Page 19 of Far from Home
Amy raised her eyes. She hadn’t given a thought to the roof – and there was an awful lot of it. ‘Is there a problem with the roof?’
Signor Pozzovivo gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Nothing too serious, I’m sure, but I’d better go up and check. I could see from the road that the chimney needs some work on it and the gutters need renewing. But, otherwise, it doesn’t look too bad. It’ll be fine, I’m sure.’
Amy was about to usher him into the house when another van pulled up on the gravel. The driver jumped out and climbed the steps towards them. After exchanging greetings with Lorenzo Pozzovivo, he came over to Amy and they shook hands.
‘I’m Emilio Rossi. My cousin Angelo tells me your house might need some work.’ Unlike his cousin, Emilio was immensely tall and stick thin. A grizzly black beard concealed half his face, giving him a piratical air.
‘Thank you so much for coming.’ Amy was seriously impressed. Tradesmen in London didn’t often demonstrate such enthusiasm.
Amy led the two men through the house, pointing out what she felt needed to be done. The electrician reached his conclusion within a very few minutes.
‘I’m afraid the only thing to do is to start again. As it is, I should really advise you not to use any electrical device for fear of electrocuting yourself.’ Noticing the expression of horror on Amy’s face, he smiled. ‘But, seeing as you already have, and you’re still alive, I should imagine you’re safe enough for now. Just be careful.’ He glanced at her trainers. ‘That’s good, rubber soles. Better to be safe than sorry.’
He squatted down on his heels and pulled at one of the power points. It came out of the wall with a shower of dust. He scrutinised the wires behind it and frowned.
‘Angelo tells me he’s coming next week to start the plumbing work. In view of the urgency of the matter, I’ll do the same. I should really have another job at a hotel in Castiglioncello, but that can wait for a week or two.’
Amy told him how grateful she was but he brushed away her thanks and said the same thing the plumber had said. ‘Martino was a good man. It’s the least I can do. Were you related to him? His daughter, maybe?’
This was getting too frustrating for words so all Amy could do was to shake her head and play it down – for now. ‘We weren’t that close but I’m delighted to hear that he was well-liked in Sant’Antonio. Thank you so much.’
After she had showed him out she went upstairs to see how the builder was getting on. She found him in the last room but one, tapping the walls. She gave him a questioning look.
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Yes. The good news is that I can’t see any serious water infiltration around the chimney or anywhere else on the ceilings, so your roof shouldn’t need a lot of work. I think the best thing to do in here would be to sacrifice one bedroom and turn it into two bathrooms. If you like, we could make one an ensuite bathroom alongside the main bedroom.’
He talked her through what needed to be done and ended on an encouraging note. ‘We’re not doing anything major, you know. We’re not knocking any walls down. Just making a few openings and building up a new partition wall, so it shouldn’t be a long job. I’ll bring two men with me and, as long as you can decide what bathroom and kitchen furniture you want, I don’t think it will take more than two, maximum three, weeks.’
Amy did a rapid calculation. Hopefully she would still have some holiday left. All in all, that was amazingly fast, as long as it worked out like he said.
Downstairs once more, he took his leave, promising to let her have a formal estimate by the weekend. He held out his hand to her. ‘See you next week.’
‘I’m very grateful that you’re all able to come so quickly. I wasn’t expecting it.’
His reply came as no surprise. ‘It’s the least we can do for Martino. He was a good man. We all liked him a lot.’
Chapter 11
That evening Amy made another new friend. She was sitting at her regular table outside on the piazza, sipping a glass of cold white wine while she listened to the haunting panpipes of a group of South Americans in colourful costumes performing out under the trees. The sun was low on the horizon and the whole area was bathed in a rich red glow. She was wondering idly what Gavin was doing right now – needless to say, he still hadn’t been in touch – when she looked up to see an unfamiliar figure approaching. A tall man with short-cropped fair hair and broad shoulders was carrying a bag from which the handles of two tennis racquets protruded. He was wearing shorts and she found that her eyes were level with his suntanned thighs. She hastily swallowed the wine in her mouth, trying not to choke in the process. He might have been a year or two older than her and he was a very good-looking man. To her surprise, he spoke to her in fluent English with an American accent.
‘Hi, sorry to disturb you, but I wonder if you might be able to help? You’ve met Danny, haven’t you? He tells me you’re British, but you speak Italian like an Italian and English like an Englishwoman. I badly need somebody to help me with some translating.’
She gave him a little smile. ‘If I can help, I’d be happy to. Am I right in assuming you’re American?’
‘Sort of. I’m originally from Canada but I spent most of my working life in California until I came here a few years ago. I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you. I can come back another time if you prefer.’
‘I’m just sitting here waiting to have my dinner, so you’ve caught me at a good time.’
‘The thing is, I badly need a translator.’
‘So you’ve just said. What do you want to translate?’
‘It’s a work thing. I have a film production company over here. We’re based out on the Volterra road. It’s only a ten-minute walk from here.’
It occurred to Amy that this sounded as though it was probably close to where Danny the potter had said he lived. Maybe the same place? She took a better look at the American. It could well be that this guy was Danny’s dinner companion from the other night. She had only seen him from behind then, but the hair and the shoulders looked somehow familiar. The film company sounded interesting. ‘Wow, movies. Why here, not Hollywood?’
‘How long do you have?’
