Means to an End

by Lucy Gillen

  ‘No, it isn’t. I hate to see you crying about it.’

  She muffled another couple of sobs against his collar. ‘I’ll have to keep asking him,’ she insisted,

  ‘however much I hate it, because it’s our future he’s spoiling, and I won’t let him upset our plans.’

  He managed, somehow, to turn his head and plant a kiss on her chin, and there was a wry smile on his face as he held her close. ‘Darling, I thought I was a villain too!

  `So you are.’ She lifted her head for a second or two and looked at him, then smiled and kissed him lightly on his cheek. ‘No, I suppose you’re not,’ she sighed.

  ‘You forgive me for being boorish about your going with him?’

  She nodded, as well as she was able with her head on his shoulder. ‘I can’t blame you,’ she told him. ‘It was my own fault.’

  He kissed her again and laughed softly against her ear. ‘Feeling better now ?’ he asked.

  She looked up at him, long lashes half concealing her eyes. ‘Yes, thank you, and I’m sorry.’

  He smiled and kissed her wet cheeks, more gentle and quiet than she had ever known him to be. ‘There’s no need to be sorry at all,’ he said. ‘I have been a bit of a brute, setting you on to seduce Stefano Illari, just for my own selfish ends.’

  `Oh, nonsense, it was as much for my sake as yours.’ She could not resist a smile at the idea of her seducing Stefano, however, or even attempting to. ‘As for Stefano,’ she told him, ‘it certainly wouldn’t be much use my trying to seduce him, as you call it. For one thing I don’t believe he’s seduceable, and even if he was, I doubt very much if I’m the one who could do it.’

  When she remembered the emotional after-effects the trip with Stefano had had on both herself and Danny it was something of a jolt to discover that Stefano himself was behaving exactly as he had always done towards her. Not, she told herself wryly, that it should have surprised her so much, for he was not easily disturbed by anything.

  For the next couple of days she was very good about resting her foot as much as possible, so that by the third day she was relieved to find that she could walk on it almost normally, and made up her mind to make up for lost time by going out as much as possible.

  She had come down to breakfast and found both Stefano and her aunt already seated at the table and in fact almost finished their meal. They both looked up when she came in and her aunt smiled apologetically.

  ‘I hope you didn’t mind us not waiting for you, darling,’ she said. But we didn’t know just how long you were going to be and it was getting a bit late, so we started without you.’

  The familiar ‘we’, Alison felt, had a close and intimate sound to it, that somehow seemed to exclude her, and she found herself wondering, yet again, just what her aunt’s relationship was with Stefano. Probably closer than she had imagined, if that brief, almost imperceptible smile she had exchanged with him was anything to go by.

  The fact that he had kissed her in the way he had meant little, she supposed. He was in, all probability a man who kissed a pretty woman whenever and wherever the opportunity arose, and then

  thought no more about it.

  ‘I suppose I am a bit later than usual,’ she admitted, and nodded briefly to acknowledge Stefano’s greeting. ‘I overslept a bit, but there was no hurry, so I didn’t bother too much.’

  ‘You haven’t any plans for today?’ Aunt Celia asked, and Alison thought there was something more than mere curiosity behind the question. Stefano too, she thought, was interested in her answer, judging by the way he was watching her.

  She shrugged. ‘Nothing special,’ she said.

  ‘You’re not seeing Danny?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. Danny’s going over to Leethorpe about another job, so I shan’t be seeing him until tonight.’ She looked across at her aunt curiously, wondering just what was behind the questions, for she was sure now that something was. ‘Have you anything in mind?’ she asked.

  Aunt Celia glanced at Stefano again as she spoke. ‘No, I haven’t,’ she said. ‘But Stefano was wondering if you felt like starting your driving lessons this morning. Now that your foot seems so much better.’

  So that was it, Alison thought, but looked at him curiously, wondering why he had bothered to inveigle Aunt Celia into asking her about it rather than mention it himself, which would have been more characteristic. Such reticence was quite unlike him, and she met the black eyes as they watched her steadily down the length of the table.

