‘The work makes her feel better,’ he said, kicking the engine into life. ‘She is bored and she cannot sleep at night because she is sitting all of the day.’
Kate hitched up her skirt and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso. Riding pillion on his scooter never got any less scary.
Roasted tomatoes, basil and garlic scented the air of Signora Conti’s home. Kate hadn’t realised just how hungry she was until they let themselves in at the front door and the smell set her stomach growling. It was so loud that Alessandro stared at her before throwing his head back with laughter.
‘A food emergency,’ he said once he’d stopped. ‘I will tell Mamma we need to give you plenty.’
‘It’s been a long day,’ Kate grumbled, mortified by the betrayal of her own body. How was she supposed to look sexy, sophisticated and desirable at all times when her stomach insisted on making her sound like a pig hunting truffles?
Signora Conti rushed in from the kitchen, the trademark padded headband that always held her bobbed hair neatly in place sliding back and letting steel-grey ropes free from its confines. There were smears of tomato sauce down her apron and her cheeks were ruddy, but her eyes were bright with pleasure. If Kate had worried about her being up and about again, she needn’t have. Signora Conti looked as fit and well as Kate had ever seen her, and even happier to be back in her beloved kitchen, hands on with the cooking and totally in charge again.
‘Ciao!’ She kissed and hugged Kate, and then Alessandro, even though she’d probably only seen him an hour or so before.
Abelie wandered in from a door off the main room, giving Kate a warm smile and greeting her too. ‘Are you well?’ she asked. ‘We never see you now.’
Kate laughed. ‘You saw me a few days ago.’
‘It feels like a long time,’ Abelie said. ‘Lucetta is coming with Gian. Isabella and Jolanda cannot. Maria will come with her husband and little ones in one hour.’
Kate shot a glance at Alessandro, but the significance of that last sentence seemed lost on him and he merely nodded to acknowledge the information. Maria being there would make it a lot more difficult to have the discussion with Signora Conti that they’d wanted to have. In fact, so would Isabella and Lucetta, if only because the more people that were there, the more awkward she would feel. And this family didn’t do secrets (as a rule anyway) so there was no taking Alessandro’s mother to one side to discuss it in private. If they had anything to say, they would be saying it in front of everyone. She was beginning to wish she’d put Nunzia off the previous evening and come when it was likely to have been quieter.
‘Kate is very hungry,’ Alessandro said, grinning at her as he did. ‘We must give her food now before she dies.’
‘Very funny,’ Kate said, giving his arm a slap. It only made his grin wider.
His reply, witty as Kate suspected it would have been, was cut short by the arrival of Lucetta and Gian. Signora Conti rushed to embrace them both, chatting away and stroking their faces as if they’d just been reunited on one of those lost relative TV shows. But Lucetta looked equally as pleased to see her mother, and Kate guessed that had a lot to do with how much Signora Conti’s health had improved over the last few days. The drugs that Kate had cajoled, begged and bullied her to take were working their magic, and it seemed that the hot toddies she’d taken to indulging in every night weren’t doing too much harm either.
‘Kate!’ Lucetta exclaimed, kissing her. ‘Are you well?’
‘Brilliant.’ Kate smiled. ‘A bit tired but happy. You look fantastic; being married must suit you.’
‘But of course!’ She threw a fond smile back at Gian, who was busy having his hair examined by Signora Conti. Lucetta’s mamma had apparently decided it needed a cut and was threatening to fetch some scissors there and then. He returned it with a look that pleaded for help, but Lucetta only laughed and turned back to Kate. ‘Your job is going well?’
‘I’m loving it.’ Kate glanced at Alessandro, a sly smile on her lips. She hadn’t yet told them about Shauna’s plans to put her on the payroll and, thus, make her an official member of staff the next week if all went well – mostly because the opportunity hadn’t presented itself. But now seemed like a good time. ‘And. . . it’s going so well that if this week continues to be good, next week I’ll be a paid part of the team.’
