I wash my hands and go back to my room. It’s already early evening, a day gone.
“Did you speak with someone at the hotel?” I ask him.
“Yes, Marcus and Robbie are covering the next few days between them.” He’s still fussing, pulling the bed straight.
Hell! Have I got him clucking around me for days? “Next few days!”
“Yeah, I’m not leaving you, not until you’re fully mended, and I think we should go away, perhaps to Italy? I think a break, some sunshine, will do you good. I could do with a break too. What do you think?” He looks up from his bed-making.
Well, that’s not a bad idea, I suppose, but I can imagine I’m going to be wrapped in the thickest cotton wool imaginable. Is that a bad thing? Oh! My mind’s a scramble.
“Umm, we can go to Tuscany? Anna’s off to California and I’d love to see Maggie’s place over there. We’ll book some flights tomorrow. I want to register with a local GP as well, I don’t have one here in London.” I reel off what I want to, need to do.
“I can introduce you to the practice that I’m with, it’s quite local, but I think booking flights tomorrow is a bit too soon. You’re ill!” he tells me firmly.
“No, James, I’m not ill! Not really, and I’ll be fine in a few days time. We’ll do the GP thing and look at some flights tomorrow.” I try and be firm.
“But why the rush with the GP? You’ve had a complete check-over today.” He’s just being awkward now.
I sigh. “It’s embarrassing, James, and very private really,” I mutter under my breath.
“Don’t shut me out, Alex, please. I want to make things better.” His voice is soft, soothing.
I relent, sighing. “Look, I think it’s time for me to talk to someone, someone who can help me move on from Lewis.” I finally give in and tell him why I want to speak to a GP.
“Good, I’m pleased, but I thought you wanted to do this on your own?” He looks confused.
“I do… I did, but… Oh I don’t know, I don’t think I can.” I can’t think straight, and shake my head. “I feel so insecure. Lewis told me all the time that I was useless, that’s over twenty years of being told that I am no good, no good at anything, and now I’ve got all this.” I wave my arm around. “And you, and I don’t feel worthy of it. It’s stupid really, part of me says that it’s mine and I can have it all and I can be good at running the business and loving you, but the other half of me, well, that thinks it’s all going to turn bad again, that in a few months you’ll start beating me because I’m useless…” I feel the tears pooling and start to run down my cheeks, my breathing speeds up, I can’t get enough air.
James pulls me close and holds on so tenderly. He speaks calmly and reassures me. “Breathe, Alex, slowly, breathe with me. In and out slowly, in and out.” He talks me down. “That’s it, relax. Now look at me!”
He releases his hold and looks directly into me, it’s that look again.
“You’re beautiful, you’re intelligent – come on, you used to teach, you don’t get stupid teachers – do you? You’re so special. I will never, ever hurt you. I swear it. We may have ups and downs, but I will never hurt you. On my father’s grave, I will never, ever raise a hand to you, Alex. It’s not in my nature to hurt women, I might hurt men who are bastards, but never ever a woman.” His tone is so tender, so sincere. I think he means every word.
I contemplate what he’s just said, that he might hurt men who are bastards, and I can’t get over the thought that he at the very least instigated Lewis’s beating.
“Tell me who you are, James, who you really are. I like you, I like you a lot, but I feel that I don’t know you,” I ask, softly.
He half laughs, smiling. “What do you want to know?”
“Why did Maggie hire you, really? Why did she bring you into Reid’s, truthfully? Because I don’t buy it, that you were in the US and she just happened to hear about you. It doesn’t make sense.” There, I’ve said what’s been at the back of my mind for ages.
He sighs deeply and runs his long fingers through that hair of his. He takes a deep breath. Moves away from me and paces the room. “It was a favour… a favour to Roberto, that’s why I was given the job. I mean, you know that I’ve known the industry for a while, but when Maggie advertised for a General Manager Roberto saw the ad, he knew I was looking for a more prestigious job and that I wanted to come home to England and so he phoned Maggie. I didn’t know that Maggie knew Roberto, but she knew him very well, from when she was in Italy forty-five years ago.” He looks at me, waiting for the penny to drop.
It clicks. Suddenly, everything clicks into place. Maggie, my mother, must have been in Italy then and Tom Chandler told me that I was conceived in Italy!
“Oh… Oh… You’re not going to tell me that my father is Roberto, are you?” I gasp.
“No, no. Roberto’s brother is. Ramiro’s your father. I don’t know the full story but I know it was kept very quiet.” He pauses. “My dad knew Roberto, you know that, but he also knew his brother. Listen, how about I get Roberto to come over and he can explain everything? Do you want me to do that?” he asks softly. There’s so much empathy in his voice, concern.
“Yes, yes please… Now if he can, I want to know now!” I demand.
James leaves, presumably to make the phone call necessary to get Roberto here.
Chapter 18
Within an hour, Roberto and Gia arrive at my home. I’m still wrapped in my robe and still a little uncomfortable, but the painkillers are doing their job. James has me sat in the living room when they arrive. I’m not permitted to move.
