‘That was different. That court was your stage. You commanded it. But I haven’t seen you before like you are today, holding yourself in and fighting the world. Or is it only me?’
‘No,’ she said after a moment. ‘As you say-the world.’
‘You do a lot of fighting inside yourself, that nobody knows about, don’t you?’
She nodded.
‘Or perhaps Gianni knows?’
He knew it was a risk but, instead of trying to jump out of the boat, she shook her head.
‘Did he ever know?’
‘When he was alive there was nothing to fight,’ she said simply.
He pulled on the oars, drawing them nearer the centre of the lake, sensing that the further they went the more she relaxed, as though a spring inside her was visibly uncoiling.
‘Signora-’ he began.
‘Minnie.’
‘Then could you please take your hair down? It’s scaring me.’
She laughed and pulled her hair free, letting it fall around her face, as close to dishevelled as he had ever seen it.
‘Is that better?’ she asked.
‘Much better,’ he agreed. ‘Now you look like the real Minnie.’
‘You know nothing about Minnie,’ she assured him.
‘True, because she keeps changing and confusing me.’
‘I could say the same about you. You’ve had a few different guises yourself-convict, party animal, ruthless tycoon. I merely adapt to keep up with you.’
‘And what am I now?’
‘Caveman! Hauling me off like that to a place where there’s no escape.’
‘Well, there is no escape, unless you want to jump into the water. I don’t know if it’s deep but it’s certainly dirty.’
For answer she gave the most delightful chuckle he’d ever heard from her. It subsided into a sweet, wistful smile.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘How strange that you should have said that to me. It’s exactly what he said.’
‘He?’ Luke asked, but he had an uneasy feeling that he already knew the answer.
‘Gianni. This is where he proposed to me. He hired a boat just like this one, rowed me out into the middle of the lake, and said, “Marry me!”’
She fell silent, looking into the water, reliving the moment.
Luke stared, shocked as the implications dawned on him. Then he groaned and clutched his head with one hand, so agitated that he forgot the oar, which swung away from him in the rowlock. Minnie leaned forward to take hold of it.
‘Don’t panic,’ she said, sliding it back to him.
He didn’t seem to see it. He was staring at her, aghast.
‘That was why you didn’t want to come on the lake?’
‘Yes.’
‘This place is special, and I forced you… Oh, Lord, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. What a mess!’
‘Stop being so hard on yourself.’
‘Have I ruined it for you?’
‘Of course not,’ she said gently. ‘Nothing could ruin it for me. It doesn’t depend on other people. I’m even glad that you made me come here. I’ve never been back since he died, and it’s been like a wall rearing up in front of me. Now you’ve helped me get over it.’
Her air of strain had fallen away, leaving her calm and content. She had said, ‘It doesn’t depend on other people’, and he saw that it was true. She had her own world where she lived with Gianni, and nobody could touch it.
Luke cursed the ill luck that had made him bring her here. He’d meant to draw her away from Gianni’s ghost, but it was himself from whom she’d withdrawn, back into her private place, leaving him outside.
He took the oar from her, feeling the brief touch of her hand. Slight as it was, it unnerved him.
He said no more for a while, but rowed in silence while the sun rose high in the sky and he grew uncomfortably hot in his sedate jacket.
‘You’re not dressed for rowing,’ she said kindly. ‘Why not take your jacket off?’
He removed it gratefully and she took it from him, folding it neatly and laying it beside her.
‘And the tie,’ she said. ‘Take that off and open your shirt. Right now you need to be comfortable rather than dignified.’
‘Thanks,’ he said, stripping off the tie and handing it to her.
It was bliss to open the top buttons and feel the air on him, but after a few minutes he discovered a downside to this. Perspiration cascaded from him as he rowed, soaking his shirt, making it cling to him, outlining the muscular shape of his torso.
For some reason he felt awkward. With any other beautiful woman he would have enjoyed the chance to impress her as part of the normal process of flirtation. But for her that wasn’t good enough, and he felt uncomfortable, even ashamed.
He glanced at her and was relieved to find that she apparently hadn’t noticed. She was leaning back, her head tilted up to the sky. Her eyes were closed against the sun, and there was a half smile on her lips. He watched her, entranced, knowing that he could have stayed like this for ever.
He pulled on the oars with renewed vigour, relishing the mass of physical sensations that were rushing in on him at once. Exertion had made his blood pound and his heart beat more strongly, and now his memory seized on the night of the party, when he’d fallen asleep, she’d led him to bed and had to struggle to free herself.
He couldn’t actually recall her thumping him, but the feel of her body writhing against his was there with him now. And suddenly he knew why. The touch of her hand, a few minutes ago, had revived that other moment when they had been as close as lovers, in flesh if not in spirit.
Now his body felt alive, vibrant, and the knowledge that it wasn’t the same with her, that there was no way he could reach her, had the effect of intensifying every feeling almost to the point of desperation.
In an urgent attempt to distract his own thoughts, he said, ‘Did you accept Gianni at once?’
‘I didn’t say anything,’ she remembered dreamily. ‘I was too dumbfounded to speak. I was madly in love, but I’d thought it would take me ages to wring a proposal out of him. Suddenly there it was, and all I could do was open and close my mouth like a goldfish.’
‘What did he say?’ Luke pressed her.
He despised himself for weakening and asking the question, but if she didn’t tell him soon he’d go crazy.
‘He said, “Either you say yes or I tip you in the water.” So I said yes. Afterwards he told me he wished he hadn’t done it that way, as he’d never know whether I’d married him out of love or to save myself from getting wet.’ She laughed. ‘I told him to work it out.’
‘Did he ever manage that?’
‘Let’s just say we were very happy,’ she said softly.
He was silent. There was nothing to say.
After a moment she asked, ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘I was wondering how often this happens. Do you see Gianni everywhere?’
She considered this seriously. ‘I don’t “see” him. He’s just there, part of me.’
‘But I meant places.’
‘Yes, he’s in all the places. Anywhere we were together, he’s still there. We often used to come on this lake and remember what happened.’
He was longing to ask if Gianni was there with them now, but he bit the words back. Why torment himself?
‘I should return to the office,’ she said with a little sigh.
‘Let’s not go back. Let’s stay on the water, then go and have some lunch and to blazes with them all.’
‘I can’t,’ she said reluctantly. ‘I have clients coming in this afternoon.’
‘Put them off.’
‘Luke, I can’t. I mustn’t. I can’t just abandon people who need my help.’
‘But we haven’t talked about anything.’
‘Serves you right for being a caveman.’
And with that he knew he would have to be satisfied. Turning the boat he pulled back to shore and helped her out. A horse-drawn carriage was passing and took them back to the Via Veneto.
At the door of the building she paused. ‘We’ll talk business another day,’ she said.