Sicilian's Shock Proposal Page 6

  If it weren’t for Luka, she wouldn’t even be here, a still small voice told her.

  She was so cross with her father that there was a temptation to simply take the next flight and leave him to his fate, given all he had done.

  But Luka...

  He was the reason she was here.

  Sophie halted at Giovanni’s the jewellers when she saw him at the window, adding a new stand to the wares. ‘Anything?’ she asked when he caught her eye, because she was still hoping against hope that her earring might have been found and handed in.

  Giovanni shook his head and disappeared back into the shop, leaving Sophie standing there.

  No one wanted to be seen talking with her.

  She peered in and looked at the new offerings in the window. There was a huge emerald-cut diamond set on the prettiest rose gold band and she couldn’t help but let her imagination take flight.

  She wanted that ring on her finger.

  Or rather she wanted the engagement that had never taken place.

  Walking back to Bella’s, she tasted the salty sea air and thought of Luka alone and locked away.

  He had no one.

  Well, he did, he had her, but there was no way to let him know, apart from to do as her father said and to walk into the trial with her head held high. She would not be ashamed about what had taken place between her and Luka that afternoon.

  She was here only for him.

  * * *

  Sophie tried.

  Throughout the trial, as a witness she had not been admitted to the courtroom, but today she was being called to give evidence and, though dreading it, though embarrassed at the thought of some of the salacious details of that day being examined, though scared for her father, what had sustained her was that today she would see Luka.

  And she did.

  Walking into the courtroom to take the stand, finally she saw him. Those navy eyes met hers and he gave her a small encouraging smile. He looked thinner, leaner and sharper. The scar above his eye had had little medical attention for it had healed badly and even from the witness stand she could see it purple and raised. His hair was cut far too short and Sophie could see the anger that simmered beneath the surface, though not towards her, for his eyes were kind when they met hers.

  She awaited the barrage of questions and let out a breath of relief when the rather embarrassing moments of the police raid were skimmed over.

  ‘You knew that Teresa was upset with you that day when you went into the deli?’

  ‘I did?’

  ‘And you asked your father why she might be upset?’

  ‘I just mentioned it in passing when I got home.’ Sophie swallowed, her cheeks going a little bit pink as they made it sound as if she had been questioning her father. ‘I thought it was to do with my upcoming engagement, that because Malvolio would be my father-in-law...’

  ‘Just answer the question.’

  Sophie frowned, as she did on many occasions over a very long day of questioning. Malvolio and Luka had the same lawyer, her father had a different one, yet even he wasn’t asking the pertinent questions.

  ‘The souvenirs that the police say they found in my home...’ Sophie attempted, for when she had been arrested, over and over the police had spoken about trinkets that had belonged to the deceased or come from buildings that had been destroyed. She wanted to explain they had never been in her home. That she had kept the house and would have known if such things were there.

  ‘We’ll get to that later,’ her father’s lawyer said, yet he did not.

  Sophie left the witness stand and now that she had given her evidence she was allowed to watch as the accused were cross-examined.

  Malvolio went to the witness stand a sinner but the questions were so gentle and so geared for him that he left the stand looking like a saint and walked away with an arrogant smile.

  She sat bewildered as her father took the stand. He seemed weak and confused. Sophie once stood and shouted as his own lawyer misled him but Bella pulled her down.

  ‘Quiet, or you will be asked to leave.’

  ‘It’s not fair, though,’ Sophie said.

  None of it was fair.

  Yes, her father admitted, a second visit from him meant there would be trouble if bills were not paid.

  A third visit was the final warning.

  ‘I had no choice but to do as Malvolio said.’

  It was, Sophie knew, a poor defence.

  And then it was Luka.

  In a dark suit and tie, his skin was pale from months of being locked inside. He wrenched his arm from a guard who led him, still as defiant, still as silent as he had been on the day of his arrest.

  He would not lie to save his father.

  Luka refused to lie.

  It was not in him to lie and he wanted no part of his father’s life so he had decided that he would speak the truth.

  The truth could not hurt him.

  Or so he thought.

  He looked out and nodded to his close friend Matteo, who had been there every day to support him, and then he looked at Sophie. He tried to let her know with his eyes that he had this under control.

  But ten minutes into his testimony he started to glimpse his father’s game.

  ‘Did your concerns about Paulo’s dealings play any part in your decision to not go ahead with your engagement to his daughter Sophie Durante?’

  There was a gasp around the courtroom and Sophie stared ahead as Bella took her hand.

  ‘Sophie and I had decided to make our own arrangements for the future,’ Luka answered in a clear voice.

  ‘We’ll get back to that but first can you answer the question? Did you have concerns about Paulo’s dealings?’

  ‘I had never really given Paulo much thought,’ Luka answered, though his voice was not quite so clear as he delivered his response.

  ‘Did Sophie tell you that she had concerns about her father’s activities?’

  His already pale face bleached and he looked into Sophie’s eyes briefly. He had sworn to tell the truth but he could not have Sophie’s own words be the reason for Paulo being put away.

