Page 25 of Change of Heart
Obligingly, the Labrador turned and headed off while she gritted her teeth and followed in his footsteps until she reached Luca.
He had cleared some of the junk and pulled the dusty canvas cover off an old car with a flat tyre. She could see it quite clearly. Although it was covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, she realised that it was actually a rather smart, long black car with a convertible roof. She glanced at the front of the bonnet and saw that it sported a silver three-pointed star inside a circle. She recognised this emblem and turned towards Luca who gave her a smile.
‘Ever seen one of these before?’
‘Is it a Mercedes?’
‘Mercedes Benz, that’s right. Just give me a moment, would you? I need to check something out.’
While she and the dog continued to investigate the old car, Luca pulled out his phone and started searching. Alice dragged a few more bits of junk out of the way so that she could take a closer look. The paintwork had dulled with age, but the vehicle still appeared structurally sound. She managed to open the driver’s door and saw that the leather interior was in remarkably good condition, considering that the vehicle was quite obviously very old. Dissuading the dog from climbing inside, she pushed the door closed again and turned towards Luca. The smile on his face was even broader now and she queried what was going on.
‘What is it? What’ve you found?’
He looked up from his phone. ‘Got it! This website’s the biggest auction house in Switzerland and this looks very much like this car here.’ He scanned through the text alongside the photos for a few seconds before looking back up at her again, his eyes gleaming. ‘According to this, what we have here is a late nineteen thirties Mercedes Benz 320B cabriolet. I’m amazed it’s been left here to rot. The one in Zurich…’ He held the screen towards her and she saw a gleaming black car on display. ‘…Just look at how much it sold for.’
At first, Alice could hardly believe her eyes and she caught hold of his hand and pulled the screen closer to her face to be sure. There could be no doubt about it. The car in the picture had been sold for three hundred and seventy thousand Swiss francs.
‘In case you’re wondering, the Swiss franc and the euro are pretty much at parity nowadays.’
Alice looked up in amazement, the magnitude of the discovery still sinking in. Suddenly realising that she was still holding his hand, she released it, but she was so stunned by this discovery that her cheeks didn’t even flush.
‘Three hundred and seventy thousand euros. That’s an awful lot to pay for a car.’
He introduced a note of caution. ‘Obviously there’ll be considerable expense to return this car to its original condition but, even so, it looks like the Varaldo family are sitting on a real treasure here.’
‘This is amazing. I can’t wait to tell them.’
The opportunity to break the good news to the family came at ten o’clock that morning. Luca was officially introduced to the other members of the family in the living room and Alice felt genuinely sorry for him at first. The expression on his face as Simonetta led him in there was probably not that different from what would have appeared on the faces of soldiers about to leave their trenches and go over the top in World War I. The baron was standing by the fireplace with his hands holding his lapels, looking for all the world as if he were King’s Counsel about to address the judge to ask for the death sentence. His mother was sitting bolt upright in a chair beside him with a serious expression on her face. Sensing the tension in the atmosphere, even Frank the dog stopped halfway across the floor and cast an uncertain glance back at his master. Simonetta was quick to relieve the tension.
‘Nonna, Papà, this is Luca Montorso and he’s just made the most amazing discovery.’ She went on to recount what Alice and Luca had just told her about the Mercedes in the courtyard store, and the atmosphere in the room underwent a complete metamorphosis. In a matter of seconds, smiles appeared on all the faces, and Alice heaved a surreptitious sigh of relief. The baron relinquished his formal stance and came across to shake Luca’s hand, while his mother, helped to her feet by her grandson, stood up so that she, too, could greet Luca. She also produced a charming welcome speech.
‘Signor Montorso… Luca, it’s very good to meet you. On behalf of all our family, welcome to Varaldo Castle and congratulations on starting your period of employment with us on such a high note. We can’t thank you enough.’
‘That’s very kind of you, Lady Varaldo, and you,Barone. I’m delighted to meet you and, to be completely honest, I never thought this day would come. As you can imagine, my brother and I were brought up to loathe and detest your family, and all because of an unhappy father, bitter about things that happened way back in the mists of time. It would be wonderful if this could be the beginning of the end of this senseless feud.’
On his grandmother’s instructions, Achille went to look for a bottle of champagne and they all toasted the arrival of Luca and the wonderful discovery he had made. Ines, who served the wine, looked as though her eyes were about to pop out of her head, and Alice could well imagine her astonishment to see a Montorso in the house after all that had passed between the two families. For her part, Alice hoped that this new spirit of glasnost would extend to the other members of Luca’s family. Silvia appeared a few minutes later with a plate of her mother’s home-made biscuits and the dog was delighted to be handed one by Simonetta. Needless to say, it went down his throat without touching the sides. Alice smiled to herself. She knew Labrador gluttony so well.
They drank their champagne and the atmosphere became ever more cordial, especially when Luca told the baron that he believed he had found evidence that the castle might be even older than they had thought. A real conversation developed between the two men and Alice exchanged knowing looks with Simonetta as they saw the baron being animated and welcoming. Finally Luca asked if it would be in order for him to spend the rest of the morning looking around the castle in preparation for a full structural survey that he and his assistant would undertake early the following week. Depending on what this threw up, he told them he would prepare a detailed schedule of works to be carried out and, with their approval, he would embark on the tortuous process of obtaining listed building consent for all the works from the all-powerfulBelle Artiauthorities.
When asked by Simonetta for his estimate of how long this might all take, he warned them that he felt they should plan for a grand opening not before the end of the year, and maybe not until next Easter, depending on how long it took to get all the plans approved and the work completed. Simonetta looked disappointed but Alice was quick to offer some encouragement.
‘In the meantime I propose we press on with clearing out the junk. Let’s start in the storerooms and I’ll see if I can find a firm with a digger to remove all the rubbish from the moat. Above all, we need to begin to work the land, particularly forestry and alpacas.’
‘Alpacas?’ Luca looked across at her in surprise.
‘On my father’s advice. He recommends we seriously think about establishing a herd. Let me tell you all about what I learnt when I visited an alpaca farm with Alfonso.’
She went on to report what she and Alfonso had been told, particularly with regard not only to selling the fleeces, but actually going through the whole process of spinning yarn and knitting articles for sale in their new gift shop. The suggestions were met with general approval and she was authorised to buy a dozen or so animals in the first instance. Finally, the meeting broke up and Luca returned to his surveying, this time accompanied by Achille, with whom he’d been exchanging nostalgic stories of their early school days. Suppressing a touch of disappointment that she wouldn’t be with Luca, Alice went out in search of Alfonso to give him the good news.
It really felt as though things were on the move.
Chapter 17
On the way home on Friday, Alice saw a man outside themunicipiosticking up posters. Out of curiosity she went over to take a look and received a surprise. The posters were announcing a local referendum to take place in exactly three weeks’ time, but what was striking was the subject of the referendum. It required a straight yes/no answer to the question:
The town authorities believe that opening Varaldo Castle to the public is a bad idea which will negatively affect inhabitants. Are you in favour of allowing this potentially damaging new project? Vote NO on the 29th of June.
Alice pulled out her phone and took a photo which she immediately sent on to Simonetta and Luca. She just added a one line comment:
