Wife By Arrangement

by Lucy Gordon

  They took her to see their best ram and watched as she ran knowledgeable hands over it. They discussed vets’ bills. Scandalous. And milking. Did they milk their sheep? They did but they hadn’t expected her to know it was possible.

  At last the talk died. She looked around and found them staring at her with interest. Renato was smiling as though he’d won something. Heather felt a prickle on her spine as a suspicion came to her.

  As they drove back through Ellona Heather’s suspicions increased. Every window and door in the main street was open, and they were being studied by curious eyes. The plump little priest stepped out to hail them, and they stopped at his house for a drink. When they emerged they were watched even more intently. It was obvious that this scrutiny had a reason, and she was beginning to fear that she knew what it was.

  As they reached the villa Renato said, ‘Tomorrow we’ll go on horseback.’

  ‘You’re coming back tomorrow?’

  ‘I’m staying overnight. You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘Not at all,’ she said politely. ‘I’ll tell Jocasta.’

  ‘No need. I should think she’s put my things in my room by now.’

  He was right. Clearly he was a favourite with Jocasta, who had not only unpacked his case but ordered the evening meal to suit him. Heather didn’t know how to protest about the way he’d taken over. After all, she kept saying that Bella Rosaria wasn’t really hers, so it was hard to complain when he took her at her word.

  They enjoyed the last of the light wandering in the garden. ‘I loved playing here better than anywhere else,’ he remembered. ‘This was a wonderful place for gangs of bandits. I used to get the boys from the village in and we created mayhem.’

  She smiled. ‘I wonder how Baptista felt about that in her flower garden.’

  ‘She didn’t mind. She said what mattered was that there should be happiness here.’ They had reached the rose arbour and sat on the wooden seat. ‘I used to come out in the evening and find her sitting in this spot, with her eyes closed.’

  ‘Did you ever find out why?’ she asked cautiously.

  ‘You mean did I know about Federico? Yes, the head gardener told me. He’d worked here for years and knew all about it. Apparently there were a lot of rumours when the young man vanished so suddenly.’

  ‘That was the hardest for Baptista to bear,’ Heather said. ‘Not knowing. You surely don’t think-?’

  ‘I doubt it, but I have to admit that my grandfather was a man who wouldn’t tolerate opposition.’

  They had supper in the library, close to the open French windows. Renato’s mood had mellowed and he went on reminiscing about the villa as he’d known it in his childhood.

  ‘I always knew it had a special place in my mother’s heart. Perhaps that’s why it became enchanted to me too. The Residenza was just a building, but Bella Rosaria was special.’

  ‘Then take it back.’

  He gave her an ironic look. ‘There’s only one way I can do that.’

  ‘No marriage,’ she said at once. ‘We both agreed.’

  He shrugged. ‘My mother is a very persuasive woman, and I’m a man with a strong sense of duty.’

  She rested her elbows on the table and met his eyes. ‘Rubbish!’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you can forget it. No marriage. Not now. Not ever. You can take that as final.’

  He grinned. ‘Suppose I don’t choose to?’

  ‘Oh, stop this! I know you’re only fooling but it’s not fair to give the village ideas. Do you think I don’t know why they were out in force, watching us? And the priest, practically giving us his blessing. You ought to stop them thinking things. It’s not fair.’

  ‘To whom?’

  ‘To them. They obviously like the idea.’

  ‘Yes, you’ve made yourself popular. And the fact that you know about sheep will be all over the district tonight. Everyone around here sees the propriety of our marriage as clearly as Mamma does.’

  She laughed. ‘They’d think differently if they could have heard what you said about swimming the Straits of Messina in lead weights.’

  He winced. ‘I deny it. I never said any such thing. Anyway, a man can grow wiser.’

  She refused to rise to the bait. ‘I’m going to bed,’ she said.

  ‘You’re right. We’ll make an early start in the morning. Don’t be late. I dislike women who keep me waiting.’

  This was so clearly meant to be provocative that she said, ‘I really will kick your shins in a minute,’ in a teasing voice.