I hear the fuss in the hall and then Gia, who up until now I haven’t met, bustles in. I can see from Roberto’s and James’s faces that she wears the trousers in that relationship. Yes, Mama Gia is here, taking control.
She makes a bee-line for me, outstretched arms. “Oh, la mia povera ragazza,” she says as I stand, and she pulls me close. “You sit down, girl, sit. He’s looking after you, James, he’s looking after you right,” she says with a heavy accent.
“Yes.” I smile.
“James, get this girl some tea.” Oh yes, we certainly know that Gia’s arrived.
She sits next to me. “I’m so sorry, Alex, so very sorry. Il povero bambino.” She sounds so sad, she frowns and I see the look of pain on her face.
I have no idea what she’s saying but I do pick up the odd word and know that she’s talking about the baby. I swear there are tears in her eyes as she looks at me. This very rotund Italian lady is definitely taking charge. I already like her, she’s the sort of person you want by your side in a crisis.
“James,” she calls. “Where is the tea?”
There’s no messing around with this woman, I bet she keeps Roberto on his toes, poor bloke!
James appears with Roberto following, they have a large tray with my best Georgian Blue, four cups of strong tea and a plate of homemade biscuits that I assume Gia has brought with her.
She passes me a cup of tea and drags a footstool over from the corner of the room. “Feet,” she all but barks at me. She then proceeds to plump up various cushions and pad them around me like I’m some sort of breakable package.
“Alex, I’m sorry to hear your news.” Roberto bends towards me and kisses my cheek.
“Will you tell me everything?” I speak softly. “About my mother and my father?”
“Of course. If you let me tell you without interruption I will tell you the whole story. Is that okay?” He looks at me with his soft brown eyes.
I look up at this lovely man, this kind man. “Yes, please, I need to know.”
He sits by my side and holds my hand tightly with his old man’s hand. His olive skin is loose and weathered; these hands have definitely not been a stranger to hard work over his life. I really do like this couple, they seem genuine and I know I will be told the truth.
“Your mother, Maggie, came to Italy, I suppose, about forty-five years ago the first time. She and Ramiro m
et and fell in love, big time. It was a joy to see they were both so happy.” He looks towards Gia, who smiles and nods.
He sighs and continues. “They so wanted to be together but my father would not allow it, he wanted Ramiro to marry an Italian woman like me – I was already in love with my Gia.” He smiles at his wife again.
“Eventually Ramiro and Maggie accepted that they would never be together, my father would just not allow it and would have caused trouble if they had stayed with each other, so Maggie came home to the UK, but not before she bought that villa. I didn’t know until later that Ramiro kept in touch with Maggie, even though he was then married. Maggie used to take a holiday at her villa three or four times a year. She was very wealthy even then, and I think that Ramiro used to visit her when she came over but nobody knew.” He sighs deeply. “Then a couple of years later, you were conceived, at the villa. Ramiro told me about Maggie then, that he had continued to see her even after he was married. He told me that she was pregnant, but he made a mistake, he got very drunk one night after being with your mother and told someone he knew, someone he thought he could trust. They told my parents and the secret was out. Ramiro’s wife, well, she just left. Ramiro disappeared for a long while, I don’t think he was ashamed but, well, it was a small village, everyone knew what he had done and he was shunned. Maggie returned home; the rest you know, I think.”
I’m stunned by what he has told me. “A true love story,” I say.
“Yes, Alex, a love story, one that could only be made up or written about, it really was a love story. Ramiro was so in love with Maggie, so very much in love, and she with him. I think – well, I know – but my father ruined it all for them.” He looks down, sighing deeply.
I look at Roberto. “So you’re my uncle?”
He smiles softly. “I am. Maggie and I kept in touch. None of us knew where Ramiro went. It was years before he went back home. I never held any of this against my brother, and neither did Gia. My father should never have forced him to marry someone he didn’t love, it was wrong of him.” He pauses. “But when Gia and I came to England we met up with Maggie. She helped us get started, with James’s father.”
He looked towards James. “We knew about you, where you were living and that you’d been adopted by your aunt. We would have taken you if we had known but it was done before we came here. Maggie was golden, a true gem, and when James wanted to come home to England and I saw that ad, well, I just had to call her. She contacted James and offered him the job. James isn’t part of our family, he’s no blood relative, but he’s the closest thing to a son we have. You see, Gia and I can’t have children. My mother was desperate for a grandchild, she had one but because of my father’s actions she never got to see you. I told my mama before she died how well Maggie had done and that her and Ramiro had a beautiful little girl. My mama cried, she would have let Ramiro marry the girl he was in love with.”
I sit quietly, we all do. Gia is smiling sweetly at me, her hands loosely in her lap. “Go on.” She nods to Roberto.
“Your father, Ramiro, he is an old man now. Well, he’s a little younger than me, but life… life has not treated him so well.” He looks down and smiles slightly.
“He lives just outside Firenze, Florence. He knows about you, I spoke with him when James told me that Maggie had died. He was broken hearted, even now he loves her so very, very much. He knows that you inherited everything and I told him last week that you look like Maggie and that he has a granddaughter. He cried at that!” There are tears in the older man’s eyes as he recounts his conversation with his brother.
“So who is Benito?” I ask.
