A Wedding in Italy: A feel good summer holiday romance (From Italy with Love Book 2)

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘I know. And it probably will, so I’m getting worked up over nothing.’ She stifled a sigh. A conversation like this would only worry Alessandro and perhaps it was best not to have it. But then he aired exactly the fear she’d guessed he might have.

  ‘You wish to go back?’

  She turned to him. ‘To England?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Sometimes,’ she admitted. ‘But never enough to make me leave you.’

  ‘I would be sad if you were unhappy here. I do not want you to be unhappy, even for our love.’

  ‘Well that makes two of us, but you would be sad if you lived in England, and probably sadder than me here, so I guess that makes the best option me staying here. Besides, I like it. But sometimes I will miss home and that’s only natural. It’s not for you to worry about.’

  ‘You call it home. You always call England home, but you live in Rome. If you truly felt you belonged, you would call Italy home. The truth is in the things you do not know you are saying. That is why I worry.’

  Kate paused. It suddenly occurred to her that she did do that a lot. It was unconscious, something that just came out. ‘It doesn’t mean anything; it’s just a habit. You shouldn’t worry.’

  ‘This is the truth?’

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled up at him. ‘This is the truth. Home is with you, no matter what I call it.’ She reached up to kiss him. ‘I never said thank you, by the way.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For my surprise. It was lovely. I’ll miss my sisters like crazy when they’ve gone but it will have been worth it to spend some time with them.’

  ‘It was nothing.’

  ‘It was very thoughtful.’

  ‘It was not all me. Anna emailed me; she thought it would be funny, so we planned it together.’

  ‘Well, I love it.’

  ‘How much?’ he asked, moving in for another kiss, his hand travelling the length of her back to pull her closer.

  ‘Not that much,’ she said, smiling as she pulled away. Ignoring the tingle in her loins, she disentangled herself from his embrace. ‘If we don’t get ready, they’ll give up waiting for us and go exploring on their own, and that will make me about as popular as a dose of the flu. Besides, if we’re late out to sightsee, we’ll be late for dinner with your mamma and she won’t like that at all.’

  ‘She is very excited to meet your sisters. She has talked about it all of the time since she knew.’

  ‘I’m surprised she managed to keep it a secret,’ Kate mused. She had learned that Alessandro’s mother had been the only other person in on the surprise, and that was purely because she would have been hell on toast had she not known they were coming and been unable to prepare a sumptuous feast – and because had they been in Rome and Alessandro not taken them to meet her, he would very likely have had his pants pulled down and his bottom smacked in a way that hadn’t happened since he was five once his subterfuge had been discovered.

  ‘She is wiser with secrets than you think,’ he said, and his words brought to mind Jamie’s, who had more or less said the same thing. Kate didn’t doubt that for a moment.

  ‘One thing,’ she asked, knowing that it was a sticky subject but one she would have to broach if they were all going to be on the same page, ‘do I have to tell my sisters not to mention Matt or the divorce? I mean, Jamie says that your mamma already guessed it, but as we haven’t really had a chance to discuss any of it properly with her yet, do you think I ought to?’

  ‘Perhaps, for now,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘She is so worried about Maria that she might not want to think about so much divorce. She will start to feel it is everywhere she looks.’

  ‘It sort of is,’ Kate said. ‘I know she doesn’t like it but it’s a part of life nowadays that’s hard to ignore.’

  ‘Not in Mamma’s family.’

  ‘Apart from Uncle Marco.’

  ‘Sì. But he is only one, and he is Papa’s brother not Mamma’s.’

  Kate turned to the mirror and fastened an earring. ‘Do you really think Maria will divorce? That she’ll actually go through with it?’

  ‘I do not know. But she is very angry.’

  ‘A lot of couples get angry with each other but they don’t divorce. Divorce is more than just getting angry, it’s something far more fundamental; it’s something in your marriage that’s so broken it’s gone past fixing. It’s huge and not a decision to be taken lightly, and I know this better than most.’

  ‘You do not think adultery is enough to break a marriage?’ Alessandro said, holding her in an unnervingly frank gaze. ‘I think so.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I suppose it is.’

