Summer at the Lake (42 page)

‘No, it’s you who’s missing the point,’ Floriana said with a flare of anger. ‘If you can’t trust Seb, then you need to ask yourself why that is.’

‘I’ve asked myself that again and again and always I come back to the same thing – how can I trust him with you constantly trying to get your claws into him?’

‘I’m afraid that says more about your insecurity than anything I’ve ever done. And for the record, Seb stayed the night with me because he’d drunk too much and driving back to London wasn’t an option. He crashed out on the sofa and that was where he spent the night. Absolutely nothing happened. Would you rather he’d risked killing himself by driving in that state than staying safe in Oxford?’

‘I’d rather he’d stayed in London in the first place, that he hadn’t gone to see you.’

Wondering what Imogen would say if she told her all the things Seb had poured out that day he’d come to see her and how she had tried to reassure him that it was nothing more than jittery pre-wedding nerves, Floriana held her tongue. Imogen wouldn’t believe any of it; she would merely accuse her of lying and of trying to drive a wedge between them.

‘What’s your plan, Imogen?’ she said instead. ‘To cut Seb off from anyone he used to know before you appeared in his life? You couldn’t even let him choose his own best man; you had to force your brother on to him.’

‘How dare you! He was more than happy to have Jules. Jules is a good friend to him. They’re extremely close.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. Does Seb know you and I are here having this chat?’

‘No.’

‘I thought not. Did he actually give you my number, or did you help yourself to it on his mobile? Yes, just as I thought. So what have you done with him while we’re having this cosy tête-à-tête, locked him in your room until you give him permission to come out?’

‘Please don’t be childish, he’s with Daddy and Jules in Menaggio hiring a boat for tomorrow.’

‘Still begs the question why you didn’t tell him about meeting me. Afraid to let him know you don’t trust him, is that it? And to satisfy my curiosity, how did you know he’d been to Oxford to see me? Did he tell you or, and my money’s on this, did his mobile just happen to fall into your hand when you returned from Paris and you thought, oh, why not, I’ll check his texts to see if he got up to anything interesting in my absence?’

Imogen glared back at her. ‘With you still trying to steal him, no one in my shoes would do differently. And the fact he didn’t mention his visit makes you look guiltier still.’

She had a point, of course, and that was precisely what Floriana had feared. ‘He probably didn’t mention it because he knew you’d be upset and overreact,’ she said reasonably. ‘Which is exactly what you’re doing.’

‘And with good grounds!’

Oh Seb, thought Floriana sadly, what do you see in this girl? She’s too insecure and possessive for you. And why didn’t you delete those messages on your mobile? Because he’d probably seen them as perfectly innocent. Because he’d probably never imagined his girlfriend would be devious enough to read them behind his back.

‘So inviting me here this evening, was all about what, exactly?’ Floriana said. ‘To ban me from the wedding because you’re scared I might try a last-ditch attempt to steal Seb at the altar?’

Imogen rose slowly and elegantly to her feet. Looking down at Floriana, she said, ‘I wouldn’t put anything past you.’

‘I’m glad you think that highly of me.’

‘Please don’t try and be funny. I’d give anything in the world to be able to make you stay away on Saturday, but since that would upset Seb, this is what I want you to do.’ She leant down so her face was just a few inches away from Floriana’s. ‘You can come to the wedding but you have to promise never to see him again.’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘If you care about Seb’s happiness, you’ll do as I ask. I want to make him happy and I can’t do that with you undermining our marriage. I want you out of his life permanently. I tried once before to make him realise there was no place for you in our relationship, that it was you or me, and he made his choice: me.’

‘You gave him an ultimatum?’

‘It was the only way he could be free of you.’

Floriana was stunned But it explained so much. Now she knew why Seb had ignored her attempts to apologise and put things right between them. ‘But I don’t understand why you then allowed him to invite me to your wedding,’ she said.

‘Stupidly I thought it would be all right after all this time. I was wrong.’

More wrong than you could ever imagine, Floriana thought as she watched Imogen walk away.

‘It strikes me that it’s been an eventful day and one I’m more than happy to bring to an end by going to bed,’ Esme said.

