Lucy Gordon - The Tuscan Tycoon’s Wife

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m off now. When I’ve showered I’ll go downstairs, trying to look like a man who slept in his own room. Perhaps you should try to look as if you slept in this bed, for Delia’s sake.’

‘You think she’d be offended?’

‘No, I think she’d be afraid the bed wasn’t soft enough, and heaven knows what you’d find on it tonight.’

They laughed, and he helped her up. She was wearing a man’s shirt that came down almost to her knees.

‘How are you feeling this morning?’ he asked.

‘Great. I just had the most comfortable night of my life.’

‘On the floor?’

‘This carpet is inches thick. Perfect.’

‘Cross your fingers that I don’t get seen leaving here.’

‘I’ll check the corridor for you.’

She looked and gave him the thumbs up. It took just a brief moment to dash back to his own room, and safety. True, he thought he heard the girls giggling again, but that was probably just paranoia.

He showered and dressed in a mood that was unusually thoughtful, for him, because he was uneasily aware that he didn’t have a completely clear conscience. Without actually saying anything untrue he’d left Selena with the impression that he was almost as poor as herself. She’d seen him in worn clothing, heard him talk about living rough, and taken on board the fact that he was illegitimate.

But he’d neglected to mention that his uncle was Count Calvani, with a palace in Venice, and his family were millionaires. What he had casually referred to as his farm was a rich-man’s estate, and if he helped out with the rough work it was because he preferred it that way.

He hadn’t made these things clear because of a deep, instinctive conviction that they would have made her think badly of him.

He remembered her words, just after the accident.

‘You’re all the same. You rush around in your flash cars as though you owned the road.’

His car back home was a heavy duty, four-wheel drive, suitable for the hills of Tuscany. A working man’s car, but a rich working man, who’d bought the best because he never bought anything else. In that he was a true Calvani, and now his sense of self-preservation was telling him that this would be fatal in Selena’s eyes.

And why risk a falling out when he would only be here a couple of weeks, and then they would never see each other again?

In the end he did the only thing a sensible man could possibly do.

Pushed it to the back of his mind and hoped for the best.

He spent the day with Barton, riding his friend’s acres. Barton reared cattle for money and horses for love; he bred and trained them for the rodeo.

Leo’s eye was taken by a chestnut. He was a quarter horse, short, muscular, bred for speed over a quarter mile, the perfect barrel racer.

‘Beautiful, isn’t he?’ Barton said as they looked him over. ‘He came from here originally, bought by the wife of a friend of mine. I bought him back when she gave up the rodeo to have kids.’

‘Can we take him back with us, and put him in the stable?’ Leo asked thoughtfully.

Barton nodded, but as they rode home he mused, ‘My friend, you are getting in over your head.’

‘C’mon Barton, you know what the insurance guys are going to say. They’ll take one look at Elliot and one at the van, and when they’ve stopped laughing they’ll offer her ten cents.’

‘And what’s it to you? None of it was your fault.’

‘She’s going to lose everything.’

‘Yes, but what’s it to you?’

Leo ground his teeth. ‘Can we just get home?’

Barton grinned.

They arrived to find a mood of gloom. Selena was sitting on the step of her van, staring at the ground while the two girls tried to comfort her, and Paulie hovered, clucking.

‘The vet says Elliot won’t be well enough for her to ride next week,’ Carrie said. ‘If she tries, it could really injure him.’

‘Of course I won’t do that,’ Selena said at once. ‘But now I’ll have no chance to win anything, and I must owe you so much-’

‘Now, now, none of that,’ Barton said. ‘The insurance-’

‘The insurance will just about buy me a wheelbarrow and a donkey,’ Selena said with a wry smile. She pointed to her forehead. ‘I’m over this now. I can face the truth.’

‘We won’t know the truth until you’ve ridden a couple of races,’ Barton declared.

‘On what?’ With a faint attempt at comedy she added, ‘I don’t have the donkey yet.’

‘No, but you can do me a favour.’ Barton indicated the quarter horse. ‘His name’s Jeepers. I’ve got a buyer interested, and if he wins a barrel race or two I can up the price. So you ride him, show him off, and that’ll more than repay me.’

‘He’s beautiful,’ Selena breathed, running her hands lovingly over the animal. ‘Not as beautiful as Elliot of course,’ she added quickly.

‘Of course not,’ Leo said gently.

‘He’s well trained,’ Barton told her. He explained the story of the previous owner and Selena was scandalised.

‘She gave up the rodeo to stay in one place and have babies?’

‘Some women are funny like that,’ Leo observed, grinning.

Selena’s look showed him what she thought of such an idea. ‘Can I put my saddle on him now?’

‘Good idea.’

While Selena got to work Leo drew Barton aside.

‘So tell me about this mysterious buyer,’ he said.

Barton looked him full in the eye.

‘You know who’s gonna buy that horse, as well as I do,’ he said.

The whole family turned out to watch Selena try out Jeepers in Barton’s testing ring. The three barrels were set up in a triangle, with one side of ninety feet, and the other two sides one hundred and five feet each. Selena and Jeepers came flying across the starting line, into the triangle, turned sharply right around the first barrel, back into the triangle, around the second barrel, turned left and headed up the centre for the last barrel.

Each turn was a tight forty-five degrees, testing a horse’s balance and agility as well as speed. Jeepers was swift yet steady as a rock, and Selena controlled him with light, strong hands. Even Leo, no expert in barrel racing, could see that they were a match made in heaven.

After the final turn they headed back down the centre of the triangle, and out, to the cheers of the family and the hands.

‘Eighteen seconds,’ Barton called.

Selena’s eyes were shining. ‘We took it slow the first time. Wait till we get going. It’ll be fourteen in no time.’

