Unmasking Elena Montella (30 page)

The prices of property in Venice had to be considered, though. Reuben’s place in London wasn’t the largest in the world nor was it in one of the most fashionable locations. In fact, it was more derisible than desirable. He wondered if Rosanna had any money put by. He didn’t expect she earned much as a model. So, he thought, they wouldn’t be buying a palazzo on the Grand Canal in the near future. In his mind’s eye, he conjured up a spacious room with one of those smoky-white glass chandeliers, and golden mirrors reflecting the opalescent Venetian light. A marble floor, polished like a mirror, led to a picture-perfect balcony and, turning to the left, the unrivalled view of the white dome of Santa Maria della Salute. Turning back into the room, Rosanna was lying, naked and lovely, on an antique chaise longue, her dark eyes beckoning to him.

Reuben jolted as a finger tapped his shoulder like an angry woodpecker. He turned to see a ginger-haired man with thick glasses and a backpack the size of Gibraltar nodding to the computer Reuben was sat at.

‘
Keep your hair on!’ Reuben said. ‘I was just logging off.’

As he left the internet café and walked across a small campo, he couldn’t quite believe the recent chain of events. Since the day before, he’d broken up with his fiancée, declared his love to Rosanna and mentally moved home from London to Venice. Life, he thought, could really be rather exciting.

Rosanna was back at the apartment by lunchtime. She’d been right about the retired teacher on the Lido; he hadn’t noticed the vacant look of her eyes nor the skin like curdled milk. She’d stripped and sat and he’d painted and paid.

She threw herself under a hot shower which was what she usually did after a sitting. It was as if she was washing away the gaze of the artist and restoring her body to herself. It also gave her time to think. Water, to Rosanna, was a provoker of thoughts. Whether it was a rainy day, a boat ride on the lagoon, staring into the jade depths of a canal or luxuriating in a steamy shower, each sent her mind into an inner labyrinth of reflection.

She was just towelling herself dry when she heard the front door.

‘
Merda
!’ she cursed. People always seemed to time their visits for the moment you stepped out of the shower or placed a plate of hot food on the table.

Padding through the apartment with bare feet, she ran down the stairs and opened the front door.

‘
Reuben!’ she said, genuinely shocked to see him.

‘
Rosanna!’ he said, genuinely shocked to see her too - in a bathrobe.

‘
I was in the shower,’ she said, quite unnecessarily. ‘Come in before I freeze to death.’

‘
Is Elena in?’

‘
Of course she isn’t! What do you think? Do you think we’ve been having a nice cosy chat?’

‘
I don’t know!’ he answered tersely.

‘
We rowed and she’s gone to Mama’s.’

‘
Where’s that?’

‘
Positano.’

‘
Oh.’

‘
Yes. And I don’t think she’ll be coming back.’

Reuben looked somewhat relieved by this last comment.

‘
I’ve got to put some clothes on,’ Rosanna said, dripping on the floorboards in a perfect echo of the first time they’d met.

‘
Rosanna?’ he called from downstairs as she was shoving her head through a light cotton jumper.

‘
What?’

‘
How long are you going to be?’

‘
I’m getting dressed!’ she shouted back, tutting at his impatience. What was it with artists? They expected you to dress and undress in the most unreasonable of time spans.

She reached in to the chest of drawers and stepped into a pair of jeans before returning back downstairs. Reuben was pacing up and down the apartment like a caged panther and Rosanna felt desperate for him at that moment. He might have seemed like the strong, invincible type but he was really just a little boy.

‘
I don’t know what to do!’ he said.

‘
How about we sit down?’ Rosanna said, giving him a small smile.

He nodded and they sat down.

‘
I feel terrible about all this,’ he said, sitting forward a little so that his back made a long slope away from Rosanna.

‘
And
you
didn’t see Elena last night.’

Reuben winced. ‘Was she angry?’

‘
What do you think? Of course she was bloody angry! We both betrayed her - together! How horribly clichéd is that?’

‘
God!’ Reuben groaned. ‘I was feeling all right this morning. In fact, I was walking around as if I’d just won the lottery or something. And then I thought - really thought about what I’d done to Elena.’

Rosanna narrowed her eyes at his tone of voice. ‘You mean you want this to stop here?’

Reuben turned to face her. ‘No!’ he cried, taking her hands in his. It was the first physical contact they’d had since the evening at the Danieli and Rosanna’s body heated up as if she’d spontaneously combusted.

‘
Because I’ll understand if that’s what you want.’

‘
Will you?’ Reuben asked, genuine puzzlement in his face.

‘
NO!’ Rosanna shouted suddenly. ‘Of course I won’t! I’ll hate you if you do that to me!’

‘
But I wasn’t going to - I mean, I’m not planning to!’

They sat staring at one another for a moment, Reuben’s fingers stroking Rosanna’s. And then they kissed.

‘
I’m falling in love with you,’ he whispered when they finally moved apart.

‘
I should hope so,’ Rosanna whispered back with the tiniest of smiles. ‘I may have sacrificed my sister for you.’

‘
Do you really think you have?’