From where he was opening a bottle of wine on the terrace, Adam watched Esme hug Floriana and kiss her goodnight. ‘Sleep well, sweet thing, and no dwelling on that ghastly encounter with Imogen.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Floriana said, hugging Esme back, ‘it’ll take more than a crazy bride to cheat me out of a good night’s sleep.’

Esme came over to Adam next and patted him on the shoulder. ‘Goodnight and thank you for booking such an excellent restaurant for us this evening, it couldn’t have been more perfect.’ Glancing over to where Floriana had wandered off to inspect a rose bush, and lowering her voice, she added, ‘Please do bear in mind my advice, won’t you?’

He tugged the cork out of the bottle. ‘Sleep well, Esme,’ he said non-committally. ‘It’s going to be another warm night, are you sure you wouldn’t like me to switch on the air con in your room?’

‘No, no, I’ll be fine thank you with the window open.’

Watching the old lady go inside the villa and hoping Floriana hadn’t overheard what Esme had said, Adam called out to her. ‘What are you up to over there, Floriana?’

‘What does it look like? I’m gathering rose petals.’

Kneeling on the grass, she was indeed gathering rose petals. Cupping them in her hands, she raised them to her face and breathed in deeply.

‘Glass of wine?’ he asked.

‘Yes, please,’ she replied, joining him on the terrace. She held her hands out for him to smell the petals.

‘Very nice,’ he said.

‘“Very nice”,’ she repeated. ‘Is that all you have to say? Adam, this is the most exquisite perfume on earth. It doesn’t get any better.’

He went back to pouring out the wine. ‘I’m sorry, I’m just a simple man with a limited vocabulary at his disposal.’

‘What a shame,’ she said with a teasing smile.

No, he thought, the real shame is I can’t express myself the way I really want to, that I’m rapidly losing the power of speech when I’m alone with you. Esme was right. He needed to sort this situation. And soon. He was still shocked that she’d guessed at his feelings towards Floriana; he’d been convinced he’d given nothing away, that outwardly his behaviour hadn’t changed. But according to Esme he’d shown his hand by trying too hard to conceal the attraction; she’d spotted the signs weeks ago. His concern was that if Esme had guessed, then surely Floriana had, so why hadn’t she done anything about it? Unless she wasn’t interested?

In answer to this worry, Esme had been adamant. ‘It’s not her place to make the first move, Adam. A girl shouldn’t be the one to do that.’

When he’d suggested politely that that was an outmoded form of etiquette as far as modern-day dating went, she’d dismissed his comment with an exasperated sigh and told him to stop making excuses and get on with it. ‘Unless, of course,’ she’d said, ‘you’re not truly over Jesse yet?’

Now it was his turn to be adamant. ‘There’s no danger of that,’ he’d replied truthfully. ‘But what if Floriana’s still in love with Seb?’

‘Take it from me, she isn’t.’

‘You have actual irrefutable proof of that?’ he’d asked. ‘Has she told you she isn’t?’

‘No. But I feel it in my bones. Moreover, you’re the one to prove to her that she isn’t. You know, a very long time ago someone once told me that most of our hurts in life come through relationships, equally, so does our healing.’

‘But I don’t want to jeopardise our friendship.’

‘Adam, presumably you take risks all the time during your working day and they all come off to your satisfaction. Am I right?’

‘On the whole, yes. But they’re calculated risks weighted heavily in my favour. I don’t like taking risks in my private life, especially one with an outcome that could end so badly.’

‘But think of the reverse! What if it ended well? Gloriously well! Come on, Adam, faint heart never won fair lady.’

With those words echoing in his head, and too tense now to sit down with Floriana, he said, ‘How about a swim to cool off?’

‘Brilliant idea!’ she said, unexpectedly flinging her hands into the air and twirling on her toes as the rose petals fluttered to the ground, covering her in a shower of pale pink confetti.

He laughed. ‘Miss Day, are you just a little bit drunk? Because if you are, maybe a swim isn’t such a good idea.’

‘I’m as sober as a judge,’ she said, coming to a stop, her lovely hazel eyes resting on his. ‘Besides, you’ll be there to save me, won’t you?’

‘What if
I
need saving?’

‘Then I’m your girl. Hand on heart, and despite those glasses of limoncello I had after dinner, I won’t let anything happen to you.’

Too late, he thought as they went to change,
you’ve
happened to me.

