Seeing that Bella was now alone at the graveside, Ruby summoned her nerve and approached the older woman.
‘Mrs Danieri?’ she said hesitantly.
Bella nodded.
‘You wanted to talk to me,’ said Ruby.
‘Yes. I did. Thank you for coming, Miss Darke.’
Ruby was wishing she hadn’t. She hated this – standing in a damp, cold graveyard among strangers. She’d been glared at by Bella’s children, and she was still wondering anxiously what this strange request, that peculiar telephone call, was all about.
Blood will flow.
She shivered anew to think of those words. Her eyes skimmed over the woman wearing the thick black veil, the shapeless clothes, then down at the coffin, lying there in the unfilled grave, the brass plate sullied by the first sprinklings of dirt.
‘There have been rumours, Miss Darke,’ said Bella.
Ruby wished that Bella Danieri would lift her veil, that she could see her face, judge her mood more clearly. In business and in life, she liked to know exactly what she was dealing with. Here, she felt she was flying blind.
‘What rumours?’ asked Ruby.
‘Rumours that your son Kit could have been the one who killed my boy Tito.’
Ruby said nothing. Her heart was beating very fast: she wondered if she was about to be sick.
‘And you know what I think?’ Bella went on, then paused.
She’s about to tell me that they’re going to kill Kit, thought Ruby in horror.
But Bella’s next words surprised her.
‘I think enough. We – you and I – we’re the matriarchs of our families. That’s the word, isn’t it? Matriarchs?’
Ruby had to swallow hard so that she could speak.
‘Yes. That’s the right word.’
But Ruby was thinking that she wasn’t much of a matriarch. She had built a new relationship with her daughter – but barely any relationship at all with her son. To imagine that she could influence Kit in any way was madness. Just a few weeks ago, he had told her that Michael Ward, who had been like a father to him, had wanted him to try and patch things up with Ruby, to forgive her. That had been almost Michael’s last wish on earth. So Kit had said he would try.
But he hadn’t.
Kit was still cool to her, still as remote as ever.
She could hardly see Bella’s eyes through the veil, but she could feel them, watching her face keenly. ‘We have the power to stop this here,’ said Bella. ‘You and I.’
‘I thought all Italian families cared about was revenge,’ said Ruby.
