Page 21 of Far from Home
He smiled back as he corrected her. ‘He, not she. The love of his life is another man. Ah, there’s the mayor now. I’d better go. Enjoy your meal.’
Amy finished the last of her seafood salad and took a mouthful of wine, her mind turning over what she had just learned. Did this mean that Danny and Adam were a couple? It sounded like a logical combination of two beautiful people with similar artistic talents. At least, she told herself, this made it even less likely that a visit to Adam’s studio tomorrow might result in an inappropriate approach by him, but she had to admit to a little twinge of regret. He was a very good-looking man, after all.
Chapter 12
The following afternoon Amy collected Max the dog and set off to do a bit of exploring of the surrounding area. She folded the back seat of her little Fiat down and Max jumped in willingly. He was clearly very excited and it took a while before she managed to convince him to sit down and not stand behind her, nibbling her ears. She took the Volterra road and, as Adam had explained, barely a few hundred metres outside of town she came upon a fairly unsightly concrete water tower, and right after that she spotted his studio.
It had probably started life as a large winemaker’s cantina at the side of the road. It looked as if it had recently had a complete makeover and the repointed stonework and grey-blue windows and shutters were very smart. A sign on the façade indicated that this was the home of APTV, Adam’s company. There was a car park alongside it with half a dozen cars in it, and this appeared to support his claim that she wouldn’t find herself all alone with an unknown man – whatever his sexual orientation. For now she just drove past, determined to give Max a good walk.
She followed the increasingly winding road until she emerged from the vineyards and olive groves into open fields and patches of dense woodland. Just before the top of a hill, she pulled over and parked at the side of the road. Outside it was still very warm but there was definitely more than a breath of air up here, which made the conditions more tolerable. She let Max out and they set off along a white gravel track – one of Tuscany’s famousstrade bianche– which ran along the contour line around the hill, dipping in and out of thick woodland that provided welcome shade to both of them. It was quite an isolated place and if she hadn’t had her canine companion she probably wouldn’t have ventured here alone, but having Max to protect her – although he would probably have licked rather than bitten a would-be assailant – was more than reassuring.
She recognised chestnut trees, the ground below them littered with last year’s spiny pods, and stunted oaks, all interspersed with the iconic umbrella pines and cypress trees for which Tuscany is so famous. The shade of the forest provided welcome relief from the heat of the June sunshine. The views down the valley and across to the faint blue line of the distant coast were spectacular, although the heat haze prevented her from making out any details.
They gradually circled the hill, with Max covering two or three times the distance she did as he ran in and out of the trees, retrieving sticks. On the way back to the car she met another human being. Considering that the beaches were little more than half an hour away and no doubt heaving with people, it came almost as a shock to see somebody coming towards her. It was an elderly gentleman who was obviously feeling sociable, as he stopped to chat while Max wandered over to greet him, and he tipped his hat politely in Amy’s direction.
‘Good afternoon. It’s too hot for them now. You’ll need to come back early in the morning.’
Amy was momentarily stumped. What was he talking about? Then she spotted the small wicker basket in his gnarled old hand and it all became clear. He was a mushroom hunter. She thanked him for the advice and asked if she could take a look at what he had found.
‘Two small porcini and that’s it. It’s very early in the season but yesterday morning, quite unusually, I got almost a kilo. I put it down to all this climate change stuff. But I left it too late today.’
He proffered the basket and she peered down to find two beautiful porcini mushrooms, each the size of a baby’s fist. A wonderful aroma of the forest wafted up to her and she resolved to come back and try her hand at doing a bit of mushroom-hunting of her own one of these days.
At four o’clock on the dot, she and a calmer Max walked in through the glass doors at the entrance to Adam’s studio. A dark-haired woman was sitting behind a stylish curved counter over to one side. She looked up as Amy walked in, smiled as she saw the dog, and stood up.
‘Are you Amy? I’m Marta. Adam’s expecting you, but he didn’t tell me the name of your companion.’ She spoke Italian with a local accent.
‘His name’s Max but if you’d prefer, I can leave him in the car. We’ve just had a long walk. I’m sure he’ll sleep.’
‘Not at all. Adam loves animals and so do I.’
‘He’s very friendly and if you give him food he’ll be your friend for life.’
Marta emerged from behind her desk and proceeded to make a fuss of the Labrador before leading them along a terracotta-tiled corridor to a large room with a huge, glazed arch occupying most of one wall looking onto a rocky garden, built in a series of steps up the hillside. As he saw them, Adam jumped to his feet and came across to greet them. In return Amy felt a little shiver of attraction go through her, irrespective of what she had heard from the notary.
Marta made the introductions. ‘Here’s Amy, and her friend’s called Max.’
‘Hi, Amy and hi there, Max.’ Adam crouched down and stroked the dog’s ears before straightening up and waving Amy towards one of a pair of sofas by the window. She felt she had better explain.
‘He belongs to Signora Grande and I’ve started taking him for walks. You’re sure you don’t mind my bringing him?’
‘I’m delighted to see you both. Thanks for coming. What can I get you? Afternoon tea, seeing as you’re English, or coffee, or a glass of wine, maybe?’
‘To be honest we’ve just been for a walk so something cold would be good. Plain water’s fine.’
Adam glanced across at Marta. ‘Two mineral waters it is please, Marta, and a packet of biscuits for Max.’
‘Actually, if you’ve got a bowl or an old pot with some water that’s probably more what he needs.’
‘A bowl of waterandsome biscuits, please. We must look after our guests.’
He sat down opposite Amy and they chatted until Marta returned with the refreshments. Max slurped up the water willingly, making a right old mess of the terracotta floor as he did so, but Adam waved away her apologies. When Amy told him about her plans to upgrade Mr Slater’s house, he looked up with evident interest.
‘L’Ospedaletto’s a lovely old place, but it definitely needs modernising.’
So Adam, too, had been inside Martin Slater’s house. ‘Yes, indeed. You knew him?’ Was there anybody in the town who hadn’t known the mysterious Mr Slater?
‘I knew him well. We were good friends. So how come you’re renovating Mart’s house?’