  ‘No, she did not.’ For her, Luka lied under oath.

  ‘So what you did discuss that day?’

  ‘I really can’t remember,’ Luka answered.

  ‘Because you were busy in the bedroom?’ His lawyer was working more for Malvolio, Luka knew it now. Luka didn’t have anything to hide so the lawyer would work to secure his father’s freedom by throwing Paulo under the bus.

  ‘I’m confused,’ the lawyer continued. ‘On the afternoon in question you said to your father that you were going to end things with Sophie, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ Luka answered. ‘However—’

  ‘Malvolio was upset,’ the lawyer broke in. ‘In fact, you got into a fight when you spoke poorly about the woman he had chosen with care for you. You said that you did not want to marry a peasant of his choice. Correct?’

  Sophie closed her eyes and then forced them open as Luka was forced to admit that, yes, that had been what he had said.

  ‘I was trying to separate myself from my father—’ He didn’t get to finish.

  ‘You told your father that you preferred the more glamorous, sophisticated women in London to Sophie. Now do you see the reason for my confusion? Sophie Durante came to your home...’

  ‘My father sent for Sophie so that he could move the souvenirs to Paulo’s,’ Luka said. He could see what had happened now. Six months locked up, two of them spent in solitary, had given him a lot of time to think. His father hadn’t been hoping to get Sophie and him together, Luka was sure of that now. Malvolio must have been tipped off about the raids and would have wanted the souvenirs out of his home and in Paulo’s.

 
; Only no one wanted to hear his truth.

  ‘Sophie Durante heard that you were about to renege on your promise to marry her. She turned up at your home on a Sunday afternoon to dissuade you and you ended up in bed that same afternoon, or rather you had sex in the kitchen.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You are saying nothing happened in the kitchen?’ the lawyer checked.

  ‘As I have said, I had had a fight with my father, Sophie was sorting out the cut above my eye...’

  ‘Oh, I see—you were bleeding so profusely that she was left with no choice but to take off her dress to stem the bleed...?’ the lawyer asked, and Sophie sat burning with shame, completely humiliated as the courtroom laughed.

  ‘My father had suggested that Sophie come over before I told him that I did not want to get engaged. He wanted her out of Paulo’s house so that he could move—’

  ‘Did Sophie Durante want to be out of that house too?’ the lawyer interrupted. ‘Was Sophie concerned that her father was engaged in criminal activity? Did she tell you she wanted to get away from him?’

  Luka broke into a cold sweat, he could feel it trickle down his back. He was doing everything he could to stay calm, to somehow give his version of events, but there was no right answer.

  His father had a brilliant lawyer, so too did he, and he was, Luka could now see, being used to discredit Paulo.

  If he answered yes to the question then he put Paulo away for life.

  ‘No.’

  ‘You are under oath,’ the lawyer reminded him.

  ‘No, she did not say that.’ Luka’s voice was clear as he decided that bedroom talk had no place in the courtroom.

  ‘You did tell your father, though, that you were not going to go ahead with the engagement?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you told Sophie the same. Yes or no?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Luka.’ The lawyer really was the smiling assassin as he looked at his youngest client, whose father was paying the hefty bill. ‘How can you expect the court to believe that there was no conversation—?’

  ‘We were otherwise engaged.’

  ‘After you had ended things?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Nothing was said about her father?’

  Luka did what he had to.

  ‘There really was little conversation.’

  ‘It makes no sense.’

  The lawyer was about to pounce again but Luka got there first and turned to the judge and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I think that Sophie might have been trying to get me to change my mind about ending things by trying to seduce me so I took what was on offer.’ He looked out towards the jury and then back to the judge as he shamed her. ‘Am I on trial for my libido?’

  The laughter that went around the courtroom ended the testimony.

  But as Luka left the stand she did not look at him.

  Luka knew that he might have saved her father from conviction by his own daughter’s words.

  But it might just have killed the two of them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SOPHIE, EVEN DAYS LATER, could not bring herself to look at Luka as the defendants stood to hear their fate.

  ‘He didn’t mean it.’ Over and over Bella said this to Sophie, who had held in her formidable temper since Luka had said those words. ‘The lawyer gave him no choice.’

  The villagers sniggered as she passed, there were whispers everywhere she went, but now, as the verdict was about to be delivered, there were no smiles or laughter in court.

  All knew that the six-month break they’d had from Malvolio’s clutches might end today.

  ‘Luka Romano Cavaliere—non colpevole.’

  Despite her anger, Sophie let out a breath of relief and she did lift her eyes to look at him. She didn’t expect his eyes to be waiting for hers, yet they were. For a small slice of time they stared at the other and the courtroom faded.

  He gave her a nod that apologised, that said he would explain things, that soon he would be with her.

  ‘Here comes the verdict for Malvolio,’ Bella whispered.

  ‘Malvolio Cavaliere—non colpevole.’

