The Italian Millionaire’s Marriage

happy.

Marco too played his part with conviction, slipping an arm beneath her neck and kissing her with a kind of dreamy absorption that she thought must delude anybody. Except her. The slow movement of his lips over hers was sweet, blissful, and the temptation to believe in it was overpowering. She opened her eyes to find his face hovering close, his eyes fixed on her with a kind of astonishment. He was breathing unevenly.

From Elvino came another burst of delight. ‘That’s the spirit,’ he bawled. ‘And now there’s only one thing to do-carry the lady upstairs.’

On the word he lifted Ginetta and began to walk along the terrace, calling, ‘Time for lovers to go to bed,’ over his shoulder.

Marco didn’t hesitate, and the next moment Harriet found herself lifted against his chest. She clung to him dizzily, confused as to how to get her bearings, but not really wanting to.

Elvino reached the top of the stairs first and stopped to wait for them.

‘This is the way to live,’ he said blissfully. ‘Oh, I know that’s not what I used to say, but I’m wiser now. So are you, eh, my boy?’

‘You were always a wise man, Lucci,’ Marco murmured diplomatically.

‘Goodnight, goodnight-’ His voice drifted away along the corridor.

But at the last minute he turned, just as Marco reached Harriet’s bedroom door. The old man’s eyes glinted with fun as Harriet turned the handle and Marco carried her in. She could feel him trembling, as she was herself.

Once inside he set her down and closed the door.

‘You’d better lock it,’ she said in a shaking voice that was half-laughter and half-excitement. ‘I wouldn’t put it past him to bounce in to see if we’re living up to his expectations.’

‘Harriet, please-let me apologise for-everything. I never meant to embarrass you like this-’

‘I’m not embarrassed. I like him. Don’t you?’

‘I don’t know any more. I used to respect him. There wasn’t a shrewder brain anywhere-now I can’t think what’s gotten into him.’

‘No,’ she said wryly. ‘I don’t suppose you can.’

‘He’s always been so sane and level-headed.’

‘Well, maybe he thinks being sane and level-headed is overrated. Marco, he’s happy. Don’t you realise that?’

She smiled, willing him to lighten up.

‘Happy!’ Marco said scathingly.

‘It’s generally considered a good thing to be.’

He began to stride about the room. ‘And what happens when she betrays him?’

‘Maybe she never will. Yes, I’m sure she married for security, but I think she’s got a kind heart. She’s nice to him.’

‘She leads him by the nose, makes him her slave-’

‘No, he makes himself her slave, because he loves her.’

‘That’s one way of putting it.’

‘You don’t think much of love, do you, Marco?’

‘You’re unjust to me,’ he said after a moment. ‘I think love has its place, but I don’t like the kind of infatuation that makes a man behave like an imbecile.’

‘Or woman?’

‘Oh, no! Women are always one jump ahead, as Signora Lucci more than proves.’

‘That’s the most disgusting prejudice I ever heard. Women do make idiots of themselves over men-’

‘You never felt it necessary. It’s one of the things I’ve always admired about you. Your level head. Even that tomfool performance we had to put on out there didn’t faze you.’

‘Shut up!’ she breathed. ‘Shut up, shut up!’ If she had to hear any more of this she would go mad.

‘I apologise if I was being rude-’

‘And stop apologising!’ She took a long breath and pulled herself together. ‘We’re getting off the subject. There’s nothing wrong with acting like an imbecile for the right person. If people really love, they don’t care about that-’

‘God help them then!’ he said violently. ‘And God help Lucci for acting like a fool!’

‘But he’s a happy fool.’

Marco stopped pacing and gave her a strange look. ‘That’s just sentimental talk, Harriet. It sounds good but it means nothing. No fool is really happy, because sooner or later he sees his folly and is ashamed of it. Then he wishes he’d never met her.’

‘You’re wrong about Elvino,’ Harriet said fervently. ‘He’ll never be sorry he met Ginetta because even if he loses his happiness he’ll still have had it. If he was wise, like you think he should be, he’d end up with nothing at all.’

His face was bleak. ‘Better to have nothing than shame and bitterness.’

She sighed. ‘Well, how do you choose between them? The man who believes in someone he loves, even if it makes him a little absurd, or the man who won’t let himself believe in anyone? Who’s the real fool, I wonder?’

He gave a hard little laugh. ‘You mean me, don’t you? Stop trying to analyse me, Harriet, you don’t know enough.’

‘Then tell me the rest,’ she pleaded.

‘It’s not important,’ he said impatiently. ‘I am as I am. I can’t change now.’

‘That’s the sad part. You have just so much to give, and no more.’

He went a little pale. ‘I give all I can.’

‘I know. But it isn’t very much, is it?’

He was silent for a long moment, turning away to the window. When he turned back he said, ‘You think badly of me because I don’t fall over myself to endorse Lucci’s idiocy. Well, consider this. He brought me here to help him hand over half his fortune to that little gold-digger.’

‘She’s his wife and she’s making him happy,’ Harriet said desperately. She felt as if she was banging her head against stone. Like his heart.

‘He has four children who are going to lose half of their inheritance, only they don’t know it yet. The lawyer’s coming tomorrow, and he and I between us are supposed to connive at this disgrace. Plus I’ve broken a professional confidence by telling you.’

‘You can trust me.’

‘I never doubted that for a moment.’

It was lucky he’d turned back to the window or he might have seen the painful look that crossed her face. Her fiance trusted her with his professional secrets. From a man with such a strong code of ethics it was high praise, but not the kind she longed for.

‘It’s late,’ she said sadly. ‘And I’m tired.’

‘Then I won’t keep you up any longer.’ He opened the connecting door. ‘Don’t forget to lock this behind me,’ he said with an attempt at lightness.

She matched his tone. ‘Do I need to?’

‘I wouldn’t put it past Lucci to send an army in here to make sure I “do my duty”. Goodnight, Harriet.’

She undressed and lay in the darkness, every inch of her aware and aching with longing. Elvino’s romantic insistence on love at all costs had left her fired up, ready for something to happen.

Tonight she and Marco had talked of one thing while seeming to talk about another and the end of it was that she was no closer to him in any way that mattered. Just in one way.

You two fancy each other like crazy.

It was almost funny that Ginetta had spotted the strong physical attraction that she felt for him and that he, she was sure, felt for her. He couldn’t love her but he wanted her. If he had his free choice now he would come to her bed.

But he had no free choice. He’d blocked it off with promises. He was a man of his word, and would resist what he saw as a weakness.