He eyed her askance. ‘None of the men in my family are safe from you in a car, are they?’
‘Anyway, Valentine’s was next day and you should have seen his face when the cards arrived. And the red roses that my parents always send me.’
‘Have they ever been to Naples?’ he asked.
‘Never. I took them to Paris once as a treat, but apart from that they’ve never been abroad.’
‘I’m going to be away for a few days. Why not invite them to stay here?’
‘You really mean that?’
‘Why not? Give them a real vacation. They’ll enjoy the Maggio dei Monumenti.’
‘Whatever’s that?’
‘Literally it means May of the Monuments, although it starts in the last week in April. For a few weeks many museums and monuments open for free, and because they attract such crowds other things have started up at the same time-fairs, dance spectacles, that sort of thing.’
‘Wait, I saw a puppet show in the street yesterday,’ she remembered.
‘That’s right, it’s just started, and now there’ll be processions and concerts of Neapolitan songs. Spring is coming and it’s a great way to celebrate. Call your parents and get them down for the fun.’
She did so, booked and paid for the tickets, and met them at the airport three days later. It was a joyous reunion, only slightly marred by her mother’s immediate exclamation, ‘Darling, you look so thin and tired. Are you working too hard?’
They behaved, as she afterwards told Luke, ‘like a couple of kids at the seaside for the first time.’ She spent the weekend showing them around the city, now growing warmer as April passed into May. When she had to return to work they were sufficiently confident to make their own way around, and even to take a day trip to Pompeii to see the ruins.
The following evening Enrico took them all out to dinner, entertained them with outrageous stories and flirted like mad with Olympia’s mother, while her father looked on in resignation.
‘She’s incorrigible,’ he told his daughter. ‘She always has been.’ But he said it with a touch of pride.
They returned home to the disconcerting sight of Luke, asleep on the sofa.
‘I got back early,’ he said, getting up and rubbing his eyes. ‘My business finished quickly, and I wanted to meet our guests.’
They were charmed by him, especially since he put himself out to achieve that very object. They all sat up late into the night eating pizzas, drinking wine and becoming the best of friends. By the time they’d finished he was calling them Harold and Angela.
There was an awkward moment when it became clear that Luke meant to spend the night on the sofa.
‘Oh, but there’s no need for that,’ said Angela, anxious to be broad-minded. ‘I mean-just because we’re here there’s no need for you to do anything different-’
‘Let it go,’ Harold begged, covering his eyes.
‘But I only-’
‘Darling, they know their own business best. Come to bed. Goodnight, you two.’
He said the last words hastily and almost carried his wife out of the room.
When they had gone Luke regarded her gleefully. ‘I think I’ve just been given your mother’s permission to-’
‘Yes, I know what she’s given you permission to-’ she said with heavy irony. ‘Thank you for being nice to my parents. Now, I think I’ll go to bed.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? Since it’s all right with your mother-’
‘Luke, I’m warning you-’
‘All right. It was worth a try.’ He gave a melancholy sigh. ‘Back to the sofa.’
‘Goodnight.’ She was laughing.
He grinned. ‘Goodnight.’
Next morning his mutual admiration society with Angela was increased when, owing to a failure in communication, she walked into the bathroom while he was in the shower. Retreating in haste, she confided to her daughter, ‘He’s got ever such nice legs, dear.’
‘Mum! Does your husband know that you notice men’s legs?’
‘Only too well,’ Harold moaned. ‘I can’t take her on the beach.’
She regarded them fondly. They had been married for fifty years and they were like a pair of crazy, loving children. This was how marriage should be, and how it so seldom was.
They’ve found a secret that I’ll never find, she thought. If I’d known, I might never have lost him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
OVER breakfast Luke called his mother, then announced that he was taking them all to the villa that night. Her parents exchanged looks and Olympia realised with dismay that this had given another twist to the screw of her supposed love affair with Luke.
But it was hard to deny it right now when she was still sore from Primo’s behaviour. At least Luke was saving her face, which perhaps was his kindly intention. Living together was possible because his manner towards her was never loverlike.
Then she put the thought aside to concentrate on making her parents’ visit memorable. They were guests of honour at the villa, treated like royalty, with the whole family lined up on the steps to greet them.
Toni kissed Angela’s hand, followed by Francesco, then Carlo, then Ruggiero, then-
‘Look who’s here,’ Hope said excitedly to Olympia. ‘But I expect you already knew.’
‘No, I didn’t know Primo was back,’ she said, trying to catch her breath.
She felt her hand taken into his, the shock of his warmth and strength. She was struggling to clear her head.
‘I haven’t contacted Enrico yet,’ he said. ‘But when I called home and Mamma said we had honoured guests, of course I had to be here.’
‘Of course,’ she murmured.
It was six weeks since she’d seen him, and he’d changed. His hair had lost its slightly shaggy look and was trimmed back neat and severe against his skull. It made him look older and slightly stern. Then she realised that the real change was in his face. He had lost weight and there were shadows under his eyes, which seemed darker, yet more brilliant.
Olympia suddenly remembered her mother’s remarks about her own looks. So he too had lain awake through long, lonely nights, thinking of how different things might have been.
He greeted Angela and Harold with perfect courtesy, but with a slight reserve that afterwards made Angela whisper to her daughter, ‘I don’t like him as much as his brother.’
Hope swept the two elderly people away for a glass of wine. Primo surveyed Luke, standing just behind Olympia.
‘Allow me to congratulate you,’ he said, ‘on your engagement.’
Olympia made a helpless gesture. ‘Primo-look-’
She was about to say that there was no engagement, but Primo continued, ‘And, while we’re being formal, allow me to introduce Signorina Galina Mantini.’
Out of the corner of her eye Olympia had just noticed a young woman coming towards them. Now she registered that this was the most astoundingly lovely creature she had ever seen. She seemed to be about eighteen, with honey-blonde hair that reached almost to her waist, and a flawless, peachy skin. She laid a possessive hand on Primo’s arm, gazed at him adoringly and giggled.
‘Galina, this is my brother, Luke, and his fiancée, Olympia.’
The glorious Galina put out her hand and said, ‘Buon giorno,’ in a soft, ravishing voice.
Olympia pulled herself together to return the greeting. Outwardly controlled, inwardly she was hurt and angry. Her own sadness of the last few weeks suddenly seemed like a mockery. She’d thought his feelings were as deep as her own, when she’d merely been a passing fancy.
You should have known! How often had she said that about him? She hadn’t been ready for this. But she ought to have been.