LITMIR.BIZ

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by the wrought iron table in the shade while Silvestro poured the tea. He had magically contrived to anticipate the arrival of Vito’s mother because he had brought an extra cup and a plate of tiny English biscuits.

      ‘A honeymoon isn’t negotiable. It should be a given,’ Concetta pronounced without hesitation.

      ‘If Vito wants to work, well, then he wants to work,’ Holly parried, tactfully non-committal.

      ‘You and this darling little boy are Vito’s family and you must ensure that my son puts you first,’ Vito’s mother countered. ‘That is very important.’

      Holly breathed in deep. ‘Vito loves to work. I don’t feel I have the right to ask him to change something so basic about himself.’

      ‘Priorities have to change once you’re married and a parent. As for having the right...’ The older woman sipped her tea thoughtfully. ‘I will be open with you. I saw your distress after Apollo made that unsuitable speech at the wedding yesterday.’

      Holly winced. ‘I was more embarrassed than distressed...I think.’

      ‘But why should you be embarrassed by this gorgeous little boy?’ Concetta demanded. ‘Let me tell you something... When I married Vito’s father, Ciccio, thirty-odd years ago, I was already pregnant...’

      Holly’s blue eyes widened in surprise at that frank admission.

      Concetta compressed her lips. ‘My father would never have allowed me to marry a man like Ciccio in any other circumstances. He knew that Ciccio was a fortune hunter but I was too naive to see the obvious. I was eighteen and in love for the first time. Ciccio was in his thirties.’

      ‘That’s a big age gap,’ Holly remarked carefully.

      ‘I was an heiress. Ciccio targeted me like a duck on a shooting range,’ the brunette declared with a wry twist of her lips, ‘and I paid a steep price for being young and silly. He was unfaithful from the outset but I closed my eyes to it because while my father was alive divorce seemed out of the question. Only when Ciccio dragged our son’s reputation down into the dirt with his own did I finally see the light.’

      ‘The scandal in the newspapers?’ Holly slotted in with a frown, fascinated by the elegant brunette’s candour.

      ‘I could not forgive Ciccio for saving himself at Vito’s expense.’

      ‘Vito wanted to protect you.’

      ‘That hurt,’ Concetta confided tautly. ‘It hurt me even more to see Vito falsely accused and slandered but it also let me see that he was an adult able to handle the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. Now I’m making my middle-aged fresh start.’

      ‘It’s never too late,’ Holly said warmly, noticing how Angelo’s sparkling dark eyes matched his father’s and his grandmother’s.

      Concetta confided that she regularly took the flowers from the garden at the castello as arranging them was her hobby. Holly admitted that she had never arranged a flower in her life and urged the older woman to keep on helping herself. Vito’s mother promised to continue doing the flowers for the house and the two women parted on comfortable, friendly terms.

      Holly spent what remained of the day doing her hair and her nails and refusing to think about the evening ahead. Thinking about it wasn’t going to change anything. Apollo was Vito’s friend and he thought highly of him, she reminded herself. Unfortunately it didn’t ease the sting of the reality that her husband seemed to rate Apollo more highly than he rated his wife.

      Vito collected her in a limo. He wore a sleek dinner jacket. ‘I used my apartment to change,’ he admitted, smiling as she climbed into the car. ‘You look very elegant.’

      But as soon as Holly arrived at the restaurant and saw the other two women she realised she had got it wrong in the frock department because she had played it too safe. Apollo’s girlfriend, Jenna, wore a taupe silk dress that plunged at both back and front and was slit to the thigh, while Jeremy’s wife, Celia, wore a short fitted scarlet dress that showed off her very shapely legs. Holly immediately felt frumpy and dumpy in her unexciting outfit, wishing that at the very least she had chosen to wear something that displayed a bit of cleavage.

      While the men talked, Celia shot inquiries at Holly and it was no surprise to discover that the highly educated and inquisitive redhead was a criminal lawyer. Having her background and educational deficiencies winkled out and exposed made Holly feel very uncomfortable but her attempts to block Celia’s questions were unsuccessful and she was forced to half turn away and chat to Jenna to escape the interrogation. Jenna, however, talked only about spa days and exclusive resorts.

      ‘You’ve never been on a ski slope?’ she remarked in loud disbelief.

      ‘I’ll teach Holly to ski,’ Vito sliced in, smooth as glass.

      Holly paled because the idea of racing down a snowy hill at breakneck speed made her feel more scared than exhilarated. As the entire conversation round the table turned to ski resorts and talk of everyone’s ‘best ever runs’, she was excluded by her unfamiliarity with the sport. Jenna’s chatter about hot yoga classes and meditation were matched by Celia’s talk about the benefits of an organic, natural diet, ensuring that Holly felt more and more out of her depth. She was also bored stiff.

      ‘How do you feel about yachting?’ Apollo asked smoothly across the table, his green eyes hard and mocking. ‘Do you get seasick?’

      ‘I’ve never been on a yacht, so I wouldn’t know. I’m fine on a fishing boat or a ferry, though,’ she added with sudden amusement at the amount of sheer privilege inherent in such a conversational topic.

      ‘Who took you fishing?’ Vito asked her abruptly.

      ‘Someone way before your time,’ Holly murmured, unwilling to admit in such exclusive company that it had been a rowing-boat experience with a teenaged boyfriend.

      ‘Way to go, Holly! Keep him wondering.’ Celia laughed appreciatively.

      Her mobile phone vibrated in her bag and she pulled it out. ‘Excuse me. I have to take this,’ she said apologetically, and rose from the table to walk out to the foyer.

      It was Lorenza phoning to tell her that Angelo had finally settled after a restless evening. Aware that her son was teething, Holly had asked the nanny to keep her posted. On the way back to the table she called into the cloakroom. She was in a cubicle when she heard Jenna and Celia come in.

      ‘What on earth does a guy like Vito see in a woman like her?’ Jenna was demanding thinly. ‘She’s like a little brown sparrow beside him.’

      Angry resentment hurtled through Holly and in the strangest way it set her free to be herself.

      ‘Jeremy thinks Vito must have had a pre-nup written up by another lawyer,’ Celia commented. ‘There’s no way Vito hasn’t safeguarded himself.’

      Emerging, Holly washed her hands and glanced at the aghast pair of women frozen by the sinks. ‘At least I’ve got a wedding ring on my finger,’ she pointed out to Jenna. ‘You have to be at least number one hundred in Apollo’s long line of companions.’

      ‘We had no idea you were in here,’ Celia began sharply, defensively.

      ‘Ah, Celia,’ Holly pronounced gently, flicking the tall redhead a calm appraisal in turn. ‘I can assure you that there is no pre-nup. My husband trusts me.’

      And with that ringing assurance, Holly turned on her heel, head held high, and walked back out to the table. And she might resemble a little brown sparrow, she thought with spirit, but she was married to a guy who found little brown sparrows the ultimate in sex appeal. Amused by the level of her own annoyance, Holly returned to her seat and in a break in the conversation addressed Apollo. ‘So where’s the best place for me to learn to ski?’ she asked playfully.

      Vito dealt her a bemused look and watched her begin to smile at Apollo’s very detailed response because Apollo took his sports very seriously.

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