The Sin of Cynara (12 page)

  'Yes,' she said quietly. 'If you are quite certain that you won't have a son of your own.'

  'Children should be born of love or not at all.' The firm shoulders moved the cambric shirt in a shrug of great irony. 'Come to the window, madam, and take a look at what will be your son's when he inherits from me.'

  Carol moved slowly to his side and she could feel a strange sort of weakness in her legs, and when she stood there beside him it just couldn't be ignored that she was consumed by a disturbing awareness of this man. She gazed down upon the shimmering lake and its surrounding landscape, and all the time she was asking herself why he should so disturb her, so that she would jump like a startled spider if he should touch her.

  He spoke as if no woman would ever look at him again, yet he could have had some sort of cosmetic surgery which would have reduced the shock effect of his face. That he chose not to have the scars sewn over with plastic skin could only mean that he wanted the protection of his acid burns. He wanted from now on to keep at bay the enticement of love; he had convinced himself that no woman would come into his arms willingly.

  The sun on the Lake of Lina was blindingly bright, so that the overhanging trees along its waterworn walls looked like shaggy black etchings. Hanging gardens and terraces that cast a spell over the senses. Leafy vines and masses of golden mimosa clambering over walls ... A self-contained island with the palazzo dominating the cluster of white houses, the lemon groves, the grapevines and the fig orchards. Espaliered fruit trees shone in the sun, the water quivered under the caress of it, and nets along the shore were stretched like great webs to dry in the sublime warmth.

  It was a reality and not a dream, and Carol was part of it.

CHAPTER FIVE

  'THAT is settled.' His eyes came to her face and they held no expression of any sort to betray his inmost feelings. It was business with him, nothing more, and Carol thought how fearful and fascinating were the days ahead of her going to be. Yesterday she had been almost penniless with a growing boy to support, and now she was the betrothed of a rich man. It was a settled fact, he had just said so. A marriage that would be convenient for both of them.

  'Come, let us go and find Terence,' he said, 'for he must be told the news by us before anyone else has the chance to fill his head with the wrong ideas.'

  'Bedelia?' she asked, and even to say the name was to feel again a primitive recoil from the woman, as from a snake gliding out of the shadows into the sunlight. 'I'll tear the hair from her scalp if she ever harms my Teri !'

  Rudolph paused and his eyes were like golden knives flicking across Carol's features. 'How passionately you care for him ... as fierce as a Sabine in defence of your own. That was why the Roman soldiers stole the Sabine women, because they were wild and loyal and untouched by the decadence of soft living. You chose a good name for your son - the child takes after you for spirit, eh?'

  Carol's heart turned over and she felt a clutch of fear, like a fist closing on her throat. What would he do if he discovered that he had a liar for a wife, and that he need never have married her, for Teri was not hers?

  They walked along the wide terrazza in the direction of the lemon house, where he opened the door and called for Flavia. But the place echoed to his voice and the essence of citrus came out in a wave, engulfing Carol in its spiciness. They walked down steps into the heart of the garden that was rampant with oleanders, white petunias and scarlet geraniums. Scented clusters of camphor hung in the hot sunlight, and on the lower gradients there were tangled masses of Tuscan roses, and lilies like the trumpets of angels blowing a silent music. Santolina spilled from tall stone vases leading into cypress lanes, the thick silvery branches looped and braided together into intricate patterns.

  They entered a stone-walled patio where niches in the wall held the weathered statues of gods and goddesses. Here there was a sunken pool surrounded by a balustrade, and they found Flavia sitting on the steps reading a book while Teri leaned over the water and tickled the darting fish with his fingers.

  Rudolph paused and caught Carol by the arm, holding her still as they watched the girl and boy who were his children by proxy. 'She's a pretty creature, don't you think?' he murmured, his eyes upon Flavia, her dark hair gleaming in the sunlight. 'She wishes me to allow her to become a Sister of Mercy, and I confess to you that I don't wish her to choose a life of unrelenting service to others. Yet if I refuse her I shall feel a brute, It's a dilemma I am finding hard to resolve. She's such a gentle creature and the life of a nun can be so demanding. What should I do, Carol?'

