Page 9 of Never Too Late
‘When you say Robert lives in the house on the headland, do you mean full time?’
‘That’s right. He’s been living there for four years now, and he loves Italy even more than we do. Every time I see him, he gets more and more Italian. He’s ever so fluent now. To my untrained ear, he sounds just about as fluent as you do.’
‘And is he musical too?’
‘Very much so. He plays the violin. He performs all over Europe.’
Steph couldn’t help an expression of surprise. ‘The violin? Not really the instrument I would have expected the son of rock legend, Keith Bailey, to play.’
She was pleased to see Keith grin back at her over his cornflakes. ‘It took me a while to get my head round it too but, boy, is he good! Even allowing for parental pride, he’s a star.’
‘Who’s a star?’ The voice belonged to Denver who appeared from the house and the mood of the table took a nosedive. ‘You talking about me, Pop?’
Keith buried his face in his coffee cup and left it to his wife to reply. ‘You’re a star as well, but we were just talking about your brother and his dog.’
‘That mutt!’ It wasn’t immediately clear whether Denver was referring to his brother or his pet. Still, it was such a beautiful morning that even grumpy Denver couldn’t stay grumpy too long. He pulled out a chair and sat down alongside Steph. ‘Hi, Steph. You’re looking lovely today. Where’s your boyfriend?’
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that Ethan was at risk of no longer occupying that position but she still hadn’t made that decision. She also realised that this might give Denver ideas, if he thought she was available, so she just smiled sweetly. ‘He was very tired last night. He’s still sleeping.’
‘Sleeping it off.’ Denver didn’t mince his words. ‘I haven’t seen a man drink so much in one sitting since before my father took the pledge.’ Before anybody could retort, he returned his attention to Steph. ‘So if he’s sleeping it off, does that mean you’re free to come swimming with me? I’m sure you look good in a bikini.’
She managed to maintain the smile, but it was beginning to hurt by now. ‘I’ve already had my swim this morning with Waldorf the dog, and I plan to spend the morning familiarising myself with all that lovely recording gear your father’s got down in the studio.’
At that moment Denver’s girlfriend appeared. From the icy expression on her face Steph had a feeling she had been listening for a while before emerging from the house. Ignoring Steph completely, she greeted Faye, Keith and Tara before taking a seat on the other side of Denver so close to him you couldn’t have got a playing card between them.
‘Good morning, Willow.’ Faye produced a little smile for the girl’s benefit. Today she looked barely of legal age. ‘I like your top.’
Steph studiously avoided looking at her but had already been struck by the minuscule crop top that revealed a huge tattoo of what looked like an eagle splayed across the woman’s stomach. Willow acknowledged the compliment with a nod.
‘It’s so hot. I thought September would be cool but it’s boiling here, and Den wants to go to Florence today. We’ll probably get sunstroke.’ Her American accent was more noticeable this morning.
Steph reflected that an effective way to avoid that eventuality would be for her to cover up a bit, but she left it unsaid. The good news as far as the rest of them were concerned was that Denver and Willow wouldn’t be around today, which should reduce the tension that seemed to accompany them every time they appeared.
Finishing her breakfast, she returned to the guest apartment and saw that Ethan’s door was still closed. She didn’t wake him. The words ‘bear’ and ‘sore head’ came to mind, and she knew she was better off keeping her distance. Yet again she questioned whether their relationship still had any mileage left in it. After ironing her dress, she went down to the recording studio to take a closer look at the gear with which she would be working.
The recording equipment was high class although, in this digital age, Steph marvelled that Keith had chosen to include traditional gear alongside digital. Nowadays artists could get amazing results with a computer and some fancy software for a fraction of the cost of equipping an old-style studio, but of course cost wasn’t a problem for Keith. The console itself was in pristine condition and without any of the coffee stains or scratches that decorated their battered one in London. In fact, this one looked as if it had never been used. There was even a hefty instruction manual lying on top of it which had barely been opened. The chairs at the console and the high stools in the performance area looked brand new and one still had a tag hanging from it.
The audio equipment was top of the range and there was a sparkling new piano keyboard on one side of the performance area together with a drum set and three guitars, amplifiers and a range of speakers. In particular Steph’s eyes were drawn to a guitar she recognised as Keith’s famous silver Stratocaster that would probably fetch a million dollars if he ever decided to sell it. Considering the studio wasn’t even locked, this place was a potential goldmine for any would-be burglar. No wonder the villa had high fences, security cameras and live-in custodians in the shape of Cesare and Donatella.
Steph spent a happy hour fiddling with the equipment, familiarising herself with it all before deciding that as it was almost eleven and Ethan still hadn’t appeared, she would make a bit of noise in the hope that it would filter up the stairs and wake him. She set the console to record and went over to the brand-new keyboard. The tone was perfect, and it offered a multitude of settings. Although she could have cranked it up to full church organ mode and blown Ethan out of bed, she kept it in traditional piano and settled down to play Chopin’sFantaisie-Impromptu, which she loved. As always, she lost herself in her playing and didn’t hear the door open until she came to the end of the piece and was roused from her reverie by the sound of clapping. She looked up to see Keith standing there.
‘Brilliant, Steph. I didn’t realise you were a classical pianist.’
She felt herself blushing. ‘I was doing a sound test and I needed something I could record so that I could play around with it. Now that you’re here, I don’t suppose you could give me a few bars of whatever appeals to you on the guitar?’
‘Of course, but why don’t you play me something else first? How about modern stuff? Do you play that as well?’
‘To be honest, I grew up playing all your hits. If you promise not to laugh, I could have a go at one…’ And she launched into the piano solo from ‘Getting Back on Top’, one of Royalty’s early hit singles. She had learnt it by ear, after religiously studying a VHS cassette of Vince Dutton, the group’s now long-dead keyboard player, performing it. She had played the video over and over again until the tape actually snapped, but by that time she had mastered the tune. It was a difficult piece, and she was delighted to get through it this morning without any serious hiccups. Keith applauded her once more.
‘Terrific, Steph. Vince would have been impressed.’
‘Thanks, Keith. It was so sad about him. I was so sorry when I heard the news.’
His expression became more sombre. ‘It was a tragedy for him and for all of us.’
It was on the tip of Steph’s tongue to quiz him about the current status of the group but before she could utter a word, Ethan appeared in the doorway looking like a refugee from a zombie apocalypse. His long hair was normally fairly unruly, but today it looked as though he’d been out in a hurricane.
‘Keith, hi. Sorry I’m a bit late this morning. Must have overslept.’ He was wearing the same clothes as the previous day and in all probability, he had been wearing them all night. Keith took a couple of steps back when he saw him but didn’t comment on his appearance or his alcohol intake the previous night.
