Venetian Masquerade (17 page)

“Thank you, son. Thank you.” The old man wiped tears from his eyes with a large handkerchief and held his son’s hand tightly for a moment.

Dolores still stood frostily by the door, clearly acutely uncomfortable.

Amy crossed to her and quietly murmured, “Please, come and sit with me.”

Shrugging Amy’s hand from her arm, she went to sit on the sofa, disdain and dislike in every angle of her body.

“Where is the boy?” she asked finally.

“I’ll go and bring him,” said Alessandro crisply. “Please remember he has been extremely ill—he must not be upset.”

He called James, who had gone back to play with his train set, and the child came into the room. His eyes widened as he regarded the elderly man in the wheelchair and the stern-looking woman seated beside his mother.

“James, I want you to meet your
nonno
and
nonna,
my parents. Will you come and say hello?”

The child stood for a second before crossing the room to his mother and climbing onto her lap. He smiled uncertainly at Dolores, who merely nodded at him, but Giovanni caught his breath as he looked at his grandson, and the child smiled shyly at him.

“Why are you in that wheelchair?” he asked.

“Because my legs are old and tired,” Giovanni replied. “Will you come and tell me about your Christmas presents?”

“Yes! I had a train set, and Papa has been helping me set it up. Do you want to come and see?”

“He speaks Italian,” whispered the old man. “You taught him Italian.”

“He speaks three languages,” Alessandro told him proudly.

Turning back to James, Giovanni held out a gnarled hand. “Yes, James, I would love to see your train set. Alessandro…will you push me?”

The three of them left the room, and Amy sat beside Dolores, waiting for her to speak; after a few awkward moments, she raised her eyes to Amy.

“This is going to cause quite a scandal. It was bad enough when Alessandro and Sophia divorced. Now everyone will gossip because he has a child outside of marriage.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“You know that if he marries you, it will only be because of the boy.”

“We haven’t discussed it.” Amy felt angry color flood her cheeks and fought to control her temper. This awful woman knew nothing of the passion between Alessandro and herself, and looking at the cold, hard expression, she decided that Dolores had probably never felt a flicker of passion in her entire life. For that, Amy supposed, she should be pitied.

“He is a good catch, young lady, and you have played a clever game. I can see that today, you have only invited us here so that you can gloat over your victory. My husband insisted on coming. It was not my choice.”

“If that is your opinion,
Signora
, there is nothing I can do to change it. I invited you here today because I wanted to see you both reconciled with Alessandro—and so that James could meet his grandparents.”

“James will be welcome in our home—we acknowledge him as family, not least because he is so like his father.”

“If you will excuse me, I need to finish preparing lunch.” Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm herself, Amy left the room, banging the door behind her.

By contrast, across the hallway, she heard laughter as Giovanni and Alessandro took turns pressing the controls for the train set while James knelt in the center of the track, watching the trains circle around him.
Perhaps not all of her efforts had been in vain.

A while later, they all gathered for lunch, and although Dolores contributed almost nothing to the conversation, Giovanni and James carried on a spirited discussion about football and fishing. Alessandro sat back and watched them, a small smile on his face, but when Amy caught his eye, he regarded her coolly.

To her relief, the elderly couple left shortly after lunch, as Giovanni was tired and in need of his medication. He took her hand at the front door and simply said, “Thank you, my dear.”

She leaned and kissed his cheek, and James also came forward to give his grandfather a peck. But Dolores got into the car and called Alessandro to her. Amy could not hear the exchange between them, but he returned to the house grim-faced.

As the car pulled away, Alessandro turned to her and said quietly, “Please don’t ever do anything like that again. My family is none of your concern. If I had wanted to see them, I would have arranged it myself.”

Amy took James upstairs for a rest and called the airline to book flights for them both back to Venice the next day. She slept in her own room that night, and when she emerged the next morning, she discovered Alessandro had left the house. Lucia told her he had gone to the office and would be back at lunchtime.

“We will have left by then,” Amy told her. “Our flight is at one o’clock.”

