A Mother for His Daughter. Ally Blake
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in search of one, or a messenger on horseback; whatever was available.
Besides, it was Saturday night. Kelly and Cara would be on the next plane over if she didn’t contact them soon. But for the first time in…forever, she didn’t feel like confiding in them. In saying aloud, to them, to those who cared for her, that she still hadn’t found her dad.
At least with Luca it was new and fresh, not feeling as if she had to explain herself all over again to the same people. People who loved her, people who would have come over to help her if she had let them, but people who had their lives so together it hurt Gracie to think about them. And it hurt that it hurt her to think about them.
She would call the embassy then go to bed. It was already Sunday morning in Australia, so she had technically missed Saturday Night Cocktails anyway. The girls could wait until the next day, or maybe the next week, when hopefully she would have something of consequence to say.
Once downstairs, Gracie heard Luca’s voice. He was having a one-sided conversation behind a half-closed door. She sidled up to the door and listened. It hardly helped she only recognised one word in ten, and none of those words were ‘Antonio’ or ‘Graziano’. Nevertheless, she could not help peeking around the corner.
Luca was seated behind a grand wooden desk, which accommodated a computer, a fax machine and a photocopier.
Gracie realised she had no idea what the guy did for a crust, but by the look of his home, and the state-of-the-art office set-up, whatever it was he earned a pretty penny. No wonder he could afford to hire help on a whim. But she wasn’t really hired, was she? They were doing each other a favour.
A sweet gurgle caught her attention. Mila was sitting on a rug on the floor with a doll and a toy palomino horse having a conversation in her lap. The great Caesar lay behind her, and she leaned against his immense bulk.
Gracie could tell Luca was not happy with whoever was on the other end of the phone but he was keeping his voice down for his daughter’s sake. His daughter, who it seemed went nowhere but at her father’s side.
A warm glow threatened to overcome her. They looked like something out of an advertisement. Father, daughter, warmth, wealth. The perfect family, except for one thing—the missing mother.
Gracie wondered what she had been like, the woman who had managed to land such an exquisite man and produce such a gorgeous little girl. She must have been something else. She must have been sorely missed. And she would be darned difficult to replace.
‘Buonjourno,’ a gravelly voice called from behind Gracie.
‘Jeepers creepers!’ Gracie shouted, spinning so fast she slammed against the outer wall with a thud.
A tall woman dressed in head-to-toe black, with silver hair dragged back into a low bun, looked down her glorious Roman nose. This had to be Luca’s grandmother, Mila’s great-grandmother. She had the same elegant height, the same aristocratic cheekbones and the same intelligent brown eyes as her grandson.
‘So you are the new English tutor,’ the woman said in proud, thickly accented English, obviously awaiting a more dignified response to her arrival than jeepers creepers.
‘That’s me,’ Gracie returned brightly. ‘And you just have to be…Mila’s gran-nonna.’ She had had to pause so as not to name the woman Pino, after Mila’s horse.
Gracie waited for the utterly sensible questions that would surely come next:
Who were her family? That she barely knew.
Where had she worked previously? Croupier in the high-rollers room of Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
Main duties? Fending off wandering hands and marriage proposals from oil barons and visiting billionaires.
Gracie knew that her answers would not have made her past a first interview for such a position in any good home. But Gran-nonna said not another word, so Gracie nodded and filled the silence ably.
‘English tutor extraordinaire,’ she gabbled. ‘Here for Mila. To teach her to talk like a right little Aussie.’
The longer she went the less she could stop the verbal incontinence. It was as though she was determined to frighten the stern look from the older lady’s face. But she was shocked to her little cotton socks when it worked.
A cheeky glimmer lit the old lady’s dark brown eyes. ‘Good,’ Gran-nonna said. ‘Our little Mila needs someone with your…skills around here. As does Luca.’ Before Gracie could work her way through that cryptic statement Gran-nonna went on, ‘You see, our Luca was once a lion.’
Gracie gave her a tight smile, having no idea what one could say to such a statement. ‘A lion, you say?’
Gran-nonna sent her a sideways smile as though she knew she was being humoured. These Siracusas were too smart for their own good.
‘He was the king of the business world,’ the elder lady went on regardless. ‘A workaholic, determined to keep the villa flourishing and his mortgage business booming. He thrived on success. Even starting up offices in London. Only when Sarina died did he take a step back. That day he removed himself from the seat of power in his company and devoted all of his time to Mila.’
Gracie was completely enthralled by the older lady’s unsolicited spray of information. She listened for and heard the continued clacking of computer keys. ‘You mean he hasn’t worked in a year?’
The old woman shook her head. ‘He works, but he has not once been into the office. They send reports, which he dutifully reads and sends back with comments, but only late into the night once Mila is asleep. During her waking hours, he is at her beck and call.’
Picturing Mila cooing away on the rug, Gracie believed it. ‘Luca brought me here to give Mila my waking hours instead. Is that what you mean by him needing my skills?’
Gran-nonna said nothing and Gracie was pretty sure the older lady was turning her in knots entirely on purpose. ‘He seems to be doing OK working from home,’ Gracie said, probing.
Gran-nonna shrugged. ‘He fits in as well in the country as he does in the city. His youthful dream was to set up a lost-dogs home on the property until his grades meant that he was sentenced to a working life in town.’ Gran-nonna zeroed in on Gracie with such intensity she lost her breath. ‘He often brought strays home as a child too.’
Gracie felt her cheeks bake under Gran-nonna’s stare, which had all of the concentration of Luca’s but not much of the warmth.
Gracie knew that the cover story of her being nothing more than a tutor had not washed with this smart lady. She sent the woman an understanding smile, giving the old lady as good as she got. ‘I guess I am no surprise, then?’
After a few moments of silent contemplation Gran-nonna said, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that, dear. I’m quite hoping that you will be the first of many new surprises. This family is in danger of complacence, and needs a shake-up every few years, and the time for one is long overdue.’
And with that, she walked away. A smile, a nod, a cryptic response or two and off she went, leaving Gracie feeling completely outwitted.
Gracie tripped when the door opened against her shoulder. She moved out of the way to find Luca looking at her in puzzlement.
‘Did I just hear Nonna?’ he asked, taking a hold of her shoulder as he looked around her.
‘That you did,’ Gracie said. She was pretty sure that the word that flew from his mouth was not one he would want her teaching Mila, and she quite enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t such a perfect gentleman after all.
‘Don’t sweat it, Luca. I think she kinda liked me.’
Luca let her go just as naturally as he had taken a hold. He blinked, his gaze zeroing in on her fully. ‘And what makes you think so?’
‘Women have instincts about these things. We can tell if someone likes us or not pretty much instantly.’