The Wedding Arrangement

CHAPTER SIX

THE next day he received a call from her secretary, making a formal appointment in her office. He wore a respectable suit in dark grey, with a snowy white shirt and a dark red tie, and was glad of it when he saw her office, a large, impressive room, the walls lined with legal books.

Almost as if inspired by the same thought, Minnie too wore a grey suit with a white blouse. He briefly considered making a mild joke about their similarity, but a glance at her face changed his mind. She was pale, with very little make-up. Her hair was drawn back against her skull in a way that seemed designed to deny life-or, perhaps, to send him a message.

‘There was no need for that, you know,’ he said gently.

‘I’m not sure of your meaning.’

‘Aren’t you? I thought you might understand. Oh, well, never mind.’

‘Signor Cayman, if we keep to the matter in hand I think we’ll make more progress.’

Her voice was cool, self-possessed, the voice of a woman in control of the situation. But he heard in it something else, a tension that made him look at her more closely, and realise that her eyes were dark and haunted.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said suddenly.

He hadn’t meant to speak the words, but they burst out.

‘There’s no need for apologies,’ she replied coolly, ‘if we can just stick to business.’

‘I didn’t mean that. I meant I’m sorry for the things I said the other night. I had no right-it was none of my business-’

‘Excuse me,’ she said swiftly, and left the room before he could realise what she meant to do.

He frowned, hardly able to believe that she’d fled him, unable to cope with what he was saying. How deep a nerve had he touched with his rash words?

The secretary brought him coffee. He drank it, then passed the next few minutes standing at the huge window, looking out over Rome. From here the view was breathtaking, with its distant view of the dome of St Peter’s, glowing under the sun. If he hadn’t known it before he would have known now that Signora Pepino was a supremely successful lawyer who could afford everything of the best. It gave a new poignancy to her refusal to leave her shabby old home.

Minnie appeared ten minutes later, her composure restored.

‘I apologise for that,’ she said. ‘I remembered a phone call I had to make.’

She seated herself, indicating for him to take the chair facing her desk. ‘I gather you’ve now been over the building extensively and seen for yourself what needs to be done.’

‘I have,’ he said, sitting down and opening his briefcase, ‘although we may not have the same ideas as to what needs to be done.’

‘You’ve seen the state the place is in?’

‘Yes, and I don’t think repairs are any more than sticking plaster. What that building needs is to be renovated from top to bottom. It’s not just a case of flaking plaster, but rotten woodwork needing to be ripped out and replaced.’

‘Your tenants will be very glad.’

‘Minnie-’

‘I think signora would be more appropriate,’ she interrupted, looking not at him but at the computer screen.

His temper began to rise. If she wanted to play tough, OK. Fine!

‘Very well, signora, let me make my position plain. My tenants are paying about half the going rate for property in that area, which is perhaps why my predecessor got into financial difficulties.’

‘Trastevere isn’t the wealthy part of Rome-’

‘It’s coming up in the world. I’ve researched the area, and I know that Trastevere has been growing more popular over the last few years. People who couldn’t afford the high prices in the rest of Rome started moving in and doing the place up. So then Trastevere prices started to rise. It’s actually becoming fashionable to live there.’

‘I see where this is leading. You’ve had an offer from a developer and you’re planning to sell us out. Forget it. Your predecessor tried that, but I stopped him by proving that the tenants are protected. They can’t be got out for at least ten years. That scares the developers off, except that some try bullying tactics. But even they can be made to wish they hadn’t started anything, as you’ll find out if you tangle with me.’

‘Can I get a word in edgeways?’ Luke snapped. ‘Whatever needs to be done at the Residenza I want to do it myself, and I want the rest of you to help me. As for bullying tactics-if that’s what you think of me, I don’t know why we’re even bothering to talk. To hell with you for thinking such things!’

He threw down his papers and strode across to the window, staring at the view without seeing it. All he could see was the turmoil in his own mind, where she had the power to cause such havoc. Her opinion of him shouldn’t matter, yet her contempt seemed to shrivel him.

‘I apologise,’ she said, behind him. ‘I shouldn’t have spoken so strongly. I don’t like being taken by surprise, and you surprise me all the time. So I-I go on to the attack.’

‘I really am sorry about the other day,’ he risked saying. ‘I didn’t mean to spy. It was an accident.’

‘I know. It’s just that there are times when I don’t like to be looked at.’

‘I think that’s most of the time,’ he suggested gently.

‘Well-never mind that.’

‘But I-damn!’

The telephone had rung. She snatched it up and spoke to her secretary, finishing with, ‘All right, put him through.’