  ‘If Maria wants to divorce, then I will help to persuade Mamma that it is a good thing. If you know that divorce is a big decision, then you must also know that divorce can bring happiness. We are happy now, and my sister can be happy too.’

  There was no argument for that. No matter how Maria had vexed Kate in the past, no matter how instrumental she’d been in Orazia’s bid to oust her from Alessandro’s life, she was still his sister, and what mattered to him had to matter to Kate too. So she’d offer her support, even if it did stick in her throat.

  The dank grey of the skies had cleared overnight, and the morning was bright and fresh as Kate and Alessandro greeted the others outside their hotel. Despite the lateness of their retiring, everyone had agreed to meet early in order to make the most of the day they had left in Rome, but it meant a few bleary-eyed smiles and stifled yawns as they drew up their plan of action. As they didn’t have a lot of time to fit in rather a lot of sights, Alessandro suggested a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. Kate giggled at the idea of him, a fully-fledged Roman, doing about the most cheesy, touristy thing to do in Rome, and though he laughingly admitted that he may have to board the bus in heavy disguise, everyone agreed that it would be fun and fast and would allow them time to linger where they wanted to, while still being done in time to get to Alessandro’s home for dinner. And although nobody said it, the thought of Lily doing so much walking was a worry to them all. Kate breathed a silent sigh of relief when they all agreed to Alessandro’s plan without drawing attention to that fact and dampening Lily’s spirits by making her fret or feel like a burden.

  Over the past week Kate had noticed the temperature dropping sharply in the city, so that even she, a hardened Mancunian used to regular frosts and icy rain, felt the need to pull on a woolly sweater beneath her coat on venturing out. Everyone else in the party had taken advice from Alessandro and brought plenty of warm clothing with them, though Christian was removing layers as they sat down on the top deck of the bus and Joel’s coat flapped open. Kate wondered how they weren’t shivering; perhaps she was becoming acclimatised to the weather in Rome much quicker than she had realised, because there was no way her coat was coming off, while Alessandro blew into his hands to thaw them out.

  ‘I can’t believe it’s so quiet,’ Anna said, grabbing the guard rail of the open bus top to peer down onto the streets like an excited child. ‘I imagined it was always crazy.’

  ‘Not always,’ Alessandro said. ‘December is a good time to come – the tourists have gone home and it is easy to see everything.’

  ‘No queues for attractions and no waiting for tables at restaurants either,’ Kate added. ‘That was the biggest pain when I first came here; it used to drive me mad. And even though it’s cold here now it’s still beautiful.’

  ‘It’s nowhere near as cold as home,’ Lily said. ‘We’ve just left forecasts of minus five. I’m happy to be out of that, even if I’m not exactly slapping on the sun lotion here.’

  Anna let out a squeak that had Kate and Lily in fits of giggles as the bus started to pull away from the kerb. ‘We’re off!’

  Kate laughed. ‘How old are you? You’re supposed to be the sensible one.’

  ‘I’m the oldest but I don’t always have to be the most sensible,’ Anna replied, poking her tongue out at Kat
e before turning her attention back to the streets trundling past them. ‘What’s the first stop on the map?’ she asked Christian, flipping around again to get a look at the bus route spread across his knee.

  ‘The Piazza Venezia, I think,’ Christian said, poring over the page. As Anna bowed her head close to help him work it out, Kate glanced across at Alessandro with a bright smile.

  ‘Thank you,’ she mouthed. It wasn’t quite Christmas, but she had a feeling that spending this time with her sisters was the best gift she was going to get.

  As the bus wove up and down the streets of the city, Kate watched her sisters – gasps of approval, awestruck faces, enthusiasm for each new sight – and for the first time she began to understand the pride Alessandro displayed in his city. It was her city now too: beautiful and incredible – like nowhere else on Earth – and everyone should surely love it as she now loved it. Her heart swelled at every tiny reaction, and what little knowledge she had gleaned during her time there she was happy to impart. They would understand now just what had drawn her to this incredible place, and why she wanted to make a new life there. After all, who could visit and fail to dream a little about what it might be like to wake to these sights every day, to lay claim to them as their own, as the other lovers of Rome did? The Pantheon with its statuesque columns, the mighty Colosseum, the majesty and romance of the Trevi Fountain, the bustle and vibrancy of the Piazza Navona, now festooned with decorations for Christmas and lined with bright, fragrant stalls of the yearly market to honour that season – all these and many other treasures belonged to Kate now. Alessandro had worried that Manchester would always be her home, and perhaps it would, but Rome had captured her heart and soul.

