‘I don’t want to go to school,’ her daughter said, but with a smile so sweet that Delphine found it impossible to scold her.
‘You will have a new school to go to soon,’ Giovanni announced, folding his paper and smiling over at them all.
Delphine’s blood ran cold. She’d been desperate for him to speak to them for so long, and now that he finally had, she wished he’d stayed silent.
‘Gio,’ she said, with a tight, forced smile. ‘Is that not something we should discuss further in private?’Why would he have arranged a change of school for them? They were both settled and happy.
‘Not at all,’ he said, impatiently holding his cup in the air as one of their maids hurried over with a pot of fresh coffee. ‘It has already been decided. We are to leave at the end of the month on a new adventure.’
‘An adventure to where, Papa?’ Isabella asked, her eyes wide as she positively beamed at her father.
Giovanni might have been an unloving husband, but he’d certainly managed to make his daughter adore his attention. When he was there, Isabella was the kind of little girl who would do anything to win her father’s affections.
‘To Geneva,’ he said. ‘We are going to expand our business, and Switzerland is the perfect place for our family to be based.’
But I don’t want to move. I’ve come to love Italy. It’s my home now.
‘Could the children and I not stay here?’ Delphine asked. ‘You travel so much anyway, and you could?—’
‘We are moving to Geneva,’ he said, putting down his cup with more force than she’d heard before, making the porcelain saucer rattle.
Delphine looked to her son, who was much quieter and more easily upset than Isabella. He would hate the change, just as Delphine would. Their lives were in Italy; their friends, their house, their schools…she felt her hands begin to shake and quickly clasped them before anyone noticed.
‘I will be spending much of my time in London from now on, and Geneva will be a convenient location for us to reside in. Notto mention your family has many useful business acquaintances there, Delphine.’
She lowered her gaze, knowing precisely what he was trying to tell her. They’d married for a reason, their families benefitting from their union, and he was about to make use of the connection. Delphine also knew that it wasn’t her place to question his decision; he was head of the family and whatever he decided was law. If his wife didn’t like it? She doubted he’d so much as give it a second thought.
‘Papa, when do we leave? Can I say goodbye to my friends?’
‘Of course, Isabella,’ Giovanni said. ‘You and Tommaso can even have a party to say goodbye to your friends, right here at the house. Would you like that?’
‘Yes, Papa,’ they both said in unison, although Delphine saw the way Tommaso glanced at her, could see the creases in his face echoing the way she felt, her stomach turning at the thought of leaving their beautiful home behind. Of leaving the life she’d created for herself and her family.
When he rose to leave, Delphine looked up and caught Giovanni’s eye, saw the set of his jaw and the way he nodded to her a little more stiffly than she’d noticed before. Was she imagining it, or was there something different about him today? Was there something he wasn’t telling her? A reason why he wanted to uproot his family from the only home they’d ever known? They might not be intimate, but she’d spent long enough studying him to know when something was wrong.
‘Gio!’ she called out, hurriedly pushing back her chair and running after her husband. ‘Please wait!’
He turned, running his hands down his lapel as if to smooth away creases. Delphine knew there would be none though, because she’d had the suit pressed for him only days earlier, had inspected it and made certain it was perfect before one of the maids had taken it to his dressing room.
‘Gio, may I ask if there’s another reason that we’re moving?’ she said, hesitantly reaching for him, placing her hand over his arm. ‘If it’s money, if something has happened that you don’t want to tell me, we can always ask my parents?—’
‘We are moving because I have decided we’re moving,’ he said, his tone curt. ‘I don’t expect you to understand the intricacies of business, as you don’t expect me to understand how to run a household. And you are never,everto mention our finances again. Is that clear?’
She withdrew her hand, as if she’d been slapped.
‘Is that all?’ he asked.
‘I, I…’ She took a deep breath, looking into her husband’s eyes and wishing she saw something,anythingreflected there other than impatience at being stopped in the hallway. ‘What arrangements must I make?’ she asked, lowering her voice. ‘When will we leave?’
‘I will be leaving in a fortnight,’ he said. ‘You and the children can enjoy the start of summer and join me after that.’
Delphine cleared her throat, not certain what she hoped the answer would be to her next question. ‘You will be living with us, won’t you, Gio? You won’t leave us entirely on our own?’
He smiled and chastely kissed her forehead, before patting her shoulder. ‘Of course, I’ll be living with you. The children are very important to me.’
His words stung as she watched him leave the house, the door closing with a heavy thud behind him.
‘Mama?’ She turned and saw her son standing there, his eyes filled with unshed tears. ‘Can’t we stay? Can you change Papa’s mind? I don’t want to go.’
