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‘Una should be here,’ Harriet whispered to Rafael. ‘Do your Italian relations know that you have a half-sister?’
‘Yes. I asked her to come on a visit last year, but she wasn’t interested.’
‘I bet she thought you were only asking out of politeness. She’d be scared she wouldn’t be accepted. She’s very insecure about being illegitimate.’
‘You do realise that you’re becoming the equivalent of a walking oracle on touchy teenage girls?’
‘Rafael…right now I’m so stuffed with food I couldn’t walk anywhere!’ Harriet confided. ‘You’ll have to carry me back to the car.’
Glittering eyes rested on her teasing smile. Before she could guess his intention, he claimed a kiss, and there was a burst of laughter and hand-clapping, and amused comments were passed in Italian.
‘What are they saying?’
Rafael shrugged and she reddened, guessing that the normal jokes that were made at weddings had been exercised on their behalf. She was enormously tempted to inform him that she wouldn’t marry him if he got down on his knees and grovelled for a century, but she knew it would be cooler to leave that sentiment unvoiced.
They were waiting to board the jet at Pisa when Eva, who had clearly spoken to Alice, called and arranged to see Harriet while she was in London. Eva rarely chatted for long to Harriet on the phone, but on this occasion she was even briefer than was her wont, and gave her daughter no opportunity to share the news that she would be flying in from Italy.
In London, Rafael parted from her with a similar lack of fuss, booking her for dinner at his city apartment that evening before his departure for New York. ‘You can stay there tonight, and fly back to Ireland in the morning.’
*
Alice opened the door of her flat abruptly. ‘You’d better come in.’
Immediately Harriet noticed the changes the past few months had wrought in her sibling. Alice had lost weight and, as she had always been slender, the effect was not flattering: her lovely face looked pinched and her plain grey trouser suit was nothing like her usual young and adventurous style. Harriet recalled Boyce saying that Luke had liked her to dress like an old lady in drab colours too, and she almost winced.
Alice watched Harriet look around the lounge. ‘Luke’s in Manchester on business,’ she declared. ‘He doesn’t even know I invited you here today, and if you tell him I’ll deny it!’
‘Why would I tell Luke anything?’ The accusing note in Alice’s voice took Harriet by surprise. ‘I wasn’t even aware you were both living here. I thought you were sharing his apartment. I haven’t seen Luke since we broke up.’
‘Have you really not seen Luke since then?’ Alice pinned strained brown eyes on Harriet. ‘Or are you being clever with me? Maybe you think it’s payback time, and Luke and you are chatting on the phone to each other every day! How would I know?’
Alice was on the brink of angry tears, and the raw state of her nerves was obvious. Reluctant pity filtered through Harriet’s exasperation. ‘I have had no contact with Luke at all.’
Her sister could not hide her relief at that confirmation, but just as quickly her eyes dulled again. ‘Well, if you haven’t heard from him yet, you soon will…He won’t agree to the wedding invitations going out. The wedding’s been postponed!’
‘Oh…’
‘Is that all you’ve got to say?’
Harriet thought about it, and then slowly nodded agreement. In the circumstances she could think o
f nothing to say that would not qualify as provocative. The wedding plans had struck her as premature, but she had believed that Luke had abandoned his usual caution because he was head over heels in love. Now it was clear that his relationship with Alice was troubled, and she wasn’t surprised that he was backing away from the imminent prospect of marriage.
‘We had a terrible row at the weekend.’
‘Alice…I don’t want to be involved in this,’ Harriet cut in hurriedly. ‘But I am sorry that things aren’t working out for you.’
Tears were streaming down her sister’s distraught face. ‘Of course you’re not sorry. This is your moment—and you must be crowing!’
‘I’m not. Why would I be? Luke and I broke up months ago.’
‘He said I lured him away from you…he said I was too stupid for him,’ Alice hiccupped in despair. ‘I love him—I really love him—and I’m losing him!’
Dismay gripped Harriet. ‘You mustn’t let Luke speak to you like that. He can be very critical, but you have to stand up to him.’
‘But I’m not clever like you!’ Alice sobbed. ‘I didn’t go to university…I don’t know how to talk about politics—and I couldn’t care less about them either. But that’s all Luke and his stuffy friends ever talk about!’
‘What happened to skiing holidays, the cost of childcare and all those ghastly “in” legal jokes?’
