A Face To Die For (35 page)

She was sunbathing in a yellow bikini by the pool. Despite her thinness she was still stunningly beautiful, the colour complimenting her tan so well.

I approached. ‘Oliver’s on the phone, darling.’

She hadn’t heard me so I waved my hand in front of her face. She turned and I repeated myself.

‘Good. I’ll be right in.’ she didn’t smile though and I sensed she was feeling a little low today. Perhaps she was missing Oliver. Recently I had noticed she seemed to resent Luigi showing me any affection, which of course he often did quite openly.

I smiled as she rose. ‘It’s okay … no rush … Luigi’s chatting to him.’

As she picked up her sarong and swirled it around her I thought how lovely she looked, a vision of tanned, seductive beauty. A faint erotic feeling stirred within me, unnerving me rather. She brushed past me and I felt the same old faint inner debate again. It was disturbing… or was it something to do with having just spoken to Oliver? Yes, it was Oliver I fancied… they were just interlinked that was all.

As I sat for a while trying to fathom out my feelings, Luigi joined me. Glancing at my legs I realised I was also developing a light tan. With my fair complexion it had never been a priority before. But the light golden colour appealed to me. So I leaned over to pick up Kate’s suntan lotion on her lounger. As I flipped opened the bottle lid, Luigi wheeled up another sun bed next to me. I stretched out on mine.

He glanced back to see that Kate was out of earshot. ‘She is doing so well, my darling, is she not? Oliver is delighted and says he’s hoping to join us later in the month. I mentioned we might be in Sicily by then but we would let him know what we’re doing in good time.’ He eased himself onto the bed.

His legs continued to occasionally pain him; even in the warmer climate. But he was still a well-preserved, good-looking man. The closeness of him now pleased me.

‘Sicily. I’ve never been there. It sounds lovely.’ I sniffed Kate’s lotion, it smelled deliciously of coconuts and was, I suspected, very expensive. Pouring some into my palm I smoothed it all over my arms and legs.

‘First we will spend some time on the yacht just off Napoli… then we go to Sicily. You will adore it my darling, Kate also. My cousin Vito has a vineyard there. We can stay with them for a while.’ He slipped off his shirt and leaned back, sighing contently. ‘I promise you will enjoy the countryside down there as much as you do here.’

He was deeply tanned and his smooth olive complexion never seemed to require creams or lotions. I glanced across at him admiring the natural shimmer on his skin. As the sun’s rays bounced off him, I traced the shape of his profile with my eyes, the strong jaw line, superb chiselled nose and well-shaped eyebrows. These were still dark although his hair was now quite silver. I loved the way it swept back from his forehead, revealing a prominent widow’s peak hairline that all the Garibaldi family seemed to possess, even his sister Maria.

Heavens, I loved this man so much. How could I possibly have these other feelings, such as the way I felt about Oliver? That simply had to be basic lust.

Occasionally I even thought about Alex. Although that was limited mostly to wondering how he was improving? But what about the strange erotic fluttering I felt sometimes when Kate was around? Hell, life was so confusing at times.

*

Later during the holiday, Kate, Luigi and I were driven down to Naples where the family yacht awaited us. It was much bigger than I expected, sparkling white and aqua blue with sun terraces and large canopied decks. The bedroom cabins were sumptuous, each with its own bathroom. After the luxury of the Tuscany villa I’d been concerned how I would cope with what I imagined would be fairly cramped conditions.

I gazed round in sheer amazement at so much spaciousness. ‘It’s fantastic!’

‘I love it!’ enthused Kate hugging and kissing him.

We both rushed about exploring all it had on board while Luigi looked on in quiet amusement at our girlish pleasure. As well as three crew members there was a ship’s cook on board and a young Italian called Antonio waited on us. It was perfect.

However my pleasure was about to be short lived. This became more evident as soon as we started moving out to sea. From a small child I’d always suffered from travel sickness, especially on boats, and it seemed I hadn’t grown out of it. My sensitive stomach simply could not cope with even the slightest rolling movements.