‘Fantastico!’ Lucetta squeaked and pulled Kate into another hug.
Kate blushed and glanced at Alessandro to see that he was smiling at her, a curious look on his face. Was he ever so slightly annoyed to be proved wrong about Shauna? But he leaned to kiss her anyway and whispered in her ear, ‘This makes me happy.’
‘Me too,’ Kate replied, but she barely had time for anything else, as Lucetta had explained to Signora Conti and Abelie and they had both rushed to congratulate her too.
She gave a bemused smile as hugs and kisses and compliments were thrown in her direction – of how clever, how kind, how lovely she was. If they were this excited at the mere possibility, then she had better get that job now for sure or they were going to be devastated. Would failure work the other way and make her instantly detestable?
Then Abelie looked around at the sound of the front door slamming, and Kate followed the direction of her gaze to see Maria storm in, no husband, and her four children looking somewhat terrified in her wake. By the look on Maria’s face, Kate could see why that might be. Instantly, everyone guessed the same – something or someone had made her very angry, and being on the receiving end of Maria’s anger – whether directly or indirectly – wasn’t a place you wanted to be.
Without a word of greeting, she launched into a tirade, hands flying all over the place, making gestures Kate had never seen before (and she’d seen quite a few on the streets of Rome since she arrived, many of which Alessandro had laughed about as he explained their less than complimentary meanings) and shouting in rapid Italian, her voice getting louder, swinging from anger to exasperation to tears and then anger again in a terrifying cycle. Her younger children had made their way to Abelie and stood at her skirts as she hugged them, while the oldest, a boy of fourteen, simply looked on in mortified horror, as what Kate, even with her rudimentary grasp of the language, was beginning to work out were passionate threats concerning her husband and the various bits of his anatomy she wanted to remove with sharp and not very sanitary instruments. Signora Conti was doing her best to calm the situation and took Maria to sit down as she began to cry, while Lucetta went to assist, leaving Alessandro, Gian, Kate and Maria’s oldest son to stare dolefully at each other.
‘What’s happening?’ Kate asked in a whisper.
Alessandro turned to her, his expression darkening by the second. ‘Maria thinks her husband has been unfaithful to her. She has found . . .’ He glanced quickly at his nephew, before taking Kate to one side and lowering his voice until it was barely audible. ‘She has found hair in their bed. She says it is not hers.’
‘And she’s concluded he’s having an affair just from that? Could she be mistaken? Could it be hers after all?’
Alessandro shook his head. ‘I do not think so. You would know if another woman’s hair was in your bed?’
‘Well, yes, I suppose so. But there might be an innocent explanation for it. They have a cleaner or something?’
Alessandro shook his head. ‘No cleaner. He has done this before. Maria forgave him. This time she wants to divorce him.’
Kate turned her gaze to Maria, who was now being comforted by her sisters while Signora Conti dabbed away her tears. ‘She sounded like she wanted to do a lot more than just divorce him.’
Alessandro had a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. ‘It is her way – full of fire. Inside, she is dying. She loves him and she knows that divorce will bring shame to Mamma. So she does not say this lightly.’
It was not often Kate had felt the urge to pity Maria; in fact, she never imagined she’d see the day. But looking at her now, the pity welling up inside wa
s genuine, and she wished they were on better terms, just so she could try to offer some comfort. But, she supposed, Maria had enough family there to do that. One thing was certain, the night now belonged to Maria and her woes, and any discussion of anything else would have to wait.
Chapter Thirteen
‘Kate, can I have a quick word?’ Shauna beckoned her over. It was Friday afternoon, and the office was quieter than it had been all week.
Kate nodded. Putting the pile of glossy sales sheets to one side, she left the desk she was sharing with Nonna Rossi and made her way over.
‘I don’t want to keep you in suspense any longer,’ Shauna said. ‘I know you’ve been patient and you’ve done a sterling job. And I’m sure it’s not easy sharing a desk, even if that is with Nonna. So I was wondering how you’d feel about me ordering a new one for you? We could put it, say. . .’ her eyes raked the room, ‘in that corner next to Elizabeth? What do you think?’ Her gaze turned back to Kate, a smile loitering at her lips.
