of the valley. ‘I was there today and I left my bag. Please Gino.’
He was too good-natured to refuse her, but he would gladly have done without this.
‘Fine, I’ll go, but I wish I knew where Laura was. I need to talk to her.’
‘I can’t think why,’ Alex said with a touch of irony. ‘You never seem to say anything to the purpose.’
Something strange in her manner got through to him.
‘Alex, what’s going on?’
‘Something that should have been “going on” before. You ought to have told Laura long ago that you loved her, but since you lost your nerve I did it for you.’
