She threw her arms up in the air.
‘Does that mean you can have a rest?’ he asked.
‘Well, I’ve got paperwork and stuff to catch up on, but I can relax a bit, yes. And do you know the best thing of all? Someone told me that they heard my legal opponent say they’d done a clever thing to back down rather than face me, because I was a Rottweiler. Isn’t that wonderful?’
‘Is it?’ Luke asked blankly.
‘Well, not normally of course, but in my job it’s a great compliment.’
‘I can see how it would be,’ he said, amused. ‘Then let’s celebrate your freedom. I’ll go out and buy some wine and a couple of ready-cooked pizzas. No cooking tonight, just relaxing-’
‘And watching some stupid game show on TV?’ she asked eagerly.
‘The stupider the better,’ he promised.
He returned a few minutes later, bearing food and wine, to find her changed out of her severe clothes into jeans and sweater, and looking like ‘urchin’ Minnie, the one he preferred.
It was a wonderful evening. Over pizza she entertained him with vivid impressions of her courtroom opponents, which made him laugh.
‘You should have been an actress,’ he said. ‘You have the gift.’
‘Of course. That’s what a lawyer needs. I can be anything in a courtroom-demure, respectful-’
‘Or Avvocato Rottweiler,’ he supplied.
She gave a reminiscent smile. ‘The first time I was in an Italian court, it sounded so strange to hear the lawyers called Avvocato. I’d just returned here from England and it sounded like “avocado”. I kept giggling and nearly got thrown out.’
‘Things never sound so impressive in English,’ he said. ‘Take your noble ancestor, Pepino il Breve. You’ve got to admit that “Pepin the Short” lacks a certain something.’
‘My noble ancestor!’ she scoffed, then began to chuckle. ‘Pepin the Short. I love it.’
Afterwards they sat on the sofa and hunted through the TV channels for the worst game shows they could find. There was plenty of choice and they bickered amiably, engaging in furious argument over the sillier questions.
Neither of them had mentioned their closeness of the night before, but when he laid his hand on her arm it seemed natural for her to lie down lengthways, with her feet over the end of the sofa, and her head resting on his leg.
‘You got that last one wrong,’ she said, taking a bite out of an apple.
‘I did not,’ he said hotly. ‘There were three choices-’
‘And you got the wrong one,’ she insisted.
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. The first contestant said-’
‘Oh, shut up and hand me another apple.’
He did so and she tucked into it until, a few minutes later, she began to laugh.
‘Pepin the Short,’ she said. ‘What a name!’
‘That’s what you get for being English,’ he said lazily.
‘Half English.’
‘How did that work out when you were a child?’
‘Not well. I don’t think my parents’ marriage was very happy. My mother was a rather uptight person, while my father, as far as I remember him, was very-very Italian, emotional, with a big warm heart and a way of not letting himself be bothered by details. It drove Mamma mad, and I suppose she was right really, because it meant a lot of burdens fell on her. But I didn’t see that. I just saw that he was wonderful, and she disapproved of all the things I thought nicest about him.
‘When I was eight he died, and she took me back to England as fast as she could. But I could never be at home there. By that time I had an Italian heart and I hated the way she tried to make me completely English, as though she could wipe out my Italian side just by fighting it hard enough. I wasn’t allowed to speak Italian or read Italian books, but I did anyway. I used to get them from the library and smuggle them into the house. I can be terribly stubborn.’
‘Really? You?’
‘Oh, don’t be funny. Anyway, you haven’t seen me at my worst.’
‘Heaven help me!’
‘I’ll chuck something at you in a minute.’
‘You wouldn’t assault an invalid, would you?’
‘I might if it was you.’
‘Go on with your story while I’m still safe.’
‘Luckily my mother married again when I was eighteen, and I was clearly in the way, so I could flee back to Italy without anyone trying to stop me. In fact-’
Suddenly a wry grin twisted her mouth.
‘What did you do?’ he asked, fascinated.
‘I don’t want to tell you; it’s rather shocking,’ she admitted.
‘You never did anything shocking.’
‘Don’t you call blackmail shocking?’
‘Blackmail?’
‘Well, in a sort of way. Although I think bribery is probably a better word. My stepfather was very well-off and he let it be known that if I’d make myself scarce it would put him in a generous mood. I knew I’d need some help until I found my feet-’
Luke began to laugh. ‘How much did you take him for?’
‘Let’s just say it covered my training.’
‘Good for you!’
‘Yes, I was quite pleased with myself in an insufferable sort of way.’
‘Insufferable, nothing! You were smart. If you ever get tired of law I could use you in my business. Come to think of it, the business could use a good lawyer.’
‘Ah, then I have to admit that I gave it all back.’
‘Minnie, please!’ he said in disgust. ‘Just when I was admiring you! Now you’ve spoiled it.’
‘I know. I tried not to. It was a fair bargain because we each gained from it, and I’d kept my side and never troubled them since. But when I was earning enough to repay it, I just had to. I was really cross with myself.’
He didn’t speak for a while. He was fighting an inner battle, sensing the ghost hovering on the edge of their consciousness, unwilling to spoil the moment by inviting him in, yet knowing that he must do so, if he were to be any use to her.
At last he forced himself to say, ‘What did Gianni think?’
CHAPTER TEN
HE WAITED to see if she flinched at Gianni’s name, but she merely gave a fond, reminiscent smile.
‘Gianni thought I was crazy but he didn’t try to stop me. Come to think of it, that was always the way. He was very easygoing. He used to say, “You do it your way, carissima.”’ She gave a brief laugh. ‘So I always did.’
‘He sounds the ideal husband,’ Luke observed, keeping his voice carefully light. ‘You said, “Jump” and he jumped. What more could a woman ask?’
‘Sure, it makes me sound like a domineering wife, but actually it was all a con trick. He pretended to be meek and helpless but it was just a way of pushing the boring jobs on to me. If there were forms to be filled in, phone calls to be made to officials, it was always, “You do it, cara. You’re the clever one.” And after a while it dawned on me that I’d been tricked into doing all the work.’
‘Did you mind?’
‘Not really. It made sense since I was a lawyer, and you know what bureaucracy is like in this country.’
‘And if you hadn’t been a lawyer?’
‘He’d have found some other excuse, of course,’ she said, smiling. ‘He was just like my father. Anything not to fill in a form! But so what, as long as one of us could do it? We were a team, a partnership.’
‘And you were the clever one, weren’t you? Cleverer than him, I mean.’
‘He used to laugh and say anyone was cleverer than him. Sometimes I’d rebel and say, “Come on, you can do that one yourself,” and he’d grin and say, “It was worth a try, cara.” But I didn’t mind because he gave me so much in return, love and happiness. We had a marriage that-I don’t know-I can’t say.’