Page 45 of Change of Heart
He shot her a little grin as he squeezed the massive old car slowly past an elderly lady taking her pair of sausage dogs for a walk along the lane. ‘That’s what my accountant keeps asking me, but as long as I’m alive, this car stays in the family.’
Fenella greeted Alice with hugs and kisses and led her into the sitting room where Alice received a boisterous and noisy greeting from Gladys the poodle. There was a bottle of champagne on ice in a bucket and soon Ronald was toasting Alice’s return to Devon. For her part, she had a toast of her own to propose. She held up her glass and beamed at both of them.
‘I owe you both a massive thank you. If it hadn’t been for your kindness, none of the wonderful things that have happened to me over the past year would have happened. I’m indebted to you both. I just hope I can repay some of your kindness. Cheers.’
Fenella smiled back at her, sipped her wine, and cut to the chase. ‘So, Luca? Tell me all about him.’
Although Alice had had a chance to refine her story over the past twenty-four hours with her mum, she still felt her cheeks flush a little at the thought of him. ‘He’s lovely.’ She told them more about him, his job, Frank the dog and how much she loved him. Over the past months she had regularly phoned Fenella to stay in touch and to update her on developments at the castle, but she was unsurprised to find that Fenella was thinking along very similar lines to her mother.
‘Are we going to hear wedding bells one of these days?’
Alice blushed again. ‘I honestly don’t know.’
‘Have you discussed it with him?’
‘Not really. When Tommi asked Simonetta to marry him just the other day I thought for a moment Luca might be going to say something, but he didn’t. The thing is, even in the early stages of our relationship he’s always been a bit reticent.’
‘Do you think he loves you as much as you do?’
‘I hope so. I certainly love him to bits.’
‘So if he asked you, you’d say yes?’
‘Like a shot.’
‘Which means you’d be happy to settle permanently in Italy?’
‘I’m already settled in Italy. I love the place. Whether things work out between me and Luca or not, I love my job, love Varaldo and I’m perfectly happy. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘I’m so happy for you.’ Fenella caught her eye. ‘If Luca’s taking his time, why don’tyouaskhimto marry you?’ Fenella wasn’t giving up easily.
Ronald, who had been studiously staying out of this conversation tut-tutted. ‘Goodness me, Fen, give the girl a chance. It’ll all work out. Alice, Fen and I’ve been talking about taking a trip to Italy one of these days. Do you think we could come and see you?’
‘I would love for you to come and see me. Come whenever you like. I’m still in my tiny flat for now, but there’s a super little hotel in the village where you could stay and the food is excellent. Come when you can but please consider yourselves invited as honoured guests to the party we’re going to have at Easter when the castle officially opens to the public.’
Chapter 27
Saturday April the twelfth was a very special day.
At six o’clock in the evening the newly restored drawbridge was lowered over the now rubbish-free moat, the gleaming portcullis on its new chains hauled up, and the castle was finally open to the public for the very first time. A steady stream of specially invited guests began to arrive and make their way inside. Alice stood to greet them as they passed through the reception area by the main gate and she was delighted to see many familiar faces. As well as a number of locals ranging from Giorgio and Leo from the restaurant to Tonino from the minimarket, there were other guests from further afield, among themArchitettoBolognese and his wife, Rocco from the sawmill with his family, and a delegation from theBelle Artiwho had scrutinised the conversion work every step of the way.
Newly appointed staff members directed the guests up to the first floor where the official opening reception was to take place, and at six thirty Alice took one last nervous glance in the full-length mirror outside her office and hurried upstairs to join the assembled throng. The bar set up in the main living room was dispensing drinks to the guests while half a dozen staff members passed around the room carrying trays of appetisers.
The furniture had been moved so as to allow space for everybody to mingle and Alice spotted her mum and dad over by the fireplace chatting to the baroness with the help of Simonetta who had surprised Alice over the winter by demonstrating an unexpectedly good command of the English language. Alongside them were Fenella and Ronald, who had been only too happy to accept Alice’s invitation to come over for the occasion. Lord F-C himself was obviously having a fine time practising the Italian he had learned forty years earlier.
Further along was Achille with Silvia, now his fiancée, who was looking charming, if a bit overwhelmed to be on the arm of the future baron. The baron himself was deep in conversation with the head of theBelle Artiand Alice had little doubt that the topic of discussion was likely to be the new museum of the Varaldo family, which was the baron’s pride and joy.
As she stood there, she felt a touch against her good leg and glanced down to see a happy dog looking up at her, tail wagging. As she bent down to ruffle his ears, she felt another touch, this time to her bare shoulder, and she looked up to see a familiar and welcome face. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Ciao, bello.’ And he was lookingbelloin an immaculate dark grey suit.
‘Ciao, bella.’ He was looking tense and her heart went out to him. It was a big moment for all of them. She saw his eyes flick across towards the door. ‘He’s arrived. Tommi’s down in the courtyard with him. They’ll be on their way up in the lift in a minute or so.’
‘Okay, I’ll go and spread the word.’ She gave him an affectionate smile. ‘By the way, I like the suit. Very smart.’
‘Well, I love the dress. You look gorgeous.’
She glanced down to where her prosthetic leg was on display for the very first time and felt that same shiver of uncertainty that had dogged her ever since he had persuaded her to go out and buy the dress. Reluctantly she had heeded his advice to embrace what had happened to her, but it was taking time to adapt after years of denial.