  It was the first time he had spoken her name and her eyes widened with surprise, for her name sounded so unusual when he spoke it. She was also astounded that he should ask her advice, and yet why should she be? He was a man, and it would strike him as astonishing that a pretty young thing like his adopted daughter should wish to join a nunnery instead of having the romantic dreams that were more natural to a sixteen-year-old.

  'Why not tell her, signore, that if she is still of the same mind when she is seventeen then you will bow to her wishes? She spoke to me at breakfast about her sense of being called to the life of a nun, and if this is still strong in her when she reaches her next birthday, then it would probably be cruel of you to dissuade her. After all, signore, you don't yourself regard marriage as heaven, do you?'

  Again his eyes were penetrating hers with their golden steel, unwarmed by any personal feeling for her. They were like scimitars cutting down at her, so that she felt an instinctive need to back away from him. How on earth was she ever going to treat this man as a husband? How was it possible to react normally to him, in so many ways a scarred and unpredictable stranger?

  'Do you regard marriage to me as a possible hell?' he asked. 'You may say so if you think so. I shan't be offended by your candour.'

  'I think marriage to you will be like a duel,' she replied. 'Like a rapier you flick at a woman at unexpected moments, and it doesn't worry you that you leave a sting.'

  'Only a sting?' he drawled. 'You can take that, can't you?'

  'Up to a point,' she said. 'I have feelings and a temper, signore. I won't be tormented without hitting back.'

  'Oh, women can hit back,' he agreed, an acid note of meaning in his voice. 'They aren't the helpless and charming angels they pretend to be, and as I said even Flavia will succeed in making me feel a brute if I oppose her. But I will do as you say, for I'm going to grant you a certain amount of common sense, my fidanzata, on account of that boy down by the pool You have not made a mama's darling of him, yet I can sense the strength of the bond between you. Look, he has seen you !'

  'Cally!' Teri jumped to his feet and came dashing up the steps to where Carol stood. 'Look at all those stone statues, and the fish are so tame they let you touch them. It is a real palace, and Flavia says I'm the little frog who will turn into a prince.'

  'Are you, Buster?' She brushed his hair out of his wondering eyes. 'You think you'll be happy here?'

  'If you're staying as well,' he nodded, and he cast a look at the tall figure of the baróne as if to let him know that he wouldn't dream of staying anywhere without his Cally.

  'You will both live here from now on,' Rudolph told him. 'Your mother and I are going to be married - do you know what that means, caro?'

  Teri pushed the tip of his tongue against his upper lip and gave the question his consideration. 'Do you mean you're going to be my papà as well as Flavia's?' he asked.

  The baróne inclined his head, but this didn't seem to please Teri. He edged close to Carol and caught her by the hand. He pushed his head against her and whispered something.

  'What did he say?' Rudolph raised an eyebrow at Carol, but his voice was perfectly level.

  'He - he says you're not to touch me.' She flushed. 'I'm afraid it's a bit of a phobia with him - we've been so close, you understand.'

  'Then reassure the child.' Now the deep voice was ironic. 'Tell him that the ugly man will not be laying a finger on his adored mother.'

  'Please don't be offended,' she said. 'Teri is like this with all men.'

  'Have there been so many?'

  'Of course there haven't !' Her flush deepened. 'But you have to remember that Vincenzo was dead by the time Teri was born, and we lived in a house run by my aunts. It's natural if he's a little - jealous.'

  'Jealous?' The baróne spoke the word as if it were infinitely amusing. Then he extended a hand and drew Teri away from Carol. 'Come, caro, it will not be so bad to have a papa, will it? I shall be pleased to have a son so I can teach you all about boats and engines and the lore of the fruit trees. A man likes to have a son, you know.'

  Teri gazed up at the baróne, and it must have been in that moment that he felt the compulsion that was older than time, older than man. He went towards that tall figure, and Carol could feel herself pressing a hand against her throat, as if to stifle something, as the child held out a hand to his uncle with an infinitely trustful gesture of acceptance. The small hand was lost in the large one, and the baróne gave Carol a brief look before saying to Teri :

  'Come, let me take you to see the miniature motor-boats that I design before they are turned into real ones for people to use. We have a tank in the workroom on which we try them out, my assistant and I. You will like Marco, for he has magic in his fingers.'

