Lorenzo's Reward

“She has to,” said Kate, who measured only an inch or so over five feet. “Today I’m in the high heels and Jess is down to something safer to even us out.”

“Just make sure you don’t fall over, then, half-pint,” advised her brother.

“As if!” she retorted, giving him a push.

“My shoes don’t have any heels at all,” said Fenny with regret, then brightened. “But they’ve got little yellow rosebuds on the toes.”

“Time enough for high heels where you’re concerned,” said Tom lovingly, then looked at the bride’s plate with disapproval. “For pity’s sake eat something else, Leo. I can’t have you fainting as we march up the aisle.”

“No chance,” Leonie assured him. “But my dress fits so perfectly I’m leaving the pigging out bit until the wedding feast.”

“You’re very quiet, Jess,” observed her mother. “Are your hands still hurting?”

“Not so much.” Jess yawned a little. “I’m just a bit tired after my jury stint, I suppose. Don’t worry,” she added, “no one will be looking at me today.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. How about Lorenzo the Magnificent?” said Adam, carving off a sliver of ham with a deft hand. “The man couldn’t take his eyes off you last night.”

“Rubbish!” Jess made a face at him. “I’d never even met Lorenzo Forli until—until last night.”

“So you hadn’t,” said Leonie, smiling slyly. “Just think how much better you can get to know him today!”

“Talking of today,” said Frances, holding out a hand to Fenny, “we’d better get ready. Mrs Briggs will clear away before she sets off for the church, so get a move on everyone. You don’t want to be late, Leo.”

“Perish the thought,” teased Jess, pulling her sister up. “Jonah admitted to nerves last night, so don’t keep the poor man waiting on tenterhooks at the altar.”

“Don’t worry—I’ll be punctual to the second.”

Leonie was true to her word. Long before it was time to leave the house she was ready, in a slim, unadorned column of ivory slipper satin. Jess secured the pearl brooch into her sister’s gleaming hair, handed over the earrings, then stood back to admire the effect.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Absolutely beautiful,” said her mother fondly. “And your bridesmaids do you proud, darling.”

Jess and Kate were in bias-cut chiffon the creamy yellow shade of Fenny’s layers of organdie, the child in such a state of excitement by this time that Kate had to hold her still for Jess to secure a band of rosebuds on her hair.

The photographer arrived a few minutes later. Frances collected a dramatic straw hat decorated with black ostrich feathers, then herded the entire family off to the drawing room for the indoor pictures. The bride requested the first pose alone with Adam, his lanky frame elegant in a new suit with an Italian label, his mop of black curls severely brushed for once for the photograph, before he rushed off to drive down the lane to the church to do his duty as usher.

Tom Dysart, tall as his son, but with greying hair that had once been flaxen fair as Jess’s shining locks, wore a magnificent dark suit with grey brocade waistcoat, and looked as proud as a peacock as he posed, first with the radiant bride, then with his wife, and finally with all his women folk around him.

“Like a sultan in his harem,” said Jess, laughing.

“And a damn good-looking bunch you are,” said her father fondly.

Later, as Jess waited for the bride with Kate and Fenny in the church porch, she found that her posy was shaking a little in her still tender hand.

“Nervous?” whispered Kate.

“Only of this thing falling out of my hair,” lied Jess, controlling an urge to peer into the church to see if Lorenzo had arrived. But it was true that her new haircut, unlike Kate’s flowing dark curls, had made it difficult to fix the trio of rosebuds attached to a tiny comb. Kate put her posy down on the porch seat, removed the flowers, then anchored them again very firmly into one of the longer gilt strands.

“How’s that?”

“Fine, 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.