  ‘Exactly what Mamma advised, night and morning. You see, we’re acting like an old married couple already.’

  She began to laugh. She couldn’t help it. She ought to at least try to stay cross with him, but the excellent wine and the company of a man who, for all his infuriating behaviour, was still more mysteriously attractive than anyone she’d ever known, was a potent combination. Tonight he’d been pleasant company, making her like him better than at any time before.

  ‘That’s better than the last time I heard you laugh,’ he said approvingly.

  The night in the garden, when she’d laughed on the edge of sobs, and he’d kissed her with a tenderness that had haunted her dreams since. She met his eyes and looked quickly away, confused. She no longer knew what she wanted.

  They climbed the stairs together. Outside her door he took her hand, said gently, ‘Goodnight, Heather,’ and went across the corridor to his own room without waiting for her answer.

  When she’d closed her door she stood for a long time, listening to the sound of her own heart beating. He would come to her tonight. She knew that beyond any doubt. Suddenly decided, she turned the key in her lock.

  She undressed slowly, torn this way and that, until she crept to the door and unlocked it. Then she got into bed and lay listening to the creaks of the old house, as the night grew quiet around them, staring into the darkness.

  Renato wanted to marry her. Or rather, he’d decided in favour of the marriage. That was more accurate. The family needed an heir, and Lorenzo had proved too unreliable, so Renato had reluctantly bowed his neck to the yoke. Marrying her would please his mother and satisfy his sense of duty.

  Nothing else?

  Yes. She’d challenged him, laughed at him, snubbed him. His pride was at stake. And he wanted to sleep with her. He’d made no bones about it. But she already knew how little physical relationships counted with him. When he’d soothed his pride and gained what he wanted-what then?

  Hell is love without desire, and desire without love-desire without love-

  At last she fell asleep.

  CHAPTER NINE

  W HEN they met at breakfast her mood was cool. Naturally she was glad of Renato’s restraint the night before. If he’d tried to come to her bed it would have clouded the issue and she would have been angry at his calculation.

  But the apparently easy way he’d resisted her was also a kind of calculation, and of the two it was the more insulting. She blushed to recall that she’d left her door unlocked, and he hadn’t even tried it. One small victory to him. If she weakened he would control the situation, and that she mustn’t allow.

  He didn’t seem to notice her reserve. His own mood was edgy. Over breakfast he spoke tersely, smiled very little and looked haggard.

  The horses were brought round. Soon after they set out she realised that Renato had been right when he’d said the story of the sheep would be all over the district. Wherever they went she found none of the suspicion or hostility that she would have expected, considering that she was a stranger and a foreigner. By some mysterious bush telegraph they knew Renato had chosen her for his wife, they regarded the match as settled, and they approved.

  Before long the beauty of the day had its effect on both of them, softening her mood and making him less tense. They stopped at a farm and sat in the sun, drinking rough home-made wine and eating goat’s-milk cheese. Heather had been enchanted by Sicily from the first mo
ment. Now she found new things to delight her wherever she looked.

  ‘I love that,’ she said, pointing to the ruins of a Greek temple in the distance, with sheep and goats munching contentedly nearby. ‘A great, ancient civilisation, side by side with everyday reality. The sheep aren’t awed by the temple, and the temple isn’t less splendid because of the sheep.’

  He nodded agreement. ‘It was built in honour of Ceres, the goddess of fertility and abundance. The more sheep the better.’

  ‘And seeing them in harmony like that sums up so much about this country.’

  ‘Do you know how like a Sicilian you sound?’ he said. ‘Talking as though this was a separate country, instead of part of Italy. We all do that.’

  ‘Yes, I’d noticed. And it’s more than a separate country. It’s a separate world. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.’

  ‘And will you leave it? Turn your back on the welcome it’s given you?’

  ‘You’re a very clever man.’ She sighed. ‘You’ve simply gone over my head again. Your mother has decided, the tenants have decided, Father Torrino tells me how much it will cost to repair the church roof-all because you’ve let them think it’s a done deal. It makes me feel like the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle.’

