The Italian's Rightful Bride - By Lucy Gordon Page 0,58

to Rome and settling in a hotel near Crystal. He, at least, was over the moon about developments. So was Crystal, according to Freddy.

On the night before Freddy’s departure Gustavo forced himself, like a good host, to join his unwanted guest in the library.

‘May I get you another drink?’ he asked politely.

‘Don’t mind if you do.’ Freddy held out the glass and Gustavo refilled it.

‘Is your packing all done?’

‘Yes, don’t worry, I’ll be out of your hair first thing in the morning.’

‘I hope you don’t feel that you haven’t been welcome here,’ Gustavo said, forcing himself to remain courteous.

‘Oh, I can make myself welcome anywhere,’ Freddy said, slightly changing the meaning. ‘It’s been a good visit. I’ve seen plenty of my son, and I’m easier in my mind about you.’

‘About me?’ Gustavo said in surprise. ‘Why should you be concerned about me?’

‘I’m not. You can jump off a bridge for all I care. No offence, of course.’

‘None taken,’ Gustavo assured him.

‘No, I’m thinking of you and Joanna. Plus, of course, you and Billy. But Billy says you’re OK.’

‘That’s very kind of him,’ Gustavo said cautiously. ‘But I don’t quite see—’

‘Oh, for the love of heaven!’ Freddy groaned. ‘You and Joanna have been pussyfooting about for twelve years. Don’t you think that’s enough?’

‘I think you’ve misunderstood the situation—’

‘You mean you weren’t engaged? Funny, everyone said you were.’

‘If you were at my wedding I’m surprised you didn’t get the whole story then.’

‘I did, in several versions. Never quite known which one to believe.’

‘Well, let’s leave it that way.’

‘How can we leave it?’ Freddy demanded, aggrieved. ‘Sooner or later you’re going to marry Joanna and be Billy’s stepfather—’

As always when the conversation turned to personal matters Gustavo felt himself grow tense.

‘I don’t know where you get such an idea—’ he began.

‘Everyone knows. Here, fill that up again, there’s a good fellow.’

He held out his glass and Gustavo refilled it mechanically. Then he filled his own glass, drained it, refilled it.

‘Then everyone is mistaken,’ he said firmly. ‘There’s no question of it.’

Freddy gave vent to an extremely rude word, expressive of disbelief and derision.

‘What’s the matter with you two?’ he demanded. ‘You’re crazy about each other, so where’s the big problem? Lord, if I ever knew such a pair! Just because you made a mess of it once it doesn’t mean you have to go on making a mess of it, does it?’

‘Signor Manton—’

‘Call me Freddy. It won’t kill you, after all the other names you’ve been calling me under your breath. I know you don’t like me. So what? I don’t much like you.’

‘Would you be good enough to tell me what I’ve done to incur your dislike?’ Gustavo said, at his most wooden.

‘Damned well ruined my marriage.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘I can believe that,’ Freddy said, a tad wildly. ‘You’re exactly the fellow who wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about. I’m talking about my wife being in love with you, that’s what I’m talking about.’

‘Joanna was never in love with me.’

‘Don’t tell me. I lived with her for eight years and I know her a sight better than you do. I was in love with that girl. D’you know, I was faithful to her for four whole years, including when she was pregnant.’

‘You are to be commended,’ Gustavo snapped with an irony that was lost on Freddy.

‘That’s what I think. Four years. It makes me faint to think of it, even now. Where’s that decanter?’

He filled his own glass again. Gustavo was staring at him.

‘Four years,’ Freddy repeated, sounding more dismayed by the minute. ‘And much good it did me. We never had a chance. And why? Because she was in love with you from the first.’

Gustavo found his voice at last.

‘But that is not true. Joanna was delighted to end our engagement—’

‘Oh, for pity’s sake!’ Freddy said impatiently. ‘Wise up. Of course she didn’t want to end it, but what did you expect her to do? Wear the willow for you, and let the world see how much she minded? Do you think she has so little self-respect?’

The air seemed to be singing in Gustavo’s ears.

‘She told you this?’ he asked in a strange voice.

‘Not in so many words, but bit by bit I’ve pieced it together. At your wedding nobody could talk about anything else but the groom marrying one girl when he’d been engaged to another one a week earlier.

‘When I met Joanna I thought you were off your head to have let her go.

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