She made a placating signal to Luke and spoke into the phone for ten minutes.

When she’d finished he asked, ‘Could you block your calls until we’ve finished?’

‘Not really. I have some important stuff coming through this morning-’

‘And it gives you a convenient escape from me, right?’

Before she could answer, the phone rang again. Moving fast, Luke lifted the receiver and slammed it back down. Then he grasped Minnie’s hand and began to walk out of the room, forcing her to go with him.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she seethed, trying to pull free.

‘Taking you to where there’s no escape,’ he said, not loosening his grip.

On the way through the outer office they passed the secretary, whose curious gaze forced Minnie to look cheerful.

‘Just take messages until I’m back,’ she called.

‘But when will that be?’

‘I have no idea,’ she managed to say before the door closed behind her.

‘What kind of man are you?’ she demanded as they went down in the lift.

‘A man with a short fuse, a man who doesn’t like being messed about, a man who believes in direct action.’

‘So your answer is to take me prisoner? Where are you going to put me? In a dungeon?’

‘Wait and see.’

But he grinned as he said it and there was something in the sight that sent a sudden frisson through her. It was confusing not to know what he had in mind, but also strangely intriguing. His unpredictability should be maddening-it was maddening, she hastily corrected herself. But right now she was intensely curious.

After all, it might actually turn out to be a dungeon.

The ride to the ‘dungeon’ was by one of the horse-drawn carriages that travelled the streets of Rome.

‘Borghese Gardens, the lake,’ Luke called to the driver as they got in and seated themselves.

‘You’re going to throw me in?’ she asked.

‘Don’t tempt me,’ he growled.

She decided to wait and see before taking any hasty action. Not that there was much action she could have taken with her hand firmly clasped in his.

New York had Central Park, London had Hyde Park, Rome had the glorious Borghese Gardens, known as the ‘green lung’ of the city, a hundred and fifty acres of trees, lawns, shaded wandering paths and cool water.

At the top of the Via Veneto the driver turned his horse into the gardens, and soon they were trotting beneath trees through which the sun slanted, until the lake burst on them, its water glistening, the artificial temple on the other side white and gleaming in the glow of summer.

Leaving the carriage, Luke led her to the place where boats could be hired, but suddenly a tremor shook her and she tried to pull away from him.

‘Not here, Luke.’

‘Yes, here,’ he said firmly, keeping tight hold on her hand. ‘We’re going to take a boat and relax and talk and forget everything except that it’s a beautiful day.’

‘But-’

‘Hush,’ he said, raising the hand that was holding hers so that she could see the tight clasp as well as feel it. ‘I told you there was no escape and I meant it. Today, Signora Avvocato, you’re going to do as you’re told-for once.’

Not releasing her, he took a small rowing boat, and indicated with his head for her to get in. She did so, and he silently congratulated himself. Evidently the odd display of ‘male authority’ could be risked, even in this day and age.

She settled in the stern, watching him as he took the oars and headed out into the middle of the lake.

‘You were right,’ she mused. ‘There’s no escape.’

He had a mysterious feeling that she meant something else, but she fell silent.

‘Do you mind?’ he asked cautiously. ‘I’m sorry I got pushy.’

So much for male authority, he thought.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, and again he had the sensation that she wasn’t really talking to him. ‘It had to happen. I suppose I was being silly.’

‘I seem to see a new you all the time,’ he observed. ‘In party mood, mother hen, the stern lawyer today-’

‘You’ve seen me as a lawyer before,’ she reminded him. ‘Think of our first meeting.’

‘That was different. That court was your stage. You commanded it. But I haven’t seen you before like you are today, holding yourself in and fighting the world. Or is it only me?’

‘No,’ she said after a moment. ‘As you say-the world.’

‘You do a lot of fighting inside yourself, that nobody knows about, don’t you?’

She nodded.

‘Or perhaps Gianni knows?’

He knew it was a risk but, instead of trying to jump out of the boat, she shook her head.

‘Did he ever know?’

‘When he was alive there was nothing to fight,’ she said simply.

He pulled on the oars, drawing them nearer the centre of the lake, sensing that the further they went the more she relaxed, as though a spring inside her was visibly uncoiling.

‘Signora-’ he began.

‘Minnie.’

‘Then could you please take your hair down? It’s scaring me.’

She laughed and pulled her hair free, letting it fall around her face, as close to dishevelled as he had ever seen it.

‘Is that better?’ she asked.

‘Much better,’ he agreed. ‘Now you look like the real Minnie.’

‘You know nothing about Minnie,’ she assured him.

‘True, because she keeps changing and confusing me.’

