A Girl Called Tegi (16 page)

‘I’m afraid so. You see, I have a special licence for us to be married as soon as we wish. I don’t intend leaving you with Colin trailing around after you. I’ve had more sleepless nights over your friendship with him than I have ever had in my life. During the races I even found myself imagining all my colleagues in the events wearing his face beneath their goggles and helmets.’

Tegi laughed out of pure happiness. ‘You didn’t? If that’s so you certainly owe some of your success to poor Colin. Besides, he’s going away on holiday quite soon and I’m hoping that the girl he takes with him will eventually become more to him than just a friend.’

Tony looked down into her face with deep intentness. ‘You would not mind losing him to someone else?’ he queried.

‘You can’t lose anything that’s been no part of you. Colin and I just drifted together. The good thing about our friendship has been the things we’ve learned which otherwise wouldn’t have been known to us.’

‘Define these things,’ he demanded jealously, as his arms tightened around her.

She looked at him with all her love in her shining eyes.

‘On the few occasions when he kissed me, for instance
...’

He gripped her so tightly that she thought every bone in her body would crack. ‘He kissed you?’ he demanded ferociously.

‘Not very often. I’m glad he did, because it was only after you’d kissed me that I really began to question what I felt for him.’ She framed his dark face with tender hands. ‘You see, darling, I’d
never even dreamed that kisses between a man and a woman could be as wonderful as those between you and me. I love you.’

He looked searchingly into her eyes, gave her a quick kiss and drew her towards the seat.

‘Let us sit down and you can tell me more,’ he said softly.

Sitting within the circle of his arm, Tegi leaned against him, feeling ecstatically exhausted.

Soberly, she said, ‘I’m also grateful to Colin for something else just as important in a lasting relationship. I discovered that I couldn’t stand the idea of sharing his bed. That is important, isn’t it
?’

Tony drew her closer and kissed her hair. ‘Something like that,’ he said, and laughed. ‘That’s an understatement, but it will do.’ There were little devils dancing in his eyes. His eyes narrowed with a look in them which sent the colour rushing to her face. ‘How do you know that you will enjoy my love-making? I’m warmer blooded than you—at least I think I am.’ He chuckled. ‘You could surprise me. I can’t wait to have you all to myself.’

She buried her face in his chest with a new shyness and a deep thankfulness in her heart for just having him there. She could not believe it, this dream that had come true so suddenly.

‘I have my holidays coming
soon...’
she began.

‘We’re getting married in a matter of days. It is easy with a special licence. I know a register office wedding is
n
ot good enough for you, but we can be
married in church in Tuscany. That way you will begin to feel one of us.’

‘But, Tony, that’s terribly soon! I haven’t anything ready. We haven’t even told my parents yet. They’re only just getting over Dorothy leaving home,’ she protested, looking up at him appealingly.

He said softly, ‘Your parents will be at our wedding both here and in Italy. Gary will be coming too, but I object to Sam.’ He laughed down into her face. He was all fire and laughter, his dark eyes glowing with something which filled her with an exhilaration of joy. ‘On second thoughts,’ he added, ‘he can bring Sam along if he wants to and the Customs allow it.’

‘Oh, Tony
!’
she breathed. ‘I can see that Gary is going to love you.’

CHAPTER TEN

To Tegi the next week was like a dream from which she prayed never to wake. While her parents were happy about it they had reservations about her going to live as far away as Italy. Tony looked on in amusement at her excitement, her wonder and trepidation, but he could not understand why she should worry about meeting his people.

‘They will love you,’ he told her as she hung on to his hand when they left the register office for a wedding lunch at his hotel. They were all there around her at the reception in a flower-filled room at the hotel.

