Page 34 of Change of Heart
‘You’re so right, he needs medical help. You can see it, I can see it, and Tommy can see it; everybody can, except my father. Sooner or later something bad is going to happen, and I just wish we could get in there and sort him out before he flips completely.’
When she finally wished him good night and put down the phone she felt a pang of separation. At least she had Sunday’s trip to the Tuscan mountains to look forward to. There was no getting away from it: she was hooked on this man.
The visit by the antiques expert revealed a number of potentially valuable pieces – most notably a medieval tapestry probably worth in excess of a hundred thousand euros – but the baron was still adamant that he didn’t want to sell until it became absolutely necessary. Interestingly, they received an estimate from Luca that same day indicating that, coincidently, he reckoned that the sale of the car should go a long way towards covering the first stage of the building works and modernization of the castle. To the chagrin of the antiques man, it was decided that none of the contents would be sold for now.
When Saturday afternoon came along, Alice was only too happy to go for a ride on Horace the horse. She had enjoyed her stroll through the fields with the alpaca on Monday a lot more than she had been expecting and had emerged at the end of it feeling more at peace, but she knew that her first love would always be horses. As Luca was away, Simonetta joined her and they followed the usual route up the hill above the mayor’s farm, but this time without seeing any members of his family. Alice queried when Simonetta would next get a chance to meet up with Tommi and saw her friend shake her head ruefully.
‘I haven’t seen him all week and it looks as though I won’t see him until after this damn referendum next Friday. Apparently his father’s been in his office at the town hall all day every day making calls and sending messages to everybody from the President of the Republic to the Pope. The farmhand they’ve had for years finally left last week after being shouted at by Cesare once too often. In consequence, Tommi’s had sole responsibility for the farm and he’s been getting up before dawn and not getting back into the house again until after dark. I do feel so very sorry for him.’
Alice reflected that the repercussions of the mayor’s eccentric behaviour were causing real hardship to so many, and she wondered if the farmhand would find it easy to get another job. A thought occurred to her. ‘The farmhand, was he good at his job?’
‘Very, apparently. Tommi says he’s been there for years and years and he knows the workings of the farm inside out. It’ll be hard to replace him.’
‘Might it be an idea forusto employ him? We could definitely do with another pair of hands alongside Alfonso and his son. The new tractor and modern machinery will be arriving in the next week or two, and the first job will be to start preparing a couple of fields for winter feed. Alfonso says we should also grow maize for the chickens, rather than rely on always buying stuff in.’
‘That sounds like a good idea.’ Simonetta glanced across at Alice and grinned. ‘But I’m not sure that Tommi’s father will feel the same way about it if we do employ his man.’
‘Why don’t you get his number from Tommi and give him a call? Or I will, if you like. The way things are at the moment, it’s probably not that easy for him to find a new job, so we’d be doing him a favour.’
‘I’ll do that. You’re right, the poor man might be desperate.’
This time they rode right up almost to the top of the ridge and stopped to give the horses a rest on the open grassland. As they sat looking back down over the valley, Simonetta brought up the subject of Luca. ‘Tommi’s been talking to Luca who told him the two of you are going out for the day tomorrow. Does that mean things are getting serious between you two?’
Alice answered honestly. ‘I really hope so. The thing is, he seems to be taking it very slowly. I mean, it’s nice that he’s not just assuming I’d be ready to jump into bed with him after only a first date, but I get the feeling something might be holding him back.’ She glanced across at her friend and voiced her overarching fear. ‘I was wondering if he’s found out that I’m disabled and he’s chosen to just be friends because of that.’
Simonetta snorted. ‘Don’t be so silly. He’s better than that. If he likes you, he’ll like you no matter what.’
‘That’s what I’m hoping, but deep down I’m scared stiff. Mind you, here I am saying that he’s takinghistime, but I still haven’t found the courage to tell him about my leg in case it frightens him off. So far everything’s been going so perfectly and I don’t want to ruin it.’
‘And I’m sure it’ll continue to go perfectly. When are you going to tell him?’
‘Tomorrow, when we’re in the mountains.’
‘Good. That way you’ll see that I’m right. Try not to worry about it. What I can tell you is that you’re just about the first woman he’s been out with for ages. Tommi says he’s been buried in his work, so the fact that he’s started asking you out means he’s serious. He’s probably just taking it slow so he doesn’t frightenyouoff.’ She gave Alice a smile. ‘And, to me, it sounds as though he really likes you.’
