Page 14 of In Italy for Love

But hey, she’d had a great time in bed with a guy last night, she thought with a rather manic laugh to herself – or perhapsatherself. Alex hadn’t minded that her hair could do with a conditioning treatment and a pair of straighteners, and that all her clothes were crushed. Hopefully Maddalena, the women who ran the olive farm, wouldn’t mind either.

When she took her last turning – onto a concrete road barely wide enough for a single car, cracked and potholed and muddy – she experienced the first inkling of suspicion that this farm stay might not turn out quite as she’d pictured it.

A faded sign announced her destination: Agriturismo Azienda Agricola Biologica Due Pini. The stone wall along the road had fallen down in places, destabilised by tree roots. Thoseroots belonged to the farm’s namesakes, two tall stone pines, their dark green crowns fanning out so high up that Jules had to crane her neck.

The farmhouse was a large building – possibly an old barn – that had been rendered and painted rusty pink. Wooden eaves and shutters completed the bright picture, but when she looked more closely, she noticed that the render was criss-crossed with cracks and the vintage farm equipment dotting the yard was more of a tetanus hazard than charming decor. There were checked tablecloths hanging from each window and also strung up under the pergola. A goat was gnawing peacefully on the one flung over a bush along the drive.

As she trudged down the cracked driveway, a chicken scampered across her path. A donkey watched Jules’s and Arco’s progress towards the farmhouse, only flicking its soft grey ear once or twice but otherwise not moving. As Jules spotted the olive trees and several rows of vines, an enormous flock of crows took flight, colouring a portion of the cloudy sky black.

When she’d pictured an organic farm, Jules hadn’t imagined the animals would be free-range as well.

‘Welcome to Two Pines Organic Farm,’ she muttered to herself, holding Arco firmly on a short lead as he skittered restlessly.

Arco was gleefully alert, sniffing under every plant and giving the goat a wide berth, which Jules understood. There was something justwrongabout goats’ eyes.

Approaching the farmhouse, she wasn’t sure where to enter, as there were several doors. One set of sliding doors was closed, frilly curtains drawn. A heavy wooden door with a wreath in autumn colours was also firmly shut. But a third door was ajar, a bead curtain moving in the breeze.

The sharp smash of glass breaking – a lot of glass – stopped Jules in her tracks. Cursing in a woman’s voice followedimmediately, then, drowning out the voice – and the chickens and the goat – came the splutter and buzz of a chainsaw.

With a grimace, Jules gingerly nudged aside the strings of wooden beads and called out ‘Hello?’ hoping she could be heard over the loud drone of the power tool. Taking a step inside, she startled a woman with greying light brown hair, a wild look in her eyes.

The woman blinked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, clutching a broom handle and brushing absently at her apron and long skirt.

‘Hi,’ Jules began. ‘Er, I’m Julia Volpe. Are you Maddalena?’ She took a step forward to awkwardly offer her hand.

‘Stop right there!’

Jules froze, less regimental soldier and more rabbit-in-the-headlights. ‘What?’

‘Non muoverti! Hold the dog!’

The panic in the woman’s voice snapped Jules into action and she snatched Arco off the floor and into her arms, even though her knees complained about his weight, on top of her luggage.

‘I broke glass – una damigiana, abigglass!’

The back door swung open suddenly and another dog shot in, making the woman shriek again and brandish her broom at the animal. A man tumbled in after the dog, dark hair falling over his eyes.

‘Mamma!’ he cried, followed by more words Julia struggled to catch, although one of them sounded like ‘fiasco’ which she thought was rather appropriate.

Arco must have scented the big black dog because he began to wriggle so wildly that Julia was afraid she’d drop him. When he barked, it was loud enough to ring in her ears. The other dog strained at the hold on its collar and the poor woman withthe broom swept as though possessed, the clink of heavy glass shards barely audible over the canine chorus.

‘I can’t hold him any more,’ Jules said through gritted teeth just as the woman had contained the shards in one corner of the room and stood guard. Arco leaped out of Jules’s arms and bounded straight for the other dog, tail wagging. She stumbled after him, her backpack making her whole body list to the left. Before she could restrain him, Arco had stuffed his nose into the other dog’s privates. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she panted, fumbling with the lead. ‘He has no manners.’

Before the man could reply, his dog gave a low growl that quickly progressed to baring teeth and a sharp bark that gave Jules a shower of misgiving down her spine, but it was too late. The black dog raised its paws and snarled at Arco, barking furiously. Arco zipped away, tugging on the lead so suddenly Jules tumbled over, landing helplessly on her backpack.

The other dog shook off the man’s hold on its collar and leaped right over Jules, its claws finding grip in her jacket as she cowered, covering her face. To a chorus of howling and barking – and alarmed shouts and oaths from the room’s other two occupants – the two dogs nipped and sparred and expressed their clear dissatisfaction with each other.

‘Basta, Fritz! Basta!’

Jules managed to unclip her backpack and stand up and then Arco leaped at her. She caught him somehow, despite her shock at his panicked behaviour, and he trembled violently in her arms, whining pitifully.

‘Mi dispiace tantissimo,’ the man apologised, approaching with a grimace.

The back door banged open again to reveal a man in overalls brandishing a chainsaw – exactly what Jules’s day had been missing.

‘Nonno!’ the younger man exclaimed. ‘Metti giù quella cosa!’

Put that down!The man’s somewhat standard Italian, even if the consonants sounded a little chewed, made more sense to Jules and she shook her head to clear her thoughts, breathing hard.

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