The santagelic marriage

Chapter 1

The glass door of the clincia San Francisco whispered open and every head turned to observe the man who came striding out of the darkness into the reception area

If Marcus santagelic was aware of their scrutiny,or if he sensed that there were far more people hanging around than could be deemed strictly necessary at that time of night,and most of them female he gave no sign

His lean six foot tall body was clad in the elegance of evening clothes and his ruffled shirt was open at the throat, his black tie thrust negligently into the pocket of his night jacket.

One of the loitering nurses, staring at his disheveled dark hair,murmured to her colleague with unknowingly accuracy that he looked as if he’d just rolled out of bed and the other girl sighed wistfully in agreement.

He was not classically handsome but his thin face, with its high cheekbones heavy lidded golden brown eyes and that mobile.faintly sensual mouth which looked as if it could curl in a sneer and smile in heart stopping allure with equal ease had a dynamism that went beyond mere attractiveness and every woman looking at him felt like a tug to the senses

The fact that he was frowning and his lips were set in a grin line did nothing to reduce the force of his blatantly masculine appeal.

He looked it was felt jaunt a loving son should when called unexpectedly to the bedside of a sick father.

Then as the clinic director signor Mario

Emerged from his office to greet him the crowd hurriedly realizing it should be elsewhere,began to fade away swiftly and unobtrusively away.

Marcus wasted no time on niceties. He said,his voice sharp with anxiety, my father how is he ?

Resting comfortably,the older man responded

Fortunately an ambulance was summoned immediately when it happened so there was no delay in providing the appropriate treatment;he smiled reassuringly it was not a serious attack and we expect the marchese to make a complete recovery

Marcus expelled a sigh of relief may I see him?

Of course I will take you to him signor Mario pressed a button to summons a lift to the upper floors he gave his companion a sidelong glance, it is of course important that your father avoids stress and I am glad that you are here now to set his mind at rest

It is a relief to me also signore the tone was courteous but it had a distancing effect so far it seemed to warn and no further.

The clinic director had heard that signor Marcus could he formidable,and this was a confirmation he needed,he thought, relapsing into the discreet silence

Marcus had been expecting to find his father private room peopled by consultants and quietly shod attendants with Lucas santagelic under the sedation and hooked up to monitors and drips

But instead his father was alone propped up by pillows, wearing his own striking matin slim pyjamas and placidly turning over the pages of a magazine on international finance.taking the place of machinery was a large and fragrant floral arrangement on a side table.

As Marcus checked astonished in the doorway Lucas peered at him over his glasses ah he said finalmete he paused

You were not easy to trace my son!

Fretting,Marcus thought,might be an exaggeration,but the slightly edge to his words was unmistakable.he came forward slowly his smile combining rueful Ned’s and the charm in equal measure Nevertheless papa,I am here now and so thankfully, are you

I was told you collapsed with a heart attack’

It was what they called an incident “Lucas shrugged. Alarmingly at the time but soon dealt with I am to rest here for a couple of days and then I will be allowed to return home he sighed but I have to take medication and cigars and brandy have been forbidden for a while at least .

Well the cigars at any rate must ve counted as a blessing Marcus said teasingly as he took his father hand and kissed it lightly

His father pulled a face that is also otavia opinion she has just left I have her to thank for the pyjams and the flowers also for summoning helps so promptly.we had just finished dinner when I became ill.

Marcus brows life’s then I am grateful to her he pulled up a chair and pause I hope sognora alaxi did not go to my account

She’s is a woman of supreme tact said his father and she knew we would wish to talk privately there is no other reason I have assured her that you no longer regard our relationship as. Betrayal of your mother’s memory

Marcus smiled twisted a little Grazie you were right to say so he hesitated, so may I now expect to have a new step mother?

If you wish to formalize the situation i…I would welcome

Lucas life’s his hands there is no question of that we have fully discussed the matter but decided that we both value our independence too highly and remain content as we are He remove his glasses and put them carefully on the locker beside his bed and while we are on the subject of marriage, where is your wife ?

