A Legacy of Secrets(56)

‘She does not think you can forgive her.’

‘I’m trying to.’

‘I will try then too,’ Santo said. ‘I will never show her my anger, but...’ He swallowed it down. ‘She’s here now. I said that we needed tonight and we will go over tomorrow.’

‘That’s not very Sicilian.’ Ella smiled.

‘I know.’ He grinned back, but then he was serious. ‘You will work through it with your mother, I am sure.’

‘We’re already starting to. I almost rang her last night....’

‘Why do you think you were sitting drinking in a bar with my nonna?’

She turned and grinned in quiet surprise.

‘You sent her!’

‘Of course! Surely you know that the Correttis are very good at arranging decoys. We were so worried you might ring home and get your father, so Teresa suggested we make sure that you were too tired to even think of ringing home.’

Santo climbed from the bed. ‘And now,’ he told her, ‘we have an after-party to go to. I have been around long enough to disappear and be forgiven, but your career is still new.’

Even in that, he was looking out for her. Ella looked over to him, to the man she could not wait to marry, to the man she could not wait to spend the rest of her life with. His eyes met hers and they told her he loved her just the same. There was time for one more kiss before they headed out to the party and then Santo suddenly remembered something.

‘I haven’t told you I love you.’

‘I think you just did.’

‘Well, to be certain.’ He pulled her back to his arms. ‘I love you,’ he said. ‘And I have never said that to another. I love you so much that I will spend the rest of my life proving to you that, though you had every reason to be wary of me, you were so right to trust me.’

And Ella answered with a truth of her own. ‘You already have.’





EPILOGUE



THE REFORMED SANTO didn’t come wrapped in a bow.

But, as was the Sicilian way, there was a huge white bow on the church in her mother’s village to show that there was a wedding about to take place.

‘Even in my dreams,’ Gabriella said as they walked along the dark cobbled streets lit by flaming torches towards the church, ‘I never thought I would see this.’

‘Where your daughter marries a Corretti?’

‘I still cannot believe it!’ Gabriella smiled. ‘But no, that I would see you married in my church, with my sisters there....’

Together Santo and Paulo had worked wonders. Yes, they had wanted quick and discreet—the family was too fractured to make for a pleasing wedding and there was still a twist of pain for Ella when she thought of her father who, through his choices, would not be here for this day—but for Santo there were certain traditions that he would not cast aside.

Still, if it was her mother’s dream wedding, it was going to be a small one. Teresa would be there, and her aunts, and she had two tiny nieces as flower girls, though it didn’t matter to Ella. As the church doors opened, all she wanted to see was her groom.

‘Oh!’ The church was packed, all heads turning and smiling.

‘Your soon-to-be husband has been sweet talking the locals. They are all happy to see me back and want to welcome, too, my daughter.’

And no doubt they were all delighted to have a Corretti just a little beholden to them, Ella thought as she walked towards her ex-reprobate and soon-to-be husband. He looked at her very pale green dress, which had once been her aunt’s, and he smiled.

‘I wondered how you would get around that!’ Santo said as he greeted his bride, but in English, which the priest did not speak.

‘It’s for fertility,’ Ella said, because in old Sicilian tradition, a green dress was sometimes worn and certain traditions worked best at times. They had known for all of three days that there was no trouble in the fertility department and they were brimming with excitement at their secret news.

It was the most wonderful service. He smiled as she made her vows in Italian. Santo was actually nervous for once as he made his, Ella knew, because his fingers moved to his neck as if to loosen his collar. But she knew when he gave them that they came from the heart.

And now they were married.

‘We stay here,’ Santo explained as they waited in a small house close to the church. ‘Now they set up for the party.’ He pulled her onto his knee. ‘And we behave.’