Italian Tycoon, Secret Son

by Lucy Gordon

  The sound of music reached them from the garden and they wandered out to find it lit with fairy lights. There was a small orchestra and a patio where couples were dancing. Beyond it, people were wandering among the fountains, drinking champagne, talking softly.

  ‘Let’s dance,’ he said, adjusting his hold so that she was completely in his arms.

  ‘Can you dance?’

  He gave her a wry smile. ‘That bit of me is still alive.’

  He danced slowly, but seemingly without difficulty, which puzzled her. Only recently he’d been in such pain that he’d needed a wheelchair. Now it was hard to tell that there was anything wrong with him.

  One thing was clear to her. He’d been wrong that time when he’d said women stared at him only out of cruel calculation. They were staring at him now, and their expressions were the same ones she’d seen in the Alps: curiosity, desire, anticipation. But no pity.

  With her high heels she could almost look him in the eye, something he seemed to appreciate, for he held her gaze steadily and his mouth was dangerously close.

  She tried to remember that she was angry with him for ignoring her for days, but the pleasure of his presence had made everything else retreat into the distance. He’d always had that effect and it was as annoying now as it had been then. She wanted to tell him to stop his nonsense. She wanted to kick his shins-very gently. She wanted to kiss him.

  ‘I’m suspicious of you,’ she said at last.

  ‘No change there, then,’ he murmured, so that she felt his breath softly touching her face.

  ‘I mean, I want to know what’s brought about this miracle recovery.’

  ‘I’m a genius, hadn’t you heard?’

  ‘Yes, you’ve told me. I never believed it, then or now.’

  ‘That’s what I was afraid of.’ He sighed.

  ‘Will you be serious? Have you done something stupid? Yes, of course you have. You’ve got no sense.’

  ‘True. There’s a lot going through my head just now, but none of it’s sensible.’

  ‘Does it matter?’ She chuckled. ‘Common sense is for wimps.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more.’

  ‘If I were being really sensible, I’d wonder at the coincidence of us both turning up here tonight.’ When he didn’t reply, she cocked her head on one side and challenged him. ‘It’s not an accident, is it?’

  He eyed her warily. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’re the most devious, unscrupulous…If I really told you what I thought of you, we’d be here all night. You set it up, didn’t you?’

  ‘I admit nothing.’

  ‘You don’t have to. If ever a man appeared guilty-’

  ‘No, no, you misunderstand,’ he said with a grin. ‘That isn’t guilt. It’s conceit at getting my own way.’

  ‘Of course it is.’

  At that moment Ferrini danced by. He was amazed at the sight of Mandy.

  ‘Mio dio! I meant to send someone to fetch you and I completely forgot. Never mind. Here you are.’

  He danced away. Mandy stared indignantly at Renzo, who was looking sheepish.

  ‘You told me he sent you to fetch me,’ she accused.

  ‘Did I? I forget.’

  ‘You’re a rotten liar.’

  ‘No, actually, I’m a very good liar,’ he said outrageously. ‘I can produce a hundred witnesses to testify to my skill at being most convincing when I’m most dishonest. Look, you were on your own with Luigi. You might have needed help.’

  ‘You were protecting me?’

  ‘Didn’t you protect me back there?’

  That silenced her just for a moment, until she recovered enough to say, ‘Don’t get all offended and full of male pride.’

  ‘Oddly enough, I wasn’t,’ he said softly. ‘I just never thought of you taking up the cudgels on my behalf.’

  ‘I don’t like people having a go at you,’ she muttered.

  ‘You mean, you reserve that privilege for yourself?’

  ‘Something like that. Anyway, we’re even now. Though why you thought I needed help to deal with that silly boy, I don’t know.’

  ‘I know what he can be like.’

  ‘Like you at the same age,’ she ventured.

  ‘I was much worse,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Why do I find that so easy to believe?’ she asked of the air.

  ‘Because you know me better than I know myself, which is alarming. I keep wondering, What did I do that she knows and I don’t?’

  She gave him an impish smile which came and went in the fairy lights.

