31. A Tour Begins

CHAPTER 31

A TOUR BEGINS

M eanwhile

For the brief time Tom was in his room at the Cavarallo villa, he wondered if he would ever feel such affection for a girl as to travel nearly two-thousand miles to see her again. Although he was sure Donald hadn’t told him everything, he was beginning to suspect there was more to his cousin’s impending reunion with the girl he called Nikky than what he had admitted. Especially after Donald claimed he was going to take the girl to be his wife.

He couldn’t imagine things being the same betwixt them after such a long period of time had passed. And now there was a boy to consider. Another man’s son.

He shook his head when he remembered his older brother, Nathaniel, had been another woman’s son. Yet his mother had accepted him as if he were one of her own. She had never treated him any differently from the way she treated the four children she had carried in her womb.

As the servants saw to collecting clothes to be laundered, he and Randy discussed the possibility of their older cousin never returning to British shores. Overhearing the remark, David joined them, scoffing at the claim. “Of course he’ll return. He’ll bring her and the boy, probably for a wedding trip.”

“Well, until they return from wherever they’ve gone, we should go exploring,” Tom suggested. “I found a map in Donald’s notes,” he added, holding up the folded sheet his cousin had purchased at a shop during his first visit to Catania.

“We’re going for a walk,” Randy said to Mr. Stevens. “Be back before dinner.”

“Careful you don’t get lost,” the valet replied.

The three cousins headed down the stairs to the courtyard below. They were about to open the arched wooden door leading to Via Garibaldi when Tom said, “Well, all I can say is this marchesa must be some beauty.”

At that very moment, two young ladies passed by the door, their arms interlinked while one carried a parasol in a gloved hand. When they saw the expressions of surprise on the young men’s faces, they tittered but hurried on their way.

“Beauty, indeed,” Randy remarked, awestruck.

Despite keeping his voice low, it was obvious the girls had overheard him, for their giggles grew louder.

David chuckled. “It sounds as if we’re going to have to worry about you next,” he accused as they filed out onto the black pavement and headed in the direction of the Roman theatre.

“Not me,” the oldest cousin claimed. “Although I will admit it will be nice to simply look, the girls we see on this tour will be nothing but novelties.”

“Novelties, you say?” his brother questioned.

“Yes. The thing about novelties is they soon lose what makes them novel and they simply become the norm,” Randy explained. “I fully intend to take an English girl to wife when it’s time to start my nursery.”

The other two murmured likewise intentions as they made their way through the thin city streets, Tom keeping track on the map as best he could.