Rosanna sighed. She felt as if she were about to cry which would have been dreadful and probably enough to scare Reuben off for good. ‘I don’t think she’ll want to talk to me for a long time.’

‘
I don’t think she’ll want to talk to me -
ever!
’

‘
Then we’ve got a problem, haven’t we? If we want to be together.’

Reuben nodded. ‘But I don’t think we’re going to sort it out today.’

Rosanna leant back against the sofa. Reuben was right: there was absolutely nothing they could do about it now. This problem was not the kind to be solved in twenty-four hours. They’d be lucky if it was sorted in twenty-four years.

There was a knock at the door.

‘
Are you expecting someone?’ Reuben asked.

‘
No.’

‘
It wouldn’t be Elena, would it?’

Rosanna shook her head. ‘She’ll be in Positano by now.’

‘
Are you going to answer it?’

‘
I think I should,’ Rosanna said. She was the sort who never liked not answering the door or the telephone because it would bug her for hours afterwards in case she’d missed a life-changing call.

‘
Mark?’ she gasped a moment later.

‘
I’m sorry. I should have called,’ he said, looking flustered.

‘
What are you doing here?’ Rosanna asked, looking over her shoulder.

‘
Can’t you guess?’

Rosanna nodded slowly. ‘She’s not here, I’m afraid.’

‘
I know,’ he said. ‘Can I come in?’

Rosanna frowned. ‘I-’

‘
Rosanna? Who’s that?’ Reuben’s voice called from the top of the stairs.

‘
Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was here,’ said Mark.

‘
I’m just coming,’ Rosanna called back up to Reuben, turning back to face Mark. ‘I’m sorry,’ she began. ‘Can you call back later?’ she asked, half-pushing the door closed, but it was too late: Reuben was standing beside her.

‘
Hello,’ Mark said, nodding to Reuben. ‘I’m Mark.’

‘
Mark?’ Reuben said, the word exiting his mouth like a bullet. ‘The teacher?’

Rosanna rolled her eyes as if she could already see the scene ahead, and the realisation that there was nothing she could do to stop it.

‘
Yes, I’m Mark. Have we met?’

‘
No,’ Reuben said tersely. ‘But I think you know my fiancé.’

‘
Yeah?’

‘
Rosanna’s sister, Elena,’ Reuben said with a dark scowl.’

‘
What do you mean?’

‘
Why the hell are you here?’ Reuben demanded.

‘
Reuben-’ Rosanna started.

‘
What business is it of yours?’ Mark asked defensively.

‘
Because I want to know if you’ve been seeing Elena behind my back.’

‘
Of course I bloody have. I’m engaged to her!’

‘
What? What the hell are you talking about?’

‘
Elena is my fiancé. Or, rather, she was until she returned my ring this morning.’

‘
Oh, Mark!’ Rosanna cried.

‘
But she’s engaged to
me
!’ Reuben shouted.

‘
Aren’t you forgetting something?’ Rosanna interrupted.

‘
What?’ Reuben barked at her

‘
You broke up with Elena to be with
me!
’

‘
You’re engaged to Elena?’ Mark said, his forehead set in a series of serious wrinkles.

‘
Was
engaged to Elena!’ Rosanna corrected.

‘
When, for God’s sake?’

‘
Yesterday!’ Reuben said.

‘
I don’t understand.’

Rosanna flung her hands up to the heavens. ‘I
knew
this would happen! And I knew Elena wouldn’t be around to sort it out when it did!’

Rosanna pushed Reuben up the stairs and Mark followed behind.

‘
Rosanna!’ Mark shouted. ‘Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or not?’

‘
YES!’ Rosanna yelled back. ‘Look. Just come in and sit down - both of you!’ she said, seeing Reuben turning to face her with a dark scowl.

‘
You knew about Mark and you didn’t tell me?’ Reuben said.

‘
It wasn’t like you think.’

‘
Then what was it like?’ Reuben asked.

‘
Sit down - both of you!’ Rosanna told them, her voice holding the authority of a headmistress. ‘This hasn’t been much fun for me either, you know. I told her to sort things out.’

‘
I can’t believe this,’ Mark said. ‘Was she really engaged to us both at the same time?’

Reuben looked over at Mark and, for the first time, their eyes met in what could have been interpreted as shared suffering.

‘
I don’t know how or why she did it but, yes, she was engaged to you both at once.’

Mark and Reuben glowered at Rosanna.

‘
Well, don’t look at me as if I had something to do with it! I did my best to get her to sort things out - believe me!’

‘
But now she’s not engaged to either of us!’ Mark pointed out.

Rosanna sighed and shook her head.

‘
But you two are together now - have I got that right?’ Mark asked.

Rosanna looked across at Reuben to help her out.

‘
I broke up with Elena last night,’ he confessed.

‘
You did?’ Mark asked Reuben incredulously.

‘
Well, not in so many words. Actually, I didn’t need to say anything. She kind of guessed.’

‘
And then she broke up with me. No wonder she was behaving crazily this morning.’

Mark sank down on one of the sofas. His skin was deathly pale.

‘
Mark!’ Rosanna said, sitting down next to him and taking his hands in hers. ‘She loved you! She really did!’