Read Unmasking Elena Montella Online
Authors: Victoria Connelly
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Humor, #Romance, #Fantasy & Futuristic, #Fantasy, #Romantic Comedy
Tears swam in her eyes as the words left her mouth.
‘
Lucio and I had spent the whole summer together. We’d just left school and were celebrating - doing all the crazy stuff you do when you’re sixteen. I’d never met anyone like him before but I guess every sixteen year old girl feels like that when she falls in love, and I really believed I was in love. I thought I was going to spend my whole life with Lucio. We didn’t talk about that, of course; we were too busy messing about to be serious but I could see my whole future clear ahead - as bright as the summer sunshine. We spent hours doing absolutely nothing but our favourite thing - messing about on his moped. He loved that moped. It was like an extension of him, really, and he insisted on it being an extension of me too! We did some really stupid things - every day - but none as stupid as the day I’ve tried so hard to forget.’
Elena stopped for a moment but she didn’t look at Mark. She was miles away - somewhere in the Italian countryside - somewhere in her past.
‘
We’d taken the coast road and had stopped for a picnic that I’d made up that morning. And then …’ she paused. ‘It was all so unreal. Lucio got on his bike and was fooling around. One moment, we were laughing, and making fun of each other, and then there was the roar of his bike as he took up my dare. He was always a bit of a show-off and I loved him for it.
‘
I hadn’t really believed it had happened because it had seemed more like a scene from a film than anything else. I kept expecting him to appear again - with a huge smile on his face as he laughed at having tricked me. But he never did appear.’
‘
What happened?’
‘
His bike had skidded, right on the edge of a cliff. He didn’t have time to stop. I couldn’t even see him - the land just disappeared into air and then sea. There was nothing there.’
‘
God, Elena-’
‘
You see?’ she cried. ‘Do you see now? I had to get away from that person. I hated myself. I was a murderer.’
‘
No, Elena -’
‘
But he died! Because of a stupid, stupid dare! I wanted him to prove himself to me. I was nothing but a vain, self-centred, foolish teenager.’
‘
It was an accident,’ Mark said.
‘
And I caused it!’
They were both silent for a moment.
‘
I never want to go through that again,’ Elena said at last.
Mark frowned at her. ‘But you had two fiancés. Surely that meant doubling the chance of it happening?’
Elena gave a tiny shrug.
‘
I don’t understand you,’ Mark said. ‘I really don’t. If you’d been so scared of losing those close to you, why get engaged at all? That doesn’t make any sense. Unless, you weren’t ever going to take things further than that. Was that it?’
‘
I don’t know,’ she said in a half-whisper. ’Why are you asking me all these questions? I don’t have the answers!’
‘
I’m asking them because you’re
here!
Why are you here telling me all this stuff now? How do you expect me to respond?’
Elena looked at him, her eyes dark and full of sadness. ‘I just thought I owed you an explanation. That’s all. I wanted to say I was sorry. And that I love you.’
There was another pause and Elena’s words hung heavy in the air between them.
‘
What do you want from me, Elena?’ Mark asked. ‘You want me to promise you I’m not going to die? I can’t do that! I wish I could. I wish I could stand here and tell you that everything’s going to be just fine between us but I can’t. Nobody can guarantee that sort of thing. I can’t - you can’t -
nobody!
’
Elena let the tears spill from her face. ‘I know that!’
Mark bit his lip and sighed. ‘Don’t cry,’ he said.
Elena looked up at him. ‘Then tell me you love me!’ she said, her voice loud - demanding attention.
It took Mark completely by surprise and made him laugh which made Elena laugh too. The room was suddenly filled with laughter and, before they knew it, they were hugging and kissing.
‘
God! Elena! You’ll never ever fail to knock the wind right out of me!’ He wrapped his arms around her tightly as if he never meant to let go.
Elena hugged him back. ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t want me! I’m horrible. I’ve lied to you, deceived you-’
‘
And I still love you! I must be completely mad!’
‘
Let’s be mad together, Mark. Please? Will you give me another chance? I know I don’t deserve it. I know I’ve been impossible and that I should leave you in peace to find somebody nice but I can’t do that.’
He smiled at her and pushed her dark hair away from her eyes. ‘And I wouldn’t let you.’
‘
Really?’
‘
Really. I love you, Elena. You infuriate me. You make me want to tear my hair out and stuff it in my mouth until I choke myself. But I love you!’
Elena’s eyes filled with fresh tears. ‘Then you’ll marry me?’
Mark took a deep breath. ‘As long as you promise I’m the only fiancé you’re going to marry.’
