Chapter Thirty-Two #3
After Cat and the others had left the room, Luke took a seat and waited for étienne to make the first move.
He was, after all, the one who was about to reveal the circumstances that led up to his birth.
étienne had moved over to the window and now stood with his back to Luke, hands in the pockets of his trousers.
There was a stillness about him as if he was mulling over his words, thinking of the best way to begin to explain what had happened all those years ago.
Luke was amazed by Emelia Trevelyan’s actions.
Not many men he knew would be able to tackle Gareth Hunter like that, let alone a septuagenarian.
She was a real battler and even if everyone else appeared to have lied to him, he knew at least he could still count on her.
He watched his father step away from the window.
Father? He turned the word over in his mind.
Ross Carrack had been the only man to own that title until his memorial service, when he’d caught the first hint of the mystery that surrounded his birth.
During those years he had fantasised about Scott Stevens.
Growing up in Carrenporth, he wondered if his father would ever return to the village.
In his teenage imagination Scott would now be a senior mechanic with one of the F1 racing teams, maybe based somewhere in the UK or even travelling to Grand Prix circuits around the globe.
And all the time it wasn’t him, it was the last person he would ever have suspected: étienne Di Marco.
He could see absolutely nothing of himself in this dark, enigmatic Italian, but then he remembered Cat’s words as he and Em had reached the partially open doorway.
Something about someone in a painting who was so much like him.
He had clear memories of gazing down from his bedroom window as étienne and his beautiful wife arrived with the Trevelyans for some Hunter organised social event when they visited the UK.
The way they were, smiling together, spoke volumes about his feelings for this tall, elegant woman.
His mother had been so different. Young, unsophisticated.
Had she been a summer fling gone wrong? Certainly, she was nothing like the stunning Isabella.
But somehow he could not imagine étienne deliberately taking advantage of her.
He looked up as he settled himself opposite.
Pressing his palms together, fingers pushing gently against his lips, étienne raised his dark eyes to Luke.
‘Can I just say before we begin,’ he said quietly, ‘that I loved your mother very much. It broke my heart to have to leave her and I pray once you hear what happened you will perhaps understand, and can I dare hope …’ his eyes met Luke’s once more ‘… you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me?’
‘I think I need to hear what you have to say first.’ Luke’s voice was low and calm.
Em had been right. Leaving wasn’t the answer.
After accidentally walking in on a conversation he shouldn’t have heard he needed to hear the whole story, however upsetting, in order to close the door on this mystery.
But there was absolutely no way forgiveness would come automatically.
‘That is a fair comment,’ étienne replied with an accepting nod. Settling himself back in his chair, he contemplated the journey they were both about to embark on.
‘As you know,’ he began, ‘Ruan and I were at university together. After our final year his parents invited me to stay with them here at the hotel. It was to be our last summer of freedom before we entered our family businesses.’ He gave a wistful smile.
‘At the time I was already engaged to Isabella Baccari and there were plans we would marry the following spring. Not a love match, more a merging of two important hotel dynasties. Ah, I see your worried look.’ He waved a hand at Luke.
‘It is not so bad. I had known Isabella for many years. We were great friends. As in these kinds of matches love comes later. As it did with us.’
‘I saw her when you came to Clyffe House,’ Luke said. ‘I must have been fourteen or fifteen at the time. She was very beautiful.’
‘She was,’ étienne agreed, pausing for a moment as if touched by the memory before resuming his story.
‘Anyway, Ruan introduced me to Gareth and the three of us spent the summer together – at parties, clubs, beach barbeques. I even learned to surf. It was such a different life from my own in Italy. So free, quite hedonistic, in fact. Selina was seventeen at the time. She often accompanied us; called us her Boys of Summer after some song that was popular at the time. Your grandfather was an important businessman. He and your grandmother were always out attending some social event, sometimes even staying away overnight. Although they did not allow your mother to have fashionable clothes they took little interest in what she did or where she went. Gareth was expected to supervise her, which meant, of course, she did as she pleased. She had a cave high off the beach where she kept her other clothes.’
‘I discovered it a long time ago.’ Luke smiled. ‘The trunk with her clothes is still there.’
‘Ah yes, the clothes.’ The memory brought a smile to étienne’s face.
‘I remember the first time I saw her. The way she dressed. So different from the young Italian women back home. She reminded me of Madonna – the make-up, the lace gloves, the beads even the way she tied up her hair. She was so unique and different to any other young woman I had ever met. Like a butterfly, she flit among the young men, never letting anyone get too close to her. Although there was Scott Stevens,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘He was someone Gareth was constantly chasing away.
I think he worked at the garage. Not the sort of man the Hunters wanted Selina involved with, although she insisted he was only a friend.
‘Anyway as I got to know her I realised she was two people – the free spirit who enjoyed being the centre of attention out on the dance floor at the clubs we visited and the real Selina, the quiet girl with dreams of what she could do; what she could become. She loved art and told me in an ideal world she would have loved a career as a designer but your grandparents saw no point. She was destined to become some wealthy young man’s wife.
Education? Pointless as far as they were concerned.
I disagreed. I encouraged her dreams, bought her the cuff which you now wear,’ he nodded towards Luke’s wrist. ‘The inscription was her mantra. A reminder she could do anything she wanted. That the opportunity was there for her to reach out and grab hold of.’ He stopped for a moment to take a mouthful of brandy before continuing.
‘Getting close to her pulled me into something I had not anticipated. An emotional bond formed between us. An attraction so powerful, so totally overwhelming. I fought it. Told myself it was wrong; that it could not happen. So I deliberately kept my distance, telling myself this was foolish, a summer crush and nothing could come of it. Everything was fine until my last evening here. I found her walking on the beach alone in the moonlight. She was dressed in white. She looked like a sea spirit. I do not even remember how we ended up making love in the dunes, only that we did.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘It should not have happened.
‘Your mother was a very special young woman trying to find her place in the world. She deserved a chance at happiness.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘But it was not to be. She was failed by many. Me most of all.’