She led him upstairs, showing him the bedrooms, where the outdated wallpaper was gone, the patterned carpets replaced.
He would have brought Mia here. She’d have slept in the master bedroom, overlooking the lake she feared.
She put the thought from her.
‘Which bedroom would you like for yourself?’
Luca’s words penetrated, but she was confused. ‘Me?’ she said.
She would not be living here. She would be long gone. Living abroad was impossible now, Luca had made that clear, but she would settle somewhere on her own in Italy. Northern Italy...maybe Padua or Verona...so he could not accuse her of taking herself off too far. She hadn’t thought about it much. Maybe she should start doing so.
He was glancing into another one of the bedrooms, filled with late-autumn sunshine, its walls a soft peachy tone, the carpet soft and deep. ‘This would suit you,’ he said, turning back to her.
She made no reply to that, saying instead that he should see the main bathroom, now comprehensively updated.
There were a couple of steps from the landing down to it, and in her hurry she caught her flat heel on one of them. Immediately a hand closed around her arm, steadying her.
‘Are you all right?’ There was concern in Luca’s voice.
‘I’m fine,’ she said. She shook his arm off and headed into the bathroom, showing off its new splendour. He looked around him, but there was a faint frown on his face.
‘You’ve been working very hard,’ he said.
‘Hardly,’ she said. ‘The work has all been done by others!’
‘That’s not what I meant. You’ve accomplished a great deal in a short time.’
She gave a shrug. ‘Well, I need to keep busy. Just like you said.’
He looked down at her. She was conscious, without her high heels, of how petite she was against him.
‘But now you need to slow down,’ he said. ‘You’re coming up to your second trimester, when your scan will be due.’
‘I’m pregnant, not an invalid,’ she said briskly.
He put his hand out to her again, taking her arm. ‘Ariana—’
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Don’t fuss!’
She shook his hand off. She couldn’t bear him touching her. Couldn’t bear his concern.
It’s for the baby—just for the baby... Not me. Never me.
Those words he’d thrown at her were still audible in her head.
‘You’re the last woman on earth I would want to marry.’
She silenced them. What else could she do except what she was doing now.
‘There’s more to show you,’ she said, keeping her voice brisk.
For a moment he didn’t move, just looked down at her, his face unreadable. She stepped past him, avoiding body contact, and went downstairs to the drawing room, opening the glass doors to the terrace. It was chilly outside, even in the sunshine. Winter was coming.
I must be gone by then.
‘I’ve had the terrace by the lake-edge repaved, as we discussed,’ she went on in her brisk, professional voice, ‘and the stone balustrade strengthened for safety reasons. There’s been quite a lot of pruning done, but it will be best to wait and see next spring and summer what the garden has to offer as it is.’
Luca stepped out beside her, looking around him.