‘Um, I suppose that would be nice.’
‘And I’m going to need some paperwork from you – tax and proof of residential status and that sort of thing.’
Kate broke into a smile of her own.
Shauna laughed. ‘Finally she gets it!’
‘I have the job?’
‘You have the job. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with you these last couple of weeks and I’m more than happy to take you on officially. If you’re happy with that, of course.’
‘Happy? I’m thrilled!’
‘Good. Then all that remains for me to do is welcome you aboard and deliver the good news to the rest of the team. I think everyone will be happy to have you with us – it’ll certainly take some of the pressures of the workload off so for that reason if no other.’
Kate didn’t care about the pressures of the workload, or whether the others wanted her or not. She had a job, and she could earn, and finally that dream of making a real, concrete, forever life in Italy was becoming a reality that she could see in clearer detail than ever before. It was there, in front of her, and all she had to do now was take it.
Alessandro reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze as they walked along the wide pavements of the city centre. The skies were smoky grey, a chill breeze finding its way through the fabric of her light jacket, and for the first time since she’d moved to Italy she felt cold.
‘You are hungry?’ he asked.
‘I’ve been hungry since ten o’clock,’ Kate said. ‘I don’t know why we have to make all this fuss. I’d have been happy enough eating at my apartment.’ She also thought it was slightly strange that Alessandro had a Saturday off but they weren’t eating at his mother’s, as they would normally do whenever they had the time. She loved that he wanted to celebrate her new job, but his mother wasn’t a woman you refused easily. Aside from this, she had a mountain of chores at the apartment that needed doing, and although she was now finally earning, this was still an unnecessary expense. Alessandro would insist on paying, of course, but that wasn’t really the point.
‘Is this the place?’ Kate asked as they halted outside the building. She looked it up and down, and then turned to him, confusion written across her features. ‘But this is the hotel where I stayed on my first trip to Rome. Why would we be eating here?’
‘You will find out,’ he said, a strange look that Kate couldn’t fathom on his face.
‘What’s going on?’
‘You will find out!’ he repeated, laughing as he tugged at her hand to lead her inside.
The lobby was just as she remembered it – sumptuous clarets and golds and far more luxurious than she had been able to afford. Her credit card had remembered it more forcefully than she had for a great deal of time afterwards. The smell of brass polish and cut flowers assailed her, transporting her back to the exact moment she had first stepped inside. So much had happened since then, and yet it seemed like no time at all. She turned to Alessandro with a questioning look. Was there some sort of anniversary she’d forgotten? Some significance to this hotel, on this day, that she ought to know? He smiled down at her and then looked ahead. Kate followed the direction of his gaze and this time, from across the lobby, saw four figures rushing towards them.
‘Oh my God!’ she squealed.
Anna and Lily threw their arms around her.
‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ Kate cried.
They were huddled together, the three of them all crying and laughing and talking at the same time.
‘You absolute cows!’ Kate laughed, wiping tears from her eyes as they finally broke apart. ‘You told me you couldn’t come until next year!’
‘We couldn’t,’ Anna said. ‘Not really.’
‘But I had some news,’ Lily added, ‘and I wanted to tell you in person. It also means that I won’t be able to fly in a few months.’
Kate stared at her. ‘You’re not. . .’
‘Yes!’ Lily nodded, beaming. ‘I’m pregnant.’
‘Oh,’ Kate faltered. It had only been a few months since Lily’s first pregnancy had ended in tragedy. Kate wanted to congratulate her, of course, but there was a small voice of caution holding her back.
‘I know what you’re thinking, and we’re being cautious too.’ Lily turned to Joel, who was standing with Christian and Alessandro as they waited for the women in their lives to remember they were actually there too. ‘But we’re cautiously happy, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it goes OK this time.’
