by Lucy Gordon
Then a little girl, in dreadful need, had taken his hand and said, ‘You, and nobody else.’
There was no escape.
But he didn’t feel wonderful. When he thought of failing her he felt terrified.
CHAPTER FIVE
A FEW evenings later Gino came in from work to find Nikki eagerly poring over a mail-order catalogue, selling clothes.
‘That one,’ she said decisively, pointing to a blue dress that seemed to be made of some floaty material, perhaps chiffon.
‘It’s a little old for you,’ Gino said, considering it.
‘Not me, Mummy. She’s got a date.’
‘A date? Who with?’
Nikki giggled. ‘Didn’t you know she’s got a boyfriend?’
‘Yes, I did,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ve seen him.’
‘What’s he like?’
‘Fat and old.’
‘He is not,’ Laura said, coming in from the kitchen. ‘He’s in his forties. That’s not old.’
‘He’s fat.’
‘He’s strongly built. Gino stop this. I don’t know why you’ve taken “agin” Steve. He’s a nice man.’
‘Nice is as nice does,’ Gino growled.
‘And what does that mean?’
It didn’t mean anything and he knew it. He couldn’t have explained why the thought of Laura on a date with Steve disturbed him, but as a good brother he was going to object.
Not in front of Nikki, however. For her sake he decided to fade into the background while Laura studied Nikki’s choice of dress.
‘It’s a bit young for me,’ she demurred.
‘But you are young, Mummy.’
‘Thank you darling, but I’m thirty-two. That’s quite old.’
‘It’s too young for a man of forty-five,’ Gino growled.
‘That’s for me to say,’ Laura said, edgily. ‘Will you please keep your nose out of my business?’
Gino didn’t reply, but he looked so crestfallen that Nikki said, ‘Poor Gino! Mummy’s rotten to you.’
‘She is, isn’t she?’ he said, sounding hurt.
‘But why?’
‘I don’t know.’ He sighed forlornly.
She put her arms about him. ‘You’ve got me,’ she comforted him.
‘Grazie, piccina. Now I don’t mind so much.’
‘You’re hopeless, the pair of you!’ Laura said in exasperation. ‘Gino, stop acting the fool!’
‘But I am a fool,’ he defended himself. ‘You’ve always known that.’ To Nikki he confided, ‘She’s being rotten to me again.’
They solemnly nodded together.
Laura gave a choke of laughter, and her brief annoyance died. She didn’t know why Gino was suddenly in an awkward mood, but he’d more than redeemed himself.
‘All right,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry I was rotten. Now let me see that dress again, darling. How much is it? Hm!’
Sadie and Claudia came in and exclaimed over the dress and its suitability for Laura. Mrs Baxter, arriving later, was also pleased, adding, ‘And you should splash out on a really good hairdresser.’
Gino went up to his room, wondering if he was the only person in the house who hadn’t taken leave of his senses.
It got worse. Bert and Fred, on their way out to work, were united in the opinion that blue was Laura’s colour and she should go for it.
When the meal was over Gino helped Laura with the washing-up.
‘What are you playing at?’ he demanded. ‘That fellow’s a slime ball.’
‘How would you know?’ she demanded, indignant that he wouldn’t let it drop.
‘I’ve seen him kissing your hand,’ was the best he could manage.
‘Oh, really! Have you never kissed a woman’s hand?’
‘Of course I have, but that’s different. I’m Italian. It’s expected.’
‘Who expects it?’
‘The tourists. The girls arrive looking for romance. It’s part of the holiday, so you kiss their hands, you tell them they’re beautiful, and then you-that is, they-why am I telling you all this?’
‘Because you forgot to be cautious,’ she said, scoring a disconcerting bull’s-eye. ‘So that’s where you honed your English?’
‘Yes, it was almost always English girls,’ he admitted. ‘The others don’t fall for it so easily.’
She regarded him satirically.