  ‘That’s a very good analogy,’ he said, tactfully bypassing her accusations. ‘This is a jigsaw puzzle, with all the pieces fitting perfectly. You come into our lives from another country. You have different values, a different language, and yet there’s a space waiting for you that’s exactly your shape. The differences you bring will only enrich us. We can all see it. Why can’t you?’

  ‘Maybe because you come as part of the package,’ she said darkly.

  He gave her the vivid grin that could so powerfully disconcert her. ‘Be brave. I’m not really so bad.’

  ‘You are.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘You are.’

  They laughed at the same moment. It was pleasant to be sitting in the bright day, squabbling light-heartedly. In another moment she might have yielded. But then some perverse imp made her ask, ‘Why did you change your mind? A couple of weeks ago nothing would make you consider it.’

  ‘Mamma gave me a stern talking-to, and as I’m afraid of her I gave in.’ He added outrageously, ‘But very reluctantly.’

  ‘Oh, stop it. I’m trying to be serious.’

  ‘Then let’s be serious. Arranged marriages can work very well when neither party is burdened with extravagant expectations. We’ve both seen the dangers of that, haven’t we?’

  ‘If you put it like that,’ she said with a sigh, ‘I suppose we have.’

  ‘Shall we call it a bargain? Come, say yes so that I can call Mamma.’

  ‘I suppose she’s sitting by the phone, waiting to hear my answer?’

  ‘Possibly, although I think she knew it was virtually decided.’

  She frowned. ‘Decided? Now wait a minute. No way was it decided.’

  He made a hasty gesture. ‘I put that badly. It’s just that I told her I thought that when you and I had talked about it calmly-’

  ‘What you told her,’ Heather breathed, her eyes kindling, ‘was that I was bound to give in. “Just give me a few hours to talk some sense into her, Mamma, and you can start sending out the invitations.” It was bad enough that you fooled people around here, but how dare you tell your mother it was settled?’

  She got hastily to her feet.

  Renato swore and rose too. ‘Heather, will you listen to reason?’

  ‘No, because I don’t like your kind of reason. You pulled my strings to marry me to Lorenzo, only he wasn’t there. Now you think you’re going to pull my strings again-only, this time, I won’t be there. Somebody ought to put you in a cage and charge admission, because you come right out of the ark. And you’re the last man I could ever marry.’

  A look of stubbornness settled on his face. ‘But I’ve given her my word.’

  ‘And my word is no.’

  ‘This is Sicily, where a woman’s word counts for nothing beside a man’s.’

  ‘Well, maybe I’m not as much a Sicilian as we all thought.’

  ‘Why can’t you face the inevitable?’

  ‘Because I don’t think it is inevitable. I’m meant for a better fate than to save you from the results of your own pride. Go back to your light affairs, Renato. Pay them, and forget them. That’s all you’re good for.’

  His sharp intake of breath told him she’d flicked him on the raw. She stormed away to where the horses were tethered. The farmer was there and he smiled at her in a way she was coming to recognise. The sight only increased her sense of being trapped. She thanked him for his hospitality before jumping on her horse and galloping away.

  Faster and faster she urged the willing animal, as though she could outrun all the furies that pursued her whenever Renato Martelli was around. She could hear him behind her now, galloping hard to catch up, shouting something.

  She couldn’t make out the words, and she missed the signs that would have warned her what was about to happen: the sudden drop in temperature, the darkening of the sky. The first crack of thunder took her by surprise. Her horse was alarmed, missed his footing, found it again and managed to go on. But he’d lost speed, and in the need to control him she’d taken her eyes off Renato. Next thing he’d caught up with her.

  ‘Go on to the temple,’ he cried. ‘It’s nearer than the farm.’

  Before she could reply there was another crack of thunder and the heavens opened. She gasped. This wasn’t rain as she knew it. It was a flood, a torrent that crashed onto her all at once, pounding like hammers, drenching her in the first second.

