‘Olympia Lincoln.’
‘Luke Cayman.’
‘Cayman?’ She looked at him quickly. ‘Are you any relation to Jack Cayman?’
Before he could answer, a sleek sports car swept right in front of them, forcing Luke to brake sharply and utter a stream of Neapolitan curses. By the time things had sorted themselves out with lots of honking and bawling, Luke had had time to catch his breath and partly understand the situation.
Now, if ever, was the moment to watch every word. Brother Stuffed-Shirt Primo had certainly been up to something. But what? That was the million dollar question that he was going to enjoy exploring.
‘Sorry,’ he said at last. ‘What was the name?’
‘Jack Cayman. I met him in England. He works for Leonate. Surely you must be related? Two Englishmen with the same name, in Naples.’
As his thoughts settled he realised that he might have overreacted. Primo sometimes used his father’s name for wheeling and dealing in England, thinking it would make him less conspicuous. It might mean nothing.
‘It sounds like my brother,’ he mused.
‘Your brother?’
‘That’s right. We both come from England originally.’
‘Are you part of the firm too?’
‘Leonate? Not part of, but I’m in the same line of electronics and I’ve just sold them some goods, so I’d just dropped in to sign the papers. Jack and I don’t see much of each other because he travels a lot. Look, I know a little trattoria just down here and I need some sustenance after the fright you gave me.’
She suppressed a childish desire to say, Oh, yeah? The mere idea of this man taking fright was incongruous. He was like a rock. A pleasant, attractive rock, but a rock just the same. It was there in the shape of his head and his jaw line.
When at last they were seated, eating pizza and drinking coffee, he said, ‘I never take my car when I visit Leonate. The roads near it are so bad that it’s quicker on foot. But how did you come to be driving out of that building?’
‘I work there-well, sort of. I come from Curtis in England.’
‘So you’ve been taken over?’
‘I suppose I have. I’m here to learn the business and the language, and anything else I can.’
‘Was that Jack’s idea?’
‘Mine mainly. I sort of forced his hand.’
‘You-forced Pr-forced his hand?’ Luke asked carefully. ‘Not an easy man to force.’
She nodded. ‘I wanted to come to Naples. A way presented itself and in the end he saw things my way.’
To Olympia’s amazement Luke threw his head back and roared with laughter.
‘You don’t know how it sounds to hear you say that,’ he said at last. ‘That’s how he talks-do it my way. And people always do, because he gives them no choice. I guess you’ve heard him.’
‘No, I’ve never heard him say that,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t sound like him at all.’
‘Doesn’t sound-? We can’t be talking about the same man. Is something the matter?’
He’d noticed her looking over his shoulder and turned, half expecting to find Primo. Instead, it was his mother that he saw standing just inside the door, trying to attract his attention.
‘Mamma!’ He rose to embrace her and she hugged him back enthusiastically.
‘I’ve been trying to call you, but you turned your phone off,’ she reproved him. ‘Now introduce me to your friend.’
‘Mamma, this is Miss Olympia Lincoln. Miss Lincoln, this is my mother.’
Olympia regarded the newcomer with admiration. She looked between fifty and sixty, with an elegant figure and a face that was a tribute to the power of the massage parlour. She was fighting off encroaching age, and doing it very skilfully.
She shook hands with Olympia, giving her the welcoming but sharp-eyed look of a mother with too many unmarried sons. She evidently liked what she saw, for her smile broadened.
‘Mamma, sit down and have coffee with us,’ Luke said.
‘I have no time. I must hurry back to the villa to finish preparations for tonight.’ To Olympia she said, ‘We’re having a family party and you must come.’
‘Oh, no-thank you, but-if it’s a family party-’
‘Of course you must come. I won’t take no for an answer. Luke, you hear me now and bring this nice girl to us tonight.’
She paused to regard Olympia with admiration.
‘We’ll have some dancing and I just know you’ll look wonderful in a long dress.’
‘Mamma!’ Luke covered his eyes.
‘Well, she will. Crimson, I think.’
‘Crimson?’ Olympia exclaimed in surprise. ‘I’ve never thought of it as my colour.’
‘But it is. You must wear crimson, if not tonight then the next time I see you.’
She kissed Luke and hurried out before either of them could answer.
‘You do realise that you’ve just been given your orders, don’t you?’ Luke said with a grin. ‘Mamma’s rather overwhelming, but she means it kindly.’
‘I know she does, and she’s made me feel so welcome.’
Luke suppressed the thought that this was because Hope was preparing to swallow Olympia alive in the name of ‘acquiring daughters-in-law’, and merely said, ‘You will come, won’t you? Just to keep her happy? She always gets cross if her sons turn up without girlfriends. She accuses us of only associating with the kind of girls a man can’t take home to his mother.’
‘Rightly?’ Olympia asked, her eyes full of fun.
He cleared his throat. ‘It’s a long story. She thinks she’s right and I just go along with it. We all do. But boy, does she ask a lot of questions! I swear it’s like being interrogated by the Inquisition, but if you’re there I’ll be spared.’
‘You won’t, you know,’ she chuckled. ‘You’ll just be asked a different kind of question, and probably twice as many.’
He groaned. ‘How horribly true!’
‘Questions are what mothers do,’ she said sympathetically. ‘One way or the other.’
‘But you will come, won’t you? It’s the least you can do after knocking me down.’
‘All right,’ she said, laughing.
It would be better than spending the evening alone, wondering when Jack would return. She had tried to call him earlier but his cellphone had been switched off.
Luke drove her back to the Vallini and whistled at the sight of her destination. Once inside she went straight to the hire shop, seeking a suitable dress for that night. She was resolute in her determination to make her own choice, but somehow the gown that suited her best just happened to be deep crimson satin. She hired it and some gold jewellery, then bought gold sandals to go with it.
When the hairdresser had come to her suite and whipped up her hair into an elaborate confection, she was ready for the evening.
She tried to call Jack, but for the third time she couldn’t get through. She frowned, puzzled by the odd silence and wishing with all her heart that he could be here and see her looking like this.
His brother was nice, but it was chiefly his relationship to Jack that made him so. She would see the house which had been their home and learn something about him.
If only he could be here, she thought sadly, regarding the vision in the mirror that he wouldn’t see.
Luke’s frank admiration was balm to her soul, although he couldn’t resist saying, ‘You’ll give Mamma ideas, dressing like that.’
‘It’s not because of anything she said. This was the perfect dress. She was right about that.’
‘I’ll believe you. She won’t.’
‘Is it far?’ she asked, diplomatically changing the subject.
‘No distance. Just at the top of this hill. You’ll see it as soon as we’re on the road.’
Just as he’d said, the family home loomed up above them as they climbed the hill. All the lights were on and they seemed to blaze out a welcome over the whole of the surrounding city, the countryside, the bay, even as far as Vesuvius.