  ‘I don’t know that I want driving lessons,’ she said quietly. ‘I like being driven, as I told Stefano when he mentioned it before, and I don’t own a car, so there isn’t really much point, is there?’

  ‘But it’s always useful to know how to drive, dear,’ Aunt Celia told her, gently insistent, while Stefano stayed silent but watched her still, only his eyes betraying an interest in her answer.

  suppose it is,’ Alison allowed, not at all happy about the idea. ‘But—well, couldn’t you teach me, Aunt Celia?’

  Her aunt shook her head, glancing again at Stefano. As if seeking his approval, Alison thought crossly. ‘I don’t think so, darling,’ she said. ‘I’m not a bad driver, but I’m nothing like as good as Stefano is, and I’m sure I’d make a terrible instructor. I’m much too nervous and I haven’t much patience, I’m afraid.’

  ‘And you think Stefano has?’ she asked, but before her aunt could reply she looked at Stefano again.. ‘You’re keeping very quiet about it,’ she remarked bluntly, and he pulled a face at her over his coffee cup.

  I thought it best,’ he confessed. ‘I thought you might perhaps listen to Celia more readily than to me.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ She was surprised to find herself having to resist a smile at the sheer cunning of it. ‘That was very crafty of you.’

  ‘I thought so.’ He smiled, putting down his cup and looking at her steadily. ‘You will come?’ he asked quietly, as if he thought he knew her answer quite well, and she shrugged.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘But why do you hesitate?’ he asked, his eyes glittering at her like a challenge. ‘Do you not trust me, piccola?’

  Alison glanced hastily at Aunt Celia, wondering how on earth she was taking his very obvious and deliberate methods of persuasion. ‘It isn’t a case of trusting you,’ she told him, with far more bravado than she was feeling. ‘I’m not sure I should be trusted on the road with anything on wheels. I can’t even ride a bike without falling off.’

  ‘Oh, but you could try, darling,’ Aunt Celia insisted, rather surprisingly, Alison thought. She seemed not to mind at all, sending them off together.

  ‘I wish you would try, piccola mia,’ Stefano told her softly, and she sighed resignation.

  ‘Since it seems to be the general opinion that I should learn to drive,’ she said.’ ‘I suppose I’d better learn to drive.’

  He bobbed his head in a mocking bow. ‘You are too gracious.’

  Quick to detect sarcasm, Alison stuck out her chin, her blue eyes ominous with warning. ‘Just don’t bait me the whole time we’re out, Stefano,’ she threatened, ‘or I might just run you straight into a ditch.’

  His face expressed mock fear and he raised one hand shoulder-high, but his eyes still glittered with laughter and she did not really hold out much hope of getting things all her own way for the rest of the morning. ‘I promise,’ he vowed. ‘I promise most solemnly.’

  It was a little over an hour later that they were driving along the narrow, quiet coast road out of Leethorpe, and Alison was still puzzled as to why Aunt Celia should have declined to come with them. Since she had nothing very special to do, on her

  own admission, Alison had expected her to take advantage of the invitation and come with them, but she said she preferred not to, and Stefano at least had not pressed the point.

  The sun was bright, but not too hot, and a breeze blowing in off the water made it delightfully cool and fresh. It was so much nicer, Alison thought, to be dri
ven than to drive. For one thing she could lean back and close her eyes, enjoying the breeze and the sun warming her face. But her enjoyment was short-lived, for once they were through the town and out into the open country Stefano stopped the car and insisted that they change places. Very reluctant to do so, she tried delaying tactics, but he simply got out of the driving seat and got in on her side, forcibly moving her over on to the other.

  There were so many pedals and buttons and levers, she thought at first glance, that she would never be able to remember what they were all for, but in a surprisingly short time she found herself actually taking the big car, albeit rather jerkily, along the road. Her eyes were almost starting out of her head because she expected that at any minute it would run away with her.

  `Relax ! ‘ Stefano advised her laughingly. ‘Do not be so tense, piccola. There is no one about, and even if there was you have no need to panic.’

  ‘I’m not panicking,’ Alison informed him shortly. `I’m just petrified ! ‘

  `There is no need to be.’

