Pride & Consequence Omnibus (27 page)

‘It seems such a shame to just let them die unappreciated and unloved,’ she had told him defensively.

‘So, she is a home-maker, this fiancée of yours,’ his mother pronounced, suddenly very Italian as she subjected Jodi’s handiwork to a critical maternal examination. ‘Does she cook for you?’

‘Mamma!’ Leo sighed, leading her into the kitchen. ‘There is something that you need to know...and it is going to take quite some time for me to tell you.’

‘There is,’ Luisa Jefferson informed her son firmly, ‘only one thing I need to know and it will take you very little time to tell me. Do you love her?’

For a moment she thought that he wasn’t going to reply. He was a man, after all, she reminded herself ruefully, not a boy, but then he grimaced and pushed his hair back off his face in a gesture that reminded her of her own husband before he admitted, ‘Unfortunately, yes, I do.’

‘Unfortunately?’ she queried delicately.

‘There is a problem,’ Leo told her.

His mother’s unexpected arrival was a complication he had not foreseen, but now that she was here he was discovering to his own amusement and with a certain sense of humility that he actually wanted to talk to her about Jodi, to share with her not just his discovery of his love for Jodi but also his confusion and concern.

‘In love there is always a problem,’ his mother responded humorously. ‘If there is not then it is not love. So, tell me what your particular problem is... Her father does not like you? That is how a father is with his daughter. I remember my own father—’

‘Mamma, I haven’t met Jodi’s father yet, and anyway...I have told you that I love Jodi, but what I have not told you yet is that she does not love me.’

‘Not love you? But you are engaged, and I must say, Leonardo, that I did not enjoy learning of your engagement from your secretary; however—’

‘Mamma please,’ Leo interrupted her firmly. ‘Let me explain.’

When he did Leo was careful to edit his story so that his mother would not, as he had initially done, jump to any unfair or judgemental conclusions about Jodi, but he could tell that she was not entirely satisfied with his circumspect rendition of events.

‘You love her and she does not love you, but she has agreed to become engaged to you to protect her reputation, since by accident she fell asleep in your hotel suite and was seen leaving early in the morning?’

Her eyebrows lifted in a manner that conveyed a whole range of emotions, most of which made Leo’s heart sink.

‘I am very interested to meet this fiancée of yours, Leonardo.’

Leo drew in his breath.

‘Well, as to that, I cannot promise that you will,’ he began. ‘I have to go to London on business this afternoon, and I had planned to stay there for several days. You could come with me if you wish and do some shopping,’ he offered coaxingly.

His mother gave him an old-fashioned look.

‘I live in Italy now, Leonardo. We have Milan. I do not need to shop. No, whilst you are in London I shall stay here and wait for you to return,’ she pronounced. ‘Where does she live, this fiancée of yours?’ she asked determinedly.

Leo sighed.

‘She lives here in Frampton. Mamma, I know you mean well,’ he told her gently. ‘But please, I would ask you not to...to...’

‘To interfere?’ she supplied drily for him. ‘I am your mother, Leonardo, and I am Italian...’

‘I understand,’ Leo told her gently. ‘But I hope you will understand that, since I know that Jodi does not love me, it can only cause me a great deal of humiliation and unwanted embarrassment if it was to be brought to her attention that I love her, and quite naturally I do not wish to subject either of us to those emotions, which means...’ He took a deep breath. ‘What I have told you, Mamma, is for your ears only, and I would ask that it remains so, and that you do not seek Jodi out to discuss any of this with her. I do not want her to be upset or embarrassed in any way, by anyone.’

For a moment he thought that she was going to refuse, and then she took a deep breath herself and agreed.

‘I shall not seek her out.’

‘Thank you.’

As he leaned forward to kiss her Leo heard his mother complaining, ‘When I prayed that you would fall in love I did not mean for something like this to happen!’

‘You want grandchildren, I know.’ Leo smiled, struggling to lighten the mood of their conversation.

