Lorenzo's Reward. CATHERINE GEORGE

love, thanks. Here we go. The bride’s arrived.”

      Leonie smiled radiantly at her sisters as she glided up the path, then, to the strains of Mendelssohn, began the walk up the aisle on her father’s arm towards the bridegroom and best man at the altar.

      Jonah’s tense face relaxed into a smile of such tenderness at the sight of his bride Jess felt her throat thicken, and dropped her eyes to the flowers she held, as she walked down the aisle. When they came to a halt she turned to make sure Fenny was happy behind her and caught a glimpse of Lorenzo, standing with his brother towards the rear of the church. She met his eyes for a long, charged instant, then turned to take charge of Leonie’s flowers as the service began.

      When Tom Dysart rejoined his wife after giving his daughter away, Jonah took Leonie’s hand and held it in his. After the moving ceremony was over the wedding party moved to the vestry to sign the register, and during the kissing and congratulations Jess slipped out into the church to stand beside Helen Savage’s wheelchair for a chat while the organist went through a spectacular repertoire before launching into Wagner for the triumphal exit.

      Jess hurried back to the vestry and took the best man’s proffered arm, laughing up at Angus Buchanan as he joked about his terror over his speech. As they drew level with the Forli brothers Jess surprised such a dark, smouldering look from Lorenzo she realised he was jealous, and glowed with secret gratification as the wedding party emerged into the sunlight for the inevitable photo session.

      Back at Friars Wood, the bride and groom’s happiness pervaded the entire scene on the sunlit lawn as they greeted their guests. Everyone milled about with glasses of champagne, laughing and talking, and introducing themselves. First Roberto Forli, then his brother, shook Jonah’s hand, and asked smiling permission to kiss the bride. When he reached Jess, to her surprise Roberto saluted her on both cheeks in the same way.

      “Lorenzo has told me about your legal problem,” he whispered. “I am glad it was not the sight of my face which made you run!”

      She gave him a wry little smile. “Absolutely not. Jeremy Lonsdale’s face did that. Sorry I had to be so rude, Roberto.”

      “I am sorry also. I should not have said such bad things to you last night.” He pulled a face. “Lorenzo was very angry with me when he returned.”

      “Let’s forget it, shall we?” Jess smiled at him warmly, then introduced him to Kate. When Jess turned at last to Lorenzo, he took her hand to draw her closer so that he could kiss both her cheeks.

      “You look very beautiful—all woman today,” he whispered, and raised a black, quizzical eyebrow. “The best man thought this also, no?”

      “Angus is very charming,” she said demurely, and gave Lorenzo a smile so radiant his eyes lit up in response. She turned away hastily to welcome Angela and Luigi Ravello. Jess chatted with them for a while, introduced them to other people, then did the rounds of the other guests, all the time finding it a dangerously exciting experience to know that Lorenzo Forli rarely took his eyes from her. This all-out intensity of his was something new in her experience. And gloriously addictive.

      Eventually Leonie and Jonah took their places with their respective parents at a table in the centre of the lawn, and Adam and the best man directed guests to the tables grouped casually around the central focus of the bride and groom. Adam wheeled Helen Savage’s chair to the nearest table, with Jess and Fenny, and invited the guests from Florence to join them.

      Jess made the necessary introductions, and Adam, giving her a surreptitious wink, seated Lorenzo next to her, put Kate between the two brothers, and took his place beside Fenny, who was next to Helen Savage’s chair, as she usually was lately, her eyes sparkling as they inspected the tempting canapés and patisserie Leonie had chosen for the meal.

      “You obeyed me, Jessamy,” said Lorenzo, under cover of the general conversation and laughter.

      She eyed him narrowly. “I obeyed you?”

      “You did not gaze with longing at the bridegroom.”

      “I should think not,” she retorted, looking across at Leonie. “I told you how wrong you were about all that. Don’t you think the bride looks breathtaking today?” she added.

      Lorenzo’s eyes followed hers. “Leonie dazzles because she is so happy.” He smiled wryly. “Unlike my brother, who was very sad during the ceremony.”

      Jess glanced at Roberto, who, if he was nursing a broken heart, showed little sign of it as he laughed with Kate. “I’m sure a man like Roberto won’t pine unconsoled for long.”

      “True. Robert leads a very active social life. I,” he added very deliberately, “do not.” Lorenzo gave her a long, unsmiling look, then noticed Fenny, who was watching them with interest as she munched on a meringue. “Jessamy, will you introduce me to this very elegant little lady?”

      “Of course.” Jess smiled affectionately at the youngest bridesmaid. “May I present Miss Fenella Dysart? Fen, this gentleman’s name is Lorenzo Forli.”

      “How do you do?” said Fenny politely, as she’d been taught.

      “Piacere,” said Lorenzo, and got up to kiss her hand.

      “Ooh!” Fenny went scarlet with delight. “Did Mummy see, Jess?”

      “Run across and ask her, if you like.”

      Lorenzo laughed as he watched the little girl race across the grass. “She will break hearts, that one.” Then his eyes narrowed as he watched Fenny chattering to Jonah. He frowned. “Strange. Now that I see them together the child greatly resembles the bridegroom. How can that be?” Colour ran up suddenly beneath his olive skin. “Dio—she is Leonie’s child?” he whispered.

      “Certainly not!”

      Lorenzo turned to look at Jess, his eyes narrowed in sudden, dark suspicion.

      “It’s not what you think,” she whispered hastily, relieved when Angus Buchanan stood up and put an end to conversation by tapping his glass for silence. The circumstances of Fenny’s birth were complicated, and not something to discuss with a man who, difficult though it was for her to remember, was nevertheless still very much a stranger.