Roberto laughs. “Ah, Benito!” He raises his eyebrows. “Benito is our cousin’s son. He lives here in England. Our cousin, Franco, also did not approve of what our father did to Ramiro. When you came to the bistro a few days ago, James told me a little about your husband, when you went to the ladies. I let Ramiro know where you were and that I had met you, and a little of what had happened. James said that your divorce was messy because of your husband.” He pauses for a moment, and he frowns. “Ramiro told Franco about your husband and asked him to have Benito sort things out… to teach the bastard a lesson. All we needed was his location and a little proof of what Maggie had hinted at over the years. She knew, you see, she knew what he was like – don’t ask me how, but she knew almost everything,” he tells me.
“You’re not part of a gang?” I ask. “I want no part of any sort of gang or group. And she couldn’t have known everything because until a few days ago nobody other than me and Lewis knew what he did to me.”
“No, we’re not part of a gang or a group, nothing like that at all. Let’s just say that Benito has contacts within certain legal organisations that he can call upon for little favours, not very often, but when it’s needed. Don’t you worry your head about Benito or Lewis. We will see to it that Lewis signs whatever paperwork is needed to make sure that you are freed from your marriage. Anna will also be checked upon from time to time. We look after our own in this family!”
“I thought I had no family.” I’m going to cry, my throat feels choked. I think that Gia can tell, because she moves to the other side of me and holds my hand.
“You brave girl,” she whispers ever so quietly.
Roberto looks at me and Gia sitting side by side. He sighs a deep, thoughtful sigh before he says, “You have family, Alex, you have me and Gia, and your father would love to meet you. I will telephone him tonight and tell him that we have spoken. James says you’re going to Italy for a break. Maggie’s villa – sorry, your villa – is not far at all from Florence, it’s just outside of San Gimignano. It would be so good for you to meet him, if only for a few hours. He really is desperate just to see you.”
“I don’t speak Italian,” I say, “none at all!”
“And I only speak a little, you know that!” James jumps in.
“How about we come with you? Gia would love to go home for a few days, wouldn’t you, my darling?” He looks at his wife. I have no idea how long they’ve been married but clearly he still thinks the world of her.
“Oh yes, I’d love to go home.” She chuckles, still holding onto my hand. “More tea, James, she needs more tea.” She looks at James and wafts her hand over the empty tea cups.
James does as he is told, standing straightaway to collect the empties. “Are you okay, Alex? You look pale again. Do you want some painkillers?”
“Umm, please, I think I’ll need them to sleep tonight. I need to use the loo again too.” I stand, and James and Roberto both stand up at the same time. They position themselves on each side of me, James has one arm and Roberto the other. I really am being treated like a piece of precious china. I’m forced to walk slowly to the cloakroom and James sees me in before going through to the kitchen. Roberto follows him.
As I do what I need to, I can hear them talking in the kitchen – or rather, I can hear Roberto talking to James. “You look after her, son, she’s precious. She’s been through too much to be broken again. Ramiro will, well… let’s just say he’ll be livid if anyone else hurts her. He’s lost her for too long to see her hurt any more, you understand me, James, you protect her with your life.”
“Don’t worry, I love her and I’ll never let any harm come, I promise you. As soon as she’s strong enough we’ll fly over. The hospital said that this will take a few days but it’s something she has to go through. The nurse that discharged her said she thought she was over the worst.” I can hear James making tea as he talks to Roberto.
“Let’s hope so, it would break Ramiro to lose her after only just finding her again. God, James it breaks me too. What did that bastard actually do…”
He stops as I stand in the kitchen doorway. I’m clutching my stomach. “It hurts, James,” I cry, I can’t stop the tears.
“Oh, it hurts. This baby— oh, James!” Even though I didn’t know I was pregnant I think the events of the last days have suddenly hit and I realise as I
stand there what is happening.
I break down and sob to My James. He holds me tightly as the body-shaking sobs take hold. Gia emerges from the living room. “Oh, Alex.” She rubs my back. “You poor, poor girl.”
Well, they’re all fussing now. Roberto has taken it upon himself to finish the tea that Gia ordered James to make. James is holding me upright and close as the trauma of the day, emotional and physical, takes hold – something that I have until now managed to stave off – and Gia, well, she’s just brilliant, organising this, getting Roberto and James to fetch this and get that.
My James leads me to the living room and sits down beside me, holding me close.
He whispers to me, “You want them to go?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Just give me a second.” I mentally shake myself and after a few minutes I wipe my eyes with a scrappy bit of tissue I’ve found in my robe pocket.
I reach for the glass of water that’s been put together with some painkillers and take them both. Gia offers me a couple of biscuits. “You should eat with the tablets,” she tells me, “it’s best.”
I know she’s right, so I munch on one of the biscuits that she has made with, I have no doubt, love. These two would have made such wonderful parents to someone, it’s such a shame they weren’t blessed.
Once I’m mostly over my emotional meltdown, I look at Roberto. “You wanted to know what Lewis did?”
His face hardens. “Only if it doesn’t upset you any more, only then.”
Freeing Alex (The Alexandra Drake Series) Page 27