Page 27 of Far from Home
‘Are you sure?’ His brow furrowed in concern. ‘I told you I’d pay you…’
She gave him a reassuring smile. ‘Seriously, no. I did it as a friend, and now that I know that the man you were close to was my real father, that’s all the more reason for me not to accept your money. Let me know if you want any more help. Maybe filling in those forms for the tax people?’
‘Definitely, but they’re not due for months. I’m afraid I’m going to be away for a couple of weeks. I’m off on Tuesday at the crack of dawn – filming in Brazil – but maybe you could drop by one day when I get back.’ He corrected himself. ‘No, you’ll have the builders here and you’ll need to be here for them during the daytime, so why don’t we meet up one evening after they’ve finished?’
‘Yes, that’s probably the best solution, if you don’t mind.’
‘But first, if you can spare the time, I’d love to see you again. I promise to take you out for dinner to that restaurant I was telling you about, where I went with Mart… your father, but I’m tight for time before going away. But at the very least, might you be free for anaperitivotomorrow night? I could meet you at the Corona Grossa. I want to thank you for helping with the translating, but also we need to celebrate your discovery of your true identity. I should really take you for a good meal but, like I say, I won’t have much time.’
‘That would be great, but are you sure you won’t be too busy getting ready for your trip?’
‘It’ll be a bit of a rush but I’ll be okay. Maybe if we make it early. How does six thirty sound?’
‘Well if you’re sure, that’s fine by me, thanks. I would have invited you here but with the builders starting in the morning it’ll be a while before this place is habitable.’
She felt a little pang at the thought that she wasn’t going to see him again for two weeks and by that time she wouldn’t have much holiday left. But at least she had tomorrow night’s quick drink to look forward to. There was no getting away from it: she had to accept the fact that the little ripples that shot through her every time she saw him were signs of attraction and she was looking forward eagerly to seeing him again. The big unknowns hanging over her head remained whether Adam was likely to have any interest in her as anything more than a friend and then, of course, there was the question of Gavin. Although he had been back in the UK for a week now, she still hadn’t heard a word from him. Normally she was the one who called him, but she had been deliberately maintaining radio silence – not even calling him to tell him about finding the letter in the safe – to see how long it took him to remember to call her. The answer to that one was: a long time.
She and Adam sat and chatted for a while and she found she could relax in his company. As they talked she studied him surreptitiously and she liked what she saw. Apart from looking good, he was friendly, articulate and she instinctively felt that she could trust him. She had dated a number of good-looking men in the past and had quickly realised that not all of them were as trustworthy as they should have been. Whether that description extended to Gavin remained to be seen, but she had her suspicions.
After a while Adam pointed at the book on the table. ‘I see he let you in on the big secret. I think I was just about the only person here that he told.’
‘Why all the secrecy? Somebody here the other day told me they thought he was a gangster.’
Adam laughed. ‘There were all sorts of theories doing the rounds but he wasn’t allowed to tell a soul – a clause in the contract with his publishers meant that he had to keep his true identity a secret in case the fact that the books were written by a man affected sales.’
‘I see. I wonder if that still applies now he’s dead? I’d better keep the news to myself until I get in touch with the publishers – but I’ll read at least one of his books first.’
As the clock neared eight o’clock she knew that she wanted to keep him here longer and started thinking of food.
‘I was out for a big lunch today so all I’ve got for dinner here are some biscuits and a questionable slab of cheese, but you’re very welcome to stay and share them with me if you like.’
He smiled. ‘That sounds enticing, but I’m just on my way down to the pizzeria to meet up with some guys from the tennis club to decide on the summer tournament. I’m afraid I can’t back out of it, much as I’d like to.’ Apparently unaware of the wave of disappointment that had run through her, he finished his champagne and stood up. ‘But I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at six thirty.’
She accompanied him to the door. ‘Thanks for the champagne.’
‘Thanks for doing the translations. You have no idea what a great help that’s been. See you tomorrow.’
‘A domani, Adam.’
Chapter 15
Amy made sure she was up and dressed well before seven o’clock on Monday morning. After grabbing a quick cappuccino and a brioche at the hotel she hurried across to the house. Just as she got there, she was delighted to hear a vehicle follow her into the drive. It was Signor Rossi, the plumber, true to his word. Even better, barely two minutes later, the roar of a truck engine told her that Signor Pozzovivo and his two men had also arrived.
