Unmasking Elena Montella (9 page)

‘
How come Rosanna thought you were engaged to this Mark, then?’

Elena shrugged. ‘Rosanna?’

Great! It was pass the buck time. Rosanna might have guessed. She felt so angry. How was she meant to know that the half-naked man in the middle of Sandro’s apartment wasn’t Mark, her sister’s fiancé? One minute, Elena was telling her about this man she’d met at work and, after what seemed to her to be an extraordinarily short space of time, got engaged to. She’d shown her the ring too - a beautiful diamond solitaire. A little smaller than she’d imagined Elena ending up with but lovely all the same. Then, after chiding her for her behaviour, she went out for a few brief moments and came back to find a semi-naked man padding around the apartment. A man called Reuben to whom her sister was engaged. Was she going mad?

For a few tense moments, she let them stew whilst her mind tumbled. Half of her wanted to expose and embarrass Elena - to flush out her lies and find out exactly what was going on; the other half - the sisterly half - got the better of her and, like a fool, she heard herself backing her sister’s ridiculous story.

‘
I’m sorry,’ she heard herself saying. ‘I must have got confused. We had a few drinks last night and, what with not getting enough sleep, I had the most horrendous headache this morning. I’ve obviously got everything muddled.’

Reuben nodded sagely. Rosanna was an appalling actress but her lie was obviously what he wanted to believe.

‘
You see?’ Elena said, her tone jovial but jarring to Rosanna’s ears. ‘You can be so silly and jealous sometimes,’ she said, hugging Reuben and kissing his cheek.

Rosanna couldn’t quite believe what she was witnessing and she had an uncontrollable urge to slap her sister. She didn’t know what was going on but she’d wager Elena was up to no good.

Mark wasn’t savouring his flight to Venice. There weren’t many people in the world that could get him on a plane and, even though it was only a two-hour flight, he couldn’t help wishing that Elena had a sister in Norfolk instead of Italy.

Barney’s girlfriend had come good with his three hundred pounds but he wasn’t likely to see much change from it if he had to find a hotel. He was really hoping that Elena would let him stay in the apartment. He smiled to himself. Venice was meant to be one of the most romantic cities in the world. He had visions of them walking through the streets as if they were honeymooners. They might even want to go back for their honeymoon, he thought, trying not to think how many thousands of feet in the air he was at that precise moment and also refusing to think about how much this wedding and honeymoon were going to cost. It would mean taking out a loan and the thought of that made his stomach flip. But Elena deserved nothing but the best. For a moment, he tried to imagine her in a wedding dress – something floaty yet elegant – like Liv Tyler in
Lord of the Rings
. Yes, he liked that idea. He’d already been checking out venues for the reception and had found a perfect coaching inn in the Thames Valley with the prettiest garden looking out over the river. Well, if you were going to get into debt, you might as well do it with style, he reckoned.

They hadn’t talked much about where they were going to live but it was pretty obvious that his grim flat wasn’t in the running. He’d never been to Elena’s. She’d assured him that her flat was worse than his and that it wouldn’t do at all as a marital home so he guessed they’d be looking for something else over the summer.

Mark had wondered about asking Tomi about a pay rise but he’d thought better of it when he was told by another of the teachers that the last person to do that had been ‘let go’ and replaced by someone half his age for, presumably, half the salary. They’d have to come up with something else. Maybe they could teach some private lessons. He’d always been rather keen on the idea but couldn’t possibly think to do it in his present accommodation.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture the kind of apartment he imagined them living in: a light, spacious loft conversion with pale wooden floors, white walls and windows looking out over more expensive suburbs than his present flat did. Three or four bedrooms would be nice: one for them, a spare for friends and family, a study, and one for – he grinned – the future.

Maybe they could use the study as a classroom – setting up their very own school in miniature. They could charge a better hourly rate and there wouldn’t be the hassle of early mornings on the tube and the stress of actually getting Tomi to pay them at the end of each month. They could stumble out of bed after an early session under Egyptian cotton sheets, share a shower, cook breakfast in the sleek steel kitchen and then greet the students who’d all be incredibly well-behaved and stinking rich.

Mark fidgeted in his seat as he began to get excited about his dream future with Elena. That was the great thing about dreams – you could have the most expensive taste in the world and it wouldn’t cost you a penny. He dreaded to think what the reality would be but he wasn’t going to think about that now. Instead, he focussed on the next few days ahead and what he was hoping to achieve.

It was only over the last couple of weeks that he’d become aware of Elena’s multiple persona. He didn’t really know how to explain it but he got the feeling that she was many different people all at once. He knew everybody could be like that: who didn’t become the downtrodden child when talking to a parent, or a sycophantic sop when speaking to a bank manager? But it was more than that with Elena.

For the most part, he got the vibrant vixen who was so full of energy that it practically spilled out of her but there were times when somebody else would flash from her eyes – a distant, more thoughtful person – somebody she tried to keep hidden but who, nevertheless, kept trying to escape.

‘
What’s the matter?’ he’d asked her the first time he’d seen her with a look in her eyes of such mournful proportions that it had almost made him cry.

‘
Nothing!’ she’d said, and her mouth had heaved into a huge smile again and the look was gone. He’d caught her off-guard but she refused to acknowledge it, and that wouldn’t do. If they were going to be married, if they were planning a future together, then he needed to know all about her.