‘In any case,’ he added, suddenly awkward, ‘I’m not like that any more, I only meant-’
‘That’s it’s all right for you to kiss women’s hands, but if Steve does it, he’s a slime ball.’
‘I was a slime ball. We all were, me and Franco and Carlo and Mario and Enrico and-’
‘All right, I get the picture.’
‘If you want the ugly truth, when the tourist season arrived we used to count the girls getting off the planes.’
‘You’re a real charmer, you know that?’
‘I was. It was my stock-in-trade. But not now. I grew out of it.’ He added significantly, ‘Some men never grow out of it.’
‘So you judge him on the basis of one moment, observed from a distance. Well, if that’s the worst you can say about him I don’t think I’ll worry.’ A sudden devilish imp made her add crossly, ‘And if we’re talking about characters out of a bad film, how about your lady friend? All teeth ’n’ tits!’
The robust expression, coming from her, made him stare. ‘What?’ he demanded, half shocked, half laughing.
‘You know who I mean. Vulgarity personified. Don’t you lecture me about who I go out with.’
Since he could hardly admit that Tess was using him Gino backed off. ‘I am not-I’m merely trying to stop you making a mistake.’ He recalled something Tess had said. ‘He’s probably got a wife somewhere.’
‘He hasn’t. He’s a widower.’
‘He says.’
Then Laura lost her temper. Closing the kitchen door so that nobody could hear her she turned on Gino, eyes blazing.
‘I’m going out with a man for Pete’s sake! I am over the age of twenty-one. I make my own decisions. Do you know the last time I had a night out? A nice man is taking me out to dinner, and then we may go dancing. And you have nothing to say about it.’
Confronted by her glittering eyes and the hair falling in wispy curls over her forehead, Gino held up his hands and backed off.
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Fine. I’ll get out of your way.’
He eased himself quietly out of the door. Left alone, Laura picked up a tea towel and hurled it angrily into a corner.
She ordered the dress by telephone next morning and it arrived two days later. The whole family demanded to see it, and she paraded up and down for them, turning this way and that like a model.
‘Oh Mummy, you do look pretty!’ Nikki sighed.
There was a murmur of confirmation, and Mrs Baxter said, ‘Now you book that hairdressing appointment without delay.’
Gino alone said nothing.
The date with Steve was set for three days ahead. In the afternoon she drove into town to the hairdresser. But when she returned it was raining cats and dogs, and she sat in the car, staring out helplessly.
The whole boarding-house family, watching from the window, saw her predicament.
‘Right, this calls for clever tactics,’ Gino said. ‘I’ll go out with the umbrella, Nikki, you stand at the door and make sure it’s wide open.’
Nikki nodded like a trusty lieutenant, and took up position at the front door, while Gino snatched the big umbrella from the hall stand and darted down the steps, fighting to open it, and getting soaked.
At the car door a little dance took place as he fought to keep the umbrella over her head as she emerged, lock the car door, then shepherd her up the stairs and through the door.
At last the operation was complete and they could all congratulate themselves.
‘You look fantastic!’ Nikki declared breathlessly.
Gino, rubbing his sodden hair with his handkerchief, grunt
ed. She did look fantastic. She looked the way she ought to look, the way she would look all the time if she didn’t have to spend her whole life working and worrying.
Now she had the chance of a break and he’d tried to spoil it for her.
‘You look lovely,’ he said, emerging from the handkerchief.
She turned. ‘Do I really?’ she asked, beaming at him but half pleading too, as though his opinion mattered most.
‘Wonderful,’ he said quietly. ‘Bellissima.’
‘I’ll just get supper, and then I can put on the dress.’
‘You can’t cook supper,’ he said, appalled. ‘The heat will send your hair floppy. Stay out of the kitchen. I’ll do it. Does anybody mind pasta?’
Gino’s pasta had become an institution, and for the next hour the kitchen was cheerfully chaotic. Laura came downstairs just as they finished eating, and silence fell.