‘You’re OK now?’ Kate asked. ‘Should you have been flying at all?’
Lily smiled. ‘I’m fine. I wanted to come.’
‘It was now or never, really,’ Joel put in. ‘Well, not never, of course, but you get the idea. If we hadn’t come now, it might have been a very long time before we did.’
‘How far gone are you?’
‘Five, maybe six weeks. Early days yet. I’ve got an appointment with the midwife next week so she might be able to date it more accurately.’
‘Next week?’ Kate asked. ‘So how long are you staying for?’
‘Only a couple of days. It’s all any of us could get off work.’
‘I know. It’s OK. I have work myself on Monday so you would have been entertaining yourselves anyway.’
‘We’ll just have to make the most of the weekend. Pack in as many sights and ice-creams as we can.’
‘It’s gelato here, not ice-cream. Let me tell you there’s a huge difference.’
‘Oh, look,’ Anna laughed, ‘she’s gone native already!’
Lily giggled. ‘I think I could eat quite a lot of gelato or ice-cream, and I wouldn’t care which it was, especially as I’m eating for two now.’
‘But take it easy,’ Kate warned. ‘Don’t overdo it.’
‘Yes, Miss,’ Lily said, saluting her.
‘You know what I mean,’ Kate said.
‘I do. I’m just kidding.’
‘It’s fantastic news, really it is,’ Kate smiled. ‘I’m so happy for you both.’
‘Don’t worry, we don’t have anything that exciting to tell you,’ Anna said. She looked at Christian, who simply grinned. ‘The only new addition to our family is the Game of Thrones box set.’
‘Don’t tell me anything that’s going on!’ Kate cried. ‘I haven’t been able to see the new series anywhere!’
Christian laughed. ‘Well, if that’s all you’ve had to worry about while you’ve been here then it sounds as if you’ve had a blast.’
‘You say that like Game of Thrones isn’t important!’ Kate squeaked.
Alessandro slipped an arm around her. ‘I am glad you could all come,’ he said to the others. Kate looked up at him.
‘Is this anything to do with you?’
‘We told him we were coming,’ Anna said, ‘and we asked Alessandro to keep it a secret because we wanted to surprise you.’
‘Well, it was certainly a surprise,’ Kate said. ‘I didn’t have a clue! At least I know
now that if I ask him to keep something a secret it will go to his grave.’
Alessandro chuckled. ‘Come, we will eat and talk more at the table.’
By the time Kate and Alessandro left the hotel bar it was two in the morning. They’d eaten, drank, talked and talked, and every drink had been followed by another one. Plans to go out into Rome had been shelved – everyone was just too comfortable where they were and happy to be reunited. Lily, forced to be teetotal, had fallen asleep eventually on Joel’s shoulder as they lounged in the plush armchairs of the bar area, their high spirits and lively conversation sometimes drawing a little too much attention, and at this point they’d finally conceded defeat with promises to meet up again first thing so that Kate and Alessandro could give them a whistle-stop tour of some of the tourist favourites of the city, followed by a quick stop at Alessandro’s home to meet his family. Monday morning would see them going home, and Kate tried not to think about how close that day was as she dressed the next morning.
‘You are sad?’ Alessandro asked, kissing her neck as she fastened her blouse.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘You are quiet. Your eyes. . .’
‘I’m just thinking about how much I’ll miss Lily and Anna when they’ve gone back. It feels like years since I’ve seen them. And now Lily is pregnant again, I’m worried about her. If it ends badly, like last time, I don’t know how she’ll cope.’
‘You cannot keep an unborn baby completely safe, no matter how you try.’
‘I know that. But I can be there for her. Help and support her if it goes wrong. She’ll need someone to cry with, to hold her, tell her everything will be OK. I know she has Anna, and she has Mum and Joel, but I feel guilty that I should leave all that to them. It doesn’t seem right, somehow.’
‘It may be well this time.’
A Wedding in Italy: A feel good summer holiday romance (From Italy with Love Book 2) Page 19