She packed their clothes, and Lucia found an extra box for James’s presents. She called a taxi to take them to the airport and bade farewell to Lucia. As she watched the house recede into the distance, she wondered whether she would ever see it again; clearly, Alessandro was very angry because she had so seriously overstepped the boundaries of their relationship.

As they sat in the departure lounge, James looked miserable. “Why didn’t Papa say goodbye to us?” he asked. “Are you not friends again?”

“He had to go to the office early, sweetheart. He will come to Venice to see you soon.”
I hope
.

Amy was greatly relieved to land at Venice airport and delighted to see Gabriel waiting for them. James rushed to him for a hug, and he enfolded Amy in his arms as well.

“I’m so glad to see you both. We’ve all been so worried.”

“It was a close call.” She gulped, suddenly overcome. “He’s fine now, except he still gets tired quickly.”

“He looks okay, but what about you, dear girl?”

“In bits. Everything was going so well, and I actually began to hope there might be a future for us, but I made a huge mistake by inviting his parents to spend Christmas Day with us without telling him. He’s furious and has barely spoken to me since.”

“Give him time.”

“How did you spend Christmas?” she asked, eager to change the subject.

“With Sonya, Donna, Carmela, and Antonio. Sonya cooked an amazing meal, and we had a great time, except we missed you two. Come on. The boat is waiting, and I want to get back before the weather breaks. We’re expecting a storm anytime now.”

The trip to the Lido was uncomfortably rough, but the villa was warm and welcoming, and Amy collapsed in a chair with a sigh of relief. James yawned and put his thumb in his mouth, so, after feeding him a huge sandwich, she tucked him in his bed for a rest and came back to the kitchen, where Gabriel had made coffee. Within a few minutes, Sonya and Donna arrived, followed by Antonio and Carmela, and soon, they were exchanging stories and talking so loudly, Amy almost missed hearing the phone ring. She went into the living room to answer it, knowing who it would be.

“Alessandro.”

“You did it again, didn’t you?” he barked at her. “You ran away without talking to me. I had to go to the office, and you were still sleeping so I didn’t wake you. I expected to have time to explain things to you later. When I returned, I found you had just taken off. It’s a tiresome habit, Amy, and it has to stop. I really can’t handle it anymore.”

“I…I’m sorry.”

“I have a stack of papers here which you need to sign in respect of the new project, and we need to discuss in some detail what you want to do with it. I had hoped we could have dealt with all that this evening, but now I shall have to come to Venice over New Year, which is the only time I have in the next three weeks. Will that be convenient?” he demanded.

“Yes…of course…”

“Then I’ll see you in a few days. How is James?”

“He’s well. Sleeping at present.”

“Give him my love. Tell him I’m missing him.” He put the phone down, leaving Amy feeling sick with shame. How stupid she had been—how juvenile. He must now think her a complete fool and be wondering what he had ever seen in her—apart from a strong sexual attraction. Clearly, the relationship was in tatters, and it was all her fault. Miserably, she returned to her friends in the kitchen.

“What is it?” asked Sonya, taking in her pale, pinched face.

“I destroyed any chance of a relationship with Alessandro because I’m an idiot, but I don’t want to talk about it now. We need to discuss the opening of Hotel Maria and the gala night. There’s only four weeks to go, and although the invitations have gone out to nearly a hundred people, we have done almost nothing about organizing anything.”

“I took the liberty of ordering a marquee for the garden,” chipped Gabriel. “I have a friend…”

In spite of her depression, Amy began to laugh and clutched his hand. “Gabriel, you are amazing. What would we do without you and your friends?”

They discussed catering, music, entertainment, and publicity to help get the new hotel noticed, and by the evening, a plan of action had been agreed.

Then the predicted storm arrived; strong gusts of wind bent the leafless trees along the road, and rain hammered down on the road. Sonya and Donna fled to their apartment, and Antonio and Carmela called a taxi home.

“Please stay here tonight, Gabriel,” Amy begged him. “You can’t possibly cross the lagoon in this weather in a small boat.”

“Thank you. I think I will. St. Mark’s Square will almost certainly flood with this volume of rain. Anyway, you look as though you need someone to talk to.”

