Bride By Choice

She returned to the fray for more smiling and shaking hands, until after an hour she felt ready for another breather, and edged to the side of the room.

‘It gets to you, doesn’t it?’ said a voice beside her. She looked up to find the ‘life-guard’ grinning down at her. They laughed together, and it was as though she had been laughing with this charmer all her life.

‘You escaped alive, then?’ she said.

‘At last. He’s a dear old boy but he says everything ten times. My face muscles are frozen at “smile”.’

Close up he was even more overwhelming, towering over her like a friendly giant. Helen was suddenly glad that she looked her best tonight. She knew what the dark red dress could do for her, and if his admiring gaze was anything to go by it was doing it very nicely, thank you!

He gave a hunted glance over his shoulder and took her elbow. ‘Let’s get engaged in deep conversation before anyone else collars me.’

They drifted into one of the window bays and stood looking down the long canyon of Park Avenue, far below, glittering with lights.

‘Wow!’ he said softly.

‘Yes, it’s incredible, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Is this your first trip to New York?’ She couldn’t quite place his accent beyond the fact that he wasn’t American.

‘It’s my first trip to the States,’ he said. ‘I’ve only been here two days and I’m overwhelmed.’

‘Sit down,’ Helen said, ‘and I’ll get you something to eat.’ She scooped up a collection of savouries from a table, refilled his glass, and settled thankfully on a sofa beside him.

‘That sigh told volumes,’ he said with a smile.

‘I didn’t sigh, did I?’

‘Like a woman who hadn’t sat down for a month. Have you been walking the streets? No! I didn’t mean it like that.’ He struck his forehead in horror, while Helen went into gales of laughter.

‘That’s what you say for ladies of easy virtue,’ he groaned. ‘I didn’t mean that at all, I just—oh, God!’

‘Ladies of easy virtue don’t waste time standing on street corners these days,’ Helen chuckled. ‘Not in New York, anyway. They have penthouses and mobiles. Some of them have social secretaries. Now I suppose you’re wondering how I know that?’

He pulled himself together. ‘Certainly not,’ he said with an attempt at dignity. ‘You’re a modern young woman with a wide knowledge of social conditions. And I wish I’d died before I opened my mouth.’

She would have forgiven him much for calling her a modern young woman. But no forgiveness was necessary. He delighted her.

The next moment he delighted her even more by putting his foot in it again, eyeing her identification badge and saying, ‘Besides, since you work here, you must meet all kinds of lady in the hotel—’

‘Not that kind of lady,’ Helen said virtuously. ‘The Elroy doesn’t allow them.’

This time he just covered his eyes in an attitude of despair. Helen regarded him with pleasure. He had reddened with confusion, and it made him look much younger than she guessed he was. Late twenties, she reckoned. Thirty, tops.

He uncovered his eyes, pulled himself together, and looked more closely at her badge. Something he saw there seemed to strike him, for he glanced at her in surprise. But before he could speak she refilled his glass and brought him some more to eat, trying to cover his confusion.

‘Are you going to be connected with the new Italian Restaurant?’ he asked, indicated a glossy brochure.

‘I don’t think so. I’m just here because Mr Dacre thinks of me as Italian, and it’s so unfair.’

‘Why is it unfair?’

‘Because it’s not true. I have an Italian name, which means that my parents are Italian, but I’m not. I can’t convince anybody of that—including them. I’m an American. I was born in Manhattan, I grew up in Manhattan, I’ve never set foot in Italy in my life. I have a career and my own apartment, but Mamma still says, “When are you going to settle down as a good wife to a nice Italian boy?”’

‘And what do you say?’ he asked, fascinated.

‘I say there’s no such thing as a nice Italian boy. They’re all like Poppa.’

‘And you don’t like your father?’

‘I adore him,’ Helen said truthfully. ‘I also adore my brothers, but I’ll go to the stake before I marry anyone like them. Honestly, they still think they’re back in the old country. And my brothers have never seen the old country.’

Indignation was bringing a sparkle to her eyes which turned them into pure magic, he thought. She should get mad more often. It suited her. But he knew better than to voice such an old-fashioned compliment. He didn’t want her wine poured over the shirt he’d bought only that afternoon. To draw her out he asked, ‘What part of Italy is the “old country”?’

‘Sicily,’ she said in tones of deep exasperation. ‘A land where “men are men and women know their place”. Would you believe, I’ve actually heard my father say that?’

‘Easily. If the men of Sicily are used to their privileges they’re not going to give them up without a fight.’

‘Well, I know how to fight too,’ she said darkly.

‘I’ll bet you do. If I was brave and foolhardy I might say that you show your Sicilian ancestry every time you open your mouth.’

‘What?’

‘I mean that Latin temper of yours. Pure southern Italian.’ Catching her wrathful eye on him, he added hastily, ‘But since I’m a coward I won’t say it.’

‘Very wise!’ Then she sighed and said, ‘I’m sorry. I go on about it too much, and I shouldn’t bend your ear. That’s not what you came here for.’

‘Isn’t it?’ he murmured. ‘I’m beginning to think that’s exactly what I came here for.’

Next moment a glamorous young woman detached herself from the crowd, flung an arm about his shoulders and planted a theatrical kiss on his mouth.

‘Bye, sweetie,’ she intoned breathily.

Helen recognised Angela Havering, a fellow trainee whom she’d never liked, she now realised. Angela bestowed a second kiss for good measure before floating off on the arm of another man.

‘I didn’t know you were so well acquainted with Angela,’ she observed.

‘Just met her this evening. Like you, really.’

‘But I don’t call you sweetie,’ she pointed out.

‘You can if you want to. Have a drink with me when this is over.’

She laughed and shook her head. ‘I can’t. I must be going soon. I have urgent things to do.’

‘Such as?’

‘Oooh—’ she mused, ‘really important things, like planning a slow, painful death for Lorenzo Martelli.’

There was a clatter as his glass hit the table and he struggled not to choke.