be called.
‘You know,’ Sol said, considering, ‘you didn’t handle it very cleverly last year.’
‘Handle what?’ Carlo asked.
‘Everything. “Marry me now or it’s all off.” I ask you!’
‘She told you about that?’ Carlo asked, horrified.
‘No, of course not. She told Jackie, her secretary. They’re friendly.’
‘And Jackie told you?’
‘Nah, I was eavesdropping.’
‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
‘Dunno. Usually you assume the worst of me on instinct-’
‘Maybe I don’t any more. A lot of things have changed. Go on with what you were saying.’
‘Mum’s as stubborn as a mule. Give her an ultimatum and she’s off in the other direction. You should have played along with her.’
‘Settled for an affair because she thought I was too young?’
‘That was just talk,’ Sol declared, with the wisdom of twenty-one. ‘Once she’d got used to living with you she’d have seen that you were right. When the time came to leave she wouldn’t have been able to. You’d have been married by now.’
The truth of this was so blindingly obvious that Carlo nearly burst out laughing.
‘If anyone had told me that I’d be sitting here taking advice from you,’ he murmured, ‘I’d never have believed them.’
At the gate he clapped Sol on the shoulder.
‘Good luck,’ he said. ‘See you again soon.’
It was Hope who took over the arrangements for the day Della left hospital. When she heard that Carlo planned to take her to his apartment she vetoed the idea without hesitation.
‘That place is on the third floor, and quite unsuitable,’ she declared.
‘There is an elevator, Mamma,’ Carlo observed, but he spoke mildly, for he could see where Hope was leading, and it pleased him.
‘No arguments,’ she said with finality. ‘I have decided. She’s coming home with us. It’s all settled.’
Della had a demonstration of exactly what it meant to be Hope Rinucci when it came to persuading the hospital to let her go early. At first the doctor was dubious, but Hope swept him off to the villa, showed him the ground-floor rooms that were being prepared for the invalid, and emphasised that there would always be people there to care for her.
‘She will never be alone in the house,’ Hope insisted. ‘Not for one moment, even when the nurse has left-for of course I will hire a nurse at the start.’
Della began to see how alike Carlo and his mother were. The same quiet forcefulness was present in both of them.
On the day she left hospital the doctor took Carlo aside.
‘There are things you need to know, signore. She’s better, but her health has been seriously impaired, and it always will be. She had a heart attack immediately after the crash, and she’ll always be vulnerable to another one. If you’re thinking of having children-’
‘No,’ Carlo said at once. ‘I won’t do anything that means the smallest risk for her.’
‘Good. Hopefully that will prolong her life.’
‘But not by much,’ Carlo said quietly. ‘Is that what you mean?’
‘With the greatest care she could have another twenty years. But she’ll always be frail, and it might be less.’
‘Whatever it is, it’ll still be more than I feared.’
‘I’m glad you’re a realist, signore. You’re going to need to be.’
Carlo travelled in the ambulance with her. At the villa she was greeted by Toni and Hope, Ruggiero, Primo and Olympia, and with flowers and messages of goodwill from the others of her new family who could not be there.
They had prepared a home for her, with a room for herself-so well equipped that she might still have been in hospital-a room next door for the nurse, and one nearby for Carlo.
At first they left her alone, knowing that she would need rest more than anything, and she slept for two days before waking to feel better than for a long time.
Now Carlo was with her all the time, even when the nurse was tending her. He watched everything the nurse did, and learned. It was he who got her back on her feet and held her as she struggled to walk again. From a sedentary life she progressed to a walking stick, first clasping him with her free hand, then without him.
‘You’re improving fast,’ he told her. ‘At this rate we can start planning the wedding.’
She sat down, gasping slightly from the effort she had made.
‘Are you really sure you still want to go ahead?’ she asked. ‘It’s such an undertaking-’
‘You mean you don’t think you can face a lifetime with me?’ he asked wickedly.
‘You know what I mean. The cost to you will be much greater now.’
‘I can’t believe that we’re still arguing about this. We settled it long ago. In my heart you are already my wife. Now you will become my wife in the eyes of the world. That’s it. Final. End of subject.’
‘You don’t give me any choice?’
‘It’s taken you so long to realise that?’ he asked, with a touch of his old humour.
‘But one day-’ Della stopped, silenced by the look he gave her.
She’d been going to say that she wouldn’t tie him down. He could divorce her whenever he liked.
‘No,’ he said firmly, following her meaning as if by telepathy. ‘Never say that. Never!’ He kissed her, then spoke more gently.
‘It would be treating me like a boy, one who can’t make his own decisions, and we’ve been down that path before. When we marry it must be for real-and for ever.’
‘But I can’t give you children,’ she reminded him.
‘Then we must love each other all the more.’
They spent many evenings on the terrace, looking out at the night, wrapped in each other’s arms, talking endlessly, discovering each other’s minds. She began to realise how little they had talked in the old days, when their fierce passion had left no time for talk. Now he sometimes seemed afraid to touch her for fear of doing harm.
‘I’m not breakable,’ she told him once, when he had broken off a kiss by sheer will-power. ‘We could go into my room and-’
To calm his nerves he took refuge in clowning. ‘Make love before our wedding night?’ he asked, in mock horror. ‘I’m shocked. Shocked!’
‘Well, perhaps it’s best that you know the truth about me,’ she said, matching his mood.
He seized her wandering hand and spoke in a shaking voice.
‘Will you stop, please? How much self-control do you think I have?’
‘I’m having fun finding out.’
He gave her a hunted look that made her burst out laughing. He joined her, while still gripping her hand out of sheer self-preservation. They made so much noise that Hope came out to see what the commotion was. But beneath the laughter Della saw the seriousness of the man who would never risk her safety, whatever it cost him. And it did cost him, she knew. There were evenings when he parted from her abruptly, lest his strength of will collapse, for his desire for her was as great as ever. She loved him for that, too. But most of all she loved him for what she discovered in his mind, in the long talks they had in the semi-darkness.
Now she could tell him about the path she’d travelled as she lay, unconscious, in hospital.
‘Everything was scary, dark and confusing. But then I heard you talking to me, telling me that everything would be all right because you were my husband, and you’d look after me.’
‘So why did you try to keep me away when you woke up?’
‘Because when I came back to reality everything changed. I knew it had been a wonderful dream, and that I had to be sensible.’
‘Being sensible has always been our curse,’ he observed. ‘It’s time you stopped that bad habit.’
‘I promise never to be sensible again.’
