Harbinger Of Glory

Like it had done previously at the main gates when they entered, the front doors opened.

Inside, the house felt warmer than Leo had expected.

It was large, certainly, but there was nothing museum-like about it.

There were photographs on the tables, books left where someone had been reading them and chairs that looked as though people actually sat in them.

It felt like a family home that happened to be much larger than most.

Leo had barely taken that in when Aldo and Sienna appeared from the main hall.

He watched the Mister and Mistress of the house come forward until they were just a few metres away.

After practically sizing each other up for a while, Vittoria’s father, Aldo, made the first move after he looked at Leo for a moment before extending his hand.

"I believe this is the first time we’ve actually met," Aldo said, to which Leo agreed.

"It is."

Aldo nodded at his response before pulling his hand back.

"I am Aldo D’Averna, head of the House of D’Averna! And this," he said the last bit while pointing towards Vittoria’s mother, "Is my wife, Sienna!"

At that, Leo turned toward Sienna and offered his hand, but she looked at it and then ignored it completely, pulling him into a brief hug.

Leo froze for half a second before relaxing into it.

"Vittoria has told us very little about you," Sienna said as she pulled away.

She could see her daughter glaring at her, but she was as shameless as it got.

Hearing that, Leo glanced at Vittoria with a chuckle before looking back at Sienna.

"That’s probably deliberate."

Sienna laughed at his response before waving him off.

"Fortunately, you’re famous, so it makes research easier."

Unable to take it anymore, Vittoria finally groaned.

"Mother."

"What?"

"You said you weren’t going to embarrass me."

"I haven’t," Sienna said, looking at Leo.

"Or have I?" she threw the question to Leo while Aldo smiled quietly.

Vittoria looked between her two parents and then shook her head.

"You’re all terrible," she muttered, causing Leo to give way to a laugh that Sienna seemed pleased with since it made him look further relaxed.

"Anyways, you must be famished?"

"Yes," Leo answered so instantly Vittoria turned toward him.

"That was quick."

"I haven’t eaten properly since yesterday’s dinner!"

Hearing that made Sienna’s smile widen further as she then motioned forward.

"Then we won’t keep you waiting."

Vittoria’s mother led them to the kitchen, offering the young couple some entrees while the conversation stayed easy.

Aldo asked about the match against England, but he didn’t turn it into an interview.

They talked about the equaliser, the atmosphere at the stadium and the way the game had changed after Italy scored, as well as a few questions Leo answered comfortably.

He was still conscious that he was sitting at Vittoria’s family table, but the tension he’d carried from Milan had started to disappear.

At one point, Vittoria reached across and took a bite from his plate, chewed, but wrinkled her nose immediately.

"That’s sour."

Leo looked at her before looking at the bun she had in hand.

"If it isn’t good, you can take mine," he said as Sienna smiled innocently and returned to her plate.

Aldo, on the other hand, looked down to hide his own amusement as Leo shook his head.

"Your family is oddly down to earth," he muttered a while later as Vittoria leaned closer.

"I warned you."

After the first course, Sienna stood.

"Come on. I’ll give you two some time before dinner."

Vittoria immediately got to her feet.

"Come."

Leo followed her from the dining room as she led him through the house for a tour without the formality that came with it.

She simply moved from room to room, stopping whenever something caught her attention.

"This is my father’s study."

Leo looked inside and saw Aldo’s desk sitting near the windows, surrounded by shelves and several framed photographs.

"So he spends most of his evenings in here."

"Does he actually work in there?"

"Unfortunately."

They moved on afterwards as Vittoria continued down the corridor where photographs covered one wall, some framed professionally and others clearly much older.

At one photograph, Leo couldn’t help but slow down.

"That’s you?"

Vittoria turned, followed him, and immediately laughed.

"Don’t."

"You were tiny."

"I was six."

"You look angry and definitely less than six."

They continued down the corridor, with Vittoria all that while, talking about the people in the photographs and the rooms they passed.

For the first time since arriving, Leo stopped thinking about what impression he was making and that made the house feel less intimidating.

While they talked, she mentioned once, almost as a tangent, that she had cried as a small child demanding a sibling to play with, and Leo stopped walking and looked at her and laughed properly.

"How old were you?" he said.

"Four. Maybe five."

"How long did the tantrum last?"

"That," she said, "is between the people who witnessed it and me."

The talk took them far until eventually, they found the garden, and then the swing at the far end of it.

There, Leo sat on the one beside Vittoria’s and looked back at the house.

"The meeting hasn’t been that hard so far", he said.

"So far," she said.

"I told them before you came that I wouldn’t have this be something uncomfortable. They listened."

"They love me. Sometimes that feels like a lot. But it comes from the right place."

"If I had a daughter," Leo said, "I’d be the same if most people looked at her as something they wanted to exploit!"

Vittoria looked at him.

"Most people?"

"Yeah."

"Was that your way of saying you’d want to exploit me?"

The moment Vittoria said that, Leo grabbed his chest, feigning hurt.

"Ouch."

Vittoria smiled at his over-the-top reaction, while he looked at her for a moment, the garden quietening around them.

"You probably don’t know this," he suddenly said a moment later, "but you’ve become such a big part of my life that I don’t want to think about the version of it where that isn’t the case."

Hearing that, Vittoria went quiet as a smile slowly appeared on her face.

"That’s all I think about too," she said.

Leo looked away at the garden and said nothing, and they sat in the quiet of it for a while until one of the house staff appeared at the terrace door and said that dinner was ready.

"We are coming," Vittoria answered as Leo helped her off the swings.