There was nothing about his mundane life she needed to know. An only child with divorced parents who’d both gone on to marry perfect replicas of their exes, he’d spent all his life in West London with a quick detour to Edinburgh University before becoming a teacher. He felt dull, dull, dull, and he wondered what somebody as vibrant as Elena was doing with someone like him. They said opposites attracted but he felt as if he were a bungalow next to her palace. But this palace obviously had hidden hallways – maybe even a prison or two – and it was up to him to find out exactly what she was hiding behind so perfect a façade.

Reuben had to admit that Elena argued a convincing case as to why Rosanna thought she was engaged to some teacher called Mark rather than an artist called Reuben, but he still had his suspicions. After all, she hadn’t exactly greeted him with open arms. He thought he could’ve at least expected a warmer welcome from her after having travelled such a long way - or at least a welcome somewhere above tepid - but no - she’d been suspicious and, unless he was becoming really paranoid, she’d looked guilty. She’d kept looking over his shoulder as if she’d expected him to have brought somebody with him and, when he’d kissed her, it had felt tense and awkward.

As they left the apartment, he confronted her.

‘
I don’t think you’re telling me the truth, Elena,’ he said, kicking his suitcase which was also behaving badly.

She rolled her eyes at him. ‘You can think what you like but I
am
telling you the truth. I’m engaged to
you!
’

‘
Me and me alone?’ he asked. Was it his imagination or did he see a very pronounced swallow when he asked her that question?

‘
Of
course
you alone! What do you take me for?’

‘
Then where’s my ring? Why aren’t you wearing my ring? he asked, noticing the missing rubies.

‘
It’s
my
ring,’ she corrected. ‘And I never wear rings when travelling. You don’t know who might be eyeing up your valuables.’

Reuben supposed that was a fairly reasonable argument and yet he couldn’t help feeling that she was hiding something.

‘
I’ve got the ring upstairs,’ she said. ‘I can go and put it on – right now – if you want me to,’ she said, turning around and making to return to the apartment.

Of course, he shook his head. ‘Don’t bother,’ he said. ‘But make sure you have it on tomorrow’

‘
I will!’ she replied and her eyes flickered with sudden mischief. ‘I’ll be wearing your ring and nothing else if you manage to find yourself a hotel.’

He smiled. Elena always knew exactly what to say and he felt his suspicion ebbing away. He even let her persuade him to book into the Hotel Danieli which was extravagant even by his standards. The Venetian-red palazzo seemed to glow in the rich afternoon light and he had to admit that it was beautiful.

‘
It’s
so
romantic,’ she cooed as they entered through the revolving doors and took in the sumptuous splendour of the foyer. So he booked a double room with a view out across the lagoon. As he took in the Murano glass chandeliers, the antiques, the pink marble and the gold leaf columns, he knew that he’d be able to knock out a few pictures during his stay and thus recoup any money spent.

Once in the room overlooking the Bacino di San Marco, they had sex. He couldn’t use the phrase ‘making love’ because that, to him, implied something long and luxurious, and what Elena and he had was fast and furious; it left them breathing heavily and sweating profusely.

As he was gazing up at the ornate ceiling, Elena propped herself up on an elbow and, stroking an idle finger through his hair, asked, ‘You do believe me, don’t you?’

‘
What?’ Reuben was still lost in the land of lust.

‘
That you’re my one and only.’

‘
Yes,’ he said but, quite frankly, at that moment in time, he would have said anything she’d wanted him to say.

They kissed and fell asleep and, after she left, he showered, towelling himself dry for the third time that day. Despite the sumptuous surroundings, he felt uneasy and restless and there was only one way out of that. Picking up his sketchbook, he began to draw. Black, silken hair. Soft, dark eyes. Gentle curves of shoulders and breasts. He drew them quickly and confidently because he’d been paying them so much attention.

He filled page after page until the light in the room turned into the rich amber of early evening and then he flicked back through the pages. She was beautiful, he thought, as he looked at the images he’d caught with a few brief strokes of charcoal.

Finally, he closed the sketchbook before closing his eyes but it wasn’t any good because the images were burned into his brain. She was beautiful. It was the only word he could think of to describe her, and, at that moment, he felt as if he couldn’t live without her.

He sighed a long and weary sigh as he whispered her name under his breath.

‘
Rosanna!
’

Elena had to admit that she was shocked and shaken by Reuben’s unexpected visit and felt sure she had betrayed herself terribly. Normally, her life was beautifully orchestrated; with three fiancés, you couldn’t live any other way. Of course, she could never fully predict what Reuben, Mark and Prof were going to request from day to day but she was always the master of control. A quick:
I’m sorry, I can’t see you today – something’s come up at work
, usually did the trick. She’d never really found herself in any sticky situations, which was lucky, she knew. Maybe she’d subconsciously chosen three very understanding men but, with Reuben’s arrival, it seemed that things were beginning to unravel and that her past might be about to catch up with her. It was something that certainly seemed to preoccupy Rosanna.

‘
What the hell is going on here?’ she’d hissed under her breath as soon as Reuben had disappeared to get dressed.

‘
Shush! He’ll hear you!’

‘
I don’t care. I think he should be made aware of what’s going on here - whatever it is!’

Elena pushed Rosanna to the far end of the living room and they sat down on one of the enormous sofas.

‘
Just listen -
quietly!
’ she said.