Her honesty stung, but Daisy was grateful to Lydia for being so open. At least this way she could be sure she was telling her the truth.
‘A few years ago,’ Lydia continued, ‘I would have been delighted to welcome her to the family.’
‘Oh? What’s changed?’ Daisy asked, confused.
‘I think I should be honest with you about my feelings for Bella. Her family were good friends with Francesca and Rick, so when Gabriel and she were teenagers it was probably not too unexpected that they began dating each other. No one foresaw them continuing that relationship though, and I think you should know that Francesca ismore than a little disappointed that Bella and Gabriel are getting a divorce. She’d been looking forward to, well…’
‘Becoming a grandmother?’ Daisy offered, when Lydia struggled to find the right words.
Lydia threw back her head in laughter. ‘Oh my word, no, never that.’ She shook her head. ‘Francesca isn’t nearly ready to be a grandmother, but she did like the idea of her best friend’s daughter marrying her son.’
Lydia began walking again and Daisy kept in step with her. ‘So what you’re trying to tell me is that my boss isn’t going to be too pleased to discover that Gabriel and I have a history, however small.’
‘Exactly.’
It gets better and better, Daisy thought, bending down to pick up a piece of green glass made opaque by years of being tossed about by the sea. She quickened her step to catch up. Wanting to change the subject she said, ‘Gabriel is as dark as you’re fair.’
Lydia smiled. ‘You think it’s strange because Francesca and Rick are pretty fair too. His grandfather was dark, though.’
Daisy nodded.
They walked in silence for a moment and Daisy began to think that Lydia had forgotten she was next to her. Not wishing to disturb the woman’s thoughts, she concentrated on listening to the waves as they broke against the shoreline near to them.
‘His grandfather was very handsome,’ she said wistfully. ‘His name was Lorenzo and he was Italian. He was the reason I gave up acting and disappeared from the public eye.’
Daisy was intrigued to hear Lydia’s story. ‘That’s so romantic,’ she said, longing to have that sort of thing in her life. ‘You must have loved him very much.’
Lydia nodded. ‘It was a magical time. We met when I was filming on location in Naples. He was one of thesupporting actors and we only had a couple of short scenes together. I was out walking in the city one day. I’d gone off wandering and got lost, and he happened to discover me trying not to panic as the sun set. He offered me a lift on the back of his Lambretta.’ She laughed. ‘I was shy back then and tried to argue with him but he told me the streets were dangerous and that he would walk next to me if he had to, but he wasn’t leaving me alone. So, in the end, I gave in and went back to the hotel with him.’
Daisy sighed. She could picture a younger version of Gabriel insisting that Lydia Grey accept his offer of a ride home. ‘How lovely. What happened next?’
Lydia smiled. ‘I used to see him around the set most days, and then he disappeared for a few weeks. I was devastated and it was then that I realised I’d fallen in love with him. When he returned, I was ecstatic and so when he secretly asked me out to visit a new galleria that had opened up I agreed and went with him. We saw each other every day after that until shooting ended.’
‘Is that when you came back to Jersey?’
Lydia nodded. ‘My mother insisted I return. I’d tried to confide in her about Lorenzo, but she didn’t want to know. She was determined that I would marry an Englishman with money, who could give me the life she’d never had. She was very ambitious for me.’
‘But you obviously saw him again because you had Francesca together.’
Lydia took her hat from her head, smoothed down her hair, and replaced it to shield her pale face from the sun. ‘He came here, to Jersey, to try and see me, but my mother lied and told him I was away filming. But I waslucky – I’d broken my stiletto heel when I was in town so I came home early and saw him walking down our front path.’
‘How lucky,’ Daisy murmured, entranced by the romance of Lydia’s story.
‘I didn’t realise what my mother had done until I got back home again later that evening, but by then Lorenzo had given me the name of the small hotel where he was staying as well as his address in Italy. We secretly spent every day together for the rest of his brief trip and it was then that I became pregnant with Francesca.’
‘It’s like something you’d see in a movie,’ Daisy said dreamily.
Lydia pulled a face. ‘No, it was terrible. My mother was horrified when I told her. I stupidly thought she’d insist Lorenzo and I marry, but instead she planned to take me to her sister’s in Scotland to have the baby and then for it to be adopted.’
Daisy gasped, shocked to hear how Lydia had been treated by her own mother. ‘How did you manage to keep your baby?’
Lydia picked up a seagull feather. She held one end and pulled the soft white strands slowly through her fingers. ‘I managed to send a letter to Lorenzo telling him where we were going. He arrived in Jersey the morning we were due to leave for Scotland and we ran away together.’
‘How?’
‘On a friend’s boat. He sailed us to St Malo and from there we travelled by train down to Lorenzo’s flat in a small village outside Rome.’ Lydia smiled at Daisy and she realised she must have a gormless expression on her face. ‘Let’s sit here,’ Lydia suggested, leading her to a bank where some grass clung on in the sand. ‘It’s so hot I could do with a rest.’
‘Of course.’ Daisy sat next to her andpushed her feet deep into the soft tiny grains of sand.