  ‘If you’re hoping I’m going to tell you,’ she murmured, ‘think again.’

  ‘Little cat. Don’t torment me-tell me.’

  ‘No. There are some things a man must remember for himself, or they weren’t important.’

  ‘And it was important, wasn’t it, Mandy?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘Be patient. It’ll come to you.’

  ‘And if it doesn’t?’

  ‘Then I’ll just have to go away.’

  His arms tightened. ‘I won’t let you. I’ll keep you prisoner.’

  ‘You won’t find that easy. I’ll escape.’

  He leaned down so that his mouth was close to hers. ‘Give me a clue.’

  ‘Let’s think-what do you want to do, right this minute?’

  His eyes gleamed, but he seemed puzzled, as well.

  ‘Mandy-are you telling me-it wasn’t just my imagination?’

  She lifted her head a little and laid her lips against his. ‘Remember,’ she whispered.

  The next moment she’d slid free of him and glided away. Before he could follow her, she was in the arms of another partner.

  Renzo went to sit at the edge of the patio, where he could watch her. His mind was reeling with the impressions chasing through it. Had he understood her properly? Would any woman tease about such a thing if it wasn’t true? Did he dare to believe her?

  A dead man, Luigi had said. But not any more. Even the thought of making love to her was bringing life back to a body resigned to a half existence. It was strange and thrilling in a way he’d thought never to experience again. And his pretty little cat had done it with the merest flick of her tail.

  Now the sight of her dancing with other men was as electrifying as it had been the first time. Did she know that? Of course she did.

  She glided past, giving him a challenging look that he couldn’t mistake. He returned it in full measure, then moved determinedly among the dancers to claim her.

  ‘Hey,’ protested her partner. ‘You can’t do that.’

  ‘Watch me,’ Renzo said simply.

  ‘Don’t tangle with him,’ Mandy advised the young man. ‘He knows what he wants.’

  As she said it she smiled at Renzo in a way that made him grasp her firmly and swing her away.

  ‘You never said a truer word,’ he told her. ‘And what I want now is to know where you’re leading me.’

  She stopped, giving him the same look as a few minutes before, full of promise, daring, provocation.

  ‘All right,’ she said, taking his hand. ‘Let’s find out together.’

  She moved him away, keeping hold of him, making him her prisoner as he’d threatened to make her his. But no prisoner had ever been more content. She could sense that, just as she could sense the jealous stares of the other women as they passed. They knew she’d secured the most desirable man in the place. They knew where she was taking him, and what they were going to do. And every one of them was burning with envy.

  She had never enjoyed anything more.

  Ferrini appeared, laughing, understanding.

  ‘My car will take you home,’ he said. ‘Look after him, signorina. He very much needs it.’

  ‘I know he does.’

  The car was ready to take them on the short journey. She fell into the back and reached for him, kissing him eagerly.

  ‘I’m leading
you there,’ she whispered, ‘and here, if that’s where you want to go.’

  ‘Mmm,’ he said.

  ‘Renzo?’ she said as a disturbing dread rose in her. ‘Renzo? Oh, no, I don’t believe this. It can’t be happening.’

  But it was happening. Renzo’s eyes were closed and his head slumped forward.

  ‘Are you daring to fall asleep?’ she demanded, outraged.

  ‘No,’ he said, hastily opening his eyes.

  But they closed again at once. He was dead to the world.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  W HEN they reached the house, Renzo was just about able to walk inside.

  Teresa appeared immediately, looking relieved when she saw him.

  ‘All right, stop fussing,’ he said mildly.

  ‘I’ll stop fussing when you’re safely in bed.’

  ‘Can you manage the stairs?’ Mandy asked.

  Luckily there was no need. A lift had been installed to take him to his bedroom, one floor up. He leaned against the wall, eyes closed, while Mandy regarded him with outrage. Her whole body was singing with the excitement only he could bring her, and now he couldn’t bring matters to a conclusion. She could happily have wrung his neck.

  When they reached his room, he fell on the bed with a sigh, and was out like a light.