In the quiet dark of the night, the underwater lighting that illuminated the pool was so luminously white it made Floriana look like she was carved from alabaster. Oh yes, Adam thought ruefully, he could think such poetic things; he just couldn’t say them aloud.

He watched her swimming with slow smooth strokes, her chin skimming the surface of the water, her body gliding noiselessly through the water. ‘You look so serious,’ she said, ‘what are you thinking?’

‘Oh, this and that.’

‘If you don’t mind me saying, you’ve been very serious for most of the evening.’

‘You should know by now, that’s how I roll.’

She came to a stop in front of him at the deepest end of the pool. Treading water, her arms stretched out either side of her, she raised her eyes to the dark night sky. ‘If you tell someone there’s a hundred thousand million stars in the Milky Way, they’ll believe you, but tell someone a plate is too hot to touch and they’ll touch it to be sure.’

‘And your point?’

She grinned and flipped over onto her back and floated away from him. He swam after her. ‘Your point, Miss Day?’

Her face turned upwards, her hair fanning out in the water, she said, ‘My point is that people will always question what they feel able to challenge, and I’m no different. I’m convinced something is bothering you.’

‘Nothing’s bothering me,’ he lied.

‘So what’s the advice Esme’s given you and which you have to bear in mind?’

He felt his face redden. ‘You did hear then!’

‘What? I’m suddenly supposed to be hard of hearing?’

Taking a breath, he dived beneath the water and swam back to the deepest end of the pool. When he surfaced and was shaking the water from his ears and pushing back his hair, he looked for Floriana, but there was no sign of her. Not until she surfaced right behind him. Holding onto the side of the pool and mimicking a horror movie voiceover, she said, ‘You can run but you can’t hide. What’s Esme been advising you to do?’

He wiped a hand over his face, playing for time. ‘OK,’ he forced himself to say, ‘I’ll tell you. But honesty deserves honesty in kind. Right? And I warn you, this could turn awkward, which is what I was anxious to avoid.’

She nodded and he pushed on. It was now or never. ‘Are you still in love with Seb?’ he asked. ‘I need to know that. Otherwise there’s . . . there’s no point in me saying what else I want to say.’

He could see that his question had surprised her. More worrying, he could also see a flicker of something in her face that didn’t encourage him. He fought his disappointment. ‘OK, I’ll take that as a yes,’ he said. ‘Thanks for being straight with me. I appreciate that.’

She frowned. ‘But I didn’t say anything.’

‘It’s fine. You didn’t need to.’

‘No, Adam, you don’t understand. I—’

‘You really don’t have to say anything more,’ he said quickly, not wanting to prolong his embarrassment any further. ‘You don’t need to explain yourself. It’s OK.’

He was about to launch himself away from the side of the pool, when she put a hand out to him. ‘Adam, you’ve got it wrong. I don’t love Seb. At least not in the sense you mean.’

‘What sense do I mean?’ he asked.

‘You want to know if I’m
in
love with Seb,’ she said softly. ‘I’m not. I care about him deeply, but the feelings I used to have for him have gone. I think now I mostly feel sorry for him. He doesn’t seem at all happy.’

‘When did you realise you felt differently?’

‘Probably it started when he came to see me in Oxford in June, when Imogen was away on her hen weekend in Paris. I told you and Esme earlier that I knew it had been a risk to let Seb stay the night, but think about it, if I’d loved him, I mean, if I’d been
in
love with him and not cared about the consequences, I wouldn’t have left him to sleep on the sofa that night; I would have seized my opportunity.’

He stared at her, but didn’t know what to say next.

‘I didn’t sleep with him,’ she said firmly. ‘It didn’t cross my mind. And now that I’ve been so honest with you, I think it’s only right you have to be honest with me. Why did you need to know this?’

He hesitated.

She continued to stare at him, not a flicker of movement in her eyes or face.

‘You’re a smart girl,’ he murmured, ‘I think you can work it out for yourself, can’t you?’

‘You’ve got me all wrong,’ she said with a small smile, her body inclined towards his, the strength of her gaze boring into him. ‘I’m really not that smart. Some things I need spelling out for me.’

He moved in closer to her. Really close. ‘Now is not the time to play the cute-but-dumb card. Or make fun of me.’

‘Not even a little bit?’

‘I can think of better uses to which you could put your considerable talent.’