‘Enough, Sophie,’ her father snapped. ‘It is not for me to question him.’
‘Why not?’ Sophie challenged. She was sick and tired of her father being Malvolio’s puppet. ‘What is this meeting about? Or is it just an excuse to sit in the bar for the evening?’
Surprisingly, her father laughed. ‘You sound just like your mother.’
Everyone said the same. Rosa had had fire apparently, not that Sophie could remember her as she had died when Sophie was two.
‘Here,’ Paulo said, and handed her a small pouch. ‘These are her jewels.’
Sophie let out a small gasp and then looked at her father and saw that he was sweating and a little grey.
‘This means so much.’
‘I know,’ Paulo said, his voice shaken. ‘There are only her earrings.’
‘I thought there was a necklace...’ In all the photos Rosa wore a simple gold cross but she could hear the emotion in her father’s voice when he told her that he didn’t have it.
‘It was a very fine chain. I believe that it came off in the accident. Even after all these years I still look for it in the bushes when I take my walk in the morning. I wanted you to have it. I’m so sorry that I cannot give that to you.’
‘Is that why you haven’t let me have them?’ Sophie asked. ‘Father, I just wanted something...anything of hers...’ She looked at the fine gold hoops, that had a small diamond in each, with tears in her eyes. ‘And now I have her earrings. Thank you so much.’
‘I have to go to my meeting,’ Paulo said, and Sophie pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to fight, especially not when he had just given her something so precious, but her father looked terrible and she really did want him to rest. ‘I’ll try and get back for dinner.’
Sophie simply could not hold her tongue. ‘If Malvolio lets you.’
She saw her father’s eyes shut for a brief moment before he turned and headed for the door.
Sophie knew it might be kinder to apologise and that she was maybe making things harder for her father by admitting her truth but she didn’t like his involvement with Malvolio.
‘Father, I don’t know if I am ready to get engaged...’ She held her breath as her father’s shoulders stiffened.
‘It is normal to be nervous,’ her father said, but did not turn around. ‘Sophie, I have to go.’
‘Father, please, can we talk...?’
But the door had already closed.
Sophie walked around the small home and picked up a picture of her mother. She could see the similarities there—they had the same long black hair, the same dark brown eyes and full lips. Oh, Sophie wished she was here, just for a moment. She missed having a mother to give her advice so badly.
‘I am so confused,’ Sophie admitted to the photo of Rosa. A part of her dreaded being married, yet there was another part of her that longed to see Luka again, the man who had always filled her dreams. She had always looked up to him, had always nursed a crush on him, and she wanted her first kiss to belong to them and to be made love to by Luka.
What would Luka want, though?
She blushed in embarrassment at the thought of him returning and being forced to marry her.
No doubt he was dreading next weekend and returning to uphold his father’s commitment for him to marry poor little Sophie Durante.
Was that the hold Malvolio had over her father? Sophie wondered.
Well, she didn’t need charity and she would tell her father that.
She put down the photo, took her parcel upstairs and finally opened it.
The dress was exquisite. It was in the softest chiffon and the colour was a very pale coral. Sophie badly wanted to try it on but she had a very quick shower and washed her hair and then combed it before picking up the dress.
She slipped it over her head and looked in the mirror.
Sophie found she was holding her breath. All those hours standing as Bella had pinned sheets of paper had been worth it for this moment.
The dress was amazing. It was scooped low at the front and showed Sophie’s cleavage. Of course, it would need a bra but even without it was somehow both elegant and sexy. It came in at the waist and then fell in layers, emphasising her curves when usually Sophie did what she could to downplay them.
Yes, she knew she should take it off but instead she put on her mother’s earrings and found the lip glaze she had bought.
Working at the hotel, Sophie was used to seeing beautiful women but this afternoon, for the first time in her life, she felt like one.
Now she blushed for different reasons when she imagined facing Luka.
She wanted him to see her grown up.
Briefly she imagined his mouth on hers but a loud knocking on the door snapped her out of her daydream.
It sounded urgent and Sophie ran through the house but she smiled when she opened the door and saw that it was just Pino on his bike.
He was twelve years old and everyone used him as a messenger.
‘Malvolio wants you to go to his home,’ Pino said in a self-important voice.
‘Malvolio.’ Sophie frowned. She had never been to Malvolio’s home. ‘Why? What does he want?’
‘I was just told to give you the message,’ Pino said, balancing on his bike. ‘He said that it is important and that you’re to go there now.’
Sophie went and got Pino some money and thanked him but her heart was racing.
Why would Malvolio ask her to go to his home?
She had assumed that he and her father were meeting at the hotel bar.
Sophie thought of her father’s grey complexion and the sweat on his face and was suddenly worried that he might have been taken ill.
She slipped on some sandals and ran up the hill towards Malvolio’s spectacular home, which overlooked not just the ocean but the entire town. Once there she took a breath and then knocked on the door. She didn’t want to be there but he had summoned her after all.
No one ever said no to Malvolio.
‘WHY DON’T YOU ask Sophie to come over?’
Luka let out a tense breath at his father’s suggestion. Against his father’s wishes he had been in London for the last six years, at first studying but now he was now starting to make a name for himself.
He