  ‘Goodnight,’ she said stormily. ‘Goodnight!’

  Teresa was waiting for her, beckoning Mandy into the room opposite Renzo’s.

  ‘It’s late,’ she said. ‘You stay here tonight. He needs you.’

  Mandy smiled. Teresa was making a takeover bid. She even had a snack ready and waiting, with English tea, perfectly made.

  ‘This is delicious,’ Mandy said.

  Suddenly Teresa’s loving exasperation exploded. ‘I warned him, but would he be told? Those pills are very strong and he’s supposed to be careful how many he takes.’

  ‘Pills?’

  ‘Before he left tonight he took three times the dose of painkiller that he’s supposed to take.’

  ‘Three times?’ Mandy echoed, aghast. ‘No wonder he passed out. Should we send for the doctor?’

  ‘No, he’s done it before and he wakes up eventually, but it’s still dangerous.’

  ‘But why do it tonight?’

  ‘He said he had to be at his best.’

  ‘Yes, in front of all those people-’

  ‘That’s not the reason and I think you know it.’

  She looked at Mandy. Mandy looked away first.

  ‘I don’t know…what I know,’ she said reluctantly.

  ‘Now you sound like him,’ Teresa observed. ‘You’re just like each other.’

  ‘Yes, I think we are,’ Mandy said with a little smile. She ate a cake slowly before saying, ‘You’ve been with him all his life, haven’t you?’

  ‘Most of it. Gina, his mother, couldn’t cope, so they employed me.’

  ‘She couldn’t cope with one child? Did she have a job, as well?’

  ‘No, she was a lazy cow, thought life revolved around her. When things got difficult she left. You said he told you about that?’

  ‘Just that he came home and found her gone.’

  ‘I’ll never forget that day. He’d done a picture of her at school and he wanted to show her. He went all over the house searching, but she wasn’t there. She’d left a note for his father, but there was nothing for him. He cried for three days.’

  ‘How could any woman do that to a little boy?’ Mandy asked, horrified. ‘Didn’t she love him at all?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Teresa said reflectively. ‘It sometimes happens that a woman can’t love one of her children, although she loves the others. She married very young and had him when she was only sixteen. I think she blamed him for the loss of her youth.

  ‘When she’d gone to live with her new man, she didn’t even like Renzo visiting her. There were always excuses. Once he was supposed to be going on holiday with her and her new family, but on the very morning she rang up to say it wasn’t “convenient”.

  ‘He was twelve years old by then, and I’ll never forget his face when he heard. I thought he’d cry, but he didn’t. He just turned a ghastly pale colour, then his eyes went dead.

  ‘I was so angry that I went to see Gina and gave her a piece of my mind, but she just said she’d send him a holiday present.’

  ‘And I’ll bet she didn’t,’ Mandy said angrily.

  ‘Oh, yes, she did, but it would have been better if she hadn’t. It was a big parcel that looked exciting. He tore the wrapping off, so eager and happy because she’d actually remembered him.’

  ‘What was inside?’

  ‘A photograph. A family photograph. It showed Gina and her new husband with their children. She’d written on it, “Love from Mamma” but all Renzo saw was that she loved those children as she’d never loved him.’

  ‘But how could she do anything so cruel?’ Mandy exploded.

  ‘Because she’s selfish and stupid,’ Teresa snapped contemptuously. ‘It wouldn’t cross her mind to think how an abandoned child would feel at the sight of her with the children who’d replaced him.’

  Mandy dropped her head into her hands, anguished for the pain of the rejected child, and the man he’d become.

  ‘After that he seemed to toughen up inside. I suppose he needed to. It was the only way to cope. But I was sorry too, because he changed, began to protect himself.

  ‘He threw himself into school, succeeded at everything, especially athletics. When he was old enough to go away alone, he joined expeditions in the mountains-skiing, climbing, bobsleigh. He won a host of trophies. Look at this.’

  Teresa went to a cupboard by her bed, drew out a large album and laid it before Mandy. Leafing through it, she saw again the Renzo she’d known two years before, beaming with victory, a triumphant young hero, usually with a female companion.

