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sumption of ownership of Vesta. For five years she had
no doubt ridden the mare and regarded her as her own.
Now the mare was suddenly taken away from her, and
Tina expected to put up with a fait accompli.
When she caught up with Cesare's dark, striding
figure she demanded hotly, 'Did you have to be so beastly
to Tina?'
`Tina is my stable girl. She should have learnt by now
to hold her tongue and do as she is bid,' he snapped.
`I don't blame her for being upset,' Amanda began
again.
`You know nothing about it,' he said. 'Be quiet.'
She gasped in outrage. How dared he speak to her like
that? He was ahead of her again, walking with that
graceful lope, like some wild animal stalking through a
dark jungle, his black head held high, tilting as he
HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
35
glanced upward. The Counts of Volenco had all been
cast in the same mould. The gloomy portraits hanging in
the gallery made that plain. Broad-shouldered, lean, with
hard, fit bodies, they had dominated their landscape as
they did the paintings. They hung in a row; the same
dark, arrogant, handsome features looking out of one
canvas after another, lips lifted in a sneer, eyes insolently
sure of themselves; predatory, commanding, confident.
He paused and she opened her mouth to begin the
argument again, but he spoke first.
`You must be hungry. Wash your hands and we'll go
to breakfast.'
His suggestion was perfectly reasonable, but why did
he have to deliver it in that commanding voice, sure that
obedience must follow? It made one long to disobey,
however foolishly. Even the meekest soul, thought
Amanda, must long to rebel.
Breakfast was served as it had always been in a small,
bright room overlooking a garden. Pots of geraniums
stood along the windowsill, their scarlet flowers brilliant
above the terracotta clay. The sun streamed in past and
over them, filling the bright air with golden dust.
The walls were painted white. The floorboards had the
shining patina of great age. The family were seated
around a long, highly polished refectory table. A pot of
basil stood in the centre, the traditional method of keep-
ing away flies. A yellow enamelled bowl of fruit was
reflected in the table surface. They came in together,
Cesare slightly behind Amanda, and the family looked
round at them.
36 HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
Contessa Maria lifted her smooth cheek for a morning
kiss, her face filled with content. Amanda felt a qualm as
she saw that look.
`You have enjoyed your ride?'
Amanda rested her cheek on top of the dark head. 'It
was marvellous! I'd forgotten how good it felt to get up
early in the morning and go for a ride. The air smells
sweeter and the world seems much more beautiful. Now
I'm starving I could eat a horse!'
`A horse?' Contessa Maria looked startled, then
laughed. 'Oh, the English joke! So long since we heard
them! Sit, my love. The rolls are still warm, and Gio-
vetta has sent up your favourite cherry jam, her best ever.
This year you will be here again to help her make it, that
will make her very happy. Every year she has sighed over
your absence when she made the cherry jam. It reminded
her of you.'
Piero rose and drew out a chair, but Cesare, ignoring
him, firmly seated Amanda beside himself.
Piero flushed dark red, and everyone else stared at their
plates. Amanda was dumb with confused embarrass-
ment. She gave Piero an anxious, placatory smile, plead-
ing with him to understand why she did not quarrel with
his brother.
Cesare offered her the basket of rolls, wrapped in their
white damask napkin.
She took one, her gaze reproachful. He returned her
look blandly. 'Jam? Butter?'
She accepted both and began to eat. Cesare poured her
co fee, thick and fragrant, from the huge silver pot stand-
HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
37
ing in the middle of the table. A family heirloom, it was
battered, polished lovingly until the fine engraving was
almost invisible, and in daily use. Nothing here was just
for show.
The family resumed their own meal. Piero stirred his
coffee and drank it, watching his brother over the rim of
his cup. Two spots of red burnt in the centres of his
cheeks.
Suddenly he said, 'Amanda and I would like to be
married this summer.'
A silence followed the throwing down of this gauntlet.
Cesare bit into a roll. He stirred his coffee too, his eyes
fixed on his spoon. Everyone sat like statues waiting for
him to react, watching which way the cat would jump.
`Piero is in no position to get married,' he said at last,
in a calm voice addressed pointedly to Amanda. 'He has
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