The Baby Gambit. Anne Mather

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t have to.’ Julia’s lips twisted. ‘There must have been more than a dozen guests at dinner yesterday evening and she was the one who was seated beside Matt. I was tucked away at the end of the table with some old uncle. God, he was disgusting! He slobbered all over his food.’

      ‘Julia!’

      ‘He did.’ Julia was indignant. But then, when Grace continued to look at her with wide, disbelieving eyes, she gave a shrug. ‘Well, he made plenty of noise,’ she said defensively. ‘You don’t know what it was like, Grace. You weren’t there.’

      ‘No.’

      Grace conceded that point, and as if realising she was becoming far too agitated Julia took a breath. ‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered. ‘It’s not your fault that the old witch lives in the past. Anyway—’ Julia’s eyes glittersed ‘—I intend to drag her—kicking and screaming, if necessary—into the present. We’ll see who has the last laugh when I spring my surprise on her.’

      Grace stared at her friend. ‘Your surprise?’ she echoed, wondering why she felt such a sense of apprehension suddenly, and Julia flung herself back against the cushions of the sofa.

      ‘When she finds out I’m having Matt’s baby, of course,’ she declared triumphantly. ‘She won’t be able to dismiss me so offhandedly when she discovers I’m having her precious grandson’s child.’

       CHAPTER THREE

      THE phone rang as Grace was going out of the apartment.

      She was tempted to leave it. She was fairly sure the call wouldn’t be for her, and she’d made arrangements to go to Viareggio that morning. In the last couple of days, she’d become quite familiar with the buses that ran from Portofalco to the other resorts along the coast, and instead of going to the hassle of hiring a car she’d left the driving to someone else.

      But the possibility that it could be one of her sisters calling about her mother compelled her to pick up the receiver. ‘Hello,’ she said, not yet used to using the Italian ciao, and then sank down somewhat weakly onto the arm of the sofa when Matteo di Falco’s disturbing voice spoke in her ear.

      ‘Miss Horton.’ He paused. ‘Grace.’ Her name had an unfamiliar resonance on his tongue. ‘I was hoping I might catch you.’

      ‘Were you?’

      Grace knew she didn’t sound particularly friendly, but since Julia had dropped her bombshell about the baby she had found it even more difficult to think of Matteo di Falco without a feeling of distaste. She didn’t know how he could allow his grandmother to treat Julia so indifferently. But then, he didn’t know that in a few short months she was going to have his child.

      ‘Yes.’ Clearly, he had no such reservations. ‘I am coming to Portofalco this morning and I wondered if you’d allow me to buy you lunch?’

      The gall of the man!

      Grace was incensed, her own opinion of his sex reinforced by his behaviour. ‘I’m afraid I have other plans, signore,’ she informed him coldly. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bus to catch.’

      She would happily have put the receiver down there and then, but his sardonic, ‘A bus!’ had her fairly trembling with indignation.

      ‘Yes, a bus,’ she repeated crisply. ‘Or autobus, if you will. It’s a large motor vehicle with a wheel at each corner that delivers its passengers to various points along the coast!’

      The breath he sucked in was plainly audible. ‘Yes, I know what an autobus is,’ he declared tautly, and Grace had the uneasy feeling that Julia was unlikely to approve of her insolence. ‘In that case, please do not let me detain you any longer.’

      ‘I won’t,’ muttered Grace resentfully, but it was under her breath, and by the time she had thought of a suitable rejoinder the line had gone dead.

      He’d hung up on her, she realised, slamming down her own receiver with some force, but although she stood there for several more seconds, justifying what she’d said to herself, she couldn’t deny a certain feeling of remorse at her behaviour. After all, as she’d told herself before, Julia’s affairs were nothing to do with her, and she doubted her friend would have defended her with such enthusiasm if their positions had been reversed.

      Still, it was too late now to be having second thoughts, and she could only hope that he wouldn’t complain about her ignorance to Julia. It would be hard to explain why she felt so strongly about it. It wasn’t as if she and Julia were that close.

      Taking a deep breath, she slipped on her sunglasses, collected the bag and hat she’d bought in Livorno the day before, and left the apartment. She was determined not to let what had happened spoil her day, and she made a special point of smiling at the unctuous old caretaker just to prove to herself that she could be as sociable as anyone else.

      The bus to Viareggio was waiting near the ferry terminal and Grace handed over her carta arancio, or orange seven-day pass, to be stamped as she climbed aboard. She’d learned that these bus tickets were sold in advance, and she felt a sense of pride at the speed with which she’d adapted to the arrangements. It was true that many of the people who were already on the bus looked like tourists, but there were locals, too, and she had learned to accept their curiosity about her travelling alone without embarrassment. What was new, after all? she reflected wryly. It was her choice, and she was stuck with it.

      But, once again, as the bus set away up the winding road that led out of Portofalco, Grace found her thoughts returning to the conversation she had had with Julia just a couple of nights ago. She still found it hard to accept that her friend had been reckless enough to get herself pregnant in the first place, let alone that she believed it would result in Matteo di Falco’s asking her to marry him. Somehow Grace doubted that anyone could force the man she knew to do anything he didn’t wish to, and she was very much afraid that Julia had placed too much store in the Italians’ love of family.

      Of course, she could be wrong. But why then had Julia stated that she intended to wait until there was no chance of her having an abortion before confessing what had happened to the man she loved? If she loved him. Given his Italian heritage, surely he’d never agree to it anyway. It was a gamble, and Grace hoped her friend would not be too devastated if things didn’t work out the way she’d planned.

      Yet Grace’s doubts persisted, doubts which had not been dispelled by the phone call she had received this morning. Had Julia known he intended to contact her? Had it been done with her approval and support? Or, as Grace suspected, had it been all Matteo di Falco’s idea? The man was a perfect jerk, she thought irritably. He obviously hadn’t believed that she might turn him down.

      She was getting edgy, and that annoyed her even more. She hadn’t come to Italy to get involved in Julia’s love life, and she forced herself to look out of the window and concentrate on the view. They were high above the ocean now, with a fantastic vista of sea and cliffs stretching away into the distance on either side. Closer to, the scent of myrtle and wild thyme drifted in through the open windows. If the bus had air-conditioning, the driver didn’t use it, and Grace decided that she preferred the warm breeze that fanned her face.

      Despite its uncertain beginnings, she enjoyed her visit to Viareggio. Unlike Portofalco, it was famous for its beautiful sandy beach, and she walked along the promenade to the pier, before taking refuge from the sun СКАЧАТЬ