Beryl and Linda looked on as though they could
not believe it. Tegi still could not believe it when
weeks later they were married in the little village church in Tuscany with the bells pealing out
joy
o
usly.
Her parents were there along with a wide-eyed
Gary who was certainly lapping up the sunshine. It
had all been as Tony had described it. His parents
loved her and her family. If they had hoped their son
would marry one of the dark-eyed local girls they hid
the fact beneath a sincere friendliness.

Tegi had munched striped tomatoes, tried the
pecorino cheese and the usual olives and found a liking for them. The Mastroni farmhouse, a mellowed
stone building with blue shutters and an open
f
ront
door and urns of cascading flowers, was to her enchanted because it was Tony’s home.

This was the place where he had grown up and
where, so he had said, the sun warmed the heart. She had walked along the balustraded terrace where
delicately coloured roses spilled in profusion over the
stonework, from windowsills and steps leading into the grounds.

She walked from the shimmering heat of the sun into the cool interior of the villa to stare at frescoes, beautiful tapestried furniture of curved elegance
where golden and white tiles provided a rich yet
simple effect.

‘It’s out of this world, darling,’ she had whispered
to Tony.
‘Words fail me.’

Tony’s amused mocking smile acknowledged that
he understood what she was trying to say.

He said wryly, ‘When the window shutters are
opened, you will see the shabbiness of a bygone age. But to my parents it is their heritage as it will be mine. They have been brought up in it, but you and I will begin our married life in the cottage on the estate. You won’t mind that?’

He had looked at her rather anxiously, noting the sun playing in her silky hair, spraying it with gold dust. Her eyes, very bright and clear, were clinging to his intent gaze.

She said simply, ‘I don’t mind where I live so long as you’re with me.’

‘Wait until you see it,’ he told her darkly.

Later they had gone to see the cottage, set some distance in the grounds away from the farmhouse. An endless stretch of olive groves led them down to five rooms of delicious privacy set beneath a terrace of vines. Urns of petunias and Zinnias were colourful against apricot walls.

Inside, the shuttered rooms looked less sombre with white walls and gaily painted wicker furniture placed invitingly on a floor of honey-gold tiles.

Tegi’s fingers curled around Tony’s as he escorted her from one to the other of the five rooms. Against his home background he might still appear to be arrogant, but his consideration for her, his lazy good humour drew them closer together. If at times he seemed to be strangely alien it was because she did not know much about his way of life yet. But she would learn.

And the cottage was just what she wanted. The bathroom even had a shower and Tegi felt that she could not wait to begin their married life together within its walls. She did not really want a honeymoon, preferring to come right away to the cottage, but Tony had said that a little time together on their own would help her to adjust more quickly to his way of life.

The people on the estate had crowded around them during their tour of the farm. All offered their best wishes, all were delighted that they had a home of their own in which to enjoy their new life together.

‘La piccola esta simpatica e bellissima,’
they all cried in unison, and Tony smiled mockingly down into her flushed face.

‘Already they love you,’ he whispered.

And now they were on their way to the reception. A peal of bells had greeted them as they left the little church decked with flowers for their wedding, and Tegi had received her guests with Tony by her side in utter bliss.

They arrived in Florence in the early evening to see the famous domes, towers and palaces, and the graceful span of bridges over the Arno bathed in warm sunshine. The capital of Tuscany was theirs to enjoy, enhanced by a blissful honeymoon during which Tegi had to pinch herself to make sure that it was real.

She hovered blissfully between sleep and full awakening. Dreamily she was aware of cherubs looking down at her from the high ceiling and she turned her head on her pillow to see Tony fast asleep beside her.

His dark hair was ruffled and the thick dark lashes on his tanned cheeks gave him a boyish look when in repose. It was the last day of their honeymoon, and recalling precious moments she looked up again at the angels and cherubs on the ceiling, thinking that there could not have been a better place for them to be short of paradise itself.

Engrossed in each other, they had strolled hand in hand, unaware of other people like the friendly Italians who glanced and smiled at them because they were so much in love.

