The Italian's Rightful Bride Part 20

'So Crystal tried not to come?'

'Yes, but I persuaded her,' he said, his eyes glinting. 'I also persuaded her to bring some clothes because she's going to stay a few days, whether she likes it or not.'

His face was hard, forbidding. Joanna would have given a lot to know his thoughts, but she suddenly realised that in this family quarrel she was an outsider.

'I have things to get on with,' she said heavily. 'I hope this all works out as you want.'

For a few days she kept well clear of the family, eating at the dig and working late into the evening, determinedly keeping her thoughts on her work. She refused to speculate on what might be happening between Gustavo and Crystal. That way lay madness.

She came inside late one night to hear music coming from the radio. Through an open door she could just make out Crystal swaying in the dance. So she and Gustavo had reached that stage, she thought.

But it was Freddy, not Gustavo, who was dancing with Crystal. They moved in perfect time together and looked good, Joanna had to admit. Gustavo was sitting at a table, writing. He looked up and saw Joanna standing in the doorway.

'Come in and join us,' he said, with a touch of relief in his voice. 'I'll have something sent in.'

He rang the bell and a cold supper appeared so quickly that it was clear it had been already waiting.

'I'll just run upstairs...' she said, eyeing the food with pleasure.

'No need,' Freddy said, emerging from the dance. 'Billy's fast asleep. We swam for miles.'

'Oh, yes,' she said, remembering. 'There's a swimming pool in the grounds, isn't there?'

'I've had it cleaned out,' Gustavo said, bringing her a gla.s.s of wine. 'You're all welcome to use it. A day off in the pool would probably do your team good.'

'Thank you. Yes, I think we'd like that.'

She sipped her wine before asking, 'How is Renata?'

'Doing well,' Gustavo said quietly.

'She's so much better,' Crystal said sweetly. 'I took her to the pool and she paddled in the shallow end. The poor little soul wanted to go in with Freddy and Billy, but she can't, because of her arm.'

'But I'm sure she was happy sitting on the side with you,' Joanna said. 'It means so much to her to have you here.'

'But of course,' Crystal said prettily. 'n.o.body can replace a mother, can they?'

More music came from the radio and she began twirling around the room again, looking gloriously pretty and several years younger than her real age. Freddy joined her and they bounded around like teenagers.

Joanna finished her supper, bid them goodnight and went to the library, where most of the others were still up. They looked tired and disgruntled.

'I thought we'd be through the wall into that chamber by now,' Lily grumbled.

'The wall's twice as thick as the others,' Claire said.

'I know.' Joanna flexed her hands, which were still painful from the day's work. 'But we'll be through soon, won't we, Hal? Hal?'

'He's been asleep in that chair for the last hour,' Danny said. 'And we're all knackered.'

'Fine, then let's have some time off. There's a swimming pool here and we're all invited to spend the day in it.'

Everyone cheered, even Hal, who seemed to cheer in his sleep.

'Tomorrow, then,' Joanna said.

They gathered at the pool next day, all giving yells of delight as the clear blue water came into sight, glinting under the sun. In minutes they were all jumping in.

Joanna tried not to look as Gustavo appeared with Crystal and Renata, both in bathing suits. They seemed like a family, which, in a sense, they were. Just as she, Freddy and Billy were.

Billy was already in the deep end, crowing as he climbed onto Freddy's shoulders and dived. But he swam the length of the pool when he saw Renata arrive and sit at the top of the steps that led down into the shallow end. Joanna stayed where she was, in earshot.

Crystal and Renata had their heads together, and Joanna heard the word 'Toni' several times, and saw Renata smile at the mention of her baby half-brother.

'Look,' Crystal said, reaching into her bag and taking out a photo alb.u.m. 'Joanna, you haven't seen my baby, have you?'

He was a beautiful child, full of smiles. Picture after picture showed him beaming with delight, mostly enfolded in his mother's arms, while she looked down on him with an expression of delight.

'I keep these with me always,' she told Joanna.

'Hey, Crystal!' That was Freddy's voice, calling from the pool. Crystal gave a shriek and danced into the water.

As soon as she was gone Renata dived into her bag, rummaging through with hands that grew increasingly frantic, until at last she gave up and pushed the bag aside.

'What's the matter?' Gustavo came close to ask her.

'She's just discovered that Crystal doesn't keep any pictures of her, the way she does of Toni,' Joanna muttered. 'd.a.m.n her!'

Gustavo swore under his breath and went to sit beside Renata. For once she didn't turn away from him, and Joanna guessed that Crystal's presence now made him one of the 'good guys'. She even gave him a smile, although it was clearly an effort, and Joanna guessed that Billy's presence helped.

She swam down the pool to find Freddy, and join him in a sandwich from the buffet Gustavo had arranged at the side of the pool.

'This is the life,' he said, stretched out luxuriously on the gra.s.s while she filled his gla.s.s with wine. 'How can I arrange to live like this all the time?'

'What you need is another rich wife,' she observed, without resentment.

'Ah, now, that's not fair,' he protested. 'I was nuts about you. You know that.'

'Yes, you were,' she agreed. 'But just how nuts would you have been if I hadn't had a nice fat bank balance?'

He considered this seriously. 'The point is that you were always likely to. I had just enough cash of my own to move among moneyed people, so I met rich ladies. The odds were always in my favour.'

