‘That isn’t really what I meant,’ said Toni as she set his coffee before him, just as he liked it. ‘I sense something strange about his coming home now.’
‘He came home for the wedding,’ Hope pointed out.
‘Yes, but we thought he’d be here a few days, and bring Celia with him. Instead, he came without her, and stayed. Why did he suddenly leave England? He had a good career there, in a successful firm. He owns shares in it and was making a fortune.’
‘But he’ll do even better by setting up here,’ Hope pointed out. ‘It made sense for them to send him to his own country.’
‘I don’t like things that are too sensible,’ her husband complained. ‘There’s something else behind it.’
Hope nodded. ‘I think so, too,’ she conceded. ‘I just hope it isn’t-’
‘What?’ Toni asked, laying his hand over hers.
‘He used to tell us so much about Celia. Every phone call, every letter was all about her. I was surprised when he said she was blind, because he’s not a man who-Well-’
‘Yes, I can’t imagine him living with a woman he has to care for all the time,’ Toni agreed. ‘But I thought we were wrong. I was proud of him. He even sent us photographs of her, and called her his English rose. I’d never known him to be so committed to a woman before.’
‘Then suddenly it’s all over,’ Hope said, ‘and he comes home without her. He’s been back for three months now, and he never speaks of her. Why?’
‘What are you afraid of?’
‘That he left her because his love wasn’t great enough for him to cope. I should be sorry to think that was true of any son of mine.’
‘But you didn’t like him living with her at the start,’ Toni pointed out. ‘You said her blindness would hold him back.’
She made a face.
‘All right, I admit I’m not consistent,’ she conceded. ‘Is anyone?’
‘Never, in all the years I’ve known you, have you been consistent,’ her husband said fondly.
‘I wanted him to be sensible.’ she said, ‘But I suppose I don’t like him to be too sensible. I wanted to believe that my son is better than myself, kinder and more generous.’
‘Nobody is more generous than you,’ Toni protested. ‘But for the generosity of your love my life would be nothing.’
‘You praise me too much,’ she said with a little smile. ‘It isn’t generous to love a man who gives you everything you want.’
He returned the smile, and she kissed him, but they both knew that it wasn’t really true. Despite his love, he didn’t give her everything she wanted. Only one man could have done that, and Toni was not that man. It would have been too much to say that he knew it, but he’d always had a suspicion, which he proved by determinedly refusing to ask questions.
Thirty-five years ago he had met Hope, an Englishwoman visiting Italy, a divorcee with three sons: Luke, adopted; Francesco, born during her marriage, but not by her husband; and Primo, the stepson she’d come to love. Toni had loved her from the first moment, and had been overjoyed when she’d agreed to marry him. Only his own children could increase his happiness, and that had come about the following year, with the birth of twin sons, Carlo and Ruggiero.
Since then he had sometimes wondered if Francesco was her secret favourite, but her adoration of each one of her sons was so all-encompassing that it was hard for Toni to be sure of his suspicions. Nor did he ever allow himself to brood about them.
Hope had missed Francesco badly since he’d left home to work in America, later moving to England, but she would have missed any of them who vanished for years, making only brief visits home.
But suddenly, three months ago, he’d returned to Naples from England, ostensibly for his brother’s wedding, and full of plans for setting up a branch of his firm and increasing his already healthy fortune. While he looked for somewhere to live he’d moved back into the Villa Rinucci, in the room that had always been kept for him, even when it had seemed he would never occupy it again.
But he had come without the woman he’d once seemed to love, and he would never speak of her.
‘You’re afraid he just dumped her because she was a burden, aren’t you?’ Toni asked his wife gently. ‘But I don’t believe that. Not our Francesco.’
‘I’ve told myself that many times.’ Hope sighed. ‘But how well do we know him these days?’
‘Maybe she dumped him?’ Toni suggested mildly.
‘Toni, caro, you’re talking nonsense. A girl with a disability dumping a man who could look after her? No, it’s something else-something that gives him bad dreams.’
‘He tells you this?’ Toni asked, startled.
‘No, but sometimes he mutters in his sleep. I’ve heard him through the door. Last night I heard him cry, “Get out!” At other times he gets up and walks the floor for hours, as though he was afraid to go back to sleep.’
‘Now it is you who are talking nonsense,’ he told her firmly. ‘If he walks the floor, surely it’s because he’s making plans for the factory? Why should he be afraid to sleep?’
‘I wish he would tell me,’ Hope said sadly. ‘There is something about this situation that he’s keeping a secret, and it hurts him.’
‘Does he know that you heard him last night?’
‘No, I meant to knock on his door, but I lacked the courage.’
‘Don’t tell me that you’re afraid of your own son?’ he said in a rallying voice.
‘Not exactly. But there’s a distant place inside himself, where nobody else is allowed.’
‘That’s always been there,’ Toni pointed out. ‘As long as I’ve known Francesco he’s protected that inner place-sometimes fiercely. I remember the very first day we met. He was three years old, and the wary look was already in his eyes.’
‘Perhaps he was just nervous at meeting a stranger?’ Hope mused.
‘Francesco has never been nervous of anyone in his life. People are nervous of him. He’s always kept himself to himself. That way he doesn’t have to bother with anyone who doesn’t interest him.’
‘Caro, what a cruel thing to say!’ Hope protested.
‘I don’t mean to be cruel, but he’s the man he is. He isn’t wide-open to people, and his heart is difficult to reach. He prefers it like that. It saves having to make small talk. He’s impatient with small talk. It’s a waste of time. He told me so.
‘You make him sound so grim,’ Hope objected.
‘He is grim in many ways. He lacks charm, and that’s another thing he’s glad of.’
‘I’ve always found him very charming,’ Hope said, offended.
‘So have I. Inside this family he can be delightful. To those he loves he shows warmth and generosity, but to them only. Generally he’s indifferent to the world and its opinions, and nothing’s going to change him. That’s why if this young woman really was the right one, breaking up with her was a greater tragedy than it would be with other men.’
‘But he dismissed her.’
‘Did he? I wonder. What a pity you didn’t manage to talk to him when you heard him call out in his sleep. He might have opened up at that moment.’
‘You’re right.’ She sighed. ‘I’m afraid I’ve missed the chance. This morning he rose early and left before the rest of us were up.’
‘Careful to avoid us,’ Toni murmured.
‘No, no, I’m sure we’re making too much of this, and all is well with him,’ she said, as lightly as she could manage.
Toni rested his hand fondly on her shoulder.
‘If you say so, carissima,’ he said.
For the rest of the day Hope was inwardly disturbed. The conversation of the morning haunted her, and she found herself repeatedly going out onto the terrace to look down the path to where a car would climb the hill, hoping that Francesco would return early.