Venetian Masquerade (21 page)

Amy traveled back to Venice in a haze of disbelief and excitement. The
vaporetto
seemed to take forever and then the walk back to the hotel twice as long as usual. The chefs, who were in the kitchen deep in consultation with Cesare, looked up as she came in before moving apart with a glance at each other.

“Is something wrong?” she asked nervously.

“Of course not. We were just having a meeting about final details for the restaurant. Everything is on schedule to open tomorrow, and we are fully booked.”

“That’s good…” She floated away, still slightly uneasy, but now desperate to go into the house next door which was to be her home.

James was alone in the garden, and she called him to her. “Come with me, James. I have something to show you.”

He came to her, and she took his hand and led him next door. She fitted the key into the door, and they went inside. It was in a slightly better state than Maria’s villa had been, but clearly, the whole house would need to be stripped out and refurbished…and then how lovely it would be. The three living rooms would be spacious and airy, the kitchen, slightly smaller than the one at the hotel, she visualized with modern furniture and appliances with a huge pine table in the center, where they could all gather…and the bedrooms...

“Why are we in Constanzo’s house, Mama?” James asked, puzzled.

She came back from her reverie and crouched down to face him. “What would you say if I told you this is now our house? It’s for you, me, and Papa, and we’re all going to live here together?”

His faced flushed, and he looked at her anxiously. “Do you mean it?”

“Papa bought the house from Constanzo and Simona without telling us. Now he wants to move to Venice and for us all to be a proper family.”

“And Snoopy?”

“Of course.”

The only way James seemed able to express his joy was by running round and round and whooping.

“Can I choose my bedroom?” he begged breathlessly at last.

“You have the choice of any of them, except this one,” she told him, opening the door of the large master bedroom. “This one is ours.”

It overlooked the canal and already had an aged
en suite
bathroom. James rushed off to explore while Amy sat on the bedroom windowsill. Rubbing a clean space on the dusty glass, she gazed out, almost unable to believe the changes in her life over the last five months. Next door, she watched as Gabriel, Sonya, and Donna arrived at Hotel Maria, closely followed by Carmela and Antonio. They were chatting and laughing, and she could hardly wait to see them and called James.

They locked the house and went back to find everyone gathered in the kitchen. A sudden small silence fell as she walked in, and then they all came to hug her in turn.

“Is this a union meeting?” she joked.

“Of course not. We just thought we should all get together before tomorrow night to make sure everything is in order.”

“And I have to work on the dresses,” chimed in Carmela.

“Well, I have news for you. Alessandro sprung a real surprise on me this morning.”

“He did?” Gabriel lifted an eyebrow, and her friends exchanged looks verging on alarm.

“He bought the house next door. We’re going to live there together.”

“Amy, that’s wonderful!” Sonya whooped, clapping her hands.

Donna jumped up and down with James in a frenzy of excitement. “Now you will have a proper papa and so will I,” she squeaked. “Gabriel is going to be my new papa.”

A hush fell over the group as they all turned their gaze on Sonya, who was blushing furiously, and Gabriel, who was beaming from ear to ear.

“Sonya has agreed to marry me, and Donna has agreed to take me on too—so I consider myself a lucky man.”

Champagne was poured, and somehow, Paulo and Carlo produced an instant lunch for them all. Sonya shyly showed them her diamond and ruby engagement ring, and the happiness in the room was tangible.

“This was all very quick.” Amy smiled at them. “You only started dating last week.”

“But we’ve been in love for ages; we just didn’t realize it was mutual, until you took a gentle hand. Now there seems no point in waiting, so we plan to get married in a few months, when we too have found somewhere new to live.”

Amy regarded her dear friends with satisfaction. How simple their path to love had been compared to her own. She glanced at her own bare fingers but then decided not to be concerned about marriage. It was obviously something Alessandro was not ready for, but he had made a commitment to her and to James, and she was content to settle for that.

The restaurant opened the next night to great acclaim. It was an exhausting evening for Amy, who greeted all her guests and hovered anxiously to make sure the waiting staff was doing a good job and that everyone was happy. Soft music played, the dining room was lit by the multicolored Tiffany lamps, and there were fresh flowers and candles on every table. White table linen glowed, silver sparkled, and the diners went into raptures over the food. As she finally closed the front door at midnight, she knew she had a success on her hands.

Now there was just the gala night and the opening of the main hotel to worry about, she thought, trying to force down a wave of panic.

The next few weeks flew by; when she wasn’t involved at Hotel Maria, she was next door supervising decorators, who were stripping off old wallpaper, sanding the lovely wooden floors back to a deep shine, and painting the interior of the whole house white. “We can start from scratch after we move in,” she told Alessandro on the telephone that evening.

He sounded tired and stressed. Dolores was calling him hourly with problems and demands and was enraged at his plan to move to Venice. Amy’s heart ached for him.

The marquee arrived two days before the gala, and it was huge, covering most of the garden. It had a wooden floor, room for the string quartet Amy had booked to play during dinner, and the inside was prettily draped in white and gold. “It’s gorgeous,” she marveled to Gabriel, who had come to inspect it.

“Wait till you see it all set up with tables and flowers.”

“Flowers! I haven’t ordered flowers!”

“All taken care of,” he said smugly.