  ‘No!’ Bella gasped, and Sophie clutched her friend’s hand as the fat brute smiled over in their direction.

  Malvolio had wanted Bella for a long time.

  Pandemonium broke out as, terrified now and determined to appear loyal to Malvolio, the spectators in the courtroom applauded. Sophie simply lowered her head and tried not to weep.

  She knew what was coming.

  Her father was so frail he could hardly stand.

  Paulo Durante—colpevole.

  Her father would be taken to the mainland for sentencing, the court was informed, and would serve out his time there.

  He would die in prison, Sophie knew that.

  She watched him being led away and though she was still angry at him she knew she was the only person that he had so she called out to him, ‘I’ll be there for you...’

  She would be.

  There were cheers in the streets as Malvolio left the court a free man, though Sophie didn’t hear them and neither did she wait to speak with Luka; instead, she went to Bella’s to start packing.

  ‘I’m going to Rome to be near him and you need to leave too,’ Sophie urged Bella. ‘Malvolio is back, all his yes-men are still here.’

  ‘I cannot leave my mother,’ Bella said.

  ‘She will understand...’

  ‘I can’t, Sophie, she is so sick.’

  There was a knock on the door and Bella went to answer it as Sophie continued to pack.

  ‘No,’ Sophie said as Bella returned. ‘I don’t want to see him.’

  ‘It wasn’t Luka,’ Bella said, and Sophie looked up when she heard the strain in her friend’s voice. ‘It was Pino with a message for me. There is to be a big celebration tonight at the hotel, everyone is to be there. I am to work in the bar.’

  ‘No!’ Sophie was adamant. ‘You are to come with me to Roma.’

  ‘I can’t leave her now,’ Bella said. ‘I know that you have to leave and not just to take care of Paulo—you are the scapegoat now. Everyone knows it is Malvolio but that is not what that will say to his face.’ Bella started to cry. ‘I don’t want my first to be Malvolio. I know you think I should just say no to him.’

  ‘I know that it is not that simple.’ Sophie put her arm around her friend, who took a cleansing breath.

  ‘When my mother has gone, and it won’t be long, I will come to Rome and be with you. But not now. I need to be here for her in the same way you need to be there for your father.’

  There was a knock at the door and Bella went to answer it and after a moment came back and this time, Bella told Sophie, it was Luka here to see her.

  ‘I have nothing to say to him.’

  ‘He says he’s not leaving till he has spoken with you.’

  He wouldn’t leave, Sophie knew it.

  Her shame and hurt from the words he had said in court the other day was still there inside her. Her fear, her panic about her father seemed to be swirling into a concentrated storm as finally, for the first time in six months, they would speak.

  She stepped out of the small bedroom and there Luka stood in the hall. ‘Congratulations,’ she hurled at him. ‘You and your father walk free, while mine is to be imprisoned on the mainland. Where is the justice?’

  ‘There is no justice,’ Luka said. ‘Can we go for a walk?’

  ‘Just say what you have to.’

  ‘Not here,’ Luka said, and looked over to the bedroom that Bella was in.

  ‘I trust Bella,’ Sophie said, ‘And, given all that was said, I trust her far more than I trust you.’

  ‘You know why I had to s
ay what I did.’

  Somewhere deep down Sophie did. Right there, in the midst of her turmoil, she did know that so she nodded and called to Bella that she was heading out for a short while.

  They walked from Bella’s home down the street and past the hotel Brezza Oceana, not talking at first. Cars were starting to arrive, there were flowers being brought in through the foyer. Clearly the hotel was preparing for a large celebration.

  And, Sophie knew, Bella would be working there tonight and every other night that Malvolio dictated.

  Yes, her heart hurt right now.

  ‘Will you be going to the celebration tonight?’ Sophie broke the strained silence.

  ‘No,’ Luka answered. ‘I am having nothing more to do with my father.’ They walked further on and they came to the small path that only the locals knew about and they walked down to the cove.

  It felt strange being here with Luka when usually she came with Bella, and she told him that. ‘We always called it our secret cove. I guess everyone does that, though.’ She tried to make small talk but found it impossible, the hurt was too great.

  Luka didn’t even try.

  ‘Sophie, tomorrow I am leaving for London. I want you to come with me and Bella too. Matteo is also leaving, though no one knows that yet. He will go along with things tonight and make out that he is pleased to see my father released but tomorrow he’s getting out.’

  ‘Bella can’t leave her mother,’

  ‘Bella has to,’ Luka said.

  ‘She won’t. I just spoke to her and she says that she can’t leave and I understand why. Her mother needs Bella to be working to pay the rent. She used to own her own home till your father took it from them to help cover the medical bills.’

  Luka knew that, he knew it all now, but hearing the slight acid in Sophie’s words that inferred his father’s dealing were somehow anything to do with him had anger building within him, yet he fought to stay calm.

  ‘I have to support her choice,’ Sophie said.

  They kept on walking and it was strange that a place could be so picture perfect and yet so sordid.

  ‘Sophie, will you come with me to London?’