  'Magic?' echoed Teri, and Carol watched them out of sight among the camphor and almond trees, and her heart seemed to beat in time with the pulsating cicadas in the scented shrubs. Bees hummed in the purple wistaria, and above her head hung the glimmering eggs of silk in the mulberry trees.

  If she felt doubts about this marriage, then she must stifle them as she had that sob in her throat. She and Teri needed a home where they'd be secure ... and that man was desperately lonely, though he would never admit it.

  Teri could fill up some of the spaces in his heart... those that a man reserved for a woman he was determined to keep empty and silent. No other woman was going to hurt him if he could prevent it.

  Carol gazed down into the water of the pool, where the red-gold fish glimmered among the heart-shaped leaves of the floating lotus. It would be a strange marriage, that of two people disenchanted, who had both given their love to the wrong ones. No romance, no

  breathless desire to be close to each other, just two people drawn together by the needs of one small boy.

  Flavia glanced up as Carol's shadow fell across the pages of her book. She smiled in her quiet way. 'It is good that the little one has made friends with Papà,' she said. 'Children are sometimes made afraid by the scars, you see.'

  'Teri is no faintheart.' Carol sat down on the sun-warmed steps beside the girl who would soon be her stepdaughter. 'I have something to tell you -I hope you won't be shocked.'

  'You look pale,' Flavia said. 'Is it something distressing?'

  'It could be, for other people.' Carol took a deep breath. 'The baróne has asked me to marry him for the sake of - of giving Teri a legal name, and I have agreed to his proposal. I hope you won't mind?'

  There was a bated silence, during which Flavia closed her book and held it gripped between her hands. 'So soon?' she murmured. 'You only came yesterday, and you must know what people will say.'

  'Yes, I think I know what people will call me. It won't be true, Flavia. I'm not out for what I can get for myself, but I can't resist the security that such a marriage will provide for Teri. As he grows up he will be more aware of being fatherless, but if I marry the baróne then he won't have to be known as the love-child of Vincenzo Falcone. By the time he reaches his teens he will be fully accepted as the son of Rudolph, and I can't resist being a partner to that. After all, the baróne says that he will never marry otherwise, and he wants an heir for Falconetti. It's an ideal solution to my problem, and his. Don't you see that?'

  'I see a marriage made without love,' Flavia replied. 'Could you endure that, Carol? You strike me as being a warm-hearted person, and you are English and not brought up to the arranged marriage.'

  'No,' Carol agreed, 'but you have to realize that I haven't had stars in my eyes for a long time. Like Rudolph, T would only marry for Teri's sake, and if between us we can make the boy happy, then I think it will work out. The baróne is a man of honour. He wished to put his house in order.'

  Flavia reached up to enfold a magnolia blossom in the palm of her hand. 'There are others of his house who won't be pleased. You know that, Carol?'

  'Yes, I know.'

  'I think Bedelia has hoped for a long time that Papà would make her the mistress of Falconetti, and if you marry him then she will hate you and find ways to hurt you.'

  'Then I shall suggest that the baróne provide her with her own house. I shall have that right—'

  'He won't turn her out if she wishes to remain here, Carol. Family feeling among Italians is very strong, and she is the widow of his dead brother.'

  'But if she causes trouble I shall surely have the right to say she isn't welcome here.' Carol bit her lip and thought of the dark, autocratic face of her future husband. Would she have all that many rights as the wife of such a man? He didn't love her and was only marrying her because he thought her the mother of his brother's child. Beyond that link she meant absolutely nothing to him, whereas Bedelia was Italian and her union with Vincenzo had been the legal one.

  A cold little chill ran through Carol even as the sun stroked her skin. She was the outsider here, the doors of Falconetti opened to her by the small hands of a child born of her sister Cynara.

  'Oh, don't let me make you afraid.' Flavia looked suddenly contrite. 'It's wonderful that you love your little boy so very much, and I know that Papà can be kind. I am sure he will be kind to you.'