Amy nodded, and he pulled her to sit beside him on the sofa.

“Tell me.”

“He’s not married. He and Sophia were divorced two years ago. He says they never loved each other.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Actually, yes, I do.”

“If I’m allowed to ask, has he proposed to you now or made any other commitment?”

“No. And since I blew a hole in our relationship by interfering between him and his parents, I doubt he ever will.”

“Would you marry him if he asked you?”

“Of course I would,” she whispered. “He’s all I ever think about, but there are too many obstacles. For a start, I couldn’t bear to live in Rome, and that is where his business is focused. His mother detests me, and I wouldn’t fit in with his friends. I can’t abide the socialites he has to mix with.” She shuddered, remembering the withering looks and acid comments she had endured at the awful party that night six years ago. “So it seems that James will have to be content with a long distance relationship with his papa. Poor little chap, he’s very confused.”

“Kids are far more resilient than adults; he’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, simply cannot go on like this.”

“Any suggestions?” She groaned. “I seem to be incapable of getting my own life in order… I suppose you don’t have a friend who’s a counselor?”

“Oh, Amy…” He laughed and hugged her. “Let’s just concentrate of getting this lovely hotel launched in four weeks’ time. You’ve put so much into it, and now you have to make a success of it. I have some ads planned for local papers to promote the restaurant; the chefs want a dummy run on that on New Year’s Eve, so they are cooking dinner for us, plus anyone else you want to invite.”

“That’s a wonderful idea. We’ll invite all the new staff and their partners so they can get to know each other.”

“The website is up and running,” continued Gabriel, “and the Venice Tourist Board is ready to promote the hotel internationally.”

“Good grief.” Amy gasped. “You’ve done all that in the few days I’ve been away?”

“Yes.” He grinned, pleased with himself. “With a lot of help from Sonya.”

“She’s a wonderful person,” said Amy, regarding Gabriel from under her lashes.

“Yes,” he agreed. “She is.”

So,
thought Amy with satisfaction,
perhaps that relationship might move in the right direction, given a little time.

“I’m shattered.” She yawned. “See you in the morning.”

It rained all night, and by the morning, television reports showed St. Mark’s Square under several inches of water. Gabriel paced the floor, itching to get back to his shop, but there was no possibility of leaving until the waters subsided and the lagoon had calmed down.

“Will your shop be flooded?” Amy asked.

“Probably not. I paid a fortune for drainage, so unless the canal water has come over the top, it should be all right. It happens every year,” he grumbled, “and they will already have wooden walkways across St. Mark’s Square, but it is frightening to think that the place is sinking slowly. Can you imagine what would be lost if the restoration were delayed? The new system of locks and all the new barriers will be finished soon, so let’s hope it solves the problems.”

“You love this place, don’t you?”

“Yes. Don’t you?”

“I never want to live anywhere else. I just wish…”

“I know.” He patted her and hand. “Look, the rain has stopped and it’s about time for the tide to change. I should be able to go home this afternoon.”

Chapter Fourteen

T
he day after the storm dawned bright, with a hint of warmth in the sun. Donna came to play quietly with James, and Amy was touched to see the children hug each other.

“Amy, we really need to sort out our own costumes for the gala night,” said Sonya. “There are companies on the mainland who specialize in hiring out, but we’ve left it rather late.”

“We have. Can you sew?”

“Not really. The odd button…but surely you don’t intend…”

“Come and see what I found in a trunk.”

Together, they went up to the small storeroom, and Amy opened a cupboard to reveal yards and yards of blue, crimson, and gold silken material.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous…but we don’t have patterns.”

“But we do have designs. We can look in the museums…and guess what? Carmela mentioned the other night that when she was a girl, she used to work for a company which did nothing except make carnival costumes. If she will help us, we have everything we need. I brought my sewing machine in my shipment from England, and there are lots of shops selling trimmings, cottons, and muslin for the petticoats, and we can easily make the hoops for under the skirts. What do you think? I can see you in that azure blue, and gold is definitely my color. We could get masks, wigs, and shoes from any of the shops in Venice.”