Keen to make up for inflicting English tea on the plumber the other day, she set about making coffee for all of them with her fancy new machine. She had only just finished one lot when there was a knock on the door. It was Signor Rossi’s cousin, Emilio the electrician, nostrils flaring as he smelt the coffee. His presence also reduced her fears of the coffee machine causing a major power outage.
The rest of the day was a confusing sequence of decisions to be made on the hoof. Still, she told herself, having to decide where to position a power point was a whole lot less stressful than doing a twenty-million-pound forex deal. She refused to venture into the cellar and told the electrician to install lights and sockets wherever he thought fit. The memory of the snake was still fresh in her mind. The good news was that the men all agreed that the only snakes around were harmless grass snakes, so that was one less thing to worry about. In fact, according to Lorenzo, the little yellow and black snake might well not have been a snake at all but a young slowworm. Snake or not, harmless or not, Amy knew that she had no desire whatsoever to find any more of them so she stuck to her plan of staying well clear of the cellar.
In the course of the day the coffee machine barely stopped as she ensured that the tradesmen were all happy. By the end, she had finally managed to get them to start calling her Amy instead of Signora and she was calling them all by their first names. This at least made it easier to distinguish the lanky electrician, Emilio Rossi, from his tattooed cousin, the plumber Angelo Rossi. It was just after four o’clock when she closed the door on the last of them and hurried around to Signora Grande’s house to pick up Max for his delayed daily walk. Both of them greeted her warmly and she and the Labrador had a quick walk in the fields, which cleared her head and blew the dust out of her lungs. After having skipped lunch, she was beginning to feel hungry – and filled with nervous anticipation at the evening to come. Was theaperitivoa date?
She went back to the house to lock up for the night and stood at the door looking inside. The floor she had spent days cleaning was now a dusty mess all down the middle where the builders had carted out the old kitchen and bathroom furniture. To the right of the fireplace, plugged into an extension lead on Mr Slater’s… her father’s old coffee table, were the electric kettle, coffee machine and the little cooker lent to her by Angelo the plumber. This had two hotplates and would be her only source of hot food if she were to decide to move in any time soon. The kitchen itself was now just an empty shell waiting for Lorenzo Pozzovivo and his men to replaster a couple of walls prior to fitting the new units. Electric cables and water pipes protruded from the walls, ready to be connected once the builders had finished their work.
The consensus was that she would be without hot water and power from the middle of the week for four or five days, so she resolved to stay at the hotel until then. Lucy was arriving the next day so it made sense to stay with her at the hotel until she left again. After that Amy could move into her first ever house – and what a house! It promised to be magnificent once it was finished. Of course, that then begged the question of what to do with it. She felt sure she should be able to sell it for a lot of money if she wanted, but the longer she stayed here in Sant’Antonio, the closer she felt to the community and she knew she would miss the place and all the new friends and acquaintances she was making. Alternatively, she could keep it as a holiday home but, as she knew only too well, the constraints of her high-pressure job would probably only allow her to snatch a few days off here and there.
She spent ten minutes washing the cups and checking that she had enough coffee, milk, sugar and biscuits to feed the workmen, whose appetite for coffee rivalled Max’s appetite for food. By her reckoning, Emilio the electrician had had seven cups of strong coffee in the course of the day and she wondered how he would ever be able to get off to sleep. She dried all the mugs and returned them to the box that would be their temporary home for the next week or two until the new kitchen units arrived.
All the time her mind was working, digesting the developments of the past few days. The discovery that a completely different man was her real father was exciting, but it threw up as many questions as it answered. Prime among these was what she should think of her mother, who had, after all, lied to her throughout her whole life.
It couldn’t have been easy for her mother to bring up a child single-handed on just a military widow’s pension – or had she? Maybe Martin Slater had contributed. Looking back on it, Amy couldn’t remember any particular financial hardship – although her mother had always been careful with money – so he probably had. Considering his reputation for generosity here in the town, she felt confident that he would have provided financial help for his daughter, even if her mother had banished him forever. Not for the first time, she wiped away a tear as she thought of the frustration he must have felt throughout his whole life, but then, of course, things must have been tough for her mum as well.