  Daylight had been chased through to twilight by the time the party set off in a cab to see Signora Conti, and as the city’s lights began to flicker into life, piercing the gloom like brilliant jewels on black velvet, Rome went from natural beauty to sexy siren, more stunning than ever.

  ‘I can see why you love it here,’ Lily said dreamily, gazing out of the window, the warm glow of the streetlamps reflected in her eyes. She turned to Kate with a smile. ‘It’s amazing.’

  ‘Tempted to move?’ Kate asked.

  Lily laughed. ‘Tempted to try and persuade me?’

  ‘A little.’

  ‘It’s gorgeous but. . .’ She glanced at Joel, who was deep in conversation with Alessandro, sharing his thoughts on the differences between British and Italian football, and then back at Kate again.

  ‘I know. It’s not home.’ Kate reached across and squeezed her hand. ‘It was a bit of a vain hope. You know life would be perfect for me if you and Anna were here, but that’s not perfect for you, is it?’

  ‘Things are different for us,’ Anna cut in. ‘You had nothing to leave behind – not really.’

  ‘I know. I was just thinking out loud.’

  ‘But we’ll be here so often you’ll think we’ve moved over,’ Lily said.

  ‘Don’t forget you’ve got a baby coming,’ Kate said. ‘That might make visiting a bit trickier.’

  ‘For a short while. But I’m sure we’ll work around it,’ Lily replied cheerfully, but in her voice Kate heard fear. Nobody had said it, but everyone was scared that she would lose a second baby and what that would do to her mental state. She’d almost had a nervous breakdown losing her first. But for now, at least, she’d trusted them with the news that she had probably thought about keeping to herself for a while, and they had to repay that trust by not letting their own fears get the better of them, because that was no help to Lily at all. She’d told them because they were a family who didn’t keep secrets, but she’d also told them because she needed their strength and support to stop her spiralling into a negative storm of self-doubt and fear. She needed them to help her believe that this time she could get through the pregnancy, that she had to put the past behind her and try to cherish each precious moment of it, and if they couldn’t do that for her, then both Kate and Anna had failed her as sisters. Kate understood this without the need for one word from Lily, because she understood her sisters almost as well as she understood herself.

  Just under twenty minutes later, Signora Conti had Lily in such a crushing hug that Kate was seriously worried about what damage it might be causing that little peanut of life she had growing inside her. It was tempting to rush between them and drag Lily from harm’s way, and it was only Alessandro’s reassured, relaxed smile as he watched them that slapped some sense back into her.

  ‘Mamma is very happy to meet you,’ he said as Lily was finally freed. Anna was then subjected to the same, quickly followed by a slightly shell-shocked Joel and then Christian. ‘She has been very excited all of the day.’

  ‘We’re happy to meet you too,’ Anna said to Alessandro’s mother, who nodded and smiled broadly as Alessandro translated for her.

  Once Abelie had been introduced, they chatted pleasantly while the inevitable troupe of the rest of the Conti family arrived. Not one of them would ever miss an opportunity to inspect a potential new family member or even just a friend, and true to form, they arrived in shifts: Isabella and her family first, then Jolanda and hers, Lucetta and Gian, and finally even Maria, joined by her children, the absence of her husband a notable feature of her attendance – all laden with dishes they had brought to contribute to the meal. With warmth and good grace, each of them greeted Kate’s family, and once again, Kate couldn’t help but note that even Maria was making an effort to be friendly. Perhaps her own family woes had taught her some valuable lessons, but whatever it was, she certainly seemed humbler and less judgemental than she had before.

