‘He’ll be back in time. He promised,’ Jo said confidently, because Gianni always kept his promises.
‘That jewellery is breathtaking.’ Sybil sighed enviously, touching a finger to the ruby and diamond necklace and drop earrings her great-niece wore. ‘Isabella’s collection...right?’
‘Yes, no need to buy much with that collection in the safe,’ Jo quipped. ‘You can borrow it for special occasions. Gianni wouldn’t mind.’
‘But Federico wouldn’t like me wearing anything that belonged to her,’ Sybil replied wryly. ‘Thanks, but no, thanks.’
They strolled into the great hall with its medieval screens and minstrels’ gallery. Jo peered up at the decorative hammerbeam open timber roof, which had been freshly picked out in the original Elizabethan colours. Tapestries she had forgotten once hung at Ladymead now adorned the walls again. Subtle light glowed in corners as catering staff hovered to offer them drinks. Everyone local as well as their friends and Gianni’s business acquaintances had been invited. Belvedere offered a rather different level of hospitality with the ballroom and a buffet and loads of seating for a crowd. Ladymead was still primarily a family house, a beautiful one but not a grand one, Jo reflected fondly, wandering through the restored rooms with growing pleasure.
Her biggest surprise in the five years of her marriage had been Gianni telling her that he had a temperature-controlled warehouse storing every valuable article that had ever been sold from Ladymead. Apparently, the Renzettis had begun buying those items when his grandfather was a young man and his father had continued the purchases, as had Gianni. Thus, the priceless original oak trestle table and benches and the tapestries and the family portraits were now in place again. There was a valuable Chinese vase restored to the tiny, wainscoted library and a few precious old books, as well as a couple of oak four-poster beds now returned to the main bedrooms. The warehouse had proved to be an Aladdin’s cave and none of the articles had ever crossed the threshold of Belvedere, not being deemed suitable for the grandeur of the Edwardian mansion.
‘The Renzettis had a plan to take over your family home for many, many years,’ Gianni had explained with a grimace. ‘And just think, all I had to do was marry you!’
‘Smartass,’ she had teased back. ‘But I’m really grateful that all these items can come back where they belong. If your family hadn’t bought them, they would have been lost for ever.’
Her grandmother was sitting in the library. Never keen on large gatherings, she was relying on her sisters and her granddaughter to do the honours. None of them minded because the older woman had had a heart attack the year before and only surgery and a very strict diet in the aftermath had returned her to health. These days, she promised to take it easy but was regularly to be found cooking at Belvedere because she was great friends with their housekeeper and very fond of Gianni and his father.
McTavish was no longer at Jo’s heel. Age had given him arthritis and he only left his basket at home if tempted by food. Fairy was older too but no less graceful and quiet. A labradoodle had also come into Sybil’s rescue barn. Ace was the twins’ dog because Lorenzo and Alice had fallen madly in love with the fluffy puppy of indeterminate parentage. Duffy had stayed with them, loving a household where there was an almost constant audience. Lorenzo was trying to teach him rap and make him less of an ‘oldie’ because Duffy’s biblical and Shakespearean quotes were meaningless to a four-year-old.
Gianni and Federico, clad in smart dinner jackets, walked through the arched front entrance together and Jo grinned while her heart leapt at the sight of her husband. She hadn’t lost an atom of her susceptibility to those spectacular dark good looks of his.
He accepted the glass offered to him and did a double take at his wife, garbed in her very elaborate Elizabethan silk and brocade embroidered costume. ‘You take my breath away,cara.’
‘The kids are all in bed,’ she warned him.
‘I thought you’d surrender and let them come.’
‘No, there’s too many strangers aboutandthe lake. They’re too young and adventurous to be trusted.’ She sighed with regret.
Gianni groaned. ‘Their nanny’s bringing them. It’s a big night. I thought you’d want them to enjoy the experience.’
He was the fun parent and she was the stricter one. It had never occurred to her that that was how they would turn out as parents. Lorenzo hurtled across the room. ‘Mum...where’s the fireworks?’ he demanded.
‘The fireworks won’t be happening until ten, which is two hours away,’ Gianni told his disappointed son.
‘Fireworks.’ Alice ground out the word with disdain. ‘I want to see everybody admiring our house.’
‘She’s so like you it’s ridiculous,’ Gianni whispered fondly, closing his free hand over Jo’s and even that small connection sent a quiver of awareness through her.
Gabriele left their nanny, Janessa, to seek out his mother. He grabbed a handful of her gown to keep her within reach and sucked his thumb happily, almost tottering with the exhaustion he was fighting off.
Sybil whispered in her ear, ‘We’ll keep the kiddoes here tonight with the nanny. He still doesn’t think far ahead. It’s your wedding anniversary. You deserve a child-free night.’
Jo turned round but her great-aunt had already moved away.
‘Happy anniversary,’ Gianni breathed tautly. ‘Guess I blew it again with the kids. Sybil doesn’t whisper as quietly as she thinks she does.’
‘The twins will be fine here for the night with Trixie and Gran.’ Jo gave him a serene smile. ‘Has it occurred to you that I’ve now done my five-year sentence in marriage?’
His hand jerked on hers and he turned her round to face him. ‘If I thought you meant that, I’d lock you up sooner than lose you.’
Jo leant dangerously close and feathered her lips across his cheek. ‘I hope you’re planning to lock yourself up with me.’
Fire smouldered in his very intent gaze, black lashes like fans low. ‘Anything you want, you get.’
‘I like it when you’re...ruthless,’ she selected softly.
Lorenzo yanked at her gown. ‘Mum! What’s Grandad doing? He’s being weird!’