abandoned his bride she covered her eyes with her hand and swayed. Renato caught her just in time.
‘Lie her down,’ Angie said quickly, tossing her bouquet aside and becoming all doctor. She knelt beside the old woman and felt her heart, frowning.
‘Is it a heart attack?’ Renato asked tensely, kneeling on the other side.
‘I don’t think so, but she needs to get to the hospital.’
His response was to lift his mother in his arms and stride to the door, followed by Bernardo. ‘The hospital is close. We’ll go straight there.’
He raced out to the first of the waiting cars. Angie and Heather took the next one. By the time they reached the hospital Baptista had already been whisked away and the brothers were pacing the corridor.
Beneath Bernardo’s calm she could sense the tension, and she remembered his ambivalent relationship with Baptista, how affection and resentment seemed to be mixed in his feelings for her. She could guess how that must be torturing him now, and she squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him.
Heather looked down at her bridal glory which now seemed like a sick joke. She was pale but very calm as she asked Bernardo to call the Residenza and get Baptista’s maid to bring some day clothes for them. In half an hour the maid arrived and they were able to change.
The two men were allowed in to see Baptista. Then Heather was summoned in, leaving Angie to walk the corridor restlessly, until her friend emerged, looking more desperate than ever.
‘What is it?’ Angie asked, alarmed.
‘I just hoped to get out of here, but Baptista wants me to stay. I had to promise her, she’s so ill. But how do I live in the same house with Renato without telling him how much I hate him?’
Renato, Angie noticed. Not Lorenzo.
Suddenly she wanted Bernardo’s arms around her more than anything in the world.
The Residenza was like a ghost house. The guests had gone, the day was over, and everywhere was in darkness.
Heather had slipped away to be alone, and Angie took refuge in the garden. Until now Baptista’s illness and the need to support her friend had kept her calm and controlled, but now she was more blazingly angry than she’d ever been in her life. She wanted to cry, she wanted to rage against the silver moon that hung so indifferently in the sky. She walked stormily up and down the flagstone paths, bitter against the whole Martelli family.
‘Angie-’ Bernardo’s voice said from the shadows.
She flung him a look and continued pacing.
‘I know what you must feel-how badly you must think of us.’
‘You can’t imagine what I’m thinking,’ she said fiercely. ‘If I had Lorenzo here I’d-I’d-how could he do it? How could he expose her to that? Did you see her face?’
‘Yes, and I’m ashamed for my brother. Don’t think I excuse him.’
‘You couldn’t, could you? Nobody could excuse that cheap, cowardly-’
‘But I think Renato has also been to blame for pushing the marriage too hard.’
‘Oh, yes, that fits!’ Angie said explosively. ‘I’ve never liked Renato. Now I think I hate them both equally.’
‘Darling, don’t pace about like that.’ Trying to calm her, he reached out, but she thrust him aside.
‘Don’t come near me,’ she warned. ‘I’m not safe. I’d like to commit murder. Pacing about is only a substitute.’
He managed to take hold of her, trying to look into her face. She turned bitter, smouldering eyes on him and he was startled. He’d been enchanted by her dainty looks and sunny temper, and impressed by her skills when she tended the little girl. But it hadn’t occurred to him that she had a core of steel.
‘Don’t talk about hating,’ he begged. ‘Not you.’
‘I can’t help it. I’ve never hated anyone before and I don’t know how to stop. Heather’s nothing, isn’t she? Just a stranger from another country who can be treated any old way-’
‘That’s not fair. We’ve welcomed her, made much of her-’
‘And then the whole pack of you gathered together to watch her being humiliated,’ she raged.
He tightened his grip, giving her shoulders a little shake. ‘And so the whole pack of us are tarred with the same brush?’ he demanded harshly. ‘Is that what you’re saying? Do you hate all of us-every one?’
The question brought her up short. She pressed her lips together, trying to keep back tears of anger, and shook her head.
‘Oh, stop being so reasonable,’ she said wretchedly. ‘I’m not thinking straight or talking straight. Don’t take any notice, just-just let me go.’
‘Never in life,’ he said, tightening his arms and bending his head.
At first she stiffened, too angry to be kissed. But his lips had the effect of calming anger, and he wouldn’t let her refuse. He was determined to make her forget everything but himself. ‘Don’t hate me,’ he whispered.
‘I don’t-not you-it’s just-’ Explanations were lost in the excitement that he could induce so easily. What else mattered but this? She clung to him, caring only for the fact that they were here alone together. It seemed so long since the night he’d almost made love to her, and she’d longed for him so much. Now a sweet comfort was beginning to pervade her, as though his very touch could make the world right.
He caressed her face gently. ‘Hush-hush-forget the others. Think only of us. I thought you looked beautiful today.’
‘I hoped you’d like me.’
‘Like? Do you think that’s all I feel for you? There’s so much to say, but I can’t say it here or now. As soon as Baptista’s better I shall return to Montedoro. I want you to come with me.’
‘How can I leave Heather?’
‘Darling, she’s strong. Let her confront the family in her own way. You can’t do it for her. Come with me to the place where we belong together, and there will be only us.’
‘Yes,’ she said joyfully. ‘Oh, yes…’
‘And perhaps when we’re there, I shall manage to say how much I love you. I wonder if there is a way. But I will try.’
‘Tell me now,’ Angie begged.
‘I am not skilled with words,’ he said humbly. ‘I can’t tell you what you are in my life, only that you are my life. You are every part of it. We’ve known each other such a little time, yet I think of you as soon as I wake up in the morning and I go to sleep holding you in my heart. You are there in my dreams. All this and more I will tell you, when we are safe in the place that I long to make our home.’
They slipped quietly back into the house. The lights were low and there was nobody to see them as he led her, hand in hand, up the stairs to her door.
‘I shall stay here tonight,’ he said, ‘and we’ll leave tomorrow early. Goodnight.’ He kissed her gently, but through the gentleness she could feel the tumult inside him, matching her own.
‘Goodnight,’ he whispered again, and left her.
Angie slipped into her own room and found it empty. She wondered where Heather was, and if she should go and look for her, but her friend arrived a moment later. She looked pale and drawn, but composed.
‘Are you all right?’ Angie asked anxiously.
‘Yes, I’m fine really. I’ve been fighting with Renato.’ She sounded numb, as though all feeling had died in her.
‘I suppose there’s only him to fight since Lorenzo took care to get out of range,’ Angie said bitterly.
‘Don’t blame Lorenzo,’ Heather said unexpectedly. ‘I’ve learned a few things from Renato tonight.’ Her eyes kindled. ‘He didn’t like admitting it, but I forced it out of him.’
‘Admitting what?’ Angie asked.
‘It seems that Lorenzo tried to be honest with me days ago. That’s why he came back from Stockholm early, to tell me he was having doubts and wanted to postpone the wedding. And Renato stopped him. Can you believe that? He even told him I’d been jilted before, so of course Lorenzo felt it was his duty to go through with it.’
‘I could strangle Renato,’ Angie said fiercely.
‘Join the queue. If there’s one good thing to come out of this, it’s that I won’t have to be related to him. Oh, I can’t think about it any more tonight. I’m so tired, my mind’s shutting down.’
‘Will you need me tomorrow?’
Heather smiled in quick understanding. ‘No, I’m fine. You spend the day with Bernardo.’ Heather smiled and
