Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,88
his unresisting hand.
‘Tell me what she said.’
He took a mouthful of grappa, grimaced, and picked up the story once again. ‘It was an aberration, a moment of madness. She went to a conference in Rome a couple of months back and that’s where it happened. She was tired, they’d all had a bit too much to drink, and she’d got this crazy idea into her head that I was going to dump her.’ He caught Lucy’s eye. ‘And for you, of all people. Apparently she thought there was some kind of chemistry between us and she was very upset. Anyway, whatever the reason, she ended up in bed with one of the other delegates.’
Lucy was appalled. ‘She was jealous of me? But there’s nothing between the two of us… apart from friendship of course.’
‘That’s what I told her and she said she knows that now but, at the time, she was convinced there was something going on. I’ve a feeling some of our friends must have told her how madly in love with you I used to be way back when we were teenagers.’
Lucy could now see why Virginia had been a bit standoffish back in the early days. ‘So it only happened the once?’
He nodded. ‘So she says. When she woke up in the morning, the first thing she did was to put a stop to it. She told the man she regretted what had happened and she didn’t want anything more to do with him. And she says the reason for this was me. She realised she loved me, not him, and she wanted to be with me…’ His voice tailed off and he took another little sip of grappa while cogs were beginning to turn inside Lucy’s head. Surely not…
‘Who is this other delegate?’
‘I didn’t ask. It doesn’t matter, does it? What counts is that she did it.’
‘When did she tell him it was all over?’ A little bell had just started ringing inside her head. It couldn’t really be, could it?
‘That morning, but then again more recently as he was still pestering her. They finally had it out a couple of weeks ago and she laid it on the line to him. She says she’s been feeling terribly guilty ever since it happened and she knew she had to come clean and tell me all about it.’
Lucy breathed deeply. A couple of weeks earlier had been around the time Charles had come to her for advice, telling her he had fallen for a woman who had spurned him. She also now remembered Charles telling her some time ago that he had been at a conference. He had described the woman with whom he was now besotted as being ‘not exactly married’ and the situation as ‘complicated’. Joining the dots was looking all too easy and inevitable. She reached for another glass and splashed a little grappa into it for herself. She rarely touched the stuff, but these were exceptional circumstances.
As the grappa scorched its way down her throat, she debated what to do. If she told Bruno of her suspicions, it might scupper any chances of a reconciliation between Bruno and Virginia. As long as Bruno believed it had been some random, unknown man, hopefully it would be easier for him to come to terms with it and forgive her, if that was really what she wanted.
‘And you’re sure she wants you to forgive her?’
‘That’s what she said, or rather, pleaded. A moment of madness, never to be repeated, she called it, and she sounded sincere.’ He looked up from his glass. ‘I’m so confused, Lucy. That’s why I came to you. You know both of us and you’re the most sensible person I know. Tell me what I should do. What would you do?’
That, of course, was the question. Lucy knew what she would do because she had already done it, and with the same man – assuming she was right in her suspicions. After what Charles had done to her, she had had no hesitation in telling him that was the end of things between them. Should she tell Bruno to do the same? Was Virginia being honest when she said she chose Bruno over Charles? To give herself time to think, she went over to the fridge and started pulling out the remains of the lunch she had prepared for David. By the time she had set the table and put a big helping of mixed salad and some slices of porchetta onto