(2012) Evie Undercover (12 page)

She blinked again.

She was probably feeling emotional because she could see that if Gab
riela and Tom got together, it
w
ould make it harder for her to get her story. The closer he got to Gabriela, the further he’d move away from her, and it would be to Gabriela
that he
’d
whisper his confession, not
to
the investi
gative journalist at his side. That was what it must be. I
t was the sort of setback that would make anyone feel like howling.

She glanced across the table at Gabriela
, who
was laughing at something Tom had said. The huge silver hoops hanging from her ear lobes were to die for.

She heard Tom say the word England, and felt a rush of relief.

How stupid of her! Gabriela would almost certainly be going back to Florence the following day. When
she’d
gone, she’d have Tom back to herself, and by the time that the two of them met up
again
in England – which they would probably do
–
she’d have moved on to another story and
Tom
would be completely out of h
er
life.

Panic
over. Relieved, she sat back in her chair
.

H
er blurred vision cleared and she saw an aperitif on the table in front of her. She’d been in such state she hadn’t even noticed the waiter putting it down, nor that the others were holding their glasses in the air, waiting fo
r her to join them in a toast. You’ve gotta g
et a grip, she told herself, and she picked up her glass.

‘
Salute!
’ She f
orc
ed
a broad smile to her lips,
and
glanced around the table.

‘
Salute!
’ they all chorused.

Gabriela
took a sip and
put her aperitif back on the table
. She
leaned across to Tom and seemed to be asking him a question. He smiled warmly at her and began to answer.

She felt Eduardo’s eyes on her, and inwardly groaned. She’d have to say something
to him
,
but all
she really wanted to do
was eavesdrop on
Tom and Gabriela.

Was he satisfied with the way the day had gone,
was the best she
could come up with
in her distracted state
.

Happi
ly, it was good enough for him.

‘
Si, si
!
’ he
exclaimed, beaming, and he b
egan to extol their day’
s purchases.

L
ean
ing
slightly to the side
, she
strain
ed
to hear what
Tom and Gabriela
were
saying
, but she couldn’t make anything out. She edged
still
closer to Tom, but it was no use – they were talking too quietly.

Eduardo
had
stopped speak
ing
, she suddenly realised
. ‘
Interessante
,’ she
swiftly
said
, hoping
that
whatever he’d said
could be described as
interesting
.

‘
Grazie mill
e
.
’
He smiled warmly a
t
her, and t
o her
great
relief,
started
talking
again.

She was just
beginning to
wonder whether she dared move even closer to Tom
or if it would look like she was trying to sit on his lap
when it dawned on her that
Eduardo
’s tone of voice had changed
.
Blast
, she thought, and
turned
her attention
back to him
.
How did someone with such striking red hair come to speak such perfect Italian, he wanted to know.

Treble fuck! So much for
her finding a way of
butting into Tom and Gabriela’s conversation.
She’d never be able to get away with the occasional
interessante
now.

Making a massive effort to swallow her annoyance at having to answer Eduardo rather than listen to her neighbours, she fixed her eyes firmly on the
silver
chain visible through his lilac open-necked shirt and began to rattle off the details of her family background and the year she’d spent in Lake Garda.

If she’d had any hope of bringing the conversation to a speedy conclusion, they were dashed the minute she heard the excitement in Eduardo’s voice
at her
mention of
Lake Garda. His family had a house on the edge of the
lake, he exclaimed in delight, and h
e used to go there all
the time when he was younger. To her misery, he
started listing all the places they both might know.

As she verbally ticked off the places on his list, her gaze
kept on
stray
ing
to Tom and Gabriela. The
y
were
bent
close to each other. He clearly wasn’t bothered about keeping a
ny kind of
wall between him and Gabriela, she thought tetchily
–
if either of them moved an inch forward, they’d
bang
their heads together. And serve them right, too.

She forced her attention back to Eduardo. His dark eyes were staring intently at her face. She shifted uneasily in her chair under his gaze. His eyes moved to Tom, then back to her, and they stayed on her, gradually softening with understanding. And deep regret.

Oh, hell! He’d got hold of the wrong end of the stick and
he
thought she was keen
on Tom. H
e’d mistaken her
professional
concern about Tom getting close to Gabriela for
a
n e
m
otional
fear of
losing him to another woman. She should have been much more guarded in the way she’d behaved. She’d intended to make it clear to Eduardo that they’d never be any more than
good
friends, but she hadn’t wante
d him to
come to
that conclusion by himself, and for the wrong reasons
. Damn!

‘So you think that English food is the bees’ knees, do you?’ she heard Gabriela ask, laughing in disbelief as she picked up her menu.

