‘Why did you try to warn me off?’ she whispered. ‘It was beautiful.’
‘I’m glad. I want everything to be beautiful and wonderful for you, always.’
‘It is wonderful, and you’re wonderful, and everything in the world is wonderful, because you love me.’
‘I didn’t say I loved you,’ he growled.
‘But you do, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do.’ He tightened his arms, pulling her naked body hard against his. ‘I love you, piccina. I love you with my heart and soul, with my body-’
‘Yes, I know that.’ She giggled, letting her fingers run races over his skin.
‘Don’t tease me,’ he groaned. ‘I can’t endure it.’
‘I don’t want you to endure it, I want you to give in.’
‘Don’t I always give in to you?’ he asked with a touch of sombreness in his voice.
But that mood couldn’t last. She wanted him to make love to her again, and he could never deny her anything.
On the day of Frank’s return Becky drove to Pisa Airport to meet him in her own car, delivered as an early birthday gift during his absence.
‘I thought you wouldn’t want to wait,’ he explained now as she thanked him.
‘You spoil me, Dad.’
‘That’s what daughters are for,’ he said cheerfully. He was on a ‘high’ of success, as he told her during the drive home.
‘Got everything I wanted at less than I expected to pay. Yessir!’
Becky had heard him talk like this many times before, but now the memory of the Englishmen, and their desperation, made it sound different.
‘Will anyone be put out of work?’ she asked.
‘What was that?’
‘If you’re making such a profit, someone has to lose out, don’t they?’
‘Of course. Someone always loses out, but they’re the wimps, the people who deserve to lose because nature made them losers.’
‘But is it nature that makes them losers, or you?’
‘Becky, what is this? You’ve never had such ideas before.’
The thought flashed across her mind, Or any ideas at all! But all she said was, ‘You closed down a place in England, and some of the people who lost their jobs came out here to find you.’
‘The devil they did! What happened?’
‘They found me instead. I was out riding alone and three men appeared from nowhere.’
‘Did they hurt you?’
‘No, but only because a man appeared and saved me. His name’s Luca Montese and he lives near by. He was working on his cottage when he heard them shouting. He squared up to them, knocked one of them down and after that they all scurried away.’
‘Then I must meet this man and thank him. Where exactly did this happen?’
She described the spot and he frowned.
‘I didn’t know I had any tenants there.’
‘He isn’t a tenant, he owns that bit of land. He says you tried to buy him out but he wouldn’t sell.’
‘Montese?’ he muttered. ‘Montese? Good grief, that’s him? Carletti, my agent, told me of some fellow who’d been making trouble.’
‘He’s not making trouble, Dad. He just wants to keep his home.’
‘Nonsense, he doesn’t know what’s good for him. Carletti says the place is little more than a hovel. Squalid, unsanitary.’
‘Not any more. He’s done a wonderful job of rebuilding it.’
‘You’ve been there?’
‘He took me there after he rescued me, and made me some tea. It was nice and cosy. He’s worked so hard on it.’
‘Well, he’s wasting his time. I’ll get it in the end.’
‘I don’t think so. He’s determined not to sell.’
‘And I’m determined that he will, and I reckon I’m stronger than some peasant lad.’
‘Dad!’ she cried in protest. ‘A moment ago you were going to thank him for saving me. Now you’re planning to bully him.’
‘Nonsense,’ he said with his easy laugh. ‘I’ll just show him where his best interests lie.’
He visited Luca that same day, full of bonhomie, thanking him for his care of Becky while contriving to patronise him in a way that embarrassed her. Luca’s response was a quiet dignity.
Then Frank looked around.
‘Carletti tells me you’ve been holding out for more than this little place is worth,’ he said.
‘Then your agent has misinformed you,’ Luca said quietly. ‘This place is worth everything to me, and I will not sell.’
‘All right, look, here’s the deal. Because you helped my daughter I’ll double my last offer. I can’t say fairer than that.’
‘Signor Solway, my home is not for sale.’
‘Why make such a fuss about this tatty little place? It’s barely half an acre.’
‘Then why trouble yourself with it?’
‘That doesn’t concern you. I’ve made a more than fair offer and I don’t like being trifled with.’
Luca gave his slow smile. It drove Frank Solway mad.
‘Have I said something funny?’ he snapped.
‘Signor, I don’t think you understand the word no.’
This was so completely right that Frank lost his temper and bawled indiscriminately until Becky said, ‘Dad! Have you forgotten what he did for me?’
Frank scowled. He hated to be in the wrong, but neither could he back down. He stomped off without another word, yelling, ‘Becky!’ over his shoulder.
‘Go with him,’ Luca said gently when she didn’t move.
‘No, I’m staying with you.’
‘That will make it worse. Please go.’
She yielded to his quiet insistence where her father’s blustering only filled her with disgust.
The following day Frank said uneasily, ‘I may have gone a little too far with Luca yesterday.’
‘Much too far,’ Becky said. ‘I think you should apologise.’
‘No way. That would make me look weak. But you’re another matter. Why don’t you drop in on him and tell him I’m not such a bad fellow? Don’t make it sound like an apology but-well, keep on his right side.’
She left the house with a light heart. Now she could spend the day with Luca without having to think of an excuse.
He observed her approach from a distance, a quizzical expression on his face.
‘Does your father know you’re here? Don’t get into trouble for me.’
‘Are you telling me to go away?’ she demanded, hurt.
‘It might be better if you did.’
‘You sound as if you don’t care one way or the other.’
‘My back is broad, but yours isn’t. I don’t want you hurt.’
‘In other words you’re giving me the brush-off.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ he growled. ‘Of course I don’t want you to go.’
She ran into his arms, kissing him again and again.
‘I’m not going, my darling. I’m not going to leave you.’
He kissed her long and deeply, and she responded with fierce, young passion. It was he who pulled away first, trembling with the effort it took to rein his desire back, but determined to do so.
‘I would die rather than harm you,’ he said in a shaking voice.
‘But, darling, you’re not harming me. Dad told me to come and see you.’
He looked at her wryly. ‘And why would he do that?’
She chuckled. ‘Can’t you guess? He wants me to soften you up for his next offer.’
He grinned. ‘And are you going to?’
‘Of course not. But he’s told me to keep on your right side, and while he thinks that’s what I’m doing he won’t make a fuss about me coming here. Aren’t I clever?’
‘You’re a cunning little witch.’
‘I’m only putting Dad’s own theory into practice. He says when you think someone’s acting for you they’re always pursuing their own agenda. Well, you’re my agenda, so come here and let me get on your right side.’
She took his hand and he went with her, unresisting, because neither then nor later could he deny her anything. It was to be the ruin of both of them.