Bella would never forget the day when Tito put the little girl in her arms. She was sitting at the kitchen table and he walked in carrying the child, the most beautiful child she had ever seen. Silver-white hair and huge turquoise eyes. Dressed in a little white frilly skirt, sandals and a pink jacket.
Seven-year-old Fabio, leaning against the table, stared curiously at the little girl.
‘Fabby!’ said Bella sharply. ‘Go out and play now. Go on!’
Sulkily, Fabio did as he was told. The little girl let out a cry, held up her hands to Tito.
‘No, bambina, this is your mama, your new mama,’ he said, and she looked at Bella. Bella stared back at her, a tremulous smile on her face.
‘She’s so beautiful,’ said Bella in wonder. ‘Where did you…?’ Then Bella stopped herself. She had instigated this; she had wanted a daughter, and now she had one. A shiver of guilt, of apprehension, shuddered through her, but she squashed it. She was not about to question the good luck that had brought her such fortune.
‘What are you going to call her?’ asked Tito.
Bella looked at the girl, who was clutching with tiny perfect hands into the front of Bella’s dress. ‘She’s so white. Pale, and all this white hair. So pretty. I’ll call her the white one. I’ll call her Bianca.’
Now Bella’s eyes moved on. She was frowning at the small bloodstain on the pink jacket. She looked up at Tito.
‘Ask no questions, Mama,’ he said sternly. ‘When you’ve got her some new clothes you burn that, all right? And you’ll have to tell Fabby and Vittore that the adoption came through at last.’
‘And other people? The neighbours? Our friends?’
Tito shrugged. ‘Tell them the same. If anyone pries, I’ll sort it. Not that they will.’
Bella nodded dazedly. No one questioned the Danieri family over their way of life or what happened in their household. You didn’t ever look too closely at what they did. It would be dangerous.
‘Beautiful little Bianca,’ said Bella, stroking the child’s pale hair.
Tito withdrew. He had to get rid of the Jeep. He’d done his part, and now Mama would be satisfied. The girl whimpered when he left the room, but Mama Bella soothed her.
68
‘Well, what other reason could there be for Michael calling her ladyship?’ Kit asked Rob when they were in the car and heading down the drive, Brayfield’s massive bulk disappearing into the distance behind them.
‘Don’t tell me you reckon she was telling the truth?’ Rob shook his head. ‘Can you honestly see Michael arsing around making courtesy calls to some inbred aristo? He hated Cornelius Bray’s guts for the way the bastard treated Ruby. And as for “her ladyship”, that damned woman took Daisy off Ruby – d’you think for one moment Michael would have much to say to her?’
‘Seriously? No.’
Rob was shaking his head as Kit turned into the lane, big froths of cream cow parsley crowding in on either side of them. There was a glimpse of the cress beds as the Bentley shot over the bridge and then they were heading into Brayfield village. Rob thought it was all too quaintly country, with its thatched cottages and its stream with ducks lazing on the grassy bank in the sunshine. It looked like something off a chocolate box.
‘I can’t believe Daisy grew up in that place,’ said Rob.
Kit shot Rob a look. Rich people were ‘nobs’ to Rob, and he mocked them mercilessly, often putting on a cuttingly accurate imitation ‘posh’ accent. He never did it when he was around Daisy, Kit noticed, but Rob’s council-estate upbringing and the staunch lower-class ethics of his parents had clearly left a mark.
Kit wondered whether he should say anything, and then thought what the hell. This was Rob, his oldest pal. And Daisy was his sister, his twin.
‘Daisy likes you a lot,’ he said.
‘I know.’
‘I think she thought you liked her too.’
Rob looked at Kit. ‘I do like her.’
‘So…?’
‘So what? It’s not going anywhere, is it?’ He gestured over his shoulder. ‘Come on, mate, get real. Look at that fucking place. That’s where she came from.’
‘No,’ said Kit. ‘If you’re going to be picky about it, she was born in the East End like me, she was illegitimate like me, and Ruby’s dad – our granddad Ted – ran a corner shop. That’s Daisy’s real background.’
‘Come on. She grew up in a stately home.’
‘Daisy’s a diamond.’
‘I know that. But-’
‘You don’t think it can go anywhere, you and her,’ finished Kit.
‘How can it? Look, what am I? I break heads for a living, I used to mind Ruby. That’s all I am, that’s what I do. Have you any idea what it would be like, trying to introduce Daisy to my family? They’d laugh their heads off at her. And at me.’
‘OK.’
‘You know it’s true.’
Kit didn’t see that it mattered where Daisy had been brought up or how posh she spoke, but to Rob it was obviously a problem. Which, come to think of it, made Rob the snob – not Daisy, who happily mixed in with anyone. But he could see it was no good pushing Rob into a corner on this.
‘I met a girl,’ said Kit when the silence deepened as he drove them back towards London.
‘Oh?’ Rob looked at him with interest.
‘Her name’s Bianca. She dresses in white. She’s got this platinum blonde hair and she’s pale-skinned with these big blue eyes and a fantastic body.’
‘Right…’ Rob paused, waiting for Kit to go on. Kit didn’t. ‘And…?’ Rob prompted him at last.
Kit knew he could tell Rob anything, anything at all, and Rob would listen, sympathize – and then do whatever was necessary to ensure his mate was protected from any comebacks. But this…
‘I met her in Southampton. She runs a club there at the Back of the Walls – Dante’s.’
‘That’s why you took so long coming back?’
‘That’s right.’
‘You keeping in touch then?’
Kit flicked a glance at Rob. Ah shit, he thought.
‘She was adopted,’ he said.
‘Right.’
‘An Italian immigrant family adopted her after they came to England.’
‘OK.’
Kit let out a sharp breath. ‘Astorre and Bella Danieri adopted her.’
Rob was silent for long moments. Then he turned his head and stared at Kit. ‘You what?’
‘I had no idea, OK? You know how it is when you’re screwing around, having fun? That’s how it started. I thought it was a quick fuck and then goodbye. Jump on, smash the life out of it, sorted. I gave her a false name.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Only, as soon as I’d done that, I realized there was something more going on.’
‘No…’ Rob was shaking his head again, and now he raised his shovel-like hands and clutched at his temples and shut his eyes and said: ‘Tell me you’re not doing this. Tell me you’re not even thinking of doing this.’
Kit was silent.
‘She’ll find out who you are. As soon as she connects Kit Miller with you, what the fuck’s she going to think then? Kit – you killed Tito. You killed her brother. This is a bloody disaster, mate.’
‘I know that.’
‘She don’t know yet though? She don’t know who you are?’