AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The terrace looked over the lake. The night air was just a little cool and Beatrice stood there, still wrapped in a towel, unable to take in all that had occurred.
She heard the door open behind her and turned to see that it was Julius. She quickly wiped her cheeks with her hands.
‘Thank you for the martinis.’
‘Did you like them?’
‘A bit sickly, if I’m honest,’
Beatrice didn’t want to hear what had happened with his father, nor bear to hear about his future bride. There was something she had to tell him. Two things!
‘I looked up that hotel and it is Dante’s.’
‘You mean, I was right?’ Julius said as he tossed his cap onto a table and unclipped all the straps and belts of his uniform and removed the sword.
‘You were. And while I was looking up the hotel I saw a wedding photo. It turns out he and Alicia got married. I called her.’
‘How did that go?’ he asked, oh-so-casually, and yet he could feel his heart thumping as he unbuttoned his jacket, and he understood now her hesitation and her terror.
Had she been dismissed...let down...forgotten...?
‘When I returned to Trebordi at nineteen, Alicia had already gone to Milan to look for me. She struggled with her reading and writing and got nowhere...recently she approached Dante to help her and they hired people to search...’
‘You’re a missing person?’
‘Sort of.’ She nodded. ‘Well, almost...’ She took out her phone. ‘They thought they might have found me once. A detective sent Alicia this.’
She handed him the phone she was holding and he looked at the photo that Alicia had just sent. It was of Beatrice in her straw hat, with huge dark glasses on.
‘That was on my birthday a few weeks ago,’ Beatrice explained. ‘They had a detective watching the convent. He had just given them the details of the hire car I used that day when I called...’ She was still shaky. ‘I didn’t have much luck getting through, at first, saying I was an old friend, but then I called back—rather like Jordan does when she’s making a reservation for you.’
‘Did it work?’
‘They put me through to Dante. He was cross with me at first, but then Alicia came to the phone. It was difficult for five minutes—like agony. Alicia was hurt that I’d changed my name. Very hurt.’
‘She understood why when you explained, though?’
‘We got past that...’ Beatrice evaded answering directly. ‘It was like we were children again. I mean, we just fell back into our friendship; she’s still the Alicia I knew and—’
‘You didn’t tell her about your mother?’
‘I didn’t have to. She forgave me. She understood I was hurt and upset.’ Beatrice could see his eyes were trying to reach hers and she gave in and met them. ‘No, I didn’t tell her. I don’t think it’s a conversation to be had over the phone. It’s...’
‘Delicate?’
She nodded, knowing and also admitting she had dared to open the door and had shown him the vulnerable, fragile part of her that she guarded so fiercely.
‘So you have your twin back?’
‘I do.’
‘I’m so happy for you,’ he told her. ‘When will you see her? After Regalsi?’
‘About that...’
She was so shy, like a tiny wild bird, and yet she came to him as though she were tame.
‘I’ve been thinking about Regalsi...’