She had to laugh at this. His good-natured face was so guileless.

'I'm surprised you're not playing the odds again by this time,' she said.

He frowned. 'The problem is, knowing exactly what the odds are.'

'How do you mean?'

'If I did marry again, I suppose the allowance you pay me would stop.'

'You mean I might regard it as her job to support you, rather than mine?'

'I can imagine a lot of women being difficult about it.'

'Not me. How could you think I'd let the father of my son go short?'

He crowed with laughter. 'That's the spirit.'

'Why is it so important, anyway? If she's rich enough to afford you-'

'Yes, but a fellow likes to have a little independence,' he said, totally straight-faced, which left her speechless.

'You are totally shameless,' she said at last. 'I mean, I've never known anyone like you.'

'There isn't anyone like me. I'm the one and only. Buy while stocks last. Only I'll soon be getting a bit beyond my sell-by date, so it's time to think about the future.'

'Do you have an ideal in mind-money apart, that is?'

'Well, she shouldn't be too serious. I like to have a good time and to blazes with tomorrow. But most women don't seem to be made like that.'

'Crystal is,' Joanna sighed.

'Yes, but she's a bit short of the readies at the moment. Gustavo still has to hand over the other half of her money, and she's asking for it faster than he can manage.'

She looked at him quickly. 'How do you know that?'

'She told me. We've got to know each other quite well in these last few days. She finds me a handy shoulder to cry on. They're having a bit of an argument about it. Hasn't he told you?'

'No, he hasn't.'

'Ah, well, he might find it a bit difficult. Reasons of delicacy and all that.' He said this as though speaking a foreign language.

After a moment he went on, 'It's a pity, because in an ideal world you and Gustavo would get married fast, and that would solve everyone's problems.'

'Freddy, are you going to be vulgar again?'

'Probably. The most practical solutions usually are vulgar to people of refined sensibilities.'

'How would you know? You wouldn't recognise a refined sensibility if it came up and bopped you on the nose.'

'Yes, I would, and I'd bop it first. Serve it right for causing so much trouble in the world.'

'What are you burbling about now?' she asked, trying to speak severely but unable not to laugh.

'I'm saying that if you were to marry Gustavo, he could afford to repay Crystal her money, and then she'd be out of his hair, and yours. And of course, once she's regained her fortune-well-'

'Are you daring to suggest-?'

'Well, you said it yourself, I need a rich wife. And I think she and I might deal very well together.'

It dawned on her that he was perfectly right. He and Crystal were ideally suited.

'And the kids would love it,' Freddy added. 'Keep it all in the family, so to speak.'

He was right about that too. In fact, he was so right in every cynical suggestion that she dived hastily back into the pool.

It was a good day and everyone felt better when they were making their way back to the house in the late afternoon, ready to dress up for a good dinner.

Joanna was down first, finding Crystal in the library.

'Are you cross with me?' Crystal asked. 'You've been giving me glowering looks all day. I hate it when people are cross with me.'

'If I'm cross it's because of the way you hurt Renata.'

'Me? I've been delightful to her.'

'How about flaunting those pictures of Toni, when you don't keep any of her?'

'Did she look in my bag? She shouldn't have done.'

'She was looking for rea.s.surance that you carry her pictures too. And you don't. That hurt her, Crystal.'

'Oh, h.e.l.l!' Crystal gave a despairing sigh and ran her hands through her hair. 'Look, I- You think I'm a monster, don't you?'

'Well-I can't imagine taking as little interest in Billy as you seem to take in Renata.'

'I know, I know, but I can't help it. It's not my fault. Something happened when she was born-or rather, something didn't happen. The first time I held her I waited for that rush of love you're supposed to get, and there was absolutely nothing. I tried and tried, but I couldn't feel anything.'

Joanna remembered her first sight of Billy, and the love that had swept through her like a hurricane. She felt a moment's sympathy for Crystal, who hadn't known that incredible joy. Perhaps she shouldn't be blamed too much for being unable to bond.

But the next moment some of her sympathy evaporated, when Crystal said, 'If only she'd been a boy! I wanted a boy so much. All those months of getting thicker and uglier, and feeling awful. Of course Gustavo wanted an heir, and I wanted to give him one and get it out of the way.

'I had a bad birth. It just went on for ages and ages, and all the time I was thinking, Please let it be a boy, so I need never do this again. And then she turned out to be a girl and I was so angry.'

'Angry?'

'I was tired,' Crystal said defensively. 'I ached all over, and Gustavo was saying things like, "Never mind, darling. Next time." Like that was supposed to make me feel better. And I knew every last person on the estate was going to be disappointed in me, and I just felt fed up.'

'Fed up,' Joanna echoed. Crystal's petulant self-centredness was so overwhelming that it was almost impressive.

'Of course the estate people were interested,' she pointed out. 'If the prince doesn't have an heir it affects them all.'

'Yes, well, it was no fun being a princess,' Crystal said sulkily. 'I thought it would be, but it wasn't.'

'Is that why you married him? For the t.i.tle? You didn't love him at all?'

'I don't really know,' Crystal said, considering this. 'Yes, I suppose I was in love with him, in a sort of way. He seemed glamorous and exciting then. I thought that was how we'd live, going to all the thrilling places in the world, meeting everyone who mattered. But all Gustavo wanted was to bury himself in this place and spend every penny on it.