Page 15 of Change of Heart
Alice went riding on her own on Sunday afternoon and took Horace the horse – for whom she was developing considerable affection – on a leisurely tour of the Varaldo estate. She had managed to get hold of a fairly detailed local map at the general store run by her landlady’s friend, Vincenzo, and this allowed her to navigate her way around fields, woods and open grassland without too much trouble.
She admired the scenery as Horace plodded up narrow tracks and across open fields knee-deep in grass, and she realised that she was beginning to feel very comfortable here in the valley. The dusting of snow she had noted when she first came here on the tops of the far distant hills had disappeared without trace and as the month of June dawned the temperature began to rise noticeably. She was starting to get her bearings around the estate and was increasingly familiar with the outside and the inside of the castle, from the moat to the battlements. She had already decided where she hoped to create a reception area and an office for herself – in what used to be the guardroom by the entrance – and the first thing she intended to do if she managed to get full approval at Monday’s meeting would be to contact an architect specialising in old buildings and a good electrician. One of the things she would be telling the family would be to brace themselves for some hefty expense in bringing the infrastructure up to standard.
As she and Horace wandered around the estate, she also spent a lot of time thinking about the situation in which Simonetta now found herself. It really was scarcely believable in this day and age that such ancient rivalries should persist, and she felt genuinely sorry for both Simonetta and Tommaso. His father sounded mentally unstable to put it mildly, and she found herself thinking how awful it must be for a son to be afraid of his father and for a wife to be driven to the point of leaving home by her husband’s behaviour. Come to think of it, hadn’t Alfonso the groundsman told her that another son had gone off and left after quarrelling with the father? She sincerely hoped that things would work out for Simonetta, particularly as it sounded as if Tommaso’s father was getting progressively worse. At some point, she was going to have to go to the town hall where in all likelihood she would meet him. She wasn’t looking forward to it one bit.
Soberly, she reflected about the weird coincidence of how Tommaso Montorso had not only found his way into Simonetta’s heart but had also made such an impression upon her. Of course he was now forbidden fruit but she couldn’t help a lingering feeling of regret for what might have been. Still, she kept telling herself, the fact that any man had made such an impression on her had to be a sign that she was beginning to put the past behind her. At least, that was what she hoped.
That evening she decided to go to the Casa Rosa for dinner again. It had started raining just as she came back from her ride, and when she left the house for the restaurant at seven-thirty, the sky was a deep grey all over and it was almost dark, in spite of sunset not normally being for at least another hour or more. The rain was coming down harder and harder now and she was glad of her waterproof boots and her big umbrella. When she reached the restaurant she left the umbrella in a bucket by the door and as she walked in, doing her best not to limp too badly as the damp air got to her knee, she found herself automatically scanning the tables for her mystery man, now revealed as Tommaso Montorso, and in consequence off limits. There was no sign of him, and although she knew full well that he belonged to Simonetta, a momentary pang of disappointment shot through her when she saw the table in the corner lying empty.
She received a friendly greeting from the same waiter as the previous week. Recognising her from last Sunday, he stopped to chat, and she learned that his name was Roberto and that he had lived in the town all his life. When she told him about her new position at the castle he looked interested; so interested, in fact, that he must have told the proprietor, who came out a minute later with a bottle of Lambrusco and two glasses to welcome her to the town. He was a man probably in his late sixties with snow white hair. He introduced himself as Giorgio, and Alice remembered Luisella telling her that his son was now the head chef. He was quite obviously on the hunt for more information and she soon realised why he was so interested. He wanted to know whether the castle would represent competition for his business. Alice was quick to offer reassurance.
‘Hopefully, this will put Varaldo on the map. I was delighted to see that you’re a hotel as well as a restaurant and I’m sure having the castle as a tourist attraction should bring you a lot of extra business. We’re planning to have a coffee shop up at the castle, but there’s no question of a full restaurant, so it should be a win-win situation for you.’
