Venetian Masquerade (20 page)

She had placed her close friends around her at a large table, and as everyone else found their seats, she asked them to sit but remained on her feet and summoned the chefs from the kitchen.

“I just want to welcome you all to Hotel Maria. As members of my staff, you are all valued, and I hope you will soon become friends and learn to work together as a team. We are all in this together, and it is going to be an exciting and sometimes exhausting time for us all in the weeks to come. I could not have done any of this without my very dear friends Gabriel, Sonya, Carmela, and Antonio, to whom I will be eternally grateful. So I wish you all a happy evening, a happy new year, and I would like to propose a toast to my godmother Maria. I hope she is smiling down on us all tonight.”

Glasses clinked and a low hum of conversation began as the chefs and their kitchen helper served the starters. To Amy’s eternal relief, it was as delicious as she had hoped, and the rest of the meal followed suit.

“I think we have a winner in this restaurant.” Gabriel beamed, leaning back in his chair and patting his stomach. “That was the most sumptuous meal I have eaten outside of Danieli’s.”

“The staff seem to be enjoying themselves,” chimed in Constanzo. “No clashes of personality so far.”

“I must circulate and talk to them all,” said Amy. “The restaurant staff starts work the day after tomorrow, and the hotel employees will be coming in for training the week after. Cesare has a schedule already organized, so I hope that everything will go smoothly. We open the hotel for business on the thirtieth, and already, we are fully booked for the first five weeks; it’s quite amazing.”

“It’s all so exciting, Amy,” said Sonya.

“But it won’t seem like our home anymore,” interjected James suddenly, and there was an awkward silence because they had all come to the same conclusion. The whole character of the villa had changed, and the little boy was clearly feeling very unsettled.

“We will still have our apartment, James, and if we outgrow it, in a few months perhaps, we will find an apartment near Sonya’s.”

He shrugged. “I like it here.”

Amy moved away, a shadow thrown over her evening, but with a bright smile, she went round to welcome her guests. A local musician with a keyboard played for them, and with a little persuasion, everyone took to the floor as midnight approached. James and Donna bopped together, and Amy watched with a mixture of satisfaction and sadness as the clock struck twelve when, amidst cheers and laughter, everyone kissed and exchanged good wishes. Sonya and Gabriel exchanged quite a number of kisses before including anyone else, but then they and all of Amy’s friends surrounded her with hugs and congratulations on her achievement. But Alessandro wasn’t there, and she thought she had never felt so lonely.

He called her early the next morning, sounding weary and sad. “The funeral is late this afternoon. Not the way I would wish to be spending the first of January.”

“How is Dolores?”

“Unspeakable. She is saying the shock of having you and James turn up in their lives is what brought on the second stroke.”

“Alessandro! Do you believe that?”

“Of course not, my darling. He was thrilled to find out he had a grandson. I don’t know how to get through today with her ranting and raving at me. I just want to grieve for my father, but she seems to think I have no right to; he was her exclusive property, and she is going to be there with the horrible creatures she associates with fawning all over her. An enormous reception has been laid on at the house, and of course the paparazzi are all over the place. It’s just awful.”

“Alessandro, if I were to get a flight in a couple of hours, would I be in time to be with you?”

“Well…yes…but I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me—I’m telling you.”

“That would be wonderful,” he replied quietly. “Thank you.”

“Call me back in fifteen minutes when I will have had time to organize things, and I’ll tell you when to meet me.”

“I love you, Amy.”

She caught her breath. It was the first time he had said the words so directly. “I love you too,” she replied softly.

She knew Gabriel was at Sonya’s, so she called and asked them to look after James and for Gabriel to take her to the station in his boat. Then she checked the flight timetable and flew upstairs to shower, change, and pack an overnight bag. Within half an hour, she was on her way, with Gabriel coaxing every last ounce of energy out of the boat to get her to the airport in time.

“I’m so happy for you and Sonya,” she told him wistfully.

“Thank you, sweetheart. She is adorable, and I am stunned that she seems to feel the same way about me.”

