pocket, and there’d be a call to you as soon as I arrived. Someone would find out my hotel, and persuade me to return next day-’
‘I had to find a way to lure you here if you didn’t return willingly, and then-Well, it might have taken some time, but in the end you’d have realised that I was right and you belonged with me.’
‘You don’t even see obstacles, do you?’ she demanded. ‘Can I work in this country? Do my qualifications count?’
‘Actually, I’ve been investigating that too. It’s a bit complicated, but it can be done, and I know someone who’ll help.’
‘You’re such a schemer,’ she said tenderly.
‘Nonsense, I just like my own way-about everything-all the time. What’s wrong with that?’
She leaned close so that her hair fell on his face. ‘Did you just make a joke?’
‘I don’t know. Did I?’
‘It had better have been a joke.’
‘Don’t pretend to be alarmed. You do what you like with me, and you know it.’
She laughed and kissed him.
‘I guess Tina was right about you.’
‘She told you I was a softy, didn’t she? I got it out of her in the end. It cost me a few cream buns-and a new doll, and some shoes, and books about her favourite cartoon character, and I forget the rest, but she drove a hard bargain.’
‘Her father’s daughter,’ Alysa mused.
They laughed and embraced, but after a moment she said, ‘I’ll have to go back to England and work out my notice. I can’t just let them down.’
‘I know you won’t do that.’
‘I’ll be here for Christmas, and every weekend until my notice is over.’
‘Just promise to return here finally, and become my wife. I’m a patient man, beloved. I’ve waited for you this long. I can wait a little longer, if I know that you’ll be mine in the end. As you were always meant to be.’
Two days before Christmas Eve the weather turned nasty. Planes were delayed, and those waiting for loved ones lingered anxiously at airports.
‘She should be here by now, Poppa,’ Tina said anxiously, staring out of the window into the black sky.
‘The board says the plane will be late,
‘But she will come, won’t she?’
And just for a moment the little girl was back in time, waiting for her mother’s return, waiting, waiting…
Drago heard the echo and quickly dropped down beside her.
‘Of course she’s coming, darling. It’s only the weather.’
‘But there could be an accident?’
‘No, look up there.’ He pointed up to the sky where lights had just appeared in the distance. ‘There’s a plane coming in now.’
Let it be Alysa’s, he prayed silently. Beside him he could feel that Tina was tense as both of them kept their eyes on the incoming lights.
Down they came, lower and lower, until the plane touched the ground, screaming away down the runway, out of sight until it could turn and taxi back.
‘Poppa, look!’
Tina was pointing up at the board where against the London flight the red ‘delayed’ had changed to the green of ‘landed’.
‘She’s here, she’s here!’ Tina was dancing with excitement.
Drago grinned broadly, wishing he could join her.
They hurried to the barrier to greet her, and at the first glimpse Tina rushed away, hauling her father after her.
‘You’re home, you’re home!’ she squealed.
‘Yes,’ she said softly, her eyes on Drago. ‘I’m home.’
Drago’s driver had almost gone to sleep waiting, but he roused and greeted her with a wave as they exited the airport hand in hand.
They all sat in the back of the car. Alysa took Tina onto her lap, wrapping her in her arms while the little girl babbled happily on their way to the villa.
‘Look, it’s snowing really hard.’
‘So I see,’ Alysa said, gazing out of the window to where the white flakes filled the air. ‘I’m glad that waited until I landed.’
‘Was it a bumpy flight?’ Drago asked.
‘A bit, and I’m not a good flyer. But I just kept thinking about what was waiting for me here-both of you, and the future we’ll all have.’ She met Drago’s eyes again. ‘The journey can be easy if you know what journey’s end will be.’
She knew, because Drago had told her in a phone call two days ago, that this journey’s end would include a meeting with the head of a local accountancy firm who had ‘matters to discuss’ with her. She was looking forward to that. Brian had been more reasonable than she’d dared to hope, and her release might be in as soon as six weeks. For this the ambitious Frank could take some credit, having avidly scooped up her clients in a way that had reminded Alysa of herself as she had once been.
The other person who would be waiting for her in the villa was Elena.
‘I promised her that she wouldn’t be shut out,’ Drago had explained on the phone.
‘And this is the perfect time to prove it,’ she’d agreed.
‘The thing is, she doesn’t seem able to accept reassurance from me. It has to be you.’
‘How is Tina with her? Does she seem frightened after what happened?’
‘Strangely enough, no. I explained to her that Nonna wasn’t well because she was so unhappy about Carlotta, and Tina understood at once. Now, as well as mothering me, she mothers Elena. Give her half a chance, she’ll start mothering you.’
Now, as they drove up to the villa, Alysa could see Elena’s pale, anxious face looking through a window, and she knew what she had to do-not only for Elena, but for Tina, who was watching closely.
So she burst into the house with a happy smile on her face, her arms thrown wide in greeting, and had her reward in Elena’s look of passionate relief as they hugged each other. There was no more to be said.
‘Now it’s time you were in bed,’ Drago told Tina.
‘Please, Poppa, let me show Alysa the crib first?’
‘I’d like to see it,’ she said.
It was there, dominating the hall. Unlike the one she’d had two years ago, it was an expensive creation, but there at its heart was the same beauty and simplicity. Mary sat by the crib, her face radiant and tender as she watched over her child, while Joseph stood just behind, never taking his eyes from the two creatures that were his to love and protect.
‘He’s just been born,’ Tina explained. ‘And Mary is so happy that she has him.’ She added confidingly, ‘Mamma told me that.’
‘And he’s happy too,’ Alysa said softly. ‘Because he has his mother, and they make a family, even though-’ she spoke carefully ‘-he has another family as well. Because you can love more than one person, even more than one mother.’
‘Yes,’ Tina said firmly.
‘Now it’s time for you to go to bed,’ Drago said. ‘We’ve got a big day tomorrow, with lots of shopping to do.’
‘Why don’t you ask Nonna to take you up?’ Alysa said, indicating Elena.
They watched the old woman and the child climbing the stairs together, contented again in each other’s company.
‘I was afraid Tina might not be able to accept me,’ Alysa said in wonder. ‘But she did, from the first
