There was a grunt from the cot.
She felt the breath go out of him. He tensed and looked up. The little cry came again.
The moment was over. She rose and went to Matti, not lifting him but leaning over and stroking his cheek until he quietened down.
Ruggiero watched them for a moment, then slipped quietly out of the room without speaking.
Polly awoke to find herself alone and the crib empty. Looking out of the window, she saw Hope and Minnie down in the garden, taking it in turns to spoon breakfast into Matti’s mouth.
She was glad of the chance to think. Last night ideas and sensations had chased themselves around her brain in an endless circle that started and finished in the same place-with the feel of his lips on hers.
Out of it all only one thing was clear. Twice she’d come to the edge of betraying herself, and now she must recover lost ground. The chaos inside her must remain her secret.
By the time she went down for breakfast she had her mask securely in place. But it was needless. There was no sign of him.
‘There you are,’ Hope called, coming in from the garden. She was followed by Minnie, carrying the child.
‘I crept in to take him so that you could sleep longer,’ she said.
‘Yes, I saw you out of the window.’
They settled on the terrace with coffee and rolls. Matti was completely recovered, shouting cheerfully at the top of his voice.
‘Are you all right?’ Hope wanted to know.
‘Yes, I’m sorry for all the commotion.’
‘Don’t apologise. I just hope Ruggiero looked after you properly.’
‘Oh, yes, he did.’ After a moment she’d recovered her composure enough to say, ‘Is he around?’
‘He left for work. He’ll be back tonight for supper.’
Glad to get away from her, she thought. It would be embarrassing for them to see each other too soon.
Toni appeared and greeted them. Matti waved his arms and made a sound that might, with a little imagination, be understood as, ‘buongiorno’.
‘He’s becoming bilingual already,’ Toni said in delight.
‘When I’ve gone he’ll forget all his English,’ Polly said.
‘Not in this house,’ declared Hope, patting her hand. ‘That I would never allow. But you’re not going for a long time yet. Don’t tell me Brian is causing trouble? Let me talk to him and explain.’
‘Oh, no-he’s fine about everything.’
‘Good, then it’s settled. You’ll stay a while yet.’
It had a pleasant sound. If only she could be sure that Ruggiero hadn’t left early to avoid her.
The suspicion increased that evening, when he was late, arriving halfway through the meal and including her in a general greeting. Afterwards he spent most of his time talking to Luke and Minnie, which was only courteous as they were leaving next day, but Polly couldn’t help feeling that there was another reason.
She wondered if she was getting paranoid. It might have been only her fancy that when their eyes happened to meet he looked away quickly. Or it might not.
When it was Matti’s bedtime everyone came upstairs. Hope bathed him, but then Toni, who’d been watching with a gentle smile on his face, stepped forward.
‘He wants his nonno to put him to bed,’ he said, speaking English but using the Italian word for grandfather. ‘That’s right, isn’t it?’ he asked the tot. ‘Because Nonno’s your favourite.’ In a confiding voice he added to Polly, ‘He told me that. Mind you, I think he tells everyone the same.’
‘I think he does,’ she agreed, laughing.
With practised hands he fitted Matti’s nappy onto him, eased him into his night suit and laid him gently into the cot. Hope and Ruggiero were standing just inside the room, watching and enjoying the sight of Toni, completely happy.
‘Buona notte, piccino,’ he said. ‘Buona notte.’
Everyone waited hopefully.
‘Say it,’ Toni pleaded. ‘You managed buongiorno this morning.’
Matti merely gurgled.
‘Goodnight, my little one,’ Toni chuckled.
From his pocket he produced a small furry toy, which he tucked into the bed under Matti’s hand.
‘He used to say hallo,’ Polly observed, smiling. ‘It was the first word he managed. Now he says ciao!’’
‘He learns very quickly,’ Hope said.
‘Of course,’ Ruggiero said in mock offence. ‘He’s my son. What else would you expect?’
He followed his father forward to kiss the child, looked at him for a moment, then left.
Minnie announced that she was going to bed, ready for an early start in the morning. There was a round of ‘goodnights’ and Ruggiero drifted away with the other men.
At last only Hope was left alone in the room with Polly. She was peering at the little toy that Toni had left there.
‘Toni’s really happy, isn’t he?’ Polly observed. ‘I don’t know when I’ve seen a man who doted so much on a child.’
Hope nodded. ‘And his happiness makes me happy too,’ she said. ‘Little Matti has a special meaning for him.’
‘Yes, Ruggiero told me that only he and Carlo are Toni’s sons, and that Carlo is unlikely to have children because of his wife’s health.’
‘There’s time for Ruggiero to have others,’ Polly said.
‘But will he? What does he tell you? Can he fall in love again?’
‘Maybe. Or perhaps he’ll have to find another kind of love-more contented but less glorious. And that could be hard. How could you be sure that-? How would you know that the time had come to give up hoping, and try to live without hi-the other person?’
‘It’s possible,’ Hope said, watching her. ‘If there has to be a parting, it helps if you know you’re doing what is best for him. But be quite certain that all hope is lost. Don’t give up without a fight. Now, cara, I must go to bed.’ She kissed Polly’s cheek. ‘Don’t stay up late.’
Ruggiero was late home again the next evening, and would have missed Matti’s bedtime if Polly hadn’t unaccountably forgotten all about it. It was Toni who remembered, and asked if they shouldn’t be moving.
‘There’s no rush,’ Polly said. ‘He seems to be sleeping happily in your arms, so he won’t lose anything if he stays up until his father comes home.’
Toni and Hope’s eyes met, and a glance of understanding passed between them.
‘You’re a wise woman,’ Hope said.
She didn’t expand on this, but the warm approval in her voice was enough to remind Polly of the marriage joke from before, and she become self-conscious. It was clear that the Rinucci family was mounting a take-over bid for her-which would have been delightful if Ruggiero himself had wanted the same. But she was in confusion about what he wanted from her, and even what she wanted from him.
Could she marry him and live as second-best while another woman still held first place? She had a feeling that the question was growing dangerously near.
At last she heard his car arrive and went out to meet him.
‘Matti was just complaining that you weren’t here to put him to bed,’ she called.
‘Really? With the rest of you dancing attendance he actually noticed that I was missing?’ he asked lightly.
Reinforcements appeared in the shape of Hope, with Toni and Matti behind her.
‘At last,’ Hope said.
‘I’ve been away from work too long, and I have vital stuff to catch up with,’ he said, a tad defensively.
‘You have vital work here, with your son,’ his mother said firmly. ‘Get on with it and stop shilly-shallying.’
‘Yes, Mamma. No, Mamma.’
‘And don’t be cheeky.’ She bustled inside before he could answer.
‘Will you please tell Mamma that I’m thirty-one, and grown-up now?’ Ruggiero demanded wrathfully of his father.
‘When you grow up, I’ll tell her,’ Toni promised. ‘Now, take care of your son.’