“Then don’t let her go.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“Gabriel, this is Alessandro’s phone number, in case you should have any problems at the hotel and can’t reach me on my mobile.”

“I’m sure we’ll cope. I have no auctions or important clients for the next couple of weeks, so I shall be around most of the time.”

They docked at the airport landing stage and rushed in to find she was just in time to board the flight to Rome.

“I’ll call Alessandro to tell him you’re on your way,” said Gabriel.

“Thanks!” she called back as they hustled her through Departures.

The flight arrived in Rome just after mid-day, and Alessandro was waiting for her as she emerged through the Arrivals gate. She went into his arms, and he held her silently for a couple of moments before taking her hand and leading her to where Franco was waiting with the car.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you,” he told her.

He looked pale and drawn, and her heart ached for him.

“Let’s go somewhere quiet for lunch,” she said, “and then you can tell me all about it.”

They settled on a small bistro; Amy led him to a table at the back and ordered a light lunch for them both.

“I didn’t realize it would have such an impact on me, losing my father,” he said sadly. “And I can’t share my feelings with Dolores, as she is so hostile to me and, I am afraid, to you.”

“Never mind; you can share anything with me,” Amy told him, reaching to lovingly touch his face.

“Then let me share this. I love you, and I want to be with you and James.”

“I want that too, Alessandro.”

“Truly?”

“Truly. I hate every moment away from you, and so does James. But let’s get today over with, and we’ll talk about it when you’re feeling less emotional.”

Her heart was pounding, and at that moment, she made a decision. No matter how difficult it would be, the hotel would have to be sold, and she and James would move to Rome. Whatever the cost, she just wanted a life with Alessandro, and so did James. If that meant coming to live with him in his huge house, then that was what she would do. But she decided that now was not the time to tell him; they needed to get the funeral over with first and to allow time for him to grieve for Giovanni.

They went briefly back to his house to change—Alessandro into a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, Amy into the black dress and coat with a small hat she had worn for Maria’s funeral—then they went to Giovanni’s house, from where the funeral procession would leave.

A servant opened the door to them, and Dolores glared at Amy before turning her back on them both.

“Ignore her,” Amy whispered. “After today, you need never see her again.”

They had to travel in the same car with Dolores to the packed church where Mass was to be said for Giovanni and sat uncomfortably in the same pew during the service. Alessandro kept his eyes on the flower-laden coffin, his eyes bright with unshed tears, clutching Amy’s hand as if his life depended on her. Dolores wept ostentatiously into a lace handkerchief, and as they left the church, she grabbed Alessandro’s arm, forcing him to escort her to the graveside. Amy shook her head at him when she could see he was about to object and followed sedately behind to the special garden set aside for departed di Benedettos. She watched sadly as the coffin was lowered into the ground, thinking that James had lost his grandfather after only one meeting.

When the final prayers had been said, they all returned to what was now Dolores’s house, where an enormous buffet had been laid on for the two hundred guests. Moving among them, it was clear they were not there to mourn Giovanni, but to be seen and to discuss business; this was nothing more than a charade and a networking opportunity. So, when Alessandro had spoken to those people he needed to greet, she took his hand and, calling Franco, pulled Alessandro into the car, instructing the driver to take them back to the graveside.

“Why, Amy?” asked Alessandro, puzzled.

“So that you can say goodbye to your father properly, in private,” she told him.

As they pulled up at the cemetery, he got out of the car and walked back to the grave, now filled and covered in hundreds of flowers. He looked a lonely figure, she thought, standing there in the fading light, and for fifteen minutes, he remained quietly in contemplation. Eventually, Amy went to him, and he turned and put his arms around her, finally able to weep for his father.

After a while, they went back to his house, where Amy made them scrambled eggs, and later, they sat cuddled together by the fire, drinking a bottle of wine. At nine o’clock, exhausted, they went to his bedroom and undressed. He held her in his arms as they lay together, and sometime later, very gently they made love and slept entwined together.

