The Tuscan Tycoon’s Wife

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE worst thing about airports was having to arrive early, so that the goodbyes stretched out painfully. It was worse, Selena thought, if you were waiting for the other person to say something and you weren’t sure what. And whatever it was, he didn’t say it.

She drove him to Dallas Airport. They checked the time of the Atlanta flight, sent his luggage on its way, and found a coffee bar. But suddenly Leo jumped up and said, ‘Come with me.’

‘Where are we going?’ she asked as he grasped her hand and hurried her away.

‘I want to buy you a present before I go, and I’ve just realised what it should be.’

He led her to a shop that sold mobile phones. ‘Anyone who moves around as much as you needs one of these,’ he said.

‘Couldn’t afford it before.’ She was briefly happy at this sign that he wanted to keep in touch. But no happiness could survive the reflection that he was going away, and she might never see him again.

They chose the phone together, and he bought the first thirty hours. She scribbled the number on a small piece of paper and watched as he tucked it away in his wallet.

‘Time I was going through Passport Control.’

‘Not just yet,’ she said quickly. ‘We’ve got time for another coffee.’

She had a terrifying feeling that everything was rushing to the edge of a precipice. She was the only one who could stop it, but she didn’t know how. She couldn’t manage the words, had never spoken them, barely knew them.

She’d done all she could to show him how she felt the night before. Now her heart was breaking, and she could only wonder that he seemed oblivious.

She spent the last few minutes drinking in the sight of him, trying to remember every line, every intonation of his voice.

He was going away. He would forget her.

She had never smiled so brightly.

‘Will passengers-?’

‘I guess that’s it,’ Leo said, getting to his feet.

She came with him almost to the gate. He stopped and touched her face gently.

‘I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,’ he said.

‘Oh, yeah?’ she said lightly, and aimed a punch at his arm. ‘You’ll forget me as soon as the hostess flutters her eyelashes at you.’

But he didn’t smile back. ‘I’ll never forget you, Selena.’

His face seemed to constrict and she thought for a moment that he would say something more. She waited, her heart beating with wild hope, but he only leaned down and kissed her cheek.

‘Don’t you forget me,’ he said.

‘Better call that number and make sure I don’t.’

‘I’ll do that.’

He kissed her again before walking off. Try as she might she couldn’t find in those kisses any echo of the night before when he’d kissed her in a very different way. Then he’d been a man thinking only of a woman, absorbed only in her, giving and receiving pleasure, and not only pleasure: tenderness and affection. Now he was a man who wanted to go home.

At the gate he turned and waved to her. She waved back, keeping a smile on her face by sheer force of will.

Then he was gone.

She didn’t leave at once, as she’d meant to. Instead she waited by the window until the flight took off, and watched until the sky swallowed it up.

Then she walked back to the parking lot and got behind the wheel, talking to herself like a Dutch uncle.

What the heck! They were ships that passed in the night, and they’d passed. That was all. Ahead of her stretched a brighter future than she’d ever known. That was what she should be thinking of.

She slammed her hand down on the wheel. She’d never told herself pretty lies before.

But now she needed a comforting lie to get her over this moment.

‘I should have said something,’ she raged. ‘Said anything, so he’d know. Then he might even have asked me to go with him. Oh, who am I fooling? He could have asked me to go, but he never thought of it. He won’t call. That phone was a goodbye present. Stop being a fool Selena. You can’t cry in a parking lot.’

The Atlanta/Pisa flight seemed to go on for ever, into not just another day, but another dimension, another world. Leo tried to sleep but couldn’t. He left the aircraft, dazed with weariness and yawned his way through Passport Control and customs. It felt strange to be back in his own country.

He headed for the taxi rank, so absorbed in calculating how long it would take him to get home that he had no attention for the sounds of someone behind him. He didn’t see what hit him, or how many of them there were, although witnesses later attested to four. He only knew that suddenly he was on the ground, being swarmed over by strangers.