I’d been sure I would be all right because the yacht was motorised and not reliant on the sails to get us out to sea. However as soon as we set off I began to feel queasy.

Somehow I managed to brave it out until finally we anchored a few miles off Sicily, where I prayed we would stay. I was fine, just as long as the boat stayed still and the waters calm.

The dining salon opened onto a large canopied deck where we retired after dinner that evening to drink coffee and liqueurs. Basking in the glow from the blood-red sun slowly sinking on the western horizon it was sheer bliss for a while and I was able to forget my sickness qualms.

By this time Kate and I had completed the design sketches and fabric choices for the swimwear, a mixture of ten swimsuits and bikinis in bold colours, all with matching sarongs. Kate had also suggested adding long skirts and kaftans in diaphanous coordinating fabrics as alternative accessories. I agreed, it would all gel nicely with the rest of the proposed collection.

I had now decided that provided Kate could put on a little more weight then she should model the swimwear for the catalogue. Otherwise I might have to use another young model called Holly who looked quite like her but who had more shape. I didn’t want to offend Kate though by using the other girl if it could be avoided. We’d have to see how things went.

The agreement between us so far was that once the range was launched Kate would receive a percentage of the sales profit for the use of her name and her design input. If it sold successfully we would produce a new collection each season.

During that first night the boat unfortunately rocked a little more as it lay anchored, causing me to feel quite nauseous again. It infuriated me because I seemed the only one affected by it and I tried desperately to ignore it.

Finally I asked Luigi how long we were likely to stay on the yacht.

‘A couple more days yet,’ he said. ‘Vito has important business talks in Palermo for two days, so I have said we would not arrive at his villa until his birthday, which is the day after tomorrow. Meanwhile we will enjoy relaxing here.’ He smiled sympathetically. ‘I love this yacht so much. Humour me,
cara mia
, please. It is some time since I was able to enjoy it so. The staff and crew have been commissioned for a full three days more. Please try to stick it out for me. I am sure you will love it when you get used to it, my darling. He kissed my cheek but my stomach churned once more to the boat’s gentle movement.

I felt rotten. So he’d guessed all along about my seasickness! ‘I’m sorry, Luigi. Boats have always affected me like this, although I’d hoped I might have outgrown it.’ Once more nausea wafted over me and I closed my eyes praying it would go away.

Luigi then produced some motion sickness pills from the medical box and they helped me a bit and I slept peacefully.

The following morning the sea was like a millpond.

Suddenly I felt much better and was even able to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Nonetheless I was still anxious to return to dry land as soon as possible.

Later, while Luigi and Kate were playing chess together, I called Jules in London to check on things. It was difficult initially to get a line through but eventually I made the connection.

After another fairly good night and thankfully, another calm day at sea I seemed to have found my sea legs and was beginning to enjoy myself at last. The gentlest of breezes had now made it even more bearable to lie in the sun for longer and I even dived into the sea from the boat later that morning; something I would never have once dreamed of doing.

As I floated on my back, wallowing in the cool azure water, I reflected how lucky I was to be married to Luigi. Living under such luxurious conditions for so long now I had shamefully begun to take it all very much for granted. I also now rather liked this yacht experience.

‘Mmm…’ I nodded, my teeth chattering slightly. ‘It was fabulous!’ I pulled the towel together round me ignoring her disagreeable expression.

‘That is why I did not shout to you,
cara
. There was a call for you, from Jules. He said something about a little problem in the workroom. I said you would call back.’

‘OK,’ I said, relaxing for a few moments drying off in the sun next to Kate. I almost wished now that I hadn’t asked Jules to call me in this way, something I’d planned yesterday to enable me to get away off the boat for the next day or two.

‘Don’t forget to ring Jules back!’ Kate soon reminded me, covering her face with her floppy hat.

A few minutes later I went along to the salon to use the phone. Eventually I got through. It shouldn’t be too difficult to change my plans now that I was feeling less unwell and enjoying the boat more.

