If you hated me too much to make a baby with me.
And I realised the hell our marriage must have become for you.
‘And when you ran away rather than submit to me again, I knew I could not go on torturing you like this.
‘So I followed you to Porto Vecchio to tell you not to be afraid any more.
That I would not make you more unhappy than you already were by persisting with our marriage.
‘But, seeing you—watching you on the beach that first morning, I saw a girl I did not recognise.
No longer withdrawn and reticent, but someone who sang and laughed and danced in the waves.
Someone I longed to know in every way.
‘And I began to wonder if we had met as strangers in a distant place, without outside interference, whether things could have been different between us.
If we might have fallen in love and found we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.
‘I decided there and then that I had to know.
That I must discover if it would ever be possible to win you for my own, so, perhaps mistakenly, I became Luca, and courted you as my Helen.’He took Poco from her arms and set him gently on the ground.
Took her hands and drew her down beside him on the bench.
‘I bought Casa Bianca, mi amore, because it was there I experienced the only true happiness of my life.
Where I learned the enchantment of making love to the woman I loved.
Of enjoying life’s simplicities in her company.
Of becoming a real husband to my adorable wife, the other half of myself.
‘I believed what we had created there would go with us when we became Angelo and Elena once more, as, eventually, we would have to do.
Instead, I faced the worst rejection of all and realised I had failed.
That you might have learned to welcome my lovemaking but you did not want my love, because your freedom was far more important to you than any future we might have together.
As if we had been playing some game, which had now ended.’She tried to say his name and he put a quiet finger on her trembling lips.
‘One moment more, carissima.
I returned to Rome feeling defeated—empty.
In a way, I welcomed your cousin’s ludicrous intervention because it gave me a focus for my anger, and made me realise that I too would go to any lengths to get you back, even when I found you had run away again, and all hope seemed lost.’He took a deep breath, his hands tightening on hers.
‘And this is why I have come to find you, Elena mia.
To ask you to come back to me and learn, if you can, to love me as I love you.
To be my wife forever.
‘I told Mother Felicitas that I had come to take you home, and even if you send me away again, mia bella, I shall not give up.
Ah, my sweet one, will you not even look at me?’She met his gaze, saw the uncertainty that haunted its tenderness and hunger.
She said quietly, ‘Don’t you see—I had to keep you a stranger.
I thought it was the only way I could avoid a broken heart.
I knew Silvia still wanted you—was obsessed with becoming your Contessa.
She came to Vostranto and told me so.
Told me she could get you back, and I believed her.’She took an uneven breath.
‘All my life, it seemed, I’d been the shadow to her sun, and I told myself that would never change.
That I’d never be more than the girl who’d been forced on you, and, therefore, keeping you at a distance would be my only salvation.
Because I couldn’t bear to be touched, knowing you wished I was someone else.
And I was scared that one night I would let you see how I really felt, and that you might laugh at me or, even worse, pity me.
‘Then—seeing you with her that night at the reception, I realised this half-life I was living had become impossible.
That if you wanted Silvia in return, I’d have to go away—somewhere I wouldn’t have to see it.
Wouldn’t wonder every moment of the day and night if you were with her.
Imagining you …’Her voice broke.
Angelo took her in his arms and held her close, his cheek against her hair, his voice murmuring words she had never believed she would hear.
‘So,’ he said at last, using his handkerchief carefully to blot away the tears she’d been unable to contain.
‘I cannot kiss you as I wish to do, mia bella, because once I start, I will not be able to stop and I have no wish to offend Mother Felicitas who has kept you safe for me.’He ran a finger down the curve of her cheek.
‘You will come back with me and our dog to Vostranto and make it a home again instead of an empty shell?’‘Our dog?’ Ellie glanced down at Poco, peacefully snoring under the bench, and gave an involuntary giggle.
‘My God, you mean you’ve kidnapped him again?’‘No, no, carissima.
The Signora is going to live with her son, whose wife does not care for animals, so she offered me Poco—as a wedding present.
It seemed a good omen.’He paused.
‘Is it, Elena? Will you now say the words I most want to hear, and tell me that you love me? That we will be man and wife forever?’Ellie said softly and simply, ‘I love you, Angelo, with all my heart.
I always did and I always will.’She smiled into his eyes, all shadows fled.
What is more, my darling, I can prove it.’She took his hands in hers, kissed them gently, then carried them to her body, holding them to the place that sheltered his child, her shining face telling him all he needed to know.