The restaurateur looked delighted and relieved, and they chatted amicably for several minutes before he stood up and told her he had to get back to see how things were going in the kitchen. Although Alice protested weakly, he insisted on leaving her the bottle of Lambrusco and she did her best not to drink all of it in the course of what was another excellent meal. She had only ever had Lambrusco a few times before in her life and had generally found it sickly sweet and far too fizzy. This wine, however, was a deep dark red in colour and neither too sweet, nor too fizzy. Still, good as it was, she decided not to follow her instincts and risk getting plastered. This time the meal consisted of lamb stew with polenta, followed by home-made cherry tart with amazing meringue ice cream.
She called her mum for a chat but made no mention of the revelations she had received from Simonetta about the love of her life. She told her mum and dad all about her plans for the castle and asked them to keep their fingers crossed in the morning that the family would approve her proposals. Finally, at just after nine she finished her coffee and went over to the counter to thank Giorgio and pay the bill.
She was just retrieving her umbrella from the bucket by the door when she felt a particularly intimate poke on her bottom and spun around to discover that her aggressor was none other than a black Labrador with a broad canine smile on its face. Behind him, walking towards her and looking apologetic, was none other than Tommaso Montorso. He reached down and caught hold of the dog by the collar, yanking him backwards.
‘Frank, come here and leave the lady alone.’ He looked up from the unrepentant dog who was wagging his tail enthusiastically. ‘I’m very sorry. He’s still young and he’s a bit too friendly.’ He spoke Italian with an educated accent and she found no difficulty in understanding him.
Alice gave him a smile in return and bent down to stroke the dog. For a moment she even considered mentioning to his master that she had seen him in the fields the other day, but, remembering her vow of silence to Simonetta, she allowed no sign of recognition to show on her face and stuck to trivia. Maybe it was because she now knew he was off limits, but she found it remarkably easy to talk to him without the usual awkwardness around good-looking men that had blighted her life ever since her accident. ‘That’s perfectly all right. I love Labradors; we always had one at home. I’m pleased to feel that his fur’s dry. Hopefully, that means the rain’s stopped.’
‘Yes, it stopped about half an hour ago.’ For a moment it looked as though he was on the point of saying more but then he lapsed into silence. A little thrill of triumph went through her. Could it be that he was more nervous about speaking to her than she was? Progress indeed! She found it very easy to give him another smile.
‘That’s good. Well, goodnight to you both.’
‘Good night. Come on, Frank, let’s go and eat.’
She turned away to hide a little smile as she reflected that their choice of conversation, in spite of being in Italian, had been almost Anglo-Saxon: the weather, always a safe topic for strangers. As she walked out into the fresh night air she couldn’t help reflecting that he had given his dog an English name. Curious. But more curious – and concerning – was the undeniable fact that when she had seen him, her heart had done another little somersault. Considering what she now knew about him and Simonetta, this was the last thing she needed.
The meeting on Monday morning lasted for almost three hours. Alice started with the plans she and Simonetta had concocted for the thousands of acres of land surrounding the castle. Grudgingly, the baron allowed himself to be persuaded to go along with the idea of trying to do a deal with the local sawmill and begin to harvest some of the thousands of trees and to replace them with saplings. Alice was keen to point out that this would be done in a sustainable way. The main stumbling block was her plan to introduce livestock and to cultivate at least some of the fields so as to provide winter feed and bedding for the animals. The baron rambled on grumpily about tradition, history, and family values, but without any attempt to be pragmatic and accept the situation in which the family now found itself. In the end it was his mother who cut across her son’s protests and spoke to him in a voice that brooked no argument.
‘Lodovico, we have to do this. It’s not a question of whether youwantto or not. If we don’t start generating some money, we risk losing everything, including this castle. It’s all very well talking about tradition, but times change and sometimes you have to take hard decisions. I know your father would have agreed with Alice’s plan. He spoke about doing something similar himself on a number of occasions.’