However, it seemed there was a genuine crisis after all. Two of the new sewing machines were causing serious problems, puckering up some expensive fabric and the engineer was refusing to come out immediately. It was holding up production badly and looked like it needed my personal attention. Also, two of my best workers were complaining about incorrect overtime payment and were threatening to walk out. I could do without this, I thought, especially now business was flourishing. So I agreed to fly back on the first available flight to sort things out.

I felt extremely cross however and apologised to Kate and Luigi. ‘I’m so sorry about this… I really will try to get back in time to enjoy at least some of Sicily with you.’

But Luigi was clearly not pleased. Family affairs to Italians were always so important, and today was his cousin’s sixtieth birthday. We were supposed to be going ashore later to join Vito and his wife Gina, plus more family and friends at their villa for a big party that evening and to stay on there for a few days. Now I would miss the celebrations, although I insisted he and Kate must still go without me. I really would try to rejoin them as soon as I possibly could.

A lunchtime flight was booked for me from Palermo and while the yacht was taken into Palermo harbour I hurriedly got my things together. A taxi rushed me to the airport while Kate and Luigi were leisurely driven to Vito’s villa about fifteen miles from the capital.

*

Back in London I headed straight for Beauchamp Place.

It was late Thursday afternoon and I knew if I couldn’t get an engineer out to the machines the next day it would be next Monday or even Tuesday before one would come. We could not afford the delay.

Jules, looking most apologetic, greeted me. ‘Sorry, Annabel, I tried to get through to you on the boat but I think you’d just left. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know I managed after all to persuade the engineer to come out tomorrow morning. I think my telling him that you were on your way back from Italy to sort it out did the trick. It seems you put the fear of God up him! I guess I should have tried that tack in the first place.’

I laughed. ‘Good.’ Lynda came through and hugged me. I handed them each a bottle of Chianti. ‘That’s one problem sorted. What about the other one?’

‘Yeah, well that’s sorting itself out too,’ said Lynda. ‘It seems no written decision was made over Dolly and Val’s overtime pay and they’ve only been paid the basic rate for three weeks now. They were getting rather shirty about it yesterday. Anyway, for now, I agreed on your behalf that they’d get time and a half, but as any overtime payment instructions always need your signature, I knew they wouldn’t be pleased to receive their wages today with still no overtime included. Anyway, panic over, I explained you were coming back this afternoon to sort it out.’

I smiled at her gratefully. ‘I don’t know how I could’ve overlooked that? I was sure overtime details had been settled and signed for before I left. I suppose I’d better pay them double time now to compensate for my error. I’ll go and have a word.’

Grabbing my last bottle of duty free wine I went along to the workroom to pacify the two women.

Later I was back in my office when Jules and Lynda called in to say they were just leaving. I thanked them again for holding the fort so well.

‘I’ll stay on a couple more days as there are a few other things I want to do. Then I’ll fly back on Sunday evening for the last few days…’ I said, as they departed.

I checked my watch. It was five-thirty. Why not? With any luck Oliver will still be in his office.

CHAPTER 26

The taxi driver dropped me off about a hundred yards from Kate and Oliver's flat in South Kensington and I walked quickly down the road to the pillared entrance. The lift took me swiftly up to the second floor. Thankfully there wasn't a soul around. About to ring the bell, I jumped back in surprise as the door suddenly opened.

Oliver peered out.

'Christ, you gave me such a shock!'

'Sorry, but I heard the lift door and I guessed it might be you.' He wore a dark blue towel wrapped around his middle and a large grin on his face. 'I’ve not been in long myself. Excuse the state of undress by the way. I'll only be a sec.'

You can stay just as you are, I thought, handing him the bottle of Merlot I'd purchased before hailing the taxi. Already I was aroused at the sight of his muscular body and wet crinkly hair. I felt flattered that he was obviously pleased to see me; he even appeared to have been anticipating my arrival.

'Don't mind me. I'm easy. Lovely to see you anyway, however you're dressed ... or
un
dressed, as the case may be.'