  `It could run away with me,’ she warned, as the car hiccupped rather alarmingly, and shot forward of its own volition.

  ‘If it does, we can soon get it back under control,’ he consoled her. ‘Now please keep your eyes on the road, piccola, and do not grip the steering wheel as if it was a a

  ‘Weapon?’ she suggested acidly. ‘I wish it was. I’d clobber you over the head with it for even suggesting that I could learn to drive ‘

  His laughter did nothing to help, but she made the effort to ease her grip on the steering wheel, although she still did not trust the car enough to allow it too much rein, and they staggered along the narrow road for some distance without incident. Alison was keeping a wary eye on the speedometer, although it read no more than five miles an hour, so it was unlikely to be cause for concern.

  A small brown rabbit running suddenly into the road caused the trouble, and made her stamp hastily on the footbrake rather than run over it. The problem with having a choice of pedals, however, was that in an emergency it was so easy to choose the wrong one and, without realising it, she stamped on the accelerator instead of the footbrake.

  The big car shot forward at an alarming rate, and she let out a cry both for the fate of the rabbit and herself. She covered her face with her hands and felt the car careering across rough ground, although she dared not look just where they were heading.

  In a blind panic, she felt Stefano move beside her, and his hands reached across for the wheel. The engine stopped as if it had been switched off suddenly, and she heard him apply what she thought was the handbrake. Still shaking like a leaf, she only took her hands down from her face when they stopped rather suddenly.

  The road was now several yards away to the right, and they were stopped on the wide expanse of springy green turf, only feet away from a large rock boulder. The silence was almost tangible, and then a lark somewhere decided to cheer them with a song, soaring up into the bright blue sky, while Alison dazedly followed his progress.

  She did not dare to look at Stefano yet, but stared up at that annoyingly cheerful lark overhead. ‘Are you all right?’ his voice asked, after a moment or two, and close to her ear, and she nodded.

  He was, she realised dazedly, more in the driving seat than the passenger seat and practically in her lap, one arm curved round behind her, the other lying across her knees. When she brought herself back to earth and drew her eyes away from the flight of the lark, she found his face only inches from her own, and the black eyes regarding her with a mixture of anger and resignation.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she told him, small-voiced.

  He sighed, and removed the arm that lay across her knees, but otherwise stayed exactly where he was. ‘You prefer to kill yourself and me rather than a rabbit?’ he asked, remarkably calmly in the circumstances, she admitted, and she bit her lip, looking down at her hands and wishing he was not in such close proximity. He was disconcerting enough at the best of times, without sitting practically in her lap.

  ‘It was instinctive.’

  ‘I see.’ He studied her again for a while, then sighed deeply. ‘The famous British love of animals,

  I suppose ! ‘

  ‘Well, it’s not a vice,’ she objected defensively, and he laughed shortly.

  ‘That is typical ‘

  His accent, she could not help noticing, was much stronger than she had ever heard it before and there was a deep glow of exasperation in his eyes.

  ‘You don’t have to be so sarcastic,’ she told him haughtily, and he lifted his hands and shoulders high, in a gesture of resignation, raising his eyes to heaven in appeal.

  ‘Mamma mia !’

  What followed was a long and, she felt sure, very unflattering opinion of her in liquid Italian, but somehow it sounded beautiful, even if he was swearing at her, and when he had finished he put a hand to his face and hid behind it for a moment or two. Then he looked at her again, and smiled ruefully.

  ‘I should apologise,’ he told her, but she stuck out her chin and dismissed the idea with raised brows.

  ‘Oh, don’t bother,’ she told him. ‘I don’t speak Italian, so I don’t know what it all meant, although I can guess.’

  ‘You can guess,’ he agreed with a wry smile, and sighed deeply. ‘Ah well,’ he said, ‘you promised to run me into a ditch, so I should be grateful that there was no ditch near enough, or we should be unable to go on.’

  Alison stared at him in dismay. ‘You mean you still want me to go on?’ she asked, finding it hard to believe that he was ready to take any more chances with her.

  ‘Of course.’

