The Italian's Rightful Bride - By Lucy Gordon Page 0,51

end. The poor little soul wanted to go in with Freddy and Billy, but she can’t, because of her arm.’

‘But I’m sure she was happy sitting on the side with you,’ Joanna said. ‘It means so much to her to have you here.’

‘But of course,’ Crystal said prettily. ‘Nobody can replace a mother, can they?’

More music came from the radio and she began twirling around the room again, looking gloriously pretty and several years younger than her real age. Freddy joined her and they bounded around like teenagers.

Joanna finished her supper, bid them goodnight and went to the library, where most of the others were still up. They looked tired and disgruntled.

‘I thought we’d be through the wall into that chamber by now,’ Lily grumbled.

‘The wall’s twice as thick as the others,’ Claire said.

‘I know.’ Joanna flexed her hands, which were still painful from the day’s work. ‘But we’ll be through soon, won’t we, Hal? Hal?’

‘He’s been asleep in that chair for the last hour,’ Danny said. ‘And we’re all knackered.’

‘Fine, then let’s have some time off. There’s a swimming pool here and we’re all invited to spend the day in it.’

Everyone cheered, even Hal, who seemed to cheer in his sleep.

‘Tomorrow, then,’ Joanna said.

They gathered at the pool next day, all giving yells of delight as the clear blue water came into sight, glinting under the sun. In minutes they were all jumping in.

Joanna tried not to look as Gustavo appeared with Crystal and Renata, both in bathing suits. They seemed like a family, which, in a sense, they were. Just as she, Freddy and Billy were.

Billy was already in the deep end, crowing as he climbed onto Freddy’s shoulders and dived. But he swam the length of the pool when he saw Renata arrive and sit at the top of the steps that led down into the shallow end. Joanna stayed where she was, in earshot.

Crystal and Renata had their heads together, and Joanna heard the word ‘Toni’ several times, and saw Renata smile at the mention of her baby half-brother.

‘Look,’ Crystal said, reaching into her bag and taking out a photo album. ‘Joanna, you haven’t seen my baby, have you?’

He was a beautiful child, full of smiles. Picture after picture showed him beaming with delight, mostly enfolded in his mother’s arms, while she looked down on him with an expression of delight.

‘I keep these with me always,’ she told Joanna.

‘Hey, Crystal!’ That was Freddy’s voice, calling from the pool. Crystal gave a shriek and danced into the water.

As soon as she was gone Renata dived into her bag, rummaging through with hands that grew increasingly frantic, until at last she gave up and pushed the bag aside.

‘What’s the matter?’ Gustavo came close to ask her.

‘She’s just discovered that Crystal doesn’t keep any pictures of her, the way she does of Toni,’ Joanna muttered. ‘Damn her!’

Gustavo swore under his breath and went to sit beside Renata. For once she didn’t turn away from him, and Joanna guessed that Crystal’s presence now made him one of the ‘good guys’. She even gave him a smile, although it was clearly an effort, and Joanna guessed that Billy’s presence helped.

She swam down the pool to find Freddy, and join him in a sandwich from the buffet Gustavo had arranged at the side of the pool.

‘This is the life,’ he said, stretched out luxuriously on the grass while she filled his glass with wine. ‘How can I arrange to live like this all the time?’

‘What you need is another rich wife,’ she observed, without resentment.

‘Ah, now, that’s not fair,’ he protested. ‘I was nuts about you. You know that.’

‘Yes, you were,’ she agreed. ‘But just how nuts would you have been if I hadn’t had a nice fat bank balance?’

He considered this seriously. ‘The point is that you were always likely to. I had just enough cash of my own to move among moneyed people, so I met rich ladies. The odds were always in my favour.’

She had to laugh at this. His good-natured face was so guileless.

‘I’m surprised you’re not playing the odds again by this time,’ she said.

He frowned. ‘The problem is, knowing exactly what the odds are.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘If I did marry again, I suppose the allowance you pay me would stop.’

‘You mean I might regard it as her job to support you, rather than mine?’

‘I can imagine a lot of women being difficult about it.’

‘Not me. How could you think I’d let the father of my son