One that his mother once made. I hope that it will prompt him to eat.’
‘Nico…’
She did not know what to say. Oh, the hell of loving someone who beat you! The hell of loving someone who goaded and taunted you.
‘He seems a little happier,’ she said, and saw his disbelieving look. But she spoke the truth. ‘He seems calmer,’ she told him. ‘Although I have a confession, Nico. I was a very bad carer and bought him some whisky last week. We watched a television show together and we laughed…’
‘Thank you,’ Nico said.
Aurora resisted reaching over and taking his hand. Nico did not like affection, but she ached to give it to him. She attempted to keep some distance, as she told him the painful truth. ‘He’s nearing the end.’
‘I know he is.’
Aurora felt selfish for her assumption that Nico was going home just to avoid her. She sensed he had closed the subject, and so, after a moment’s pensive silence between them, she looked around the lavish bar.
‘Pino will be upset he missed this,’ Aurora said. ‘He wanted to buy you a drink and a meal.’
‘He wanted me to go on the bus tour.’
That made Aurora laugh.
‘I’m meeting them all for breakfast tomorrow, before I fly off.’
‘I wasn’t told.’
‘There’s an invitation being delivered to your rooms at turndown,’ Nico said. ‘And before you tell me that I should not be so formal with old friends, I will explain again that this trip is not about friends visiting Rome. It is work—and I take my work very seriously.’
‘I know,’ Aurora said. ‘And so do your staff. But aside from that fact, we are friends visiting Rome.’
He said nothing.
‘Well, they are your friends,’ she amended, for Nico had once told Aurora that they could never be friends. ‘Whether you want them to be or not.’
Nico’s eyes shuttered, and he wished that it was enough to obliterate the knives of her words—for she was right. Pino et al were his friends.
More than friends.
It takes a village…
And it was true that the people of Silibri had raised him.
He had sat in the park as a terrified child and Bruno Messina had insisted he come back to their home to sleep.
And he had been so hungry at times, too proud to beg, but the emptier his cupboards the more frequent the invitations.
‘Hey, Nico!’ Pino would say. ‘I need some work done in my yard.’
And that had meant supper…
‘Nico,’ Francesca would say. ‘I have made too many biscotti. Take them before they go stale.’
Tomorrow, at breakfast, he would take off his jacket and he would smile and laugh with them. Somehow, before the hotel opened and it was all down to business, he would thank the people who had always been there.
‘Don’t you ever wonder about home?’ Aurora asked.
‘I hear enough of what’s going on,’ Nico said. He didn’t like invasive gossip and exaggerated stories, but then he looked at Aurora. ‘Yes.’
They shared a small smile.
‘How’s Chi-Chi?’ he asked.
‘Still looking for a husband.’
‘Do you ever hear from Antonietta?’
‘Occasionally.’ Aurora nodded, but then she shook her head. ‘Not as much as I would like. I miss her a lot.’
‘You were close,’ he agreed.
‘Yes.’
‘I would like to know what happened at The Wedding that Never Was.’
‘You heard about that?’ Aurora checked.
‘Everyone who has a drop of Sicilian blood probably did!’
Aurora gave a small smile and took a sip of her drink, but she didn’t lean forward in glee and share the details with him. He knew Aurora hurt for her friend.
‘We just sat there in the church…waiting,’ she told him. ‘Waiting and waiting for the bride to arrive.’
‘Did you have any clue that Antonietta wasn’t going to show up?’
‘No.’
‘Aurora…?’ he checked.
‘It’s the truth, Nico. I guessed she wasn’t happy, but I knew no more than I told you that night—’
Whoops! They were trying not to refer to that.
‘I was surprised and a bit hurt that she didn’t ask me to be her bridesmaid. And I knew she wasn’t thrilled at the idea of marrying Sylvester, but her father is so forceful. Both families are.’
‘And so you sat in the church and you waited…?’ Nico prompted.
‘Yes. A car arrived, and then word spread that it was not the bride—just Antonietta’s father. The priest spoke to him outside.’
‘And…?’
‘A fight broke out in the church. It was terrible, Nico. As soon as I worked out what was happening I left and got a ride up to her parents’ house, but Antonietta was already on the cuccette to France.’
‘She took the train out?’
Aurora nodded. ‘I miss her very much, but she will never be back. She wrote and told me, but I knew it already—for how can she come back? Her name is mud all through the village and beyond. Not with her friends, but she has a very large family.’
Nico would have liked to tell her that time would heal things, but he knew only too well how people could hold a grudge.
‘Anyway,’ Aurora said, ‘I’ve decided that I’m going to go and see her.’
‘In France?’
She nodded. ‘As soon as I’ve saved up enough and have some leave owing I’m going to book my flight.’
He wanted to point out that she’d already have enough money if she would just let him pay her for his father’s care. Nico really wanted her to have that holiday with her friend in France, but he’d have to work out a way to give it to her. Without offending her, of course. Or misleading her.
‘Do you want another drink?’
