Wife By Arrangement

of wedding etiquette don’t cover it. You suggest something. You’re the man who has an answer for every problem, even if some of your answers fall apart at awkward moments.’

He flinched but stayed calm. ‘I’ll tell her to send it to the children’s home.’

‘Good idea. But not the top tier. Ask her to take that down now and give it to me.’

Renato did so. The maid climbed on a chair and reached up to lift down the tiny cake, adorned with the figures under a flowered arch. But her hand shook and the little bridegroom fell to the floor and broke in two. Renato gave her a nod of reassurance, and she hurried away.

‘Why do you want that?’ he asked as Heather surveyed the small top tier.

‘To eat, of course. I think the bride should have some of her own wedding cake, don’t you?’ She took up a sharp knife and cut into the ornately decorated icing. ‘Have some with me.’

‘I don’t think-’

‘Then pour me some champagne. You’re not going to deny me wedding cake and champagne on my big day, are you?’

He found two glasses and filled them. ‘When did you last eat?’

‘Yesterday. I couldn’t manage anything this morning.’

‘You’ll regret drinking champagne on an empty stomach.’

She poured two glasses and thrust one at him. ‘Drink it with me. Let’s toast the day you brought about.’

‘Heather, I know you must hate me-’

‘And try contempt and loathing. Especially contempt.’

She drained her champagne glass and refilled it. ‘I want to know how much of Lorenzo’s letter was true. When he returned from Stockholm early-that was why? To tell you that he wanted to call it all off?’

‘Look-’

‘Tell me, damn you!’

‘Yes,’ he said reluctantly. ‘He said that.’

‘And you kept it to yourself?’

‘Why should I tell you what could hurt you? I talked to Lorenzo and-’ He seemed to have trouble going on.

“‘Made him see reason,” was his charming expression. You mean you told him he had to marry me whether he liked it or not. How dare you? What do you think I am? Some helpless bird-brain with no guts or independence?’

‘No, but after what you told me-about your previous fiance-’

‘You told him that?’ she cried, aghast. ‘Oh, you’ve done everything you can to humiliate me, haven’t you? I can just hear you-“You can’t walk out on her, Lorenzo. The poor creature’s already been deserted once. You’ve got to see it through, however much you’d rather not.”’

‘Would I have done better to let him walk away from his obligations?’

Eyes flashing, she whirled on him. ‘He did walk away. You just made sure he did it at the worst possible moment. And why obligations? I was marrying for love and I thought he was doing the same. I don’t want a husband who’s only doing his duty.

‘If we’d broken up in London I could have coped. I’d still have had my job, my friends, my life there. But you wanted our marriage, to suit yourself. You had to play God with people’s lives, to suit yourself. And now Lorenzo has vanished, I’m stranded and your mother is ill, all because Renato Martelli has to have his own way.’

He didn’t answer, but there was a drawn look about his face that checked her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said wearily. ‘I didn’t mean to throw your mother’s illness up at you.’

‘Why not? It’s true.’

‘Yes, but I shouldn’t have said it. I shouldn’t-’ Her voice thickened, and she set her jaw. She would not weep. She would not.

‘Heather-’ He reached for her but she backed off, eyes flashing.

‘I’m warning you, Renato-if you touch me, there’ll be violence.’

He checked himself. ‘Perhaps enough has been said for tonight,’ he sighed. ‘I’m sure you’d prefer me to leave you.’

She didn’t answer. Her face was unyielding. As he left her Renato felt a flash of some emotion he could hardly identify. He was a man who feared nothing, so his own dread took him by surprise. He didn’t know this woman who looked as though a stone lay where her heart should be. He only knew that he was guilty of some terrible crime.

Next morning, when the last guest had left, Renato sought out Heather and said, ‘I thought you should know that I’ve traced Lorenzo. He’s staying with friends in Naples.’

He didn’t look directly at her as he spoke. That way he didn’t have to notice her pallor, or the signs that she hadn’t slept. But he couldn’t help knowing that she tensed at the sound of Lorenzo’s name.

‘Does he know that his mother is ill?’ Heather asked quietly.

‘No, I haven’t spoken to him.’

‘You must. He ought to return and see her.’

‘There’s no need for that,’ he said sharply. ‘It’s not serious. She’ll be home tomorrow.’

‘But it would mean a lot to her to see him.’

‘It might also strain her.’

‘I think you’re wrong,’ Heather said firmly. ‘It’s much harder for her to wonder about him.’

After a moment’s silence she looked up to see Renato regarding her strangely. ‘You’re very determined to fetch him back,’ he said quietly.

Once she’d hardly been aware of having a temper. Now a word from Renato could trigger it. ‘If you mean what I think you do, you should be ashamed. It’s all over between Lorenzo and me. I’d never marry him now.’

‘Perhaps you think you mean that. But if he came back and turned on the charm-’

‘Well, you should know all about the power of Lorenzo’s charm,’ she said bleakly. ‘It was you who told him to give me the full blast of it for your own ends.’

She heard the slight intake of his breath and knew she’d struck home. She was glad, she told herself angrily. Let him suffer as she suffered.

‘Besides,’ she added, ‘he’s not very likely to try to win me back, is he? Not after all the trouble he took to escape me.’

Try as she might, she couldn’t stop her voice shaking on the last words, and it made Renato say more gently, ‘It wasn’t you he was escaping, but me. And I know my brother better than you. He values things more when he’s lost them.’

She gave him the cool, defiant look that was her way of coping. ‘So there’s hope yet,’ she said ironically. ‘Lorenzo will make a play for me, and I’ll be fool enough to fall for it. Cue wedding bells, summon all the guests back, and-hey presto! Renato Martelli gets his own way again.’

‘For pity’s sake!’ he shouted. ‘Can’t you understand-?’ He checked himself. ‘I’m sorry. I just wish I could find the right words to say to you.’

‘Does it occur to you that there aren’t any?’

‘I’m beginning to be afraid that you’re right. Heather, won’t you let me ask your pardon? I never dreamed of anything like this happening.’

‘No, you wanted life arranged your way, and to hell with anyone else. I did a lot of thinking last night, and several things came back to me. Chiefly the fact that nobody mentioned marriage until you did, that night in London. You said Lorenzo was talking about marriage, but that came as news to him. I saw his face. I thought his expression was embarrassment but actually it was surprise.’

‘He had told me that if he thought of marriage it would be to you-’ Renato said unwillingly.

‘If? But it was a very big if. I’m almost as angry about what you’ve done to Lorenzo as I am about what you’ve done to me. You pushed him into something he wasn’t ready for, and now he’s the one who looks bad.’

‘He could have stood up to me and refused,’ Renato said angrily.

‘Oh, please! Who stands up to you?’

‘You do.’

‘And much good it does me! Now, I think you should get him back here to see his mother. Tell him there’ll be