Wife By Arrangement

Renato’s light touch on her shoulder awoke her. ‘We’ve dropped anchor,’ he said. ‘Just over there is a little bay.’

The Santa Maria had a small dinghy, already loaded with a picnic hamper and being lowered to the water. Renato handed her into it and they were away, headed for a small golden beach where there was nobody else in sight.

‘Let’s swim before we eat,’ he suggested. ‘Come.’ He seized her hand and they ran down the yellow sand.

The shock of the cool water was delicious. She plunged in and together they swam out to deep water. She’d never swum so far from shore before, and she wasn’t a strong swimmer, but she felt full of confidence as long as Renato was there. They swam for half an hour, then headed back, side by side.

‘Let’s stay in a bit longer,’ he said as their feet touched ground.

‘No, I’ll unpack the picnic. You go back if you want another swim.’

He raced away and plunged back into the water while she dried off her hair, and swung it in the sun for a moment. When she looked out to sea again he’d vanished. The water was clear and level, and there wasn’t a sign of Renato.

Slowly she got to her feet, feeling as though a dark cloud had covered the sun. It was like waking in a lunar landscape where everything was bare and desolate, and no life would ever live again.

Then his head broke the surface and the world was bathed in her relief. He waved and she waved back, discovering that she’d been holding her breath.

‘You scared me,’ she accused him as he walked up the beach.

He grinned. ‘Sorry. I like to swim under water for as long as I can.’

He towelled himself dry, and sat down beside her. The movement gave her a good view of the ugly scar near his wrist, and she shuddered.

‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s healed. See.’

He held out his hand and she took it between hers, turning it to see the scar better. As he’d said, it had healed beautifully, but now she saw how large the wound had been, how close he had come to death. His big, forceful hand looked strange against her slim, delicate ones. By tightening it he could have crushed her, but he let it lie there while she gently brushed the sand from it.

‘I always said no woman would ever leave a permanent mark on me,’ he mused. ‘But now one has.’

‘It’s not really funny.’ Something inside her chest was aching.

‘All right, then I’ll tell you something serious. What happened that night told me all about you. One minute you were telling me to jump in the river. The next you were saving my life as cool as a cucumber, despite having been knocked about yourself. And when you did weaken, just a little, you pulled yourself together so that you could clear the driver.’

‘That’s my English reserve and efficiency,’ she teased. ‘We’re well known for keeping our cool.’

‘Does anything throw you off balance?’

‘Probably nothing you could think of,’ she said with a smile.

‘By God, I did the right thing bringing you here!’ he said suddenly.

‘You? It was Lorenzo who brought me here.’

‘Of course, of course. I think we should eat now.’

The picnic was magnificent and Renato explained that Fredo had outdone himself in her honour. As they sipped the cool wine, the slight movement of his face drew her attention to another scar. It made him look as though he’d tangled with a wild animal and emerged battered. She wondered how the animal would look. He caught her gaze and he rubbed it self consciously.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, horrified at herself.

He shrugged. ‘It makes no difference. Nature didn’t make me a beauty to start with. Then I played the fool on a motorbike and got what I deserved.’

‘You did that on a motorbike?’

‘I was wild as a boy. I bought a fast bike and rode it to the limit. The police warned me time and again, but I was a Martelli and that has its privileges. Then I took a mountain bend at an insane speed and nearly killed myself. Luckily nobody else got hurt, and I was left with this scar on my face as a reminder not to be a damned fool.’

‘I can’t picture you wild, somehow. You seem so much in control.’

‘I learned the consequences of not being in control the hard way. Besides, my father was dead by then, and the firm was being run by an uncle who wasn’t very good at it. Somebody had to get a grip while there was still time.’

‘So the firm had to become your life?’

‘It’s a more useful life than dashing about getting myself half killed. And now I find it very satisfying.’

She noticed that ‘now’ and wondered how hard it had been for a young man addicted to excitement to put on a suit and chain himself to a desk.

He said casually, ‘My mother told me that you were reluctant to accept her gift yesterday.’

‘The pearl tiara, yes. It’s a family heirloom. You’re the eldest son. Surely it should go to your wife?’

‘Who doesn’t exist, and never will. The single life suits me too well to give up.’

‘Oh, yes, Elena, Julia and the rest of the crowd. I don’t believe it. It sounds so immature, and I don’t think you are immature.’

He grimaced wryly. ‘I didn’t always feel this way. There was a lady once-her name was Magdalena Conti-the story is nauseatingly sentimental. I was much younger, and I believed in things I don’t believe in now. She taught me a lesson in reality from which I benefited enormously.’

‘Is she why you think all women are fortune-hunters?’

He shrugged. ‘Possibly. She was beautiful, tender, loving. She was also greedy, manipulative and deadly. She aimed her arrows at me for money. I fell for it. She told me she was pregnant. I asked her to marry me. I’d have asked her anyway, but fatherhood thrilled me. I indulged in many dreams in those days.’

He fell silent, looking out over the sea. His eyes might have been fixed on the horizon, or maybe on some other horizon, inside himself.

‘And then?’ Heather asked softly.

‘Then she met another man, much richer, and in films, which she found exciting. At our final meeting I learned for the first time how much I bored her. Then she went off with him.’

‘And your baby?’

‘She never gave birth. I know that much. Perhaps the child was an invention, or perhaps she-’ He shrugged. ‘I prefer to think she was lying about the pregnancy, but the truth is that I shall never know.’

Heather was silent. There was nothing she could have said that wouldn’t have sounded like a mockery of his pain. And the pain was unmistakable, even after so long. Suddenly the air about her was jagged with suffering. At the same time she was wondering about the woman who could be bored by this man.

‘Now the only woman I trust is my mother,’ he finished. ‘Lorenzo is fortunate to have found you.’

‘So you think I can be trusted? Then surely, other women can?’

‘Lorenzo still knows how to give trust. But I don’t. I would invite betrayal by expecting it, and-forgive me-such expectations are always fulfilled in the end. I made my decision, and I’ll stick to it. Take my mother’s gift. No woman will ever challenge you for it.’

She refilled his glass and he accepted it with a slightly forced smile.

‘Do you think you’ll be happy here, Heather?’ he asked quietly.

‘I’ve known it from the first moment. It’s not like me to be so impulsive, but Lorenzo made me feel so wanted.’

He looked at her intently. ‘Had nobody ever made you feel that way before?’

‘There was someone else, quite recently. We were engaged for a year, and he called it all off a week before the wedding. I suppose it left me feeling a bit bruised and rejected.’

Then a dreadful thought occurred to her. ‘But don’t think I accepted Lorenzo on the rebound. It’s not just because of Peter. It’s Lorenzo himself, the way he is-so loving and warm-hearted.’

To her surprise Renato was frowning as though something troubled him deeply. At last he said, ‘Heather, if ever you’re in trouble, promise that you will come to me.’

‘But why should I when I can go to him?’

‘He’s a fine fellow, but if you need an older brother’s help, please remember that I’m here.’