‘I’ll meet you both downstairs in an hour,’ Carlo said, departing.
He used the hour hiring a car large enough to take the three of them. When they emerged from the elevator he hurried forward.
‘I’ve had a call from someone who wants to discuss progress on the dig,’ he told Della. ‘He’s waiting for me at Pompeii now, but he can’t stay long so we have to get moving.’
‘Oh, but-Sol wanted to do a little shopping first-’
‘No time. Sorry. Let’s go.’
Before anyone could argue they were in the car and on their way. Della was a little surprised, but she supposed he needed to see how the work had progressed in his absence. And she appreciated the way he made Sol sit beside himself, and talked to him throughout the journey about the fascinating tasks that awaited them.
Not that Sol seemed to appreciate this as he should. She couldn’t see his face, but she could read his back view without trouble, and her lips twitched.
‘You’re wicked,’ she murmured to Carlo, when they had parked the car and were walking to the site.
‘Just wait,’ he said, grinning. ‘The best is yet to come.’
His team greeted him with riotous cheer, then welcomed Sol warmly. He brightened up when Lea, a young woman in brief shorts and top, smiled at him and said, ‘Have you come to help us? There’s so much digging to be done. Just look at me.’
He did so. Perspiration had caused Lea’s long, elegant legs to shine and her top to cling to her.
‘I guess I wouldn’t mind helping out,’ he said, and found a trowel in his hand before the words were finished.
Carlo put his arm around Della’s shoulder.
‘You and I should go and consider the rest. We need to have serious business discussions.’
As he drew her away Della couldn’t resist one glance over her shoulder.
‘No,’ Carlo said firmly, tightening his arm. ‘He’s all right.’
‘He’ll get fed up in ten minutes.’
‘You do Lea an injustice. An hour at least. Forget him. From now on you belong to me.’
There was only one proper answer to this chauvinistic statement: to point out that as a modern, liberated woman she belonged to no man, and he must respect that. It must have been a moment of weakness that made her rub her cheek against the back of his hand on her shoulder, and say, ‘That sounds lovely.’
They had no chance to spend the morning alone. First Carlo had to talk with the colleague who had asked him to be there early. Then he had to take the reins back into his own hands, and she listened with interest as he gave his instructions, contriving not to make them seem like orders, and generally had everything his own way by the exercise of charm.
It was an impressive performance, and it inspired her to map out this segment of the series.
They had lunch with Sol, who was hot and bothered, and not in the best of tempers.
‘A strong lad like you,’ she teased him.
‘It’s not that,’ he said. ‘It’s just that it’s boring.’
‘Surely not?’ Carlo said. ‘My friends are very pleased with you. In fact, if you want a job they’d be glad to-’
‘I don’t think that’s quite me,’ Sol said hastily. ‘I don’t see myself as an archaeologist.’
‘No, it takes brains,’ Della teased.
‘I’ve got brains,’ he said, offended.
‘Not according to your exam results,’ she reminded him.
‘I’ve told you, there was a mistake.’
‘Then go back to college and take your exams again,’ Carlo urged.
Sol made a face.
Renato, one of Carlo’s colleagues, happened to pass at that moment, and greeted Della cheerfully. Leaning over to talk to him, she turned her back on the other two, giving Carlo the chance to say quietly to Sol, ‘Then think of something else. But think of it quickly before you feel my boot in your rear. Your life is not going to be one long holiday at your mother’s expense. Is that clear?’
Sol glared, but said no more. Seeing that he was thinking the situation through, Carlo left him to it.
Renato sat down to chat, and the conversation became general. Then he touched on some mysterious point relating to the dig, and within seconds he and Carlo had their heads together.
Sol took the chance to say to his mother, ‘I suppose I could always go back to college.’
‘I wish you would,’ she said eagerly.
‘What about the cost?’
‘Hang the cost, if it helps your future.’
‘Then perhaps I’ll go home and get it organised. I think I’ve gone off Naples.’
Della adored her son, but the thought of a little more time alone with Carlo was more than she could resist.
‘That’s a good idea, darling.’
‘What’s a good idea?’ Carlo asked, seeming to become aware of them again.
‘Sol’s going back to college for another year.’
‘That’s great.’
Sol flashed a brief glance at Carlo. Della saw it, also the bland expression that Carlo returned, and some part of the truth came to her.
‘Did I imagine that?’ she demanded of him as they returned to the dig, walking a few feet behind the other two.
‘Imagine what?’
‘You know what,’ she said suspiciously. ‘Don’t you give me that innocent expression when I know you’re as tricky as a sackful of monkeys.’
‘Well, you know me better than anyone else.’
‘You fixed it, didn’t you?’ she accused. ‘You’ve been pulling strings all day. First of all you bored him to death-’
‘Then I made him do some hard work. Are you mad at me?’
She opened her mouth to tell him that he had no right to interfere between her and Sol, but then a new thought occurred to her.
‘No,’ she conceded thoughtfully. ‘I ought to be, but I’ve been trying to get him to return to college ever since his results came through.’
‘You’ve been trying? But I thought you’d bought his line about looking around?’
‘I pretend to believe a lot of the nonsense Sol talks because I have no choice. What did you do that I can’t?’
‘Scared him with the alternative,’ Carlo said, grinning. ‘He’s a grown man. It’s time he did something decisive instead of always running to Mamma. He’ll be better for it, I promise you.’
‘I know.’
‘Come on, let’s get back to town and make the arrangements before he changes his mind.’
That evening they treated Sol to the best dinner in Naples, and drove him to the airport early next day. On the drive back, Carlo said casually, ‘Now we’ll clear your things out of the hotel and take them home.’
‘Home?’
‘Our home.’
‘I haven’t said I’m moving in with you.’
‘I’m saying it, so quit arguing.’
‘And this man calls himself a hen-pecked mouse,’ she observed, to no one in particular.
‘I promise when we lock that door behind us I’ll be as docile as you like.’
‘Once you’ve got your own way, huh?’
‘That’s about the size of it,’ he said outrageously.
His home was a compact bachelor apartment, three storeys up in a condominium. On two sides were large windows, looking out onto the sea and the volcano. While she was rejoicing in the view Carlo took gentle hold of her from behind.
‘It seems ages since I made love to you,’ he murmured.