‘I want grandchildren,’ his mother agreed, ‘but what I want even more is to see you sharing your life with the person you love; I want to see your life being enriched and made complete by the same kind of love your father and I have shared. I want for you what every mother wants for her child,’ she told him fiercely, her eyes darkening with maternal protection and love. ‘I want you to be happy.’

* * *

His mother couldn’t want those things she had described to him any more than he wanted them for himself, Leo acknowledged a couple of hours later as he drove towards Frampton
en route
for London. He had left his mother busily dead-heading roses, whilst refusing to listen to any suggestion he tried to make that, since he could not say categorically when he would be back, she might as well return home to Italy.

In the village the temptation to turn the car towards Jodi’s cottage was so strong that Leo found he was forced to grip the steering wheel to control it.

His life would never be happy now, he reflected morosely.

Not without Jodi in it. Not without her love, her presence, her warmth; not without her!

* * *

Jodi stared at her computer screen, carefully reading the resignation letter she had been working on for the last three hours. Now it was done, and there was nothing to stop her from printing it off and posting it, but somehow she could not bring herself to do so—not yet.

She got up and paced the floor, and then on a sudden impulse she picked up her keys and headed for the door.

It was a beautiful, warm summer’s day, and the gardens of the cottages that lined her part of the village street overflowed with flowers, creating an idyllic scene.

Normally just the sight of them would have been enough to lift her spirits and make her think how fortunate she was to live where she did and to be the person she was, a person who had a job she loved, a family she loved, a life she loved.

But not a man she loved... The man she loved... And not the job she loved either—soon. But, though the school and her work were important to her, they did not come anywhere near matching the intensity of the love she had for Leo.

Leo. Busy with her thoughts, Jodi had walked automatically towards the school.

There was a bench opposite it, outside the church, and Jodi sat down on it, looking across at the place that meant so much to her and which she had worked so hard for.

She was not so vain that she imagined that there were no other teachers who could teach as ably, if not more so, as she had done herself, but would another teacher love the school the way she had done? Would another woman love Leo the way she did?

Her eyes filled with tears, and as she reached hurriedly into her bag for a tissue she was aware of a woman sitting down on the bench next to her.

‘Are you all right, only I could not help but notice that you are crying?’

The woman’s comment caught Jodi off guard. It was, not, after all, a British national characteristic to comment on a stranger’s grief, no matter how sympathetic towards them and curious about them one might be.

Proudly Jodi lifted her head and turned to look at the woman.

‘I’m fine, thank you,’ she told her, striving to sound both cool and dismissive, but to her horror fresh tears were filling her eyes, spilling down over her cheeks, and her voice had begun to wobble alarmingly. Jodi knew that any moment now she was going to start howling like a child with a skinned knee.

‘No, you aren’t. You are very upset and you are also very angry with me for saying so, but sometimes it can help to talk to a stranger,’ the other woman was telling her gently, before adding, ‘I saw you looking at the school...’

‘Yes,’ Jodi acknowledged. ‘I...I teach there. At least, I did...but now...’ She bit her lip.

‘You have decided to leave,’ her interlocuter guessed. ‘You have perhaps fallen in love and are to move away and you are crying because you know you will miss this very beautiful place.’

Although her English was perfect, Jodi sensed that there was something about her questioner that said that she was not completely English. She must be a visitor, someone who was passing through the area, someone she, Jodi, would never, ever see again.

Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason Jodi discovered that she did want to talk to her, to unburden herself, and to seek if not an explanation for what was happening to her, then at least the understanding of another human being. Something told her that this woman would be understanding. It was written in the warmth of her eyes and the encouragement of her smile.

‘I am in love,’ Jodi admitted, ‘but it is not... He...the man I love...he doesn’t love me.’

‘No? Then he is a fool,’ the other woman pronounced firmly. ‘Any man who does not love a woman who loves him is a fool.’ She gave Jodi another smile and Jodi realised that she was older than she had first imagined from her elegant appearance, probably somewhere in her late fifties.

‘Why does he not love you? Has he told you?’

Jodi found herself starting to smile.

‘Sort of... He has indicated that...’

‘But you are lovers?’ the woman pressed Jodi with a shrewdness and perspicacity that took Jodi’s breath away.

