‘Yes. It’s a wonderful arrangement for Bea and me.’
‘For your mother, also, I think, yes?’ She turned to Dante. ‘Bea has finished. Would you take her for a little walk in the garden, caro?’
Bea looked at Rose in appeal. ‘Can I go, Mummy?’
‘Of course. Wipe your hands on your napkin first, please—mouth, too.’
Bea obeyed with alacrity then took the hand Dante held out. ‘You got lots of flowers, Daddy.’
‘Allora, shall we go and count them?’
Maria cleared her throat as she watched her son walk off, hand in hand with his child. ‘She is so sweet, Rose. Grazie tante for allowing Dante to share her. This is hard for you?’
‘In some ways, yes,’ said Rose honestly. ‘Until a short time ago no one—not even my mother—knew that your son is Bea’s father.’
Maria shook her elegantly coiffed head. ‘So if you had not met Dante again in Firenze he would never know he has a child.’
‘No.’ Rose flushed painfully. ‘By the time I knew I was pregnant Dante was already married.’
‘My heart was heavy the day he married Elsa Marino,’ said the other woman forcefully. ‘Then one day my prayers were answered and she left him for that wealthy old fool, Enrico Calvi.’
‘But until I met Dante again in Florence I didn’t know that,’ Rose said, and looked Maria Fortinari in the eye. ‘It wasn’t easy for me to come here, signora. I was afraid you’d think I was trying to trap a rich father for my child.’
Maria smiled ruefully. ‘I confess I wondered. But then Dante described how you work so hard to make a good life for the little one. I think you are very brave. But now,’ she added, suddenly brisk, ‘what will you do? Dante says you refuse to marry him.’
Rose felt her colour rise. ‘I’m used to running my own life, signora. And even though we have Bea as a common factor, Dante and I don’t really know each other very well.’
‘Yet you were drawn to him in the past, yes? Or Bea would not be here.’
Rose nodded ruefully. ‘I fell madly in love with your son the moment I met him, and believed he felt the same about me. I was devastated when I found he had a fiancée, but my world really fell apart later when I found I was expecting his child.’
Maria winced. ‘Did you curse him at the hour of Beatrice’s birth?’
Rose shook her head sadly. ‘No. I wanted him there with me so much I cried. But I still didn’t say who I was crying for.’
Maria sighed. ‘Your mother must feel much anger at my son, I think.’
‘No, signora. I’ve made it very plain that what happened between Dante and me was mutual.’
Rose was glad to change the subject when Bea came running towards them with Dante in hot pursuit. ‘Mummy, Mummy, there’s a little pool!’ Bea launched herself onto Rose’s lap, her eyes bright with excitement.
‘We shall take Mummy to see it later,’ Dante promised.
‘And tomorrow,’ said his mother, ‘you will come to Fortino to meet the rest of the family. We will have a party, yes?’