The Silent Wife(63)

Massimo stood back, his arms folded, enjoying our pleasure. He put his hand on my back. ‘Look, if you lean out to the right slightly, you can see all the castle vineyards.’

I nodded and moved away, conscious of my sweaty back under his hand. I didn’t want to turn round and see him surreptitiously wiping his palms on his trousers. I started to tell Sam about how grapes grown on the vines were pressed and made into wine but he was more interested in whether they used to shoot arrows from the ramparts and blow up the neighbours with cannonballs.

‘So Beryl, are you going to come down into the cellars with me later and check out some of the wines? They do a fantastic fizz.’

Mum let out a big roar of laughter. ‘That’s an offer I can’t refuse!’

I glanced at Massimo, ready to be embarrassed that Mum read innuendo into everything, but he was laughing along. I was ashamed of wishing that she’d chosen something other than a vest T-shirt, which left the tops of her arms completely exposed, wobbling away with merriment. No doubt Anna would be a vision of maxi dresses and flowing shirts.

‘We probably ought to go down and help Nico. I feel a bit guilty about leaving him to heave all the luggage about.’

Massimo looked at me, his dark eyes teasing. ‘For you, Maggie, I’m sure it will be his pleasure.’

I was old enough to recognise a load of flannel when I heard it. But I was still flattered.

I stepped away from him and hauled open the heavy door leading back downstairs. I beckoned Sam. ‘Come on. Let’s go and find our rooms.’

Massimo scooted in front of Mum. ‘Let me go first, the steps are a bit steep.’

She lumbered down the stairs behind him, her feet spilling off the edges of her sandals. When we unpacked, I’d paint her toenails for her. Massimo offered his hand to help her down the last few steps.

‘Aren’t you just the gent? Anna’s done a good job with you boys.’

At that moment, Anna came clacking into the courtyard in an immaculate white T-shirt and knee-length shorts that would have made me look like I’d escaped from a bowling tournament.

‘Massimo, you need to go and give Lara a hand. Sandro’s seen a lizard and won’t go into his room now.’

Anna managed to put a slight sneer on ‘Sandro’ and ‘Lara’. It was no wonder the poor buggers were gibbering wrecks of underconfidence.

Massimo shrugged in a ‘What can you do?’ sort of way.

‘I’d better go and be the lizard slayer. See you later, ladies.’





31





LARA




I watched Maggie shrugging off Anna’s advice on the journey over. ‘Thanks, Anna, but Sam doesn’t need his jumper. He gets hot really easily’; ‘I’m quite happy for him to play on the iPad for the whole flight’; ‘I know Coke is bad for his teeth but it’s only now and again. Think of it as a service to keeping dentists in business.’

Maggie’s conviction that her way might not be perfect but it was good enough filled me with awe and envy. Anna only had to say ‘scarf’ to me and I bundled up Sandro like an Egyptian mummy. Unlike Maggie I didn’t have a mother to counterbalance Anna’s certainty that I couldn’t cope without her input. As soon as Sandro was born, Anna told anyone who listened, ‘Of course, he’s a demanding baby, very fussy. And Lara’s prone to worrying. It was a difficult pregnancy and I think she’s passed her apprehension onto the little one. Thank goodness Massimo is so hands-on, otherwise I don’t know what she would do.’

I’d felt as though without one of them watching me I’d scald his throat with milk, burn his bottom at bath time, under-or overfeed him. And now, the habit had become ingrained. I could barely make a decision about whether Sandro needed a coat without asking someone else’s opinion.

So when Sandro spotted the lizard, I started to explain he could have the bed furthest from the door, that we’d keep the windows shut, that lizards were friendly, a smaller version of the little creature in How to Train Your Dragon. But of course, Anna, next door, with her laser antennae for ‘Lara not coping’, poked her head out, heard Sandro gathering all his tiny might for full-scale reptilian uproar and, with my words, ‘He’ll be fine in a minute’ bleating uselessly round the courtyard, she charged off to find Massimo.

Which would be the end of cajoling Sandro to do anything.

Massimo came barging in, squatting down in front of Sandro and hissing in his face, careful to keep his voice low so the others couldn’t hear. ‘Don’t you dare start making a fuss about a lizard! A bloody lizard! Have you seen how big they are compared to you? You’ll be making a fuss about an ant next! You need to grow a pair, son. You will not be ruining this holiday by blubbing and whining about every little thing. Will you?’

Sandro shook his head.

‘I can’t hear you. Will you or will you not ruin my holiday by making a fuss about every last thing?’

I pushed down the torrent of fury that had been whirlpooling inside me since Maggie had come round and confirmed my suspicions the night before.

What Massimo did to me wasn’t important any more. But Sandro was another matter. I had to stay strong for him.

I willed him to answer as Massimo pushed his face right up close. Briefly, I eyed the wrought-iron lamp on the bedside table and imagined smashing it down on the back of Massimo’s head, seeing fright in his eyes for a change. For a moment, my hand twitched by my side.