Well I walked headlong into that thought Marcus cursing under his breath aloud he said she is in England papa as I think you know

Ah yes his father gave a meditative nod where she went shorty faster your honey moon I believe and has remained ever since

Marcus mouth tightened I felt a period of adjustment might be helpful

A curious decision,perhaps said Lucas considering the pressing reasons for your marriage you are the last of the line my dear Marcus and as you approached the age of thirty without the less sign of abandoning your bachelor life and settling down it became imperative to remind you that you had a duty to produce a legitimate heir to carry on the santagelic name both privately and professionally

He paused you seemed to accept that. And with no other candidate in mind you also consented to marry the girl your late mother always intended for you her beloved goddaughter Mallory Roy. I wish to be sure that advancing age has not damaged my remembrance and that I have details of the agreement correct you understand he added blandly

Yes Marcus set his teeth advance age he thought wryly how long did crocodiles survive ? You are of course quite right

Yet eight months have passed and still you have no good news to tell me this would have been a disappointment in any circumstance, but in view of the evening events my need to hear that the next generation is established becomes even more pressing from now on I must take more care they tell me moderate my life style in other words i have been made aware of my own mortality and I confess that I would dearly like to hold my first grand child in my arms before I die

Marcus moved restively papa you will live many years yet we both know that

I can hope said Lucas briskly but that is not my point “

He leaned back against his pillows adding quietly your bride can hardly give you an heir figilo mio if you do not share a roof with her let alone a bed or do you visits her in London perhaps in order to fulfill your marital obligations?

Marcus rose from his chair and walked over to the window lifting the slats of the blind to look out into the darkness an image of a girl white face rose in his mind her eyes blank and tearless and a feeling that almost shame twisted like a knife in his guts .

No he said at last i do not

Then why not ? His father demanded what can be the problem? yes the marriage was arranged you but so was my own and your mother and I soon came to love each other deeply and here you have been given a girl young, charming,and indisputably innocent. Some one moreover you have known each other for much of your life if she was not your taste you should have said so “

Marcus turned and gave him an ironic look it does not occur to you papa that maybe the shoe is on ther other foot and Mallory does not want me ?’

Che scioccohezze!!!! Lucas said roundly what nonsense

When she stayed with us as a child it was clear to everyone that she adored you unfortunately now she’s older , but her feelings are very different Marcus said dryly particularly where the realities of marriage are concerned

Lucas pursed his lips in exasperation what can you be saying that a man of experience with women cannot seduce his own wife? You should have made duty a pleasure,my son and used your honey moon to make her fall in love with you all over again he paused after all she was not forced to marry you

Marcus gave his father a level look I think we both know that is not true. Once she discovered from that witch of a cousin

How deeply she was indebted to our family she had little choice in the mattter

Lucas frowned heavily you do not tell her, explain that it was the dying wish of your mother her madrina

That financial provisions should continue to be made for her!?

I tried but it was useless she knew that mama wanted us to marry. For her it all seemed part of the same ugly transaction;

He paused and the cousin also made her aware that when I propose to her I had a mistress after such revelations, the honey moon was hardly destined to go well”I

The woman has much to answer for it, it seems Lucas said icily but you my son were a fool not to have setttles matters with the beautiful Lucia long before you approached your marriage;

If stupidity were all I could live with ig Marcus said with quiet bitterness but I was also unkind, and I can’t forgive my self for that

I see his father said slowly well,that is bad but it is more important to ask yourself if your wife can be persuaded to forgive you

Who knows? Marcus gestures was almost helpless I thought a breathing space time apart to consider what we had under taken would help and at the beginning I wrote to her regularly, telephone and left her messages but there was never any reply and as the weeks passed the hope of any resolution became more distant he paused, before addinawexpressionless, I told my self you understand I would not beg

Lucas put his fingertips together and studied them intently A divorce naturally, could not be countenance he said at last

But from what you are telling me it seems there might be grounds for annulment

No Marcus said harshly his mouth set do not be misled the marriage exists and Mallory is my wife nothing can change that

So you say his father commented grimly

But you could be wrong . Your grandmother honored me with a visit yesterday to inform me that your current liaison with Doris venocci is now talked openly

Momma Teresa Marcus bit out the name what a gratifying interest she takes in all the details of my life,especially those she considers less than savoury and how could a woman with such a mind produce such a gentle loving daughter as my mother??