She stared at Gabriela for a moment, and then turned to Eduardo and asked how Gabriela came to speak such perfect English when he didn’t know a single word.

He giggled. Gabriela had been a good girl at school, he told her, a mischievous glint in his eye, and he had been a very naughty boy. Drawing plans for houses was much more fun than learning how to say ‘I am; you are; he is’, so he drew houses while Gabriela learnt to say ‘I am’.

He
had
picked up a little English along the way, no matter how hard he’d tried not to, he
admitted
with a shy grin, and he’d left school able to say a few words. But as he hadn’t spoken English since then, he’d forgotten
just about
everything he’d ever learnt.

However,
with
the
American
s
and English buy
ing
houses in Umbria, he knew that he really ought to be able to speak to them himself and not rely on the help of someone else, charming though that person might be,
and
he was going to ask Gabriela to help him. She would be staying with him at his place near Todi for the rest of the week so he could make a start at once.

So Gabriela would not be heading back to Florence
the following day
.
Damn! Damn! Damn! S
he’d bet any amount of money that Gabriela
planned on
hang
ing
around them for the rest of the week. Her chance of getting the lowdown from Tom about his affair with Zizi Westenhall was fast disappe
aring down the proverbial tube.

Her hand
tightened around her glass.

There was a slight pressure on her arm. She looked up and saw Eduardo’s eyes on her again. He gave her a rueful smile, gently
removed
the glass from her hand, picked up his menu and indicated that she should do the same.

‘You were very quiet on the way home,’ Tom said as they sat over a
grappa
on the spotlit terrace of
Il Poggio
. ‘And you’re very quiet now. That’s most unli
ke you, Evie. Are you cold, ill
or dreaming romantic dreams that would need to be heavily censored before they could be told to another person? If it
’s the la
st of the three
and it
would help you to unburden yourself, I’ll mentally fortify myself and you can share the uncut version with me.’

That was a g
ood opening,
and she must rise to it. If only she didn’t feel quite so depressed
.

‘
The temperature’s just fine, thank you, Tom, and I’m in the best of health. As for relaying the content of my dreams
,
you can relax
–
I wouldn’t risk any damage to your delicate sensibilities, fortified or not.’

‘I’m not convinced that those sensibilities you rate so highly would be averse to a little bit of damage. Try me.’

She laughed. ‘Dream on. I’m afraid you’ll have to rely on your imagination to help you out with your masochistic tendencies.’

‘Masochistic, indeed! That’s a long word for this late at night.’ He paused for a moment. ‘So, tell me truthfully, Evie
. D
id you enjoy the evening?’

             
‘Of course, I did. Gabriela and Eduardo are both very pleasant and the food was great. What’s not to enjoy?’

‘I agree
,
it was a good evening. It was certainly better than I’d expected. Gabriela’s English is quite amazing
.
I can talk to her almost as easily as I can talk to you.’

And that was the problem in a nutshell. With Gabriela around to translate, she wouldn’t be needed in the same way, and that would make it much harder to get any closer to Tom. Frowning, she turned towards the dark hills outlined against the distant horizon. Why couldn’t Eduardo’s bloody sister have stayed in Florence?

‘W
hat’s up, Evie?
Please tell me.
’ She turned back to Tom and saw that he was looking at her with genuine concern. ‘You’ve not been yourself all evening. I know you like Eduardo – even a blind man could see that – so is it that you don’t like Gabriela?’

‘Of course I like her. There’s nothing not to like. She seems very nice.’

‘Well, t
hat’s what I thought.’

‘Which would be equally obvious to that same blind man. It must have been
brilliant
for you to be able to talk to an Italian without having to get me to translate for you,’ she hastily added.

‘I suppose you’re right, although I did rather miss you being stuck there in the middle of my conversation.’

‘How come? What would I have added to it?’

‘Tut, tut, Evie. Could it be that you’re fishing for compliments? You’re not prepared to indulge my masochistic tendencies, yet you expect me to fulfil your inner need for praise.’

‘Of course, I don’t.’ He raised his eyebrows to her, and she giggled. ‘That came out all wrong. Obviously I don’t mean that I expect you to fulfil my need for praise – I mean, I don’t need to
be praised by anyone. Although
now that you come to mention it, it’s not a totally bad idea. Go ahead
,
I’ll have that compliment after all.’

‘Well, then, here goes. W
hile I enjoyed talking to Gabriela, who’s a clever woman, she can be quite intense, and to be honest, I rather missed the light-hearted touch
that
you would have brought
in
to the conversation.’

‘Is that a lawyer-like way of calling me an airhead?’ she laughed. ‘If it is, you can try your hand at a second compliment. See if you can improve upon calling me thick.’