She could feel her colour starting to rise as she admitted, ‘Yes, but...but he didn’t... It was at my instigation... I...’ She stopped and bit her lip again. There were some things she could just not bring herself to put into words, but her companion, it seemed, had no such hang-ups.

‘You seduced him!’

She sounded more amused than shocked, and when Jodi looked at her she could actually see that there was laughter in the other woman’s dark eyes.

‘Well...I...sort of took him by surprise. I’d fallen asleep in his bed, you see, and he didn’t know I was there, and when I woke up and realised that he was and...’ Jodi paused. There was something cathartic about what she was doing, about being able to confide in another person, being able to explain for the first time just what she had felt and why she had felt it.

‘I’d seen him earlier in the hotel foyer,’ she began in a low voice. ‘I didn’t know who he was, not then, but I...’

She stopped.

‘You were attracted to him?’ the other woman offered helpfully.

Gratefully Jodi nodded.

‘Yes,’ she agreed vehemently. ‘He affected me in a way that no other man had ever done. I just sort of looked at him and...’ Her voice became low and strained. ‘I know it sounds foolish, but I believe I fell in love with him there and then at first sight...and I suppose when I woke up and found myself in bed with him my...my body must have remembered how I’d felt then, earlier, and.... But he...well, he thought that I was there because... And then later, when he realised the truth, he told me... He asked me...’ Her voice tailed off. ‘I should never have done what I did, and I felt so ashamed.’

‘For falling in love?’ the older woman asked her, giving a small shrug. ‘Why should you be ashamed of that? It is the most natural thing in the world.’

‘Falling in love might be,’ Jodi agreed, ‘but my behaviour, the way I...’ Jodi shook her head primly and had to swallow hard as she tried to blink away her threatening tears.

Her companion, though, was not deterred by her silence and demanded determinedly, ‘So, you have met a man with whom you have fallen in love. You say he does not love you, but are you so sure?’

‘Positive,’ Jodi insisted equally determinedly.

‘And now you sit here weeping because you cannot bear the thought of your life without him,’ the older woman guessed.

‘Yes, because of that, and...and for other reasons,’ Jodi admitted.

‘Other reasons?’

Jodi drew an unsteady breath.

‘When...after...after he had realised that I was not as he had first imagined, well, when he realised the truth about me he warned me that if...if by some mischance I...there should be...repercussions from our intimacy then he would expect me to...to...’

Jodi bit down on her lip and looked away as fresh tears welled in her eyes.

‘I told myself that it was impossible for me to love a man like that, a man who would callously destroy the life of his child. How could I love him?’

She shook her head in bewilderment, whilst her companion demanded in a disbelieving voice, ‘I cannot believe what you are saying. It is impossible; unthinkable...’

‘I can assure you that it is the truth,’ Jodi insisted shakily. ‘I didn’t want to believe it myself, but he told me. He said categorically that something would have to be arranged. Of course, then I really did believe that it was impossible that I could be—but now...’

As Jodi wrapped her arms protectively around her still slender body her companion questioned sharply, ‘You are pregnant? You are to have...this man’s child?’

Numbly Jodi nodded. ‘Yes. And I am also facing an enquiry because I was seen leaving his hotel suite, and other things. And, as a head teacher, it is of course expected that I should... That was why he said we should get engaged, because of the gossip and to protect me.’

As she spoke Jodi raised her left hand, where Leo’s diamond glistened in the sunlight nearly as brightly as Jodi’s own falling tears. ‘But how can he offer to protect me and yet want to destroy his own child?’

‘What will you do?’ the other woman was asking her quietly.

Jodi drew a deep breath.

‘I plan to move away and start a fresh life somewhere else.’

‘Without telling your lover about his child?’

After everything she, Jodi, had told her, how could she sound so disapproving? Jodi wondered.

‘How can I tell him when he has already told me that he doesn’t want it? “Something will have to be arranged”—that is what he said to me, and I can imagine what kind of arrangement he meant. But I would rather die myself than do anything to hurt my baby.’ Jodi was getting angry now, all her protective maternal instincts coming to the fore.