  ‘Come, come,’ Signora Conti urged everyone to the table in the best English she could muster, and then with Abelie and Jolanda assisting, she scurried out to the kitchen to begin plating up the various delights she’d prepared for dinner.

  ‘Brace yourself,’ Kate whispered to Anna with a grin. ‘It looks as though Alessandro’s mother has swapped their far bigger lunch for dinner so that she can welcome you properly. She did it when I first came over and my stomach took days to recover! I hope you’re hungry because after today you might never be hungry again.’

  ‘I am,’ Anna said. ‘Starving! And it smells amazing.’

  ‘Mamma Conti’s dinners are amazing,’ Kate agreed. ‘But she makes way too much. God only knows how she affords all the food.’

  ‘Oh.’ Anna suddenly looked troubled. ‘Do you think we ought to have offered to contribute?’

  ‘God no!’ Kate laughed. ‘She’d be seriously offended! She’d give you her last bowl of pasta and if you tried to repay it with so much as a bean she’d feel she’d failed in her task as hostess. No, enjoy it and thank her and that will be enough.’

  Alessandro’s mother put her head around the kitchen door, and a single look was enough to send the oldest grandchildren to her aid, while Maria and Isabella kept control of the youngest ones. Then, moments later the dishes started to arrive at the table: cured meats, preserved vegetables, green salad, bread, olives and salted fish.

  ‘Wow,’ Lily said with an approving sweep of the table. ‘This looks wonderful; we won’t be able to move after all this.’

  ‘This is only the first course,’ Kate said, shooting a conspiratorial smile at Alessandro who grinned in return. ‘You just wait – you really won’t be able to move by the time all the courses have been served, and you have to try each one because they’re just too good to leave, no matter how full you are.’

  At this, Lily almost seemed to pale, and Alessandro threw back his head and laughed. ‘You are in Italy! What we do know is food!’

  As promised, the antipasti was followed by the primo course, for which Signora Conti had made a divine pea risotto, then the secondo, which consisted of a choice of spicy sausage or salmon, with the contorno or side dish of crisp seasonal vegetables. Then came the insalata (another garden salad), which was followed by the cheese course. To make certain everyone had groaning stomachs, the des
sert came hot on the heels of all the savoury courses, but thankfully this was a panna cotta so creamy and light that, apart from the sublime taste, its presence barely registered on the digestive system at all. Lastly came coffee, and then limoncello (though Lily, as soon as a delighted Signora Conti discovered the pregnancy, was served a tasty herbal brew that she failed to catch the name of). All the while spirits were high and conversation flowed freely as everyone got to know each other, and Kate was happier than she could say to see everyone getting along. It was all she had hoped for but at times had dared not. Even Maria seemed cheered by her exchanges with Kate’s sisters – finding common ground with Anna in particular, who, when Kate really thought about it, probably had a similar temperament. Signora Conti beamed at every new compliment to her home, cooking and family. At one point she even went so far as to reach over and pinch Joel’s cheeks, which caused a gale of laughter from Lily, who said that if he was going to go around looking like a twelve-year-old with a beard that was barely bum fluff then he should expect people to treat him like one. Christian would have laughed too, but it seemed he was wiser than to think he wouldn’t be next on Signora Conti’s maternal radar, and so he allowed Joel one last bastion of dignity by shooting him a sympathetic look. Alessandro patted Joel on the back and reminded him that he’d suffered thirty years of such fussing, at which point Lucetta reminded him that he was an ungrateful brat and if he’d been her son she’d have turfed him out onto the streets. Everyone laughed, even Signora Conti, who probably didn’t have much of a clue what Lucetta was saying as it was in English, and who then lit up with pride as Alessandro nipped around the table to give her a kiss and a hug and tell her she was truly the best mamma in the entire world.

  More drinks followed dinner, and Signora Conti proudly showed Anna and Lily, accompanied by Kate and Lucetta, the view from her balcony, where the distant lights of Rome were scattered through the darkness, as the others chatted inside. It was chilly out there, a frost snapping at their noses and fingertips, but it was a welcome relief from a dining room that had become too hot with the number of bodies crammed into it.