‘I could say the same about you. You’ve had a few different guises yourself-convict, party animal, ruthless tycoon. I merely adapt to keep up with you.’

‘And what am I now?’

‘Caveman! Hauling me off like that to a place where there’s no escape.’

‘Well, there is no escape, unless you want to jump into the water. I don’t know if it’s deep but it’s certainly dirty.’

For answer she gave the most delightful chuckle he’d ever heard from her. It subsided into a sweet, wistful smile.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘How strange that you should have said that to me. It’s exactly what he said.’

‘He?’ Luke asked, but he had an uneasy feeling that he already knew the answer.

‘Gianni. This is where he proposed to me. He hired a boat just like this one, rowed me out into the middle of the lake, and said, “Marry me!”’

She fell silent, looking into the water, reliving the moment.

Luke stared, shocked as the implications dawned on him. Then he groaned and clutched his head with one hand, so agitated that he forgot the oar, which swung away from him in the rowlock. Minnie leaned forward to take hold of it.

‘Don’t panic,’ she said, sliding it back to him.

He didn’t seem to see it. He was staring at her, aghast.

‘That was why you didn’t want to come on the lake?’

‘Yes.’

‘This place is special, and I forced you… Oh, Lord, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. What a mess!’

‘Stop being so hard on yourself.’

‘Have I ruined it for you?’

‘Of course not,’ she said gently. ‘Nothing could ruin it for me. It doesn’t depend on other people. I’m even glad that you made me come here. I’ve never been back since he died, and it’s been like a wall rearing up in front of me. Now you’ve helped me get over it.’

Her air of strain had fallen away, leaving her calm and content. She had said, ‘It doesn’t depend on other people’, and he saw that it was true. She had her own world where she lived with Gianni, and nobody could touch it.

Luke cursed the ill luck that had made him bring her here. He’d meant to draw her away from Gianni’s ghost, but it was himself from whom she’d withdrawn, back into her private place, leaving him outside.

He took the oar from her, feeling the brief touch of her hand. Slight as it was, it unnerved him.

He said no more for a while, but rowed in silence while the sun rose high in the sky and he grew uncomfortably hot in his sedate jacket.

‘You’re not dressed for rowing,’ she said kindly. ‘Why not take your jacket off?’

He removed it gratefully and she took it from him, folding it neatly and laying it beside her.

‘And the tie,’ she said. ‘Take that off and open your shirt. Right now you need to be comfortable rather than dignified.’

‘Thanks,’ he said, stripping off the tie and handing it to her.

It was bliss to open the top buttons and feel the air on him, but after a few minutes he discovered a downside to this. Perspiration cascaded from him as he rowed, soaking his shirt, making it cling to him, outlining the muscular shape of his torso.

For some reason he felt awkward. With any other beautiful woman he would have enjoyed the chance to impress her as part of the normal process of flirtation. But for her that wasn’t good enough, and he felt uncomfortable, even ashamed.

He glanced at her and was relieved to find that she apparently hadn’t noticed. She was leaning back, her head tilted up to the sky. Her eyes were closed against the sun, and there was a half smile on her lips. He watched her, entranced, knowing that he could have stayed like this for ever.

He pulled on the oars with renewed vigour, relishing the mass of physical sensations that were rushing in on him at once. Exertion had made his blood pound and his heart beat more strongly, and now his memory seized on the night of the party, when he’d fallen asleep, she’d led him to bed and had to struggle to free herself.

He couldn’t actually recall her thumping him, but the feel of her body writhing against his was there with him now. And suddenly he knew why. The touch of her hand, a few minutes ago, had revived that other moment when they had been as close as lovers, in flesh if not in spirit.

Now his body felt alive, vibrant, and the knowledge that it wasn’t the same with her, that there was no way he could reach her, had the effect of intensifying every feeling almost to the point of desperation.

In an urgent attempt to distract his own thoughts, he said, ‘Did you accept Gianni at once?’

‘I didn’t say anything,’ she remembered dreamily. ‘I was too dumbfounded to speak. I was madly in love, but I’d thought it would take me ages to wring a proposal out of him. Suddenly there it was, and all I could do was open and close my mouth like a goldfish.’

‘What did he say?’ Luke pressed her.

He despised himself for weakening and asking the question, but if she didn’t tell him soon he’d go crazy.

‘He said, “Either you say yes or I tip you in the water.” So I said yes. Afterwards he told me he wished he hadn’t done it that way, as he’d never know whether I’d married him out of love or to save myself from getting wet.’ She laughed. ‘I told him to work it out.’

‘Did he ever manage that?’