  ‘That looks familiar,’ she said. ‘The first time I met him-’

  She described the night Renzo had burst into her room, escaping an indignant husband, and Teresa roared with laughter.

  ‘That’s him,’ she said. ‘Things like that were always happening, but it wasn’t his fault. He was so handsome and delightful. All the girls loved him.’

  ‘Did he love them?’

  ‘Not really. He believed that women would always betray men. I think he was infatuated once or twice, but then he always ended it quickly. He was nice about it, let them down gently, but it was final. His barriers were well in place.’

  ‘Barriers,’ Mandy said thoughtfully. ‘When I knew him first I would never have thought of that in connection with him. He seemed so open to life, to people.’

  ‘But that is the barrier,’ Teresa said. ‘Nobody can get past it to know what he really thinks and feels.’

  I did, Mandy thought wistfully. But only when he thought he was dying.

  ‘The other side of him was always there,’ Teresa continued. ‘Angry, hard, wary of people and feelings, but in the beginning it was only now and then. It’s the side he used in the business.

  ‘He used his reputation as a winner to get started, then he built it up and made a fortune by being tough. His chief competitor was Enrico Tillani, but he was losing business to Renzo. Finally Renzo bought him out, and after that he was top of the heap.

  ‘Then he’d go out socializing and you’d see the other man, the one who could charm the birds off the trees.’

  ‘He used to drive me mad with the way he seemed to assume that life-and women-were all his for the taking,’ Mandy said. ‘But when we were trapped in the hut he was like another man, a man with a real heart. Now all that’s gone. I guess he’s still protecting himself.’

  ‘If you understand that, then you’re the one he needs.’

  Mandy glanced through a few more pages of the book before closing it. Teresa immediately replaced it in the cupboard.

  ‘Don’t tell him you’ve seen that,’ she said. ‘He told me to destroy it, said he never wanted to see or think about
it again.’

  ‘What about his mother? How did she react to his accident?’

  ‘She sent him a card,’ Teresa said contemptuously. ‘She said Australia was too far to come. A card! He just grunted and put it aside.’

  Mandy said a rude word.

  ‘That’s how I feel about her,’ Teresa agreed. ‘Here, have a look at this.’

  She brought another book from the cupboard. This one was full of family pictures.

  ‘That’s her,’ Teresa said scornfully, pointing to a photograph of a young woman of about twenty. She had a beautiful but willful face, and a hint of arrogance in the way she held her head.

  Spoilt rotten, Mandy thought as she leafed through the rest of the book. Suddenly she stopped.

  ‘What’s this?’ she asked, pointing to a large picture.

  It showed Gina with an older man. The toddler Renzo was there too, but not in his mother’s arms. It was the man who held him and watched him with eyes beaming with love and pride.

  ‘That’s Bruno, Gina’s father. He adored that little boy and he never forgave Gina for what she did to him.’

  Receiving no answer, she peered curiously at Mandy. ‘Why, what is it?’

  ‘I was just…looking at him, the grandfather…’ Mandy said slowly.

  ‘He is a lovely man.’ Teresa sighed. ‘Generous and sweet-natured, and he really loved Renzo. He had him to stay over as often as he could, and I reckon he gave him all the love he ever knew, for years.

  ‘He never took to Gina’s new family. She tried to make him, because he’s rich and she had her eye on an inheritance. But it was always Renzo, with him.

  ‘He’s dying now, and cannot leave hospital. Renzo goes to see him and talk to him, although I’m not sure how much Bruno understands.’

  Mandy looked more closely at the photograph, feeling a swell of joy and relief. For she had seen those happy, laughing features before, on the face of her little son.

  Teresa had lent her a nightdress, a vast flannel creation in pink, covered in dancing mushrooms. She slept for a few hours, awaking in the dawn and creeping out into the corridor to listen at Renzo’s door, from behind which came muttered curses. She opened it a crack and saw him sitting on the edge of the bed, still dressed.