Tony had taken her to the galleries of the Uffizi to see the famous paintings of Botticelli, Raphael, and Fra Angelico. He had pointed out the coats of arms of the old Tuscan nobility emblazoned on the tall tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, and they had seen the treasures of the Medici in the grand halls of the Pitti Palace.

Tegi had loved the grandeur of the architecture, the impressively lovely fountains playing in the elegant avenues of the palace gardens, but it was the more simple pleasures like sitting overlooking an arcaded square sipping creamy cappuccino and strolling along the Arno after dinner on a .summer evening, just Tony and herself in a world of their own.

Later they would return to their hotel rooms to sip wine and nibble sandwiches while watching the night life of Florence from the balcony of their room. Much later Tony would close the shutters and Tegi would climb into the king-size bed with her flowing hair a coppery cloud around her head and her slim supple body aching for his caress.

When he joined her the inevitable quiver of ecstasy at his nearness gave way to a small sigh of indescribable happiness. He kissed her gently at first, then his mouth found the hollow at the base of her quivering throat and she placed her soft cheek against his hard
one in blissful acceptance.

Now the last day of their honeymoon had come, Tegi, still hovering between dreams and reality, gazed on her sleeping husband lying prone beside her. She wanted to hang on to precious moments borrowed from a lifetime which would never be quite the same again, the new and glorious knowledge of each other, the sensation of belonging, the ecstasy of shared lives.

The medallion that Tony wore on a chain around his neck gleamed on his honey-gold chest; mocked at her fears of losing him in a clamorous world. Tentatively her fingers reached out to touch it and almost instantly he was awake and gripping her slender wrist with a deceptive firmness.

‘Rob a defenceless man, would you?’ he growled with mock severity as his dark eyes said something very different.

She laughed and kissed the golden skin. ‘You have a beautiful chest, dear, and I’m going to make full use of it, my darling.’

He kissed her fingers and eyed her flushed face with all the sparkling vitality of his maleness.

‘Take care,’ he said. ‘Do not make any rash statements or promises. There will be times when you might wish that you had never met me.’

She looked at him wonderingly and he grinned and kissed the palm of her hand.

‘Of course, there will be the making up later. I’m sure I shall enjoy that,’ he added audaciously.

For answer Tegi pulled her hand free and buried her fingers in the thickness of his crisp hair. Her eyes were bright, her lips tremulous as she thrilled to his warmth and strength, his complete maleness.

‘I shall forgive you, of course,’ she said. ‘I shan’t be able to help it.’ Then it was her turn to tease. ‘That is until I learn differently. Then you’d better look out!’

He pulled her down to kiss her. ‘Don’t worry,’ he returned. ‘
I
seem to recall that earlier on in our somewhat stormy courtship, you were quite fond of sticking your small nose into the air at me.’

‘That was because I thought you were a wolf.’

‘And I thought you were the most infuriating, delicious little piece of femininity I had ever come across.’ His eyes darkened, became almost black. ‘I was always burningly aware of you. You were lucky that I did not ravish you, with those tantalising red lips. You know, you really are a witch with those tempting lips, Tegi Mastroni.’

She was sinking down into a pool of bliss despite the knowledge that the honeymoon was only the preliminary to a spartan life ahead as a farmer’s wife.

‘Please say that again,’ she murmured. ‘It sounds like heaven.’

He obliged against her willing lips and she clung with her hands caressing the back of his neck where the curly tendrils of hair were neatly trained. There would be times when she would weary of the sun and long for her island, for the old haunts and her friends, and most of all her family.

But she knew that Tony would understand with love and patience. He would be humble perhaps but never servile, firm but not rough, even a little selfish, for that was how most men were, but she loved him, and there was no sounder rock on which to build a marriage.

Locked together, her slight body warm and vital, secure and utterly contented in the sheltered haven of his strong arms, she listened to him murmur her name. She would be grateful all her life for the fate that had brought him to the island to fall in love with a girl called Tegi.