  `But ‘ She shook her head, wondering if she

  had even the courage left to start up the engine again. `I—I don’t think I can, Stefano.’

  ‘Of course you can! ‘ He leaned across and switched on the engine, then brought it purring to life, while Alison sat there almost literally shivering in her shoes at the prospect of having control of the mobile monster again. ‘Now—do you remember the procedure?’

  `No—no, I don’t think so.’

  He sighed. ‘One foot on the accelerator, one on the clutch. No, no, no! This one! Now—depress the clutch, engage the gear ‘ The same instructions were repeated in her ear with relentless insistence, and she followed blindly as he told her, until they were once more on the road.

  Cautiously she guided the car along, now more than ever aware that the sea was only about twenty yards to their right and some forty feet down from the cliff. If she had managed to send the car careering off to one side of the road, she was equally likely to send it the other way, towards the cliff edge and the sea, and the prospect made her more nervous than ever.

  ‘I—I wish we could go somewhere else and—and learn,’ she told him, keeping her eyes firmly fixed ahead.

  `Why? This is a very quiet road, and it is unlikely that we shall see any other traffic.’

  ‘The sea happens to be no more than—than twenty yards away,’ she told him. ‘And there’s a big drop down to it from the cliff. If I happen to go

  berserk again

  ‘You won’t,’ he assured her confidently.

  ‘But the Dunway bus comes along here,’ she informed him, and he laughed.

  ‘But surely even you, little genius, cannot fail to see a bus when it approaches along an open road,’ he said. ‘You will have plenty of time to pull in to the side of the road, if you have not the courage to pass it.’

  ‘I won’t have,’ she assured him.

  They had gone about another fifty yards or so, and she thought she might be beginning to get the hang of it at last, when one of the front wheels ran over a fairly large stone in the road and the resultant tip put her completely off balance. Her hands gripped the wheel in alarm and she fought with it for several moments, as if it was a live thing, then Stefano leaned across and took the wheel from her, steering them on to the grass again.

  ‘Ease your foot off the accelerator,’ he told h
er quietly, and she obeyed without hesitation, while the car rolled to a standstill and he applied the handbrake.

  ‘I wish you’d let me give up,’ she told him, her head resting on her forearms on the steering wheel. ‘I’ll be a nervous wreck by the time you’ve finished with me, Stefano.’

  ‘It is not me that is doing it,’ he objected, albeit mildly. ‘You are the one who makes the mistakes.’

  ‘Well, I told you I couldn’t do it, and you wouldn’t listen.’

  He shook his head, turning in his seat to look at her. ‘You can do it,’ he insisted. ‘But you panic instead of using your head.’

  ‘So I’m a panic-stricken idiot ! ‘ she exclaimed in exasperation. ‘I can’t help it, and I wish you’d let me give up, instead of bullying me.’

  ‘I am not bullying you ! ‘

  She looked at the dark face so close to her own, and hastily lowered her eyes when he smiled at her. ‘I’ll never be any good at it,’ she said appealingly. ‘Please take no for an answer, Stefano. Please ! ‘

  ‘I do not like to take no for an answer from a beautiful girl,’ he said softly, and to her dismay she felt the colour rush warmly in to her cheeks.

  ‘Well, this time you’re going to have to,’ she told him, wishing her voice sounded as firm and self-controlled as she wanted it to, instead of shakingly husky.

  He sat and looked at her for several seconds in silence, his eyes dark and impenetrable, a small, slow smile tipping his mouth crookedly at one corner, then he shook his head. ‘You are—codarda, bella mia,’ he told her. `Do you know that?’

  ‘Am I?’

  ‘You know what it means?’ he asked, and she shrugged.

  ‘I can guess,’ she said ruefully. ‘But I don’t care if you do think I’m cowardly, Stefano, I don’t want to drive anymore.’

  She looked at him with huge appealing eyes, uncertain just why she was feeling the way she was, and quite sure she must be doing the wrong thing. His gaze swept over her face slowly until it came to rest on her mouth and lingered there with an intensity that set her pulses racing wildly out of control.

  Then he laughed softly and leaned across to kiss her mouth.