Modern Romance July 2015 Books 5-8. Louise Fuller

with him to London...to take up those tentative dreams and to run with them.

      Sophie looked at her father. He looked so grey and gaunt and she knew she had to win the battle to forgive him and stand by him, for she was the only family that he had.

      ‘After the trial you can get away from Bordo Del Cielo and start over again,’ Sophie said.

      ‘I’m not leaving your mother.’

      ‘She’s been dead for seventeen years! Father, I am going to be leaving. I’m going to move to London with Luka. I just want to get away from here and all the people who have judged me.’ She ran a nervous tongue over her lips for there was one thing she felt her father ought to hear first from her. ‘You will hear things in court about me too, father. Things that you won’t like. That afternoon, when the raids happened, Luka and I...we were together.’

      ‘Sophie, you and Luka were practically engaged. You have nothing to be ashamed about. Walk into that court and give your evidence with your head held high.’

      How, though?

      As her father was led back to the cells Sophie asked, as she always did, if she could visit Luka.

      He had no one. His mother had died years ago and his father was locked away.

       ‘Non ci sono visitatori ammessi.’

      Again she was told that no visitors were allowed and then she found out that Luka had been placed in solitary.

      ‘Malvolio too?’ Sophie challenged. ‘Of course not.’ She answered her own question.

      Luka wasn’t a security risk, Luka wouldn’t contaminate the trial, that would be Malvolio.

      ‘He rules even in here,’ Sophie called out as she left on the eve of the trial.

      She took the bus back to Bordo Del Cielo and walked down the street.

      Teresa’s café was all boarded up and the locals shunned her. If it weren’t for Bella and her mother. she would have had nowhere to go.

      If it weren’t for Luka, she wouldn’t even be here, a still small voice told her.

      She was so cross with her father that there was a temptation to simply take the next flight and leave him to his fate, given all he had done.

      But Luka...

      He was the reason she was here.

      Sophie halted at Giovanni’s the jewellers when she saw him at the window, adding a new stand to the wares. ‘Anything?’ she asked when he caught her eye, because she was still hoping against hope that her earring might have been found and handed in.

      Giovanni shook his head and disappeared back into the shop, leaving Sophie standing there.

      No one wanted to be seen talking with her.

      She peered in and looked at the new offerings in the window. There was a huge emerald-cut diamond set on the prettiest rose gold band and she couldn’t help but let her imagination take flight.

      She wanted that ring on her finger.

      Or rather she wanted the engagement that had never taken place.

      Walking back to Bella’s, she tasted the salty sea air and thought of Luka alone and locked away.

      He had no one.

      Well, he did, he had her, but there was no way to let him know, apart from to do as her father said and to walk into the trial with her head held high. She would not be ashamed about what had taken place between her and Luka that afternoon.

      She was here only for him.

      * * *

      Sophie tried.

      Throughout the trial, as a witness she had not been admitted to the courtroom, but today she was being called to give evidence and, though dreading it, though embarrassed at the thought of some of the salacious details of that day being examined, though scared for her father, what had sustained her was that today she would see Luka.

      And she did.

      Walking into the courtroom to take the stand, finally she saw him. Those navy eyes met hers and he gave her a small encouraging smile. He looked thinner, leaner and sharper. The scar above his eye had had little medical attention for it had healed badly and even from the witness stand she could see it purple and raised. His hair was cut far too short and Sophie could see the anger that simmered beneath the surface, though not towards her, for his eyes were kind when they met hers.

      She awaited the barrage of questions and let out a breath of relief when the rather embarrassing moments of the police raid were skimmed over.

      ‘You knew that Teresa was upset with you that day when you went into the deli?’

      ‘I did?’

      ‘And you asked your father why she might be upset?’

      ‘I just mentioned it in passing when I got home.’ Sophie swallowed, her cheeks going a little bit pink as they made it sound as if she had been questioning her father. ‘I thought it was to do with my upcoming engagement, that because Malvolio would be my father-in-law...’

      ‘Just answer the question.’

      Sophie frowned, as she did on many occasions over a very long day of questioning. Malvolio and Luka had the same lawyer, her father had a different one, yet even he wasn’t asking the pertinent questions.

      ‘The souvenirs that the police say they found in my home...’ Sophie attempted, for when she had been arrested, over and over the police had spoken about trinkets that had belonged to the deceased or come from buildings that had been destroyed. She wanted to explain they had never been in her home. That she had kept the house and would have known if such things were there.

      ‘We’ll get to that later,’ her father’s lawyer said, yet he did not.

      Sophie left the witness stand and now that she had given her evidence she was allowed to watch as the accused were cross-examined.

      Malvolio went to the witness stand a sinner but the questions were so gentle and so geared for him that he left the stand looking like a saint and walked away with an arrogant smile.

      She sat bewildered as her father took the stand. He seemed weak and confused. Sophie once stood and shouted as his own lawyer misled him but Bella pulled her down.

      ‘Quiet, or you will be asked to leave.’

      ‘It’s not fair, though,’ Sophie said.

      None of it was fair.

      Yes, her father admitted, a second visit from him meant there would be trouble if bills were not paid.

      A third visit was the final warning.

      ‘I had no choice but to do as Malvolio said.’

      It was, Sophie knew, a poor defence.

      And then it was Luka.

      In a dark suit and tie, his skin was pale from months of being locked inside. He wrenched his arm from a guard who led him, still as defiant, still as silent as he had been on the day of his arrest.

      He would not lie to save his father.

      Luka refused to lie.

      It was not in him to lie and he wanted no part of his father’s life so he had decided that he would speak the truth.

      The truth could not hurt him.

      Or so he thought.

      He looked out and nodded to his close friend Matteo, who had been there every day to support him, and then he looked at Sophie. He tried to let her know with his eyes that he had this under control.

      But ten minutes into his testimony he started to glimpse his father’s game.

      ‘Did your concerns about Paulo’s dealings play any part in your decision