‘Let’s just say we were very happy,’ she said softly.

He was silent. There was nothing to say.

After a moment she asked, ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘I was wondering how often this happens. Do you see Gianni everywhere?’

She considered this seriously. ‘I don’t “see” him. He’s just there, part of me.’

‘But I meant places.’

‘Yes, he’s in all the places. Anywhere we were together, he’s still there. We often used to come on this lake and remember what happened.’

He was longing to ask if Gianni was there with them now, but he bit the words back. Why torment himself?

‘I should return to the office,’ she said with a little sigh.

‘Let’s not go back. Let’s stay on the water, then go and have some lunch and to blazes with them all.’

‘I can’t,’ she said reluctantly. ‘I have clients coming in this afternoon.’

‘Put them off.’

‘Luke, I can’t. I mustn’t. I can’t just abandon people who need my help.’

‘But we haven’t talked about anything.’

‘Serves you right for being a caveman.’

And with that he knew he would have to be satisfied. Turning the boat he pulled back to shore and helped her out. A horse-drawn carriage was passing and took them back to the Via Veneto.

At the door of the building she paused. ‘We’ll talk business another day,’ she said.

Luke didn’t want to talk business with her. He wanted to kiss her. But he bade her a polite farewell and left.

A few minutes walking in the sun were enough to dry his shirt. He called the bank and made himself an appointment for later that day. He passed the time with an excellent lunch at which he drank only mineral water to keep his head clear. By now he was functioning as a businessman, so he sat at the table for another hour, jotting down figures.

The meeting at the bank was very satisfactory, and he emerged with the feeling of having matters under his control, something which always made him feel better.

But he was restless, and to ease it he walked all the way back to the Residenza while the light of the city faded and the yellow lamps came on. It was almost dark when he arrived.

Some of his neighbours were sitting on the stairs of the courtyard and he lingered with them, exchanging pleasantries. But he didn’t stay long. It had been a hot day and a humid evening, and he was longing for a shower. As he climbed the final stairs he allowed himself to glance down at Minnie’s windows, something he hadn’t allowed himself to do under the curious eyes of his neighbours. There were lights on. She was in.

Briefly he considered crossing over to see her, but he sensed that she would prefer to be left in peace. After watching the lights in her flat for a while he closed his door and went into the bathroom. There he stripped off, got under the shower and reached out to the boiler.

It exploded.

After that his impressions piled in on each other. The hideous noise, the crack on his head as he was hurled back against the wall, flames, the terrible helplessness of lying on the floor, half in and half out of consciousness, unable to move and save himself.

From a distance he heard fists pounding on his front door until it flew open and people burst in. Some dragged him out of the bathroom, others fought the flames. The pain was terrible, yet he didn’t lose consciousness, only turned his head from side to side, trying to understand what was happening.

They wanted to carry him outside where he would be safer, and he thought vaguely that they shouldn’t do that because he was naked. He tried to say something, but when he looked up he found Minnie’s face above him. Somehow she was cradling him in her arms. Tears poured down her face and she was sobbing, ‘Oh, God, not again-not again!’

Then he blacked out and knew no more until he awoke to find himself in hospital. There was a searing pain down his right side, starting with his face, which felt red-hot, and going down his arm, where it was almost unbearable. He made a sound which was half gasp, half groan, and a woman’s face appeared in his consciousness.

‘You’re awake. Good. The pain-killers should start to take effect soon.’

Luke gave a grunt of thankfulness.

‘What happened?’ he whispered.

‘Your boiler blew when you were right in front of it and you caught the full blast. You’re lucky you aren’t dead.’

‘I feel pretty near it.’

‘Your right side is most affected. You have mild burns all down the right of your body, and more severe ones on your arm. But they’ll heal. You’re in no danger.’

He remembered now. He’d just stripped off, prior to having a shower when the world had exploded about him. With horror he realised that the woman talking to him was a nun.

‘Oh, Lord!’ he groaned. ‘I’m sorry, sister-’

‘Doctor,’ she said firmly.

‘Doctor, I hope I didn’t outrage the sensibilities of the sisters.’

‘Don’t you worry, young man,’ she said cheerfully. ‘We’re not easily scared. Besides, you were decently covered by the time you came in. Your neighbours took care of that.’

‘Good,’ he said thankfully.

But then more memories assailed him. Minnie-she’d been there when they’d dragged him free. He’d lain naked in her arms, and she’d cradled him, weeping, ‘Oh, God, not again!’

He tried to think. Had it really happened or was it just his feverish imagination? But the pain-killers were taking effect and suddenly he lost consciousness.