‘Yes, he is,’ Ruggiero declared firmly.
‘Yes, he is,’ Polly said, speaking like a robot. Then she laughed and said, ‘You heard him. I’ve been told what to say.’
‘The idea of you taking orders!’ Hope scoffed, giving her an admiring look.
‘He’ll be all right if he’s careful,’ Polly said.
‘Then we’re going shopping,’ Hope said gleefully. ‘I want to celebrate my new grandson.’
‘By stripping the shops bare?’ Toni enquired with wry amusement.
‘Can you think of a better way of celebrating?’
She, Toni and Polly set off, accompanied by Matteo, as he had now become. Hope was in her element, spending money on toddler clothes, toddler toys, toddler food, turning to Polly for advice and sometimes actually taking it.
‘You’re not offended with me?’ she asked Polly anxiously. ‘I know you’ve always given him the best you could afford-’
‘I’m not offended. He was growing out of most of his stuff anyway, and who wants to pass up the chance of a shopping trip?’
Cheered by this sign of Polly’s good sense, Hope swept her into a dress shop and bought her the basis of a new wardrobe-‘So that I can be really sure you’re not offended.’
‘But I’m not-’
‘Then accept these few things, with my thanks.’
‘Don’t argue,’ Toni begged. ‘Let her have her own way, please!’
‘All right,’ Polly said, understanding him correctly. ‘For your sake.’
They all laughed.
The family was gathering, all eager to inspect the newest Rinucci. Later that day Luke and Minnie arrived from Rome, while Primo and Olympia made a second visit. Once more Matteo was in his element, holding court. In a very short time Matteo became Matti.
Ruggiero arrived to find Olympia holding the child up high while they giggled together. He behaved delightfully, kissing his sisters-in-law, joshing his brothers, and later joining in the family amusement at the sight of his father with his grandson on his lap, an adoring slave.
It was a charming scene, but again Polly knew that he was using it as a screen to hide how little he felt for his son. Once she would have blamed him, but now she understood more clearly. Freda’s rejection had wounded him as much as her death, perhaps more, and for now the child was merely a reminder of that.
When it was Matti’s bedtime Hope came to Polly’s room and assisted. When he was in his cot, she leaned down and kissed him.
‘Buona notte,’ she murmured.
Seeing Ruggiero in the doorway, she beckoned him forward.
‘Kiss him goodnight,’ she urged.
‘Better not disturb him now he’s sleeping,’ he said. ‘I think I’ll go to bed now, Mamma. Goodnight.’
Polly spent the next day at the villa with Hope and Toni, enjoying the sight of their rapport with Matti. Hope had noticed that Ruggiero wasn’t at ease with the child, but it didn’t trouble her greatly.
‘It will take a little time for him to relax about this,’ she said cheerfully. ‘But that’s all right. I’m not in a hurry to see him vanish back to his apartment.’
‘Apartment?’ Polly asked, startled. ‘I thought he lived here.’
‘He does some of the time, but he has his own place in Naples too. All our sons have homes away from us, but they keep their rooms in the villa.’
‘But how will he manage on his own with a child?’ Polly wondered.
‘He can’t. Matti will stay with us at first, and live with Ruggiero later, when he’s grown up enough to do things for himself.’ She added in an under-voice, ‘And when my son has grown up enough to be a father.’
‘That’s not fair,’ Polly said at once. ‘It’s less than a week since he knew she was dead, and he’s grieving for her.’
‘A woman who treated him like that? Polly, have you told him everything yet?’
‘No, he’s not ready. He has suspicions, but nothing he can’t shake off. How can I give him a clear picture of my cousin without also destroying Matti’s mother in Ruggiero’s eyes?’
They were both silent. Then Hope patted her hand.
‘You will find a way. You are a wise woman, and you have all my trust.’
‘And mine,’ said Toni, who didn’t always allow his wife to speak for him.’
The evening meal was early, with Matti sitting on Toni’s lap like a little grandee, lording it over his court. There was no sign of Ruggiero, but as they were all climbing the stairs to put Matti to bed the phone rang. Toni went to answer it, and joined them a few minutes later, saying, ‘Ruggiero won’t be back tonight. After the time he’s had off he says he must work late, so he’ll go to his apartment.’
He didn’t return the next day, or the one after. Polly became more troubled, haunted by the things he’d said to her the night before he’d left, the glimpse she’d had of a tortured mind. She longed to talk to him again-see into his thoughts, help to rid him of his obsession.
Or maybe I just want him to forget her and think of me, she thought with wry realism. Who am I kidding? Not myself, that’s for sure. Freda would be the first person to tell me what I’m really hoping for.
And she did.
That night her cousin came to her, dancing out of the misty darkness.
‘Freda? What are you doing here?’
The vision laughed, swirling her glorious hair so that it was like a halo. She was in a long, floaty dress that swirled about her, and all her beauty had returned.
‘I’m not Freda any more,’ she teased. ‘Freda’s dead.’
‘You’re dead.’
‘No, I’m Sapphire now. Because that’s how he thinks of me, and you’ve started to see me through his eyes.’
‘Go away,’ Polly cried.
‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You want to make him forget me so that you can have him for yourself. But you never will. He’s still mine. He loves me, and there’s nothing you can do about it-nothing-nothing-nothing-’
She was gone.
Suddenly the darkness vanished, dawn light filled the room, and Polly awoke with a shudder to find herself sitting up in bed.
‘It was a dream,’ she gasped. ‘Only a dream.’
She went to the bathroom to splash water on her eyes. The face in the mirror was so superficially like Sapphire’s, yet so cruelly different.
‘She’s dead,’ she told the image firmly. ‘She’s gone for good.’
‘But I haven’t,’ Sapphire whispered in her mind. ‘I’m not dead to him. Why do you think he’s vanished? He wants to be alone with me.’
Suddenly the fear was hard and real, driving Polly out into the corridor and into Ruggiero’s empty room.
A thorough search confirmed her worst suspicions. The photo albums were missing.
The Palazzo Montelio overlooked the Naples docks. Despite its name it wasn’t a palace, but a grandiose edifice, built by a self-important merchant who’d wanted a place where he could keep a constant eye on the boats that provided his wealth. For two centuries his fortunes had flourished, but then declined, so that the building had had to be sold and turned into apartments.
As she made her way slowly up the wide stairs to the second floor Polly wondered again if she was wise to come here. But perhaps it had been inevitable since the moment Hope had called Ruggiero’s firm and discovered that was not there.
‘Not for the last two days,’ she said, looking significantly at Polly. She scribbled something on a scrap of paper. ‘That’s where he lives.’
So now here she was, about to beard the lion in his lair, ready to face his fury at her temerity in hounding him.
But all he said when he opened the door was, ‘What took you so long?’