The next morning, Alessandro rose early and returned to the bedroom with coffee and toast. Lucia was on leave, but Amy was amused to see he had found his way around the huge kitchen.

“I’m impressed,” she chuckled. “You figured out the coffee machine, huh?”

“Yes, my sweet, and that’s not all I’ve figured out. I have figured out that I cannot, and will not, be parted from you again.”

“Before you go any further…” she said, putting a finger to his lips, “I had come to the same conclusion. Alessandro, once the hotel is up and running, in say a couple of months, I am going to sell it. If it is what you want, James and I will move to Rome to be with you.”

“You would do that?” He cupped her face with his hands. “Really?”

“Yes.” She nodded firmly. “You’re right. This simply can’t go on. I can’t bear it. The simplest solution is for us to move here.”

“Amy, I can’t let you do that. You’ve put so much into that hotel, and you have your friends around you—and James is happy there. And anyway, I like Venice…so… Oh dear, I don’t know how to tell you this, because now it sounds so underhanded.”

“What?” she asked curiously.

“Well…um…when I came to James’s birthday party and talked to Constanzo and Simona, they told me they were thinking of selling their house next door. I told them that when they were ready, I would buy it, and…well…that’s what I did.”

“You did what?” She sat staring at him in amazement.

“I hoped that one day, things between you and I might resolve. I knew I was still deeply in love with you, and I really couldn’t believe you were in love with Gabriel after our passionate encounter in London, so I took a flyer. I swore them to secrecy so that if we didn’t get together, I could just quietly sell it on and no one would be any wiser. It must look like a very arrogant decision to have taken without asking you, but I decided to take the chance.” He walked up and down the room for a moment, clearly embarrassed, before coming to sit beside her on the bed. “If you would like it to be our home, Amy, the three of us, then, that is where I want to live. I love you and James, and your friends are wonderful—I yearn to be a part of all that, if you’ll have me.”

“But what about your business?” she stammered. “Your house, your own social life…your life has always been so different from ours, and the villa next door only has six bedrooms…”

He began to laugh. “The company has a small office in Venice, which I can expand, and my cousin Louisa is willing to move to Rome. In fact, she would be more than delighted to move into this house and take over the reins. And anyway, even if I came into Rome a couple of times a week, we could be together the rest of the time.” He looked anxiously at her when she remained silent. “You don’t like the idea, do you?” He sighed.

“Like it? Alessandro, I am just totally stunned—I can’t believe what I’m hearing. But of course I like it! I think it’s wonderful…fantastic, amazing…” She flung herself into his arms with a shriek.

“Thank God.” He chuckled into her hair. “I have been bracing myself to tell you about it, but the time never seemed right.”

“But after this great mansion, it must seem very small. Are you sure you won’t regret this?” she asked.

“Amy, it is plenty big enough for the three of us, and a dog, and as you said, this is a mansion—a statement of money and power. I want a home.”

She kissed him then with such passion that it was an hour before either of them said anything more, but eventually, with great regret, Amy pulled herself away and went to have a shower. “I have to go back to Venice today. The restaurant opens for business tomorrow, and I can’t leave the chefs and Cesare to it. The gala is also looming large, and bookings are pouring in for the hotel.”

“What a busy lady… I’m so proud of you.”

“When will I see you?”

“I don’t know, my angel. I have a thousand things to do here for the next three or four weeks—not only business, but legal stuff after my father’s death. But look, here are the keys to our house. I don’t suppose you noticed Constanzo slip them to me the other day as they were moving out?”

“No, I didn’t… They kept your secret well. What do you want me to do with the house?”

“Well, make it habitable for now so that we can move in soon, and then we can turn it into a real home together. It will be fun, and I want it to be…well, not like this.” He gestured to the glitzy finery around him.

“You mean you want an untidy kitchen, with Snoopy under your feet, undies hanging in the bathroom, and a train set under the dining table…that, my darling, is what you are letting yourself in for.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“Yes it does, doesn’t it?” She kissed him, “Now, please will you take me to the airport, because I too have a business to run.”