  ‘Come on!’ he yelled.

  She could no longer see the temple in the downpour, and found it only by following him. It loomed suddenly out of the wall of rain, no longer cheerful as in the sun, but almost sinister.

  ‘There,’ he cried, pointing to the far end. ‘There’s some cover.’

  But the cover turned out to be too small. There was only just room for the horses, so they put the distressed animals inside, and endured the downpour themselves.

  ‘Damn!’ he yelled. ‘I thought we had another day at least.’

  But now she’d got her second wind Heather was feeling good. The noise of the water, the thunder, the fierceness of the rain against her body, was exhilarating. Renato stared at her, realising that this wasn’t the woman he knew, but a new one who revelled in the violence of the elements. She turned and stared back at him, laughing, challenging. The next moment he’d pulled her into his arms.

  It felt good to be kissed by a man whose control was slipping, who wanted her almost against his will. There was a driving purpose in his lips that thrilled her. He kissed her mouth, her nose, her eyes, seeking her feverishly as though nothing was ever enough. She gasped and clung to him. The rain had soaked through the thin material of their shirts, making them almost vanish. She relished in the feel of his body, the muscular shape of his arms and shoulders, the heavy bull neck, the sheer primitive force of the man. This was what she’d craved even while she was fending him off, because, like him, she needed her own terms.

  But what was happening between them was on nobody’s terms: need, craving, curiosity, antagonism. They were all there, mixed up with a desire that obeyed no laws but its own. Her heart was pounding so wildly that he felt it and laid his hand between her breasts.

  ‘Could Lorenzo make you feel like this?’ he demanded. ‘Can’t you feel the difference?’

  ‘There’s no difference,’ she cried. ‘You and Lorenzo are two of a kind. Both selfish, careless of other people’s feelings, thinking of women as creatures to be used.’

  She wondered what perversity made her hold out against a man who was gaining such a strong hold on her heart and senses. But ancient, wise instinct warned her not to let Renato have too easy a victory. She didn’t know what their future would hold, whether it might be love or just desire. But it would be built on what w
as happening now, and if she didn’t stand her ground she would always regret it.

  But he too seemed to understand this, because he was making it so hard for her to hold out, caressing her with his lips that murmured seductively of passion and pleasure, passion so intense that it was destiny, pleasure too great to be resisted.

  Hell is desire without love.

  They shared desire but no love, and a marriage based on that faulty basis could only end in bitterness. She must cling to that, but it was hard when her body clamoured as never before for what only this man could give.

  As abruptly as it had started, the rain eased off to a light drizzle. She broke free and turned away from him, but that helped her not at all. Wherever she looked she saw the carvings and statues depicting Ceres and the fertility she demanded. Here was corn, ripe for harvest, there were animals mating vigorously on a frieze that ran all around above their heads. And everywhere were men and women united in a fury of ecstatic creation.

  Ceres was a ruthless goddess, sworn to make the little people she ruled fruitful, at any cost. To tempt them she dangled the sweetness of desire, but when her purpose was achieved the desire turned to ashes.

  Renato came up behind her. He’d followed her gaze and understood everything she was thinking. ‘There’s no fighting it,’ he said. ‘Certainly not in this place, which was built to remind us how helpless we are in the hands of the gods.’

  ‘Do you believe that?’

  ‘I believe there are some forces we can’t withstand.’

  ‘And what do you think the gods meant for us?’ she asked, turning on him.

  ‘I’ll tell you what they didn’t mean. They didn’t mean for us to live peacefully. You and I could never do that. There’s something in you that drives me crazy, and there’s something in me that brings out a temper you never show to anyone else. We’ve fought from the moment we met, and we’ll probably fight until the last moment of our lives. But we’ll pass those lives together because I will not let you marry any other man.’

  Looking into his face, she was swept by a wild mood. It was the same as the one that she’d known on the jet ski when she had incited him to ride on out of sight of the boat. It had almost cost her her life then, and now it might decide the rest of her life.