settled.’
‘You’re very keen on this marriage, aren’t you?’ he asked curiously. ‘Even though-well, it’s not exactly a love match, is it?’
‘You mean I arranged it? Yes, I did, I don’t deny it.’
‘Wouldn’t it have been safer to let him pick his own bride?’
‘I’m afraid I’d have waited for ever for that. Marco must have somebody, or he’ll end his days alone, and that would be terrible.’
‘There are worse things than being alone, Aunt.’
‘No, my dear boy, there aren’t.’
He couldn’t answer. For the first time in his life he felt it was true.
‘I think you’re just discovering that, aren’t you?’ she urged gently.
He shrugged. ‘It’s just a mood. I was away too long. Now I’m back there’s a mountain of work to do…’ His voice ran down.
‘What is she like?’
He told his story again, this time taking longer to describe Selena. For once the words came easily to him and he managed to speak of the sweetness beneath the thorny shell, the way he’d discovered it slowly, and how it had captivated him.
‘You love her very much, don’t you?’ Lucia said.
‘No, I don’t think I exactly-’ he hastened to defend himself. ‘It’s just that I can’t help worrying about her. She has nobody to look after her. She never has had anybody. Just people making use of her. The only family she has is Elliot. That’s why it’s breaking her heart knowing that his useful days are over. Apart from him, she’s alone.’
‘According to you she has quite a left hook.’
‘Oh, she can take care of herself that way. But she’s alone inside. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as completely alone. She thinks she doesn’t mind. She thinks she’s happier that way.’
‘Maybe she is. You’ve just said there are worse things.’
‘I was wrong. When I think of her going on like that for years-fooling herself that she’s happy, just getting more isolated-’
‘It probably won’t happen. She’ll meet some nice young man and marry him. In a few years you’ll bump into her again and she’ll have a couple of children and another on the way.’
Leo grinned. ‘You’re a clever woman, Aunt. You know I don’t want that.’
‘I wonder what you do really want.’
‘Whatever it is, I don’t think I’ll get it.’
The lights were going out along the Grand Canal. Behind them the great palace was closing down for the night. Leo rose and helped Lucia to her feet.
‘Thank you for listening,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid Dulcie and Harriet thought me a bit of a clown.’
‘Well, your life has been rather full of brief entanglements,’ Lucia said, patting his hand. ‘But if Selena is the right woman, you’ll find her again. Although I think she’s quite mad if
‘Maybe she doesn’t want to find me,’ Leo said gloomily. ‘And even if she did, what good would it do me? She doesn’t care for an ordinary life, in one place with a husband and kids.’
‘I didn’t know your thoughts had got that far.’
‘They haven’t,’ he said quickly. ‘I was talking generally.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘She likes the open road, moving from place to place, never knowing what tomorrow may bring. So I probably couldn’t make her happy anyway.’
‘Enough of that kind of talk. If your love is fated to be, it will be. Now, tomorrow’s a wedding. We’re all going to enjoy ourselves.’ It was late when Selena came to a halt in the yard of the Four-Ten. Barton was waiting for her.
‘Heard you really did well in Reno.’
‘I’ll be a millionaire yet,’ she said. ‘Barton, is something wrong?’
‘I’ve heard from Leo.’
‘Oh, really?’
‘Don’t you pretend you don’t care. My guess is you’re in as big a state as he is.’
‘Why should he be in a state?’
‘Because he lost your phone number. He’s been going crazy, calling here, leaving messages for you to call him back.’
‘But I didn’t know-’
‘No, I had to be away for a while, so I left word that if you called you were to be told all about it. Unfortunately the person I left word with was Paulie. Now, I don’t know if he’s just plum forgetful, or if there’s more to it-’ he looked at her face. ‘Would this have anything to do with that time Paulie “stepped on a pitchfork”?’
‘Well, I didn’t want to tell you, when you’ve been so good to me-’
‘If it helps any I’ve often wanted to sock him myself.’
‘He just got a bit fresh, and I-well-’
‘It was you? Not Leo?’
‘In a pig’s ear it was Leo. He came in when the fighting was over. But maybe I went too far.’
‘Shouldn’t think you did,’ Barton said with relish. ‘But you were quite right not to tell his mother. She overreacts to that kind of thing. Well, well, so he got his revenge.’
‘Maybe I should call Leo now,’ but Selena sounded vague and abstracted.
‘Don’t you want to?’
‘Course I want to, but he’s so far away, and he’ll be another person in his own country.’
‘Then go and find him in his own country. Find out if it can be your country. Selena, when a man keeps calling and getting agitated like this one has, then he has things to say to a woman that he can’t say over the phone.’
‘You mean me-go to Italy?’
‘It’s not the other side of the moon. You know I’ll look after Jeepers and Elliot for you while you’re gone. You’ve got all that prize money. What’s stopping you?’
When she still didn’t answer Barton began to cluck like a chicken.
‘I am
‘Not when you’re in the ring, sure. Never seen anyone braver. But that’s the easy part. The world’s a much scarier place. Maybe you should think about that.’
By the time he was on his way back home Leo had half talked himself into thinking things were for the best. This was fate’s way of telling him that he and Selena weren’t meant to be together.
The wedding had been a strain. The sight of his brother so blissfully happy as he’d become Dulcie’s husband had made him suddenly discontented with his own lot.
Not that he was thinking of marriage for himself. The mere thought of Selena in the glimmering white satin and lace creation that Dulcie had worn put the whole matter into perspective. Selena would probably marry in a stetson and cowboy boots.
By the time he reached his own house he’d settled the matter in his mind. They’d had a great time together, but it was over, and that was as it should be. He wouldn’t think of her any more.
Gina had just finished making up his bed. She greeted him and went to collect a duster that she’d left by the window.
‘Renzo wanted to see you this afternoon,’ she started to say, ‘so that he can-I wonder who that is.’
‘Who?’ He went to stand beside her at the window that looked down on the path that led up from Morenza.
A tall slender figure, in jeans and shirt, and weighed down by a couple of bags, was walking towards the house, sometimes stopping to stare upward, her hand shading her eyes. She was too far away for Leo to see her face, but he recognised everything else, from her swaying walk to the angle of her head as she tilted it back.
‘She must be a stranger in these parts,’ Gina was saying, ‘Because-
Her employer was no longer with her. She heard his feet thundering down the stairs and the next moment he appeared below, running so fast that Gina thought he would topple headlong into the valley.