“I know…you have a friend who’s a florist…”

“Indeed. Just relax, Amy. All you need to worry about is presenting yourself looking beautiful; everything else is arranged. It’s what you employ all these people to do,” he added, gesturing to the staff, happily buzzing around, erecting tables and hauling in chairs.

“Then I shall go and have a last check on my dress. I presume you have a costume for the night.”

“Of course. I shall look stunning,” he said with mock arrogance.

“I hope Alessandro will be able to make it. I don’t suppose he’s had time to sort out a costume, though. Do you think you could call and ask him? He might need some advice. Perhaps we could order one...even at this late stage.”

“Amy, will you stop worrying! He’ll be here, and it’s going to be a great night; now, go and sew sparkly things on your dress and leave everyone else to get on with what they have to do. By the way, I have booked for you and Sonya to go to the beauty salon on the afternoon of the gala for a massage, facial, manicure—whatever you want. My treat.”

“Gabriel, that is very sweet of you, but we can’t…there’s too much to do.”

“Nonsense. It’s all organized. Stop fussing!”

Grumbling, she went up to the bedroom, where Carmela was in the final stages of completing her handiwork. “I’ve been banished from downstairs,” Amy told her. “I don’t know why, but I just get a feeling they want me out of the way at the moment. Perhaps I intimidate them, hovering around.”

“Perhaps you do. You need a rest, my dear; you’ve been through a lot these past few weeks, what with James’s illness and getting the hotel on its feet. You have to learn to hand over some of the reins now, or you’ll be a nervous wreck.”

The costumes were finally finished that afternoon, and a sense of unreality settled over the hotel. Venice was already in a state of heady excitement, with colorful regattas up and down the Grand Canal. Buildings were decked out with decorations. There were concerts every evening, and the place was even more crowded than usual, with many tourists in town to see the biggest fancy-dress party in the world. Hotels were crowded and the marina crammed with visiting yachts.

Worryingly for Amy, there was no word from Alessandro. She had not heard from him for a week, and whenever she called his office, he seemed to be in a meeting or just rushing off to one. On the morning of her own gala night, his secretary finally called her to say that he would be at the gala, but that he might be late and sent his apologies.

Crossly, at lunchtime, she and Sonya went off to the beauty parlor and submitted to the ministrations of the masseuse. “I have been practically ordered out of my own hotel,” Amy complained. “Supposing something goes wrong at the last minute?”

“Amy, everyone knows exactly what they have to do. You have trained them well, so now have faith in them,” murmured Sonya from the next bed.

“But by the time we get out of here, it will be evening. We’ll barely have time to get changed before the guests arrive.”

“Uh-huh,” Sonya replied drowsily as her beautician massaged her neck and shoulders. “Stop fretting.”

The afternoon passed slowly for Amy, who, under protest, endured a prolonged facial, an everlasting manicure, and finally submitted to a full makeup, complete with a beauty spot on her chin.

“Now can we go, Sonya?”

“Yes, Amy,” she agreed with a chuckle. “Now we can go.”

“That was all orchestrated to keep me out of the way, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. You were driving everyone crazy.”

“Well, now we’ll have an almighty rush to be ready on time. The guests will be arriving in fifteen minutes, and I won’t even have time to check anything.”

Gabriel was waiting for them in a car to drive them back to the hotel, and she could barely bring herself to speak to him. Still annoyed, she stomped inside and upstairs to the rooms where they were to get into their costumes. There was no one around—the building was silent when she had expected to see staff running around making last minute adjustments to things.

“Oh, where is everybody?” she fretted.

A smiling and beautifully attired Carmela was waiting to dress Amy, and Sonya disappeared into the next room, where Gabriel was waiting to help her into her own gorgeous blue costume.

Amy began to relax as the beautiful gold dress was slipped over her head. Carmela laced it up the back and gently tugged it into place over layers of petticoats and a hoop. The skirts stood out fully, emphasizing her slim waist and full bosom, which peeped enticingly over the top of the bodice. She then carefully put on the pretty white wig with ringlets caressing her cheeks and a feathery headdress. She tied the sparkling black mask, which covered her eyes. Lastly, Carmela handed her an embroidered fan and helped her step into diamante-covered slippers. The elderly lady then stepped back to admire her handiwork with satisfaction.

“You look a dream, Amy.”

“Carmela, how can I ever thank you?”

“I wish you happiness, my dear.”

Amy turned from the mirror to kiss her, but she had gone, closing the door softly behind her. After a last glance at herself, Amy took a deep breath and went downstairs, still mystified by the silence. Surely, someone ought to be around. The house seemed to be totally deserted. The hallway was lit only by candles, and as she reached the bottom stair, she started violently as a man emerged from the dining room and came to stand in front of her. He was dressed in a glittering, long, gold and black jacket over black leggings, with a gold tricorn hat and a jeweled black mask, similar to her own, over his eyes.

“Amy, you look incredible.”

“Alessandro!”

He raised her hands to his lips and then, leaning forward, kissed her mouth so tenderly, she sighed with pleasure.

“I was so afraid you wouldn’t be here on time. Did you fly in this afternoon?”

“No, I sailed here on Silver Lady. She is waiting for us in the marina.”

“Waiting for us?”

The candlelight in the hallway cast deep shadows, and gently, Alessandro removed her mask and then his own.