‘I wonder.’
When Alice saw Luca at the door next morning, she instinctively opened her arms to him and kissed him on the cheeks, loving the contact. For his part, he looked equally pleased to see her, as was his canine best buddy who stood on his hind legs, scrabbling at her with his paws. Wisely she had swapped her white jeans for blue jeans today.
‘Hi, Alice. Frank, get down and leave the lady alone.’
‘It’s great to see you both. It’s lovely weather, isn’t it?’ She groaned internally. The weather. Surely she could have thought of something a bit more meaningful to say? Still, he nodded back at her and led her and the dog to the car. It was a warm, sunny day and the roof was down, so Luca settled Frank in the back and tied his lead to the door pillar just in case he should take it into his head to think about jumping out of the moving vehicle.
As they drove west towards the mountains, with Luca occasionally reminding the dog that he was not supposed to slobber all over their hair or nibble their ears, they chatted easily and Alice felt ever more comfortable in his company – all except for nerves at the thought of his potential reaction to the revelation she was going to give him about her leg. They headed upwards via a never-ending series of bends into the higher mountains, soon driving through woods and picturesque villages into the increasingly remote heart of the Apennines. With the roof down, the sun shining, and a most appealing man at her side, Alice reflected that she hadn’t been this happy for months, maybe years.
But would she still be feeling happy on the way back?
Luca pointed out their destination long before they reached it. ‘Up there on the hilltop. It’s an old tower built in the twelve hundreds, but it’s been almost totally neglected for centuries and it needed a lot of structural work done on it. It used to belong to the all-powerful Medici family back in Renaissance times.’
Alice followed his pointing finger and could just make out the tower amid the trees on the top of a big hill in the distance – in Britain it would have been called a mountain. ‘Wow, that’s a long way up.’
‘Don’t worry, we can get right up to it in the car, although the last bit’s very rough. I’m afraid the Porsche isn’t really the right sort of car for my line of work but I love it dearly. There’s no space in the boot for all my paraphernalia, there’s barely enough room for Frank, and it doesn’t like potholes, but I love it all the same and I owe it to Mario to hang on to it. If you don’t mind a bit of exercise, we can leave the car where the proper road finishes and walk up the track. That way Frank will be able to run off a bit of his excess energy.’
They abandoned the car in a tiny hamlet beyond which the road turned into a farm track which was easy to walk on but clearly not designed for a low-slung sports car. Fortunately by this time they weren’t too far from the top of the hill but, even so, it took them almost half an hour to get up to the tower and Alice could feel herself starting to limp by the time they got there. The temperature up here in the mountains was lower than back in Varaldo, but she was sweating all the same by the time they finished their climb. The views were stunning in all directions and the ancient tower itself was mightily impressive.
It was a perfectly round structure, perched on top of a rocky outcrop. Although the cliffs around it weren’t quite vertical, the slopes were steep enough to have Alice worrying in case Frank decided to chase a rabbit over the edge, but he seemed quite happy to stick by the two of them and Luca told her he’d been up here before many times without incident. The rough hillside was covered in dense forest, some of the trees clearly many years old, and the terrain was anything but hospitable. Directly behind them stood an even more imposing mountain, Emilia-Romagna’s highest point, Monte Cimone. This was a remote area and the tower looked impregnable, as indeed it was. Luca confirmed that, like Varaldo Castle, it had never been taken by an opposing force and Alice could well believe it. Trying to get an army up here would have been fraught with difficulty.
Luca left Frank with her while he went off to check that everything was as it should be in readiness for tomorrow’s inspection. Gratefully, Alice sat down on a boulder and stretched her legs as she prepared herself for the confession that was to come. She stared at the old stones, wondering what it must have been like to spend a winter up here in what would have been very Spartan conditions. At her feet, Frank – who seemed unconcerned that his master had gone off and left him – took advantage of the pause to sprawl on the grassy slope, panting after his exertions. All around were more tree-clad hills and there was little or no sign of human habitation apart from a couple of distant ski lifts and the roofs of Tuscany’s best-known ski resort of Abetone. She was still doing her best to concentrate on the view, rather than what was to come, when she heard footsteps behind her and felt Luca’s hand touch her shoulder as he squatted down beside her.