Now she had not only the hairstyle, but make-up and the dress, which came into its own with the proper extras. Her eyes seemed a deeper blue, and there was a gleam of excitement in them.
‘How do I look?’ she asked, twirling.
‘He won’t have anything to complain of,’ Gino observed.
There was a general outcry against this moderate praise, but he ignored it, taking his jacket from a hook and saying, ‘Your carriage awaits, Cinderella.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘You said he was collecting you at the pub, so I’ll drive you there. Luckily it’s stopped raining.’
There was no sign of Steve when they reached The Running Sheep. Laura left the car and stood on the corner, and Gino got out to wait with her.
‘Prince Charming is supposed to be on time,’ he observed.
‘Don’t start. He probably got held up in traffic.’
‘I’m just pointing out that on a first date it’s usual to pay the lady the compliment of being punctual.’
‘I don’t know why you’re so tetchy.’
‘I’m not tetchy,’ he said too quickly.
‘Yes, you are, you’ve been tetchy for days. It’s not like you.’
‘You don’t know what’s like me. Actually I’m a monster of ill-temper.’
‘Funny I didn’t notice that at the start.’
‘I was pretending, in order to fool you because I needed a cheap room. Now I’m reverting to my true nature. Just wait and see.’
‘Oh, you’re impossible. I can’t talk to you when you’re in this mood.’
‘Well, you don’t need to talk to me,’ Gino pointed out. ‘Your prince has arrived, ten minutes late and looking anxious, as he ought.’
‘I’ll thump you in a minute.’
‘Not you. It would disarrange your hair. Have a wonderful evening.’
She laughed and kissed his cheek, then ran across the road to where Steve’s sleek car had drawn up.
‘Hm!’ said a voice at Gino’s side.
‘Hello, Tess. I didn’t see you there.’
‘Obviously. Very interesting, that was. Perhaps I should go away again.’
‘Meaning? Meaning?’
‘You and her.’ Tess folded her arms and looked up at him, teasing. ‘You should have warned me you were in love.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I was watching you. You were a having a jealous fit.’
‘That is my landlady,’ he said in a repressive voice.
‘So she may be, but you were still having a jealous fit.’
Gino breathed hard. ‘Come into the pub and we’ll have a long talk. It’s time we got your love life back on track.’
‘I think your love life’s more interesting,’ she said cheekily.
‘I don’t have a love life.’
‘Well, that’s not how it looked-’
‘Let’s get inside. I need a drink.’
He spoke edgily, for he was beginning to wonder how much more of Tess’s company he would have to endure.
In the event his sufferings were short-lived. That evening Perry decided to assert himself. He stormed into the pub threatening dire retribution if ‘this sort of thing’ didn’t stop at once.
Gino meekly agreed that ‘this sort of thing’ had gone on long enough, and retired from the field, leaving Perry triumphant and Tess ecstatic.
He could have gone straight home, but instead he set out in the other direction. By the time he returned home he’d walked five miles.
There was no sign of Laura, but he hadn’t really expected that. Steve Deyton looked the kind of man who knew how to give a woman a good time, especially one who was so starved of a good time as Laura, he thought with a kind of rage.
Just why this should make him furious he wasn’t quite sure, but she was vulnerable and Nikki was vulnerable and, as a good brother and uncle, he was going to watch out for them both.
He decided to be sensible and go to bed. But however hard he tried to sleep, one ear insisted on staying awake, listening for the sound of a car. And at last he heard one draw up outside.
He fought temptation for a good two seconds before sliding out of bed to go and stand at the window.
Steve Deyton had just switched the light on inside the car and Gino could clearly see him, talking to Laura. She showed no hurry to get out, but stayed there, leaning back against her seat, listening to him. She looked relaxed and beautiful.
Then Steve drew her to him and kissed her on the mouth. Laura laid her hand on his shoulder, not clasping him but not pushing him away either, then sliding her hand up to touch Steve’s cheek lightly.
