Page 41 of The Virgin's Dance with the Devil
“They’ve spent two years hating each other,” she explained, “but it’s been a cold war. When they’re alone, they don’t talk at all, so why would they suddenly be arguing so badly that Luisa’s got to leave?”
There was something in her tone that made him say, “You have a theory?”
She hesitated before saying, “She’s been distracted all week. I thought it was because she had to share a bed with him – they’d booked a suite with separate beds, but it was double-booked – but last night they left the ball before the dancing started, and there was something in the way they were walking together and the way they were holding hands…” Colour flushed over her cheeks.
“You think they’ve become lovers?”
She nodded before covering her face.
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” She dragged her fingers down her face and sighed. “I suppose I should start by telling my parents. They need to know.”
“Will you share your theory with them?”
“Only if they ask. They feel a huge amount of guilt about this marriage as it is. We all do.”
“The debt’s connected to your father’s condition?” he asked, although he of course already knew the answer.
She nodded bleakly. “Once the diagnosis of Parkinson’s was confirmed, Giuseppe Martinelli fired my father as his lawyer. Over ninety per cent of my father’s business was dedicated to Giuseppe’s affairs – he’d built the whole business around it.”
Rico grimaced. “A terrible way to treat someone after decades of business and friendship.”
“It broke my parents’ hearts,” she said simply.
He leaned down and kissed her knee. Gently stroking her thigh, he said, “Do you want to go and find them now?”
“Better now than later. She sent the message nearly an hour ago.” She closed her eyes again. “If I hadn’t been so selfish in wanting to keep our time together so private and precious, I would have checked my phone sooner. I might have caught her before she left.”
He caught her chin. “Don’t think like that, angel. You are the least selfish person I’ve ever met.”
She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Don’t put me on a pedestal, Rico. I’m not an angel, I’m human, and I’m as capable of holding on to resentment as anyone else, and if I see Giuseppe or Carmella feeling as I do now, there’s no saying I won’t scream in their faces for what they’ve done to my family. If they hadn’t acted so cruelly, my parents wouldn’t have faced bankruptcy and Luisa wouldn’t have felt compelled to marry Gennaro to save them, but to call them out on it in front of everyone would be putting my selfish needs for vengeance over the needs of everyone who’s here to celebrate a marriage, and right now I can’t say I won’t doit.”
“Then letmebe your conscience. If you see them, think of me and remember that it’s my sister’s wedding.”
She gazed at him, her angry eyes glittering. “We can do better than that – come with me.”
“To find your parents?” he clarified cautiously.
“Yes. I feel more grounded to this earth when I’m with you.” Her beautiful face broke into a small, fleeting smile. “Which is really strange as I feel like I’m floating on a cloud when I’m with you too.”
He brought his mouth to hers. “Not strange. I feel the same. When I’m with you, I feel like I have taken flight, but am more in touch with the here and now.” Eyes closed, their lips fused in a long, chaste kiss before he softly said, “Are you sure you want me to come with you?”
She nodded. “They need to know. No point in worrying them about Marisa and then leaving it a day or two or however long and loading more worry on them. Ultimately, it’s kinder this way.”
Marisa kept a firm hold of Rico’s hand. They were approaching the main swimming pool area, and the place was packed, guests in the pool, in the bar, on the loungers, splashing, eating, drinking, chatting, laughing, playing. To the far side of the pool, a makeshift bar was being built, and she had a vague memory of cocktail-making being the organised afternoon entertainment. She tried to keep her focus on that bar because she was very much aware of dozens of eyes already locking onto them.
To reach the main beach, they had to walk this gauntlet. Sure, they could take the scenic route, but she was sick of hiding. Now she’d made up her mind to tell her family, there was no need to hide anymore. She loved Rico, and he lovedher. Her parents would be shocked and probably fearful for her, but they would support her. Once Luisa got off the high horse she was bound to climb on about it, she’d support her too, because that’s what sisters did.
Repeated internal refrains to herself that it was kinder this way came to a juddering halt when she spotted her parents in the far distance. Her father was in a wheelchair, her mother pushing him. From the path they were taking, they were heading towards the hotel reception.
Trying not to panic at her father being wheelchair bound, she upped her pace, Rico easily matching it, reaching the steps to the reception as her mother, who’d used the ramp, pushed her father through the reception’s open doors.
“Mum!” she called, dropping Rico’s hand and running up the steps.
Her mother turned her head, breaking into a smile for her youngest daughter.
“What’s happened?” Marisa asked anxiously, close to being breathless from her rush to get to them. Her fatherhatedhaving to use a wheelchair.