It has always been mystical to me too Lucas admitted but for once her gossip mongering may be justified because she believes it can only be a matter of time before some one tells antonio venncci exactly how his wife has been amusing herself while he has been in Vienna.

He saw his son brows lift and nodded, and that my dear Marcus could change everything both for you and your absent wife because the scandal that would follow would ruin any remaining chance of a reconciliation with her if that is what you want of course.

It is what must happen Marcus said quietly I cannot allow this present situation to continue any longer for one thing I am running out of excuses to explain her absence for another I accept that the purpose of our marriage must be fulfilled without further delay

Dio mio his father said faintly I hope your approach to your bride will be made in more alluring terms or I warn you my son , you will surely fail

Marcus smile was hard no he said not this time and that is a promise

However Marcus was thoughtful so later he drove back to his apartment he owned the top floor of a former palazor, the property of an old and noble family who had never seen the necessity to work for their living until it was too late but although he enjoyed its grace and elegance he used it merely as a pied a terre in Rome

Because the home of his heart was the ancient and imposing country house deeepnin the Tuscan country side where he had been born and where he expected to began his married life in the specially cover wing designed to give them al the space and privacy that newlyweds could ever need.

He remembered slowing it to Mallory before the wedding asking if she had any ideas of requirements of her own that could be incorporated but she said halting that it all seemed very nice and refusing to be drawn further And she certainly not commented ion the adjoining bedrooms that they would occupy after their marriage with the communicating door

And if she has reservations of sharing the house with her future father in law she’d hadn’t voiced those either On the contrary she always seemed very fond of zio Lucas as she’d been encouraged to call him

But then Marcus thought frowning apart from agreeing to he his wife in a small wooden voice she hadn’t said too much to him at all,something he should of course have noticed but for his other preoccupation he conceded his mouth tightening .

Besides he was accustomed to the fact that she did not chatter unnecessarily from the days when she’d been a small silent child clearly overwhelmed by her surroundings and through her years as a skinny tongue tied adolescent a time he recalled ruefully when she’d constantly embarrassed him by hero worshiping she’d tried to inexpertly to hide

She had eve cried at her own christening in London which he’d attended as a sullenly reluctant ten year old watching Mallory santagelic looking down her face transfigured at the lady bundle in her arms

His mother had met Lisa Cornell at the exclusive convent school they both attended in Rome and they had formed a bond of friendship that had bever wavered across the years and miles that separated them

But whereas Mallory was married as soon as she left the school and become a mother within the year Lisa had pursued a successful career in a magazine journalism before meeting Alex Bredon in a well known producer of television documentaries

And when her daughter had been born only Maria would do as god mother to the baby a role she had been more than happy to fill the name chosen was naturally Maria but was changed to Mallory

Marcus knew that much as he had been loved it had always been a sadness to his parents that no other children had followed him into the waiting nurseries at the villa proserpina and this godchild had taken the place of the longer for a daughter in his mother heart he wasn’t sure on which visit to Italy she and Lisa bredon had begun planning the match between their children he knew only that to his adolescent disgust it seem to have become all too quickly absorbed into the family folklore as an actual possibility

He’d even derisively christened Mallory la cicogna the stork a mocking reference to her long legs and the little beak of a nose that dominated her small thin face until his mother had called him to order with unwonted sternness.

But the fact that Mallory was being seriously considered as his future wife had been brought home to him six years ago when her parents had been killed in a motor way pile up

Because in a devastating after math of the accident it had been discovered that the bredons had always live up to and exceeded their income and that through some fairly typical over sight Alec had failed to renew his life insurance, leaving his daughter penniless

At first Maria had begged for the fourteen year old girl to be brought to Italy and raise as a member of their family, but for once the over indulgent Lucas had vetoed his t plan of her scheme to turn Mallory into the santagelic bride was to succeed and there was of course no guarantee that this would happen it would be far better he’d said for a girl to continue her education and upbringing in England at their expense, than for Marcus to become accustomed to her presence in the house hold that he might began to regard her as an irritating younger sister

It was a proposition to which his wife had reluctantly as quiesced and while Mallory had remained in England Marcus had been able to put the whole ridiculous idea of her as his father wife out of his mind

In any case he’d had to concentrate on his career completing his business degree with the honors