When they drew apart she was smiling. Through the glass Gino saw them bid each other goodnight, then Laura got out of the car and stood on the pavement until it had driven away.
Gino returned to bed and lay down, looking up at the ceiling, trying to wipe the pictures from his inner eye.
He heard the front door open and close. Then silence. At last he gave up the battle, pulled on a dressing gown and went down, making no sound with his bare feet. Laura didn’t hear him. So he was able to see her while she was unaware.
She was in the living room, stretched out on the sofa, her hands clasped behind her head. Only one small lamp was on, and by its restricted light he thought he could see her eyes shining.
She had passed into a happy dream world, where everything was perfect. Her smile left no doubt about it. He wondered what had happened to make her smile that way.
As he watched she closed her eyes and gave a long, blissful sigh. He hesitated, undecided whether to go or stay, until she opened her eyes again and looked straight at him.
‘Hello!’ she said. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting up for me like my father?’
‘Like your brother. Did you have a good time?’
‘Mmmm!’ she said, closing her eyes again.
He wished she wouldn’t do that.
‘So tell me about it. Where did you go?’
‘To a nightclub. We had a wonderful dinner, and then we danced.’
‘Till the dawn, Cinderella.’
She checked her watch. ‘So it is. Never mind. I can’t remember the last time I danced until dawn.’
‘Are you seeing him again?’
‘Stop sounding like a maiden aunt.’
‘Meaning that you are?’
‘Yes, if you must know. Oh, Gino, I like him so much. He’s easy to talk to, and we just understand each other about everything. He told me about his wife, and how he felt when she died, and he has two children of his own, a girl and a boy.’
‘Did you tell him about Nikki?’
‘He knows I’ve got a daughter. No, I haven’t told him everything. I’ve got to pick the right moment, because it has to be right for Nikki before I could even think of-well-’
‘Marrying him?’
‘That’s a long way down the track.’
‘It’s not that far if you’re thinking about it now.’
‘No, I suppose not. The thing is-I know it’s going to be all right. His son is a little d
isabled, something wrong with his spine, I think. So you see, I can rely on him to do and say the right things for Nikki, and when the time is right I’ll introduce them.’
She saw him frowning and seized his hands.
‘Oh, Gino, be happy for me. I’ve been so lonely, and if this works out I need never be lonely again. He’s a good, kind man, and I may never get another chance.’
‘Of course I’ll be happy for you,’ he said gruffly. ‘If you’re sure about this. I mean, so far it’s just been one date.’
‘I know. I’m not going to rush it. But it means so much to know that I have something to hope for.’
The wistfulness in her voice made him stop short. He couldn’t say anything else.
Laura yawned and stretched.
‘Ah, well, time for Cinderella to put away the glass slippers and get back to the kitchen.’
‘Shall I make you some tea to bring you down to earth?’ he asked, reaching out a hand to help her to her feet.
‘No, thank you. I don’t really want to come down too soon.’
She began to float around the room, whirling in time to unheard music, until she whirled a little too fast and swayed. She would have fallen if Gino hadn’t caught her.
He clasped his hands behind her back, steadying her against his body. She held his shoulders, still in her blissful dream.
She felt good, a slim, lovely young woman, warm, vibrant and pressed against his body. At one time he would have known exactly what to do next: the bodies pressed together, the long, gentle kiss, the lips caressing, tentative at first, then urgent, demanding, then carry through to the inevitable end.
But now he couldn’t do it. She was on a ‘high’ and she trusted him not to do what his senses were urging.
He couldn’t betray a trust. Not with Alex. Not with Laura.
‘Hey,’ he said gently. ‘The clock’s struck twelve.’
‘I want to stay in the ballroom for just a little longer,’ she whispered.
‘With Prince Steve Charming?’ he asked ironically. ‘And his big feet?’
‘Oh, don’t be unkind,’ she murmured. ‘He only trod on me twice.’
Gino gave a grunt of laughter. She too began to laugh, and he drew her close, wrapping his arms about her in a big hug.