This finally got through to the baron and he looked across at his mother in surprise. ‘Is that true? Did father really say that?’
A less confrontational expression appeared on the face of the old baroness. ‘Yes, he did, my dear, and I know he would want you to agree to this plan.’
After this intervention, the baron had no option but to admit defeat and he reluctantly gave them his agreement. Alice heaved a quiet sigh of relief and moved the meeting on to her ideas for the castle itself. She gradually led them through the different items she had listed in order to turn the castle into a tourist attraction. She made a point of emphasising the considerable costs that would be involved, as she didn’t want them to have any unwelcome surprises.
Although it took time, she steadily managed to get agreement on everything, starting with an urgent survey by a good architect, preferably one specialising in historic properties. Once they had the architect’s recommendations, she would move on to getting estimates from builders, decorators, electricians and plumbers and at the same time she would set about applying to the heritage authorities for the all-important planning permission and authorisation to proceed.
She also proposed transforming the storerooms and stables on the ground floor of the castle into a cafeteria, a gift shop, and her latest idea, designed to appeal to the baron: a museum of the Varaldo family. This at least was greeted with his enthusiastic approval, as Alice had hoped it would, and he even started smiling at the thought of his very own museum. Finally she came on to the last item on the agenda which she felt sure would prove to be the most contentious of all: where the family would live.
‘As I’m sure you’ve realised by now, opening your home to the public is going to mean considerable intrusion into your privacy. Obviously there’s no way you would want visitors wandering in and out of your living space, so I have a rather radical suggestion for you.’ She paused for breath and then laid out her proposal, realising as she did so that she was actually crossing her fingers out of sight by her side. With her free hand she waved around at the walls and ceiling of the living room. ‘As these rooms here are the most impressive of the whole building, I would suggest that they be among those opened to the public. Doing this will mean considerable upheaval for you but, in order to preserve your privacy, my proposal is that you consider moving into the towers. There are five of them. If we exclude the tower by the main gate, that leaves four. They all offer a lot of living space over three floors. How would you feel about it?’
The baron stared at her. ‘You mean move out of here? But I’ve lived here all my life. Besides, what about the kitchens and the bedrooms and that sort of thing?’
Alice had talked this over with Simonetta earlier and she was pleased to let her take over. ‘The thing is, Papà, we can’t keep using these rooms if they’re open to the public. The beauty of Alice’s idea of using the towers is that they can be easily locked off and kept completely separate from any visitors. That way we should be able to stay private while at the same time opening the main rooms of the castle to the public. How we decide to divide the accommodation can be worked out later; maybe one tower for general living space and then other towers for sleeping, or one tower for you and one tower for Nonna and so on, or whatever you prefer.’
To Alice’s surprise, and relief, it was Simonetta’s grandmother who then chimed in on their side. ‘I think that’s a marvellous idea. I’ve been wondering about living arrangements. I must confess I even had a dream the other night in which I was lying in bed and the door to my bedroom suddenly opened. Two foreign tourists came in jabbering away in a strange language and started taking photographs of me in my nightdress. The idea of being able to close myself off in one of the towers and lock the door seems an excellent solution.’
Alice was then delighted to hear Simonetta’s brother agree with his grandmother. ‘Four towers, four of us, it makes a lot of sense.’ Achille turned to his father. ‘What do you think, Papà? Don’t you agree it’s the best solution?’
A hush descended on the room and all eyes were on the baron. Alice was already rehearsing a counter argument to the objection she felt sure he was about to produce, when he looked up and, to her surprise, and probably to the surprise of everybody else in the room, a smile appeared on his face.
‘I think that’s an excellent idea. As you all know, I’ve never been in favour of the idea of opening the castle to strangers, and one of my main concerns all along has been the intrusion upon our privacy this would cause. The idea of the towers resolves that beautifully.’ For the very first time since Alice had known him, he looked directly at her and addressed her by name. ‘Well done, Alice. A really good solution to a problem that’s been troubling me greatly.’
