Magic Read Free Page A

flash of an instant, she saw a serious expression in his eyes, which concerned her.
    “Is everything all right?” she whispered to him when he bent to kiss her. She knew him well.
    “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he answered so no one else could hear. “Let’s have lunch if you can.” She nodded, always willing to be available to him if he needed her, or just for a friendly lunch to chat and laugh. He moved on to his other guests just as Gregorio’s cellphone rang. He answered in Italian and switched immediately to English as Benedetta stared at him with a worried look. He got up hastily and walked away to continue the conversation, and Benedetta joined Dharam and Chantal’s banter at the table next to theirs and tried to look unconcerned.
    Chantal had seen the pain in her eyes. She suspected it was the latest of Gregorio’s affairs. He was gone for a long time, and Dharam drew Benedetta into their conversation gracefully. He had been trying to convince Chantal to visit India and suggested locations she had to see, among them Udaipur, with its temples and palaces, which he said was the most romantic place in the world. She didn’t say that she had no one to travel with, which would have seemed pathetic. And he was shocked to discover that Benedetta had never been to India either. He was still trying to entice both of them when Gregorio returned to the table half an hour later with a nervous glance at his wife, and said something cryptically to her in Italian.
    Dharam had been liberally pouring the wine for all three of them in Gregorio’s absence. Benedetta had looked more relaxed for a minute, until her husband returned to the table. She answered him rapidly in Italian. He had just told her he had to leave. He was speaking softly so the others wouldn’t hear him, and Chantal and Dharam chatted so as not to appear to be listening.
    “Now?” Benedetta asked him with a tone of severe irritation. “Can’t it wait?” She had been living with a difficult situation for the past six months and didn’t like it intruding on the time they spent with friends, particularly tonight, although she knew that the cat had been out of the bag for some time and was all over the tabloids. But no one had been rude or unkind enough to bring it up to her.
    “No, it can’t wait,” Gregorio answered tersely. He had been having an affair with a twenty-three-year-old Russian supermodel for the last eight months, and the girl had been foolish enough to get pregnant six months before, with twins, and refused to have an abortion. Gregorio had had other affairs, many of them, but he had never fathered a child with any of them. And given Benedetta’s inability to conceive, the fact of the girl’s pregnancy was excruciatingly painful for her. It had been the worst year of Benedetta’s life. He had promised her that it was an unfortunate mistake and he wasn’t in love with Anya, and as soon as she had the babies, he would disengage from her. But Benedetta wasn’t sure how willing the girl would be to let go of him. She had moved to Rome three months before to be closer to him, and he had been running back and forth between the two cities for those three months. It was driving Benedetta to distraction.
    “She’s in labor,” he added, anguished to have to discuss it with her here. And if that was true, she was three months early, Benedetta realized.
    “Is she in Rome?” Benedetta asked in a pained voice.
    “No. Here.” He continued in Italian. “She had a job here this week. They just admitted her to the hospital an hour ago, in early labor. I hate to leave you, but I think I should go. She’s all alone, and she’s terrified.” He was mortified to be explaining it to his wife, the whole thing had been an agonizingly awkward situation for months, and the paparazzi had had a field day with it. Benedetta had been very elegant about it, and the Russian girl was less so. She called him constantly and wanted to be with him in