Shouts, the sound of running. He sat up, feeling his head, wondering why there were so many policemen around. Hands helped him stagger to his feet.

‘What happened?’ he demanded.

‘You were robbed, signore.’

He groaned and felt for the place where his wallet should have been. It was empty. His head was aching too much for him to think any further than this. Somebody called an ambulance and he was taken to the local hospital.

He awoke next morning to find a policeman by his bed, holding the missing wallet.

‘We found it in an alley,’ he said.

As expected, the wallet was empty. Money, credit cards were all gone. But what really appalled Leo was the fact that the slip of paper with Selena’s number had also vanished.

Renzo, his overseer, collected him from the hospital and drove him the fifty miles home to Bella Podena. As soon as he found himself among the rolling hills of Tuscany Leo began to relax. Whatever the surface turmoil of his life, his instincts were telling him that what really mattered was to be home, where his vines grew and his fields of wheat lay under a benevolent sun.

He was popular with his employees because he paid them generously, trusted them and let them get on with their jobs. For the last lap of the journey they waved and yelled to him, glad to see him back.

The Calvani lands were extensive. For the last few miles he was looking at his own fields, and even his own village. Morenza, a tiny community of medieval buildings, stood on Calvani land, at the foot of the incline that led up to Leo’s house. Its high street curved around the church, and a small duck pond, before leading out of the village and up through vines planted on the slope to catch the sun.

There at the top was the farmhouse, also medieval, made of stone, with a magnificent view down the valley. He entered it with a sigh of satisfaction, dropping his bags onto the floor and looking around him at the familiar things he loved.

There was Gina, with his favourite dish, already prepared and ready to serve. His favourite wine was at exactly the right temperature. His favourite dogs swarmed around his feet.

He ate a huge meal, kissed Gina on the cheek in thanks, and went to the room he used as a study, and from which he ran his estate. A couple of hours with Enrico, the assistant who supervised the paperwork during his absence, showed him that Enrico could manage this side of things perfectly well without him. He asked no more. The next day he would go over the land with men as close to the earth as himself.

He spent the next couple of hours on the telephone to his family, catching up on the news. Finally he went out and stood with a glass of wine, gazing down to the village, where the lights were coming on. He stood for a long time, listening to the breeze in the trees and the sound of bells echoing across the valley, and thought that he had never known such peace and beauty. And yet…

It was the perfect homecoming to the perfect place. But suddenly he felt alone as he had never done in his life before.

He went to bed and tried to sleep, but it was useless, and he got up and went downstairs to the study. In Texas it was early morning. It was Barton who answered.

‘Selena isn’t still there by any chance?’ he asked hopefully.

‘No, she left straight after you did. Just drove back here, collected Jeepers, and headed off. Didn’t she do great? Jeepers was just the horse she needed. She’s going to be a star with that animal.’

‘Great. Great.’ Leo tried to sound cheerful, but for a reason he didn’t want to explore he wasn’t pleased to hear of her success a world away. ‘Has she called you at all?’

‘Called yesterday to ask after Elliot. I told her he was doing fine.’

‘Did she ask after me?’ He’d promised himself not to ask that, but it came out anyway.

‘No, she never mentioned you. But I’m sure if you called her-’

Why the devil should I call her if she doesn’t care enough about me to ask? he thought.

‘Barton, I can’t call her. I got mugged and lost the paper with her mobile phone number. Can you let me have it?’

‘I would if I had it myself. I wouldn’t know how to contact her.’

‘Next time she calls, will you explain and get her to call me?’

‘Sure thing.’

‘Did she tell you where she was going?’

‘Reno-I think.’

‘I’ll leave a message for her there.’

He tried to concentrate on his coming visit to Venice, for the wedding of his younger half-brother, Guido, to his English fiancée, Dulcie. There would be another wedding the day before, when his uncle, Count Francesco Calvani, would marry Liza, his one-time housekeeper and the love of his life. That ceremony would be small and private.

He’d been looking forward to a cheerful family occasion, but now, suddenly, he didn’t have the heart for weddings.

