‘Oh, very funny! I’ll thump you in a minute. What are you doing here?’
‘My grandfather, Count Angelo, fell in love with a woman from Tuscany, called Maria Rinucci. This-’ he indicated the valley ‘-was her dowry. Since he had the Venetian property to bequeath to his eldest son and heir-that’s my uncle Francesco-this was used to provide an inheritance for Francesco’s younger brothers, Bertrando and Silvio.
‘Silvio took his share in cash and married a banker’s daughter in Rome. Their son is Marco. You won’t meet him next week because something’s gone wrong between him and Harriet, his English fiancee. She’s gone back to England and he’s followed her, trying to talk her around. Let’s hope he brings her back for our wedding.’
He stroked her face, trying to distract her with the thought of their wedding. She accepted his caress and kissed him enthusiastically, but she wouldn’t be distracted.
‘And?’ she insisted.
‘Bertrando liked living on the land, so he came out here and married a widow, Elissa, who became my mother.
‘She died soon after I was born, and he married again, Donna, Guido’s mother. But then it turned out that Elissa hadn’t been a widow, as everyone had thought, but still married to her first husband. So I was illegitimate, and as she was dead it was too late to validate her marriage to my father, so that was that. Guido and I kind of swapped inheritances.
‘I can’t tell you how glad I am now that we did. Because otherwise, you and I-’
‘Nix,’ she said as he’d known she would say. ‘I couldn’t marry you if you had a title. It’s against my principles, and besides-well anyway, it doesn’t matter. But your family wouldn’t fancy me as the countess.’
‘You don’t know anything about them. Forget those stereotypes you’re carrying in your head. We don’t all eat off gold plate-’
‘Shame, I was looking forward to that.’
‘Will you hush, and let me finish? And don’t look at me like that or I’ll forget what I was going to stay.’
‘Well, there are more interesting things to do-’
‘When I’ve finished,’ he said, seizing her wandering fingers. ‘My family aren’t the way you think. All they’ll care about is that we love each other. Guido and Dulcie have just married for love, so did Uncle Francesco. He waited forty years for her to say yes, and refused to marry anyone else. She had some funny ideas too and he was a patient man, but I’m not. If you think I’m waiting forty years for you to see sense, you’re nuts. Now, you were saying about doing more interesting things…’
CHAPTER NINE
SELENA had tried to keep it light, but she was more nervous about Leo’s family than she would have let on. He’d said her head was full of stereotypes, and it was partly true. Her dread was concentrated on the thought of doing or saying something that would embarrass Leo by drawing down icy stares on herself. She would rather ride a bull than risk looking foolish.
With a few days to go the house was turned upside down. Leo and Selena changed rooms, retreating to smaller ones at the back of the house so that his uncle and aunt might have the best, with Guido and Dulcie in the next best.
It made Selena stare to see Gina preparing the house for a gala occasion, with the assistance of two maids, a cook and two extra girls in from the village. Being waited on by servants unnerved her.
‘Well, you’re the mistress of the house now,’ Leo said. ‘Dismiss the lot of them, and do it virtuously yourself.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ she demanded, checkmated. Leo’s eyes were full of wicked fun.
‘You could do all the cooking as well,’ he suggested.
‘Have you tasted my cooking?’
‘Have I-? I had a sandwich you made the other day, and I’m still getting up in the night. Leave them to their job,
She was virtually running that side of things now. Things were simpler with horses. You knew what was expected of you. That made her think of Elliot, and she felt a pang of homesickness. Elliot was the faithful friend who’d seen her through the bad times, and whom she might never see again.
After the first bout of homesickness she found it could attack again without warning. The sheer grandeur of the house when Gina had finished transforming it had the same effect on her, making her think of a mini van, a battered horse trailer at the back, Elliot and herself chasing the far horizons with just enough money to reach the next stop, then relying on each other to win some for the next stage.
There were far horizons here, she thought, looking out on Tuscany’s rolling hills, but they seemed somehow tame now that she knew they belonged to Leo, and by extension to herself. There was no mystery in a horizon that you owned. And no excitement either.
But she pushed those thoughts aside. She knew the coming visit was important to Leo. Whatever he might say to disparage his aristocratic background, these people were the family he loved, and she suspected that he shared their values more than he realised. The thought made him seem a little distant.
As the day grew nearer she became so demoralised that when Leo suggested that she buy a couple of dresses she made no protest. She chose items as unobtrusive as possible because she was no longer sure of herself, and she didn’t want to be noticed.
Count Francesco Calvani had decided to travel the hundred and sixty miles from Venice in his own chauffeur- driven limousine, which he felt would be more comfortable for his beloved Liza, who disliked trains.
Guido and Dulcie travelled in their own jaunty sports car. With a stop at Florence for lunch they made Bella Podena by late afternoon. They had driven ahead of the two, and arrived before them.
‘We just couldn’t wait to meet you,’ Guido said, enveloping Selena in a hug.
She liked him at once. He bore very little physical resemblance to his brother, but their eyes had the same twinkle. In Leo perhaps it was warmer, and in Guido more mischievous, but it was the link between them.
Dulcie was almost as slender as Selena herself, but with a mass of wavy blonde hair that Selena secretly envied. She too hugged her, and said eagerly how glad she was that she would soon have a sister. Selena began to relax.
A few minutes later they gathered outside for the arrival of the Count and Countess Calvani. The shiny black car glided to a standstill, the chauffeur emerged and proceeded to open one of the passenger doors.
From it descended a tiny woman with a lean face and hooded eyes. Selena had a strange feeling that she was full of tension as she looked around her.
I’ll bet she’s looking down on us because this is a farm, she thought, angry for Leo’s sake. Just because she’s used to a palace…
She saw the count appear from his side of the car and smile at his wife, who smiled back and laid her hand on his arm. Together they entered the house, and the introductions were made.
Count Francesco Calvani had the family charm. He too embraced Selena like a long-lost daughter and spoke to her in excellent English. Liza smiled and shook her hand, then made a stilted little speech of welcome which had to be translated into English. Selena thanked her in terms equally stilted, which the count translated into Venetian.
The two women looked at each other across a chasm.
As mistress of the house Selena escorted Liza to her room, and gave thanks for Dulcie who came too, and translated them to each other. She finally escaped, thanking heaven for a merciful release, and had a horrible feeling that the countess was doing the same.
She had a feeling of being stranded in a desert. She’d spent the last few years doing something she did well, and because of it she had confidence in herself. But now her confidence seemed to have drained away through the soles of her feet. Everything she did felt wrong, even when Leo smiled encouragement and told her she was doing well.
Her dress felt dowdy beside the countess’s quiet elegance and Dulcie’s glowing beauty. When Gina drew her into the dining room to approve the elegant table settings she wanted to sink from the conviction that Gina knew