She nodded. ‘I promise.’
Elena and Mark got married in the middle of August and the reception was held in the grounds of a small hotel in the Thames valley overlooking the river, just as Mark had imagined it. Barney Malone was there with the newly resurrected
No
Name
. He’d jacked in his office job after three weeks and was actually now making a killing playing at weddings.
‘
It isn’t exactly
Top of the Pops
, but it pays the rent and keeps me out of a suit,’ he said.
Linda was there too - back in fine singing fettle after giving birth to baby Cher.
Rosanna and Reuben had flown over from Venice to be there and Mark had even shaken Reuben’s hand and received a slap on the back in return.
Even Tomi, the skint Finn made an appearance, offering Mark his old job back with a small pay rise as a wedding present.
It was the perfect day. The sky was the colour of forget-me-nots and a gentle breeze from the river was just enough to prevent Elena from overheating in her full-length rose-coloured gown.
‘
You look gorgeous,’ Mark whispered to her when they finally managed to escape the wedding party and sneak down to the river.
‘
And you look so handsome,’ she said. She’d never seen Mark in a suit before and he looked very dashing in his wine-coloured cravat. Very Mr Darcy, she thought.
‘
We’ll have to have a honeymoon, you know,’ he said. ‘Now I’ve got my job back.’
‘
I know,’ she agreed.
‘
Anywhere you fancy?’
Elena looked thoughtful. ‘Not Venice,’ she said. ‘Anywhere but Venice.’
He laughed. ‘Agreed.’
Elena felt as if she never wanted to go back to Venice, yet, at the same time, she couldn’t shake the place from her mind. She felt as if its labyrinthine streets had found a way into her very soul. Sometimes, she even dreamed about them: walking over endless bridges and staring into its canals, and each journey would end at Viviana’s.
‘
Where have you been?’ Stefano would say. ‘I’ve been worried about you.’
‘
I’m fine, Stefano! Please don’t worry about me. Everything’s fine. Absolutely fine!’
And, on waking, she really did feel fine. Perhaps it was because she’d come to terms with the fact that the past was the past. She couldn’t erase it but she had to move forward into her future, and that future now contained Mark. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so happy before. So they hadn’t been able to afford the flat they wanted, so they were still working for appalling wages, but they had each other. Mark was right about not being able to guarantee her the future she wanted but, with Mark beside her, she’d quickly realised that the present was a pretty good place to be.
And the mask?
The mask remains in its box, safely cushioned in its tissue-paper bedding on a shelf in Elena’s wardrobe. When she first brought it home, she couldn’t stop getting it out and holding it, checking to see if the gold was less gold in the English light. It wasn’t, of course. It glimmered and glowed as if alive but not once did she try it on. She didn’t need to. The mask had done its job and it deserved a happy retirement but, even though she didn’t think she’d ever need to wear it again, she wouldn’t part with it for the world. Perhaps it was a comfort thing - just having it there.
No, Elena really doesn’t think she’ll ever need to wear it again. But you never know, do you?
###
To Ken Howard and Dora Bertolutti for letting us stay in their wonderful Venetian home. To Mario and Michela at Ca’macana, and to Susanna Ensom at Flavia for answering all my questions about the magical world of mask making.
To Clare Donovan and Benita Brown for having so many wonderful Italian facts at their fingertips! Also to Stephen Bowden and all at FAW for encouragement and friendship. And to Catriona, Giselle, Henriette, Deborah, Hsin-Yi and Sue.
To Val, Pat, Tonia, Francoise, Kassandra, Carol, Barbara, Jennifer and Amarjit for sharing the great pleasure of writing.
And many many thanks to my wonderful friends in Germany: Frauke, Carola, Brigitte, Doris and all at Diana Verlag.
And to my wonderful husband Roy for carrying my laptop around Venice for me!
Victoria Connelly was brought up in Norfolk and studied English literature at Worcester University before becoming a teacher in North Yorkshire. After getting married in a medieval castle in the Yorkshire Dales and living in London for eleven years, she moved to rural Suffolk where she lives with her artist husband and a mad Springer spaniel and ex-battery hens.
Her first novel, Flights of Angels, was published in Germany and made into a film. Victoria and her husband flew out to Berlin to see it being filmed and got to be extras in it.
Several of her novels have been Kindle bestsellers.
If you’d like to contact Victoria or sign up for her newsletter about future releases, email her at:
[email protected]
She loves hearing from her readers.
She’s also on Facebook and Twitter @VictoriaDarcy
The Perfect Hero
(Dreaming of Mr Darcy)
One Perfect Week and Other Stories