Where was she? Why didn’t she contact him? Had she forgotten their night together so easily?

He sent emails to the rodeo web site at Reno, detailing his movements over the coming days, giving the phone number of his uncle’s home in Venice and his own mobile. For good measure he reminded her of his home number.

To the last minute he clung to the hope that she would telephone him. But the phone remained silent, and at last he left for Venice.

Leo had never been a man to brood. It was rare for a woman to pass out of his life against his will, but if it happened he’d always been positive. The world was full of laughing ladies, as easygoing as himself, with whom he could pass the time. Suddenly, that thought brought him no cheer.

He took the train from Florence to Venice, where there was a family motor boat waiting to convey him to the Palazzo Calvani on the Grand Canal. He arrived to find the family at supper. He kissed Liza, then his uncle, then Dulcie, Harriet, and Lucia, Marco’s mother. Guido was there too, and his cousin Marco. When he’d thumped them and been thumped back, the greetings were complete.

As he ate he tried to seem his normal self, and maybe he fooled his male relatives. But the women had sharper eyes, and when the meal was over Dulcie and Harriet corralled him onto the sofa like a pair of eager sheep dogs herding a lion, and settled one each side of him.

‘You’ve found her at last,’ Harriet said.

‘Her?’ he asked uneasily.

‘You know what I mean. Her! The one. She’s got you roped and tied.’

‘What’s her name?’ Dulcie demanded.

He gave up stalling. He wasn’t kidding them. ‘She’s called Selena,’ he admitted. I met her in Texas. We were both in the rodeo.’ He fell silent.

‘And?’ they asked eagerly. ‘And?’

‘She fell off. So did I.’

‘So you had something in common,’ Dulcie said, nodding.

‘A marriage of true minds,’ Harriet agreed.

‘I shouldn’t think minds had much to do with it,’ Dulcie suggested.

‘Nothing at all,’ Leo said, remembering Selena’s sweetness, the tensile strength in her slim body, like spun steel, yet feeling so delicate in his hands. For a moment her hot breath seemed to whisper against his skin, inciting him to ever greater passion and tenderness.

‘It was wonderful,’ he said abruptly.

‘You should have brought her here to meet us,’ Harriet told him.

‘That’s just the trouble, I don’t know where to find her.’

‘But didn’t you exchange names and addresses?’ Dulcie asked.

‘She doesn’t have an address. She drives around the rodeos and lives wherever she is. I had her mobile phone number, but-well, if you must know someone stole my wallet, with the paper. I’ve tried to track her down over the internet, but for some reason I always seem to miss her. I might never see her again.’

The two young women made sympathetic noises, but Leo suspected they secretly found it rather funny. Perhaps it was. Leo Calvani, stallion and free spirit, off his feed because one young woman, with a prickly temper and no figure to speak of, had vanished. Hilarious.

After a while he joined the other men, but even their company couldn’t soothe him. Two blissful bridegrooms and a fiancé weren’t what he needed in his present disconsolate mood.

Gradually the party broke up. Guido and Dulcie disappeared together to enjoy the sweet nothings of a soon-to-be married couple. Marco and Harriet went off to stroll the streets of Venice. Leo went out into the garden, where he found his Aunt Lucia sitting peacefully, gazing up at the stars.

‘I suppose Marco and Harriet will be setting the date at any moment,’ Leo said, sitting down with her.

‘I do hope so,’ Lucia said eagerly. ‘I know they’ve gone off together now, so maybe they’ll come back with it all 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 she doesn’t come to find you.’

‘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 a chicken.’

‘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-signore?’

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.

The young woman dropped her bags and began to run too, and the next moment they were locked in each other’s arms, oblivious to the rest of the world.

‘Celia,’ Gina yelled to one of the maids, ‘We’ve got a guest. Stop what you’re doing and prepare a room for her.

‘Not,’ she added, her eyes on the entwined figures, ‘that I think she’ll spend much time sleeping in it.’