an unholy terror,' Gena admitted. 'We Falcones are a rather headstrong lot. Tell me, what is it like being the mother of a boy and having no man to share his growing up?'
'Worrying more than anything.' Desperately so, Carol could have added, especially when that child was not your own.
'Were you crazy about Vince?' Gena ran her eyes over Carol's face.
'At the beginning — then I thought him my dream suitor, I suppose. I was very young and carried away by his looks.'
'Yes, he was a stunner, and he found out very early that he could make fools of women. Did you know about Bedelia before you came here?'
'Oh no ! I shouldn't have come had I known that I wasn't - that he'd married me under false pretences.'
'Why shouldn't you come here? Vince made you a mother, and Rudi has enough money to see that neither of you go without. You should have come before, when Teri was a baby and it must have been difficult for you to manage.'
'Your brother the baróne intimated that your mother wouldn't have accepted us.'
'Probably not as residents here, but Rudi would have made sure you were provided with an income.'
'Is he tremendously well off?' Carol nibbled a sweet biscuit and thought of what he had said about the danger of kidnapping.
'As wealth is measured these days, with exorbitant tax on income. He's a designer of high-speed motor engines, both for use on the road and the water. He designed the Spada and it's made a mint. Didn't you know that Vince had this sort of background?'
'He spoke very little about his family and I — I wouldn't probe.' Carol remembered why and couldn't stop the old hurt from coming into her eyes; the disillusion and the disenchantment. 'I guessed from the look of him that he came from a good family—'
'Good!' Gena laughed cynically. 'We've breeding, my dear, but hardly your sort of goodness. Breeding, brains and beauty, the three requisites for being bad and usually getting away with it.'
'I don't think you're bad,' Carol said. 'Cynical, perhaps.'
'And sinful, though I daresay Rudi likes to think that I'm a proper sort of Italian woman, waiting in dewy-eyed expectancy for the right man to come along.' Gena smiled and dropped a sandal from her foot and wriggled her long toes. 'Feet are sensuous things, aren't they? I like a man to stroke mine with the very ends of his fingers - my boy-friends have been Americans, you know, and that would shock Rudi, who is one hundred per cent Latin. God, he was the best looking guy in Italy before that bitch—'
Gena broke off sharply. 'We have an American on the isola at the present time. Saul Stern is his name. He's a writer of film and television scripts and he's working on something right now. Rudi rented him a beach house belonging to the estate — he's rather attractive, in that tough New York way that I rather like. Women are funny creatures. We go through our lives always liking the same type of man, and I have this weakness for Yanks. How about you, Carol? Is it always going to be the dark, smouldering Latin type?'
'I hope not!' Carol spoke the words in almost a panic. 'I have no plans to make a fool of myself with any other man. I just want to make a good life for Teri - my happiness will come from that.'
'You hope !' Gena looked sceptical. 'It's okay if a girl is born like Flavia, who wants to give herself to the chaste life, but you've had a lover, Carol, and you've had a baby. You can't suddenly turn off your natural feelings just because you've been hurt by one man. It would be a kind of starvation of your real self.'
'I can stand it,' said Carol, feeling an unbearable fraud at the way she had taken in these people. She had had no lover, and when Teri was born she had sat in a waiting-room while her sister Cynara suffered the birth pangs. Her body felt on fire with guilt and she suddenly stood up and went to the big bed where Teri had fallen sound asleep.
'He's tired out, poor pet,' she
'Worrying more than anything.' Desperately so, Carol could have added, especially when that child was not your own.
'Were you crazy about Vince?' Gena ran her eyes over Carol's face.
'At the beginning — then I thought him my dream suitor, I suppose. I was very young and carried away by his looks.'
'Yes, he was a stunner, and he found out very early that he could make fools of women. Did you know about Bedelia before you came here?'
'Oh no ! I shouldn't have come had I known that I wasn't - that he'd married me under false pretences.'
'Why shouldn't you come here? Vince made you a mother, and Rudi has enough money to see that neither of you go without. You should have come before, when Teri was a baby and it must have been difficult for you to manage.'
'Your brother the baróne intimated that your mother wouldn't have accepted us.'
'Probably not as residents here, but Rudi would have made sure you were provided with an income.'
'Is he tremendously well off?' Carol nibbled a sweet biscuit and thought of what he had said about the danger of kidnapping.
'As wealth is measured these days, with exorbitant tax on income. He's a designer of high-speed motor engines, both for use on the road and the water. He designed the Spada and it's made a mint. Didn't you know that Vince had this sort of background?'
'He spoke very little about his family and I — I wouldn't probe.' Carol remembered why and couldn't stop the old hurt from coming into her eyes; the disillusion and the disenchantment. 'I guessed from the look of him that he came from a good family—'
'Good!' Gena laughed cynically. 'We've breeding, my dear, but hardly your sort of goodness. Breeding, brains and beauty, the three requisites for being bad and usually getting away with it.'
'I don't think you're bad,' Carol said. 'Cynical, perhaps.'
'And sinful, though I daresay Rudi likes to think that I'm a proper sort of Italian woman, waiting in dewy-eyed expectancy for the right man to come along.' Gena smiled and dropped a sandal from her foot and wriggled her long toes. 'Feet are sensuous things, aren't they? I like a man to stroke mine with the very ends of his fingers - my boy-friends have been Americans, you know, and that would shock Rudi, who is one hundred per cent Latin. God, he was the best looking guy in Italy before that bitch—'
Gena broke off sharply. 'We have an American on the isola at the present time. Saul Stern is his name. He's a writer of film and television scripts and he's working on something right now. Rudi rented him a beach house belonging to the estate — he's rather attractive, in that tough New York way that I rather like. Women are funny creatures. We go through our lives always liking the same type of man, and I have this weakness for Yanks. How about you, Carol? Is it always going to be the dark, smouldering Latin type?'
'I hope not!' Carol spoke the words in almost a panic. 'I have no plans to make a fool of myself with any other man. I just want to make a good life for Teri - my happiness will come from that.'
'You hope !' Gena looked sceptical. 'It's okay if a girl is born like Flavia, who wants to give herself to the chaste life, but you've had a lover, Carol, and you've had a baby. You can't suddenly turn off your natural feelings just because you've been hurt by one man. It would be a kind of starvation of your real self.'
'I can stand it,' said Carol, feeling an unbearable fraud at the way she had taken in these people. She had had no lover, and when Teri was born she had sat in a waiting-room while her sister Cynara suffered the birth pangs. Her body felt on fire with guilt and she suddenly stood up and went to the big bed where Teri had fallen sound asleep.
'He's tired out, poor pet,' she
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