She let out a joyous ‘Yahoooo!’ up to the sky and everyone joined her.

Leo, watching her face, thought he’d never seen any human being look so totally happy.

SELENA had said there was no excuse for being a wimp, and over the next few days she lived up to her belief. She brushed off her injury with the airiness of someone who’d had worse and ignored it, and she rode hell-for-leather on Jeepers until she’d gotten his time down to fourteen seconds, just as she’d vowed.

Barton insisted that she stay at the Four-Ten until after the rodeo. This made sense as Elliot’s recovery was slow, and she had no money to go anywhere else, but privately he gave Leo a wink, proving there was more to his offer than kindness.

‘It’s all in your head,’ Leo growled when they were alone. ‘Sure I like the girl, sure I want to help her. Dammit, nobody ever did until us! But that doesn’t mean-’

‘Of course not,’ Barton said, and went on his way whistling.

Leo had a horrible suspicion that the events of the first night had somehow become known throughout the house, which meant that Billie and Carrie’s giggling meant something after all. Paulie clearly thought so, because his manner towards Leo became cool.

Leo dropped in at the stables each evening, knowing he’d find Selena there, saying goodnight to Elliot. She always did this at length, and Leo was privately convinced that she was trying to make sure that he knew he still came first with her, despite Jeepers. Sometimes she stayed all night.

But tonight something was different. Instead of her softly murmuring voice he could hear the sounds of a scuffle as he pushed open the stable door. Somewhere deep in the shadows a fight was going on.

After a moment he saw the two combatants. There was Selena, fending off advances from Paulie, who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

‘C’mon, stop fooling. I’ve seen the looks you’ve been giving me. I know when a woman wants it.’

He made a lunge. Leo swore under his breath and gathered himself to spring on Paulie, a knight coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress.

But this damsel needed no such help. There was a yell from Paulie, who went reeling back, clutching his nose, while Selena blew on her knuckles.

‘Nice,’ Leo mused. ‘I’ll make a note not to get on your wrong side. Not that I planned to anyway, but now I’ve had my warning.’

‘He asked for it,’ Selena said, still blowing.

‘Not a doubt.’

Abruptly her manner changed. ‘But I shouldn’t have done it,’ she said. ‘Oh, lord, I wish I hadn’t.’

‘What for?’ Leo demanded. ‘Why stop when you’re having fun? And I should think socking him must have been great fun. I’m green with envy.’

‘But they’ll throw me out,’ she said frantically. ‘And Elliot’s not ready to go. Do you think if I apologised-?’

He stared at her. Talk of an apology was the last thing he’d expected from her.

‘Apologise? You?’

‘I can’t move Elliot yet. Let me talk to that creature.’

‘No, let me,’ he said, taking firm hold of her and keeping her where she was.

He strolled over to where Paulie had just staggered upright, glaring over a hand that was clutched to his nose.

‘How y’doing, Paulie?’ Leo asked affably.

Paulie carefully lowered his hand, revealing a red, enlarged nose and streaming eyes.

‘Did you see what she did?’ he snarled.

‘Yes, and I saw what you did. I’d say you’d gotten off lightly.’

‘That bitch-’

‘Well, you can always have your revenge,’ Leo observed, studying the injured proboscis with interest. ‘Just go back and tell Mommy that you got slugged in the kisser by a woman. I’ll be your witness. In fact I’ll make sure the story’s known all over Texas. It’ll probably get into the newspapers. Of course they’ll want a picture of you looking just as you do now.’

There was a deadly silence while Paulie digested the implications of this. His piggy eyes, full of spite, went from one to the other.

‘What do you take me for?’ he snapped at last.

‘If I told you what I took you for we’d be here all night,’ Leo said.

Paulie wisely decided to overlook this.

‘She’s a guest here. Naturally I shall-’ he almost choked over the last words ‘-say nothing.’

‘I felt sure you’d see it that way. A gentleman to the end. And if anyone asks how you got that shiner you can say you tripped on a pitchfork. Or tell them I did it, I don’t mind.’

‘But I do,’ Selena protested. ‘In a pig’s ear you’re getting the credit. If I can’t take it myself, he’ll have to say it was a pitchfork.’

Leo grinned, delighted with her. ‘Atta girl,’ he said softly.

‘You’re crazy, the pair of you,’ Paulie howled.

Giving them a wide berth he sidled his way out of the stable, breaking into a run as soon as he was out of the door.

‘Thank you,’ Selena said fervently. ‘That was terrific.’

‘Glad to be of some help. I should have knocked him down for you, but you didn’t seem to need me.’

‘Oh, I can do that bit for myself,’ she said blithely. ‘It’s the words that confuse me. You knew just what to say to keep him quiet. I never know what to say. The more I try, the more it comes out wrong.’

‘Better with your fists, huh?’

‘I’ve had plenty of practise.’

He appeared to consider the matter seriously. ‘I’d have guessed you to be more of a knee in the groin girl, myself.’

She regarded him steadily. ‘I use whatever weapons are needed.’

‘I suppose this kind of thing happens to you a lot?’

‘Some guys think a woman travelling alone is fair game. I just show them that they’re wrong.’

She spoke lightly, with another of her eloquent shrugs. In some mysterious way that shrug hurt him, with its implied acceptance of all the risks. He thought of her lonely life, always on the move, with only a horse to love. Yet he knew that if she guessed that he was concerned for her she would be incredulous. She would probably accuse him of being sentimental.

Then it occurred to him that she didn’t even realise that she was lonely. She’d known nothing else. And that hurt him more than anything.

Selena watched him, trying to read his thoughts. It irked her not to be able to. Men were usually so easy to read.