A Postcard from Italy: The perfect summer beach read

by Alex Brown

  ‘And so thank you for not giving up the search, Grace,’ Patty said, finishing the last of the lemonade in her glass. ‘It means the world to Mom to be here and to see where her actual mother, Connie, lived. Ellis has been so kind in helping us sort out all the travel arrangements; he even drove us to JFK airport yesterday—’

  ‘Yesterday?’ Grace smiled, shaking her head. ‘Is that when you got here? I thought he was coming today.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. Don’t be hard on him, he wanted to surprise you and we thought it would be nice for Mom to meet you here first before we travel on to London.’

  ‘Wow. Does this mean you are coming to Cohen’s? That’s the storage place where Connie’s belongings are,’ Grace asked, hopefully, for she wanted so much for Lara to see exactly how Connie had carefully stored all that she owned for her.

  ‘Yes, that’s right, we need to take care of some legalities around the paintings and pieces of jewellery. And then we are hoping you can take us to where Connie ended her days. We would also like to find out where she is buried, so we can pay our respects … And to Franklin Street in Deptford to see where Mom’s father, Jimmy, lived. Mom really wants to visit Blackheath park too, and the heath where Connie met him at the funfair. Ellis has talked us through the whole love story she wrote about in her diaries. About how Connie and Jimmy met and fell in love, and how she never forgot him. Her first truelove. It’s so incredibly emotional and bittersweet.’

  The conversation flowed for a few hours more until Ellis’s mobile rang and he stood up.

  ‘Awesome. I’m coming now,’ he said, before slotting his phone back inside his pocket and going to walk away.

  ‘Hey, where are you off to?’ Grace asked.

  ‘Come with me,’ he said, slipping a hand around hers. ‘There’s someone else who wants to meet you too …’

  When they got to the gate, there was a silver mini-coach parked up and a group of people milling around chatting to Georgie and Tom.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Grace said, lifting her shades to get a better look at the group. There were two older men, in their sixties perhaps, and two women of about the same age. A younger couple and three small children too, who were dashing around excitedly, teasing each other by seeing who could flip the other one’s sunhat off first. ‘Are they more of Lara’s family?’ she added, grinning at Ellis.

  But before he could answer, one of the men came over to them.

  ‘Hello, you must be Grace,’ he said in English with a London accent, taking her hand and shaking it enthusiastically.

  ‘Um, yes, that’s right,’ she said, intrigued. He wasn’t American, so these people couldn’t be part of Lara’s family from New York. So who were they?

  ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Grace. I’m Terry, and this rowdy bunch here is my wife, June,’ and one of the women waved over enthusiastically. Grace waved back, bemused. ‘And that fella over there is my brother, James, and his wife, Audrey, and then you’ve got my son, Dougie, and my daughter-in-law, Steph, and their three kiddiewinks, Ben, Bobby and little Kitty.’

  ‘Nice to meet you all,’ Grace said, and then in a daze added, ‘Did you say Kitty?’ What a coincidence, as Grace remembered mention of a woman called Kitty in one of Connie’s earlier diaries; she was her best friend and had been with Connie at the funfair when she met Jimmy.

  ‘Yep, that’s right. Named after her great-granny she is, God rest her soul.’ And he crossed himself before looking skywards. ‘But come on, you had better come with me and meet the old fella himself.’ And Terry led her round to the other side of the mini-coach where a very frail and elderly gentleman was being helped into a wheelchair.

  Stanley!

  The man in the wheelchair must be Jimmy’s friend. Stanley had been at the funfair too. Grace couldn’t believe it. How wonderful. Terry had just said the little girl was named after her great-granny so it all made sense. Stanley was Kitty’s sweetheart and so they must have gone on to get married. And so Grace smiled as her heart soared on realising that this gentleman would have actually known Connie, his wife Kitty’s best friend all those years ago. He would be able to tell Lara about her mother when she was young and carefree and happy at the funfair, and then when she was courting Jimmy before he went away to fight, and before he ultimately lost his life for his country. It was incredible after all this time. And then Grace wondered how on earth Ellis had managed to find Stanley? And, more importantly, did Lara know that her father’s best friend was going to be here in Italy at Connie’s home? Or was this a wonderful surprise for her too?

  Grace glanced at Ellis and squeezed his hand before stepping forward.

  ‘I’m so pleased and honoured to meet you, Stanley.’

  Silence followed.

  ‘Stanley?’ the old man repeated, a look of confusion spreading across his papery face, and Grace’s heart sank for him on realising that he must have dementia if he didn’t know his own name. With a rush of compassion, she bobbed down in front of him and held out her hands which he took in his.

  Another silence followed.

  Grace could sense Terry moving alongside her and then kneeling down too.

  Then, after handing the elderly gentleman a sprig of wild flowers tied in a jaunty yellow ribbon, she turned to look at Grace and said,

  ‘This isn’t Stanley. This is my dad, Jimmy!’

  Grace gasped.

  She stood up and turned to Ellis who, after giving her a kiss on the cheek, gently guided her forward again before stepping back to allow her to take it all in.

  Grace could not believe it.

  Connie’s first truelove. Jimmy. The man she had never stopped loving. The father of Connie’s darling baby girl, Lara.

  Was it really him?

  She crouched down again in front of the man’s wheelchair and looked again into his eyes. And then she knew. The impish green eyes. The same green eyes as his daughter, Lara, who was waiting in the garden to meet him for the very first time, she presumed.

  ‘Jimmy, it’s …’ Grace gulped back a tear and felt her face move into a massive smile instead. ‘It’s such an honour to meet you.’

  ‘And you, my love,’ he said in a raspy voice, patting the top of her hand. ‘Thank you. Your fella here,’ he broke off to nod in Ellis’s direction, ‘went through it all with me on the phone. He told me how you kept going to find out the truth for our Connie.’ He stopped talking, seemingly overcome with emotion as he pulled a hanky from his breast pocket and gave his nose a quick stoic blow, before putting it away again and lifting the flowers up. ‘These are for her, my first truelove, Connie,’ he said. ‘You see, I never got to give her the last lot. Her parents wouldn’t have it.’ And he shook his head, a smile mingled with sorrow set on his face.

  ‘I know,’ Grace said softly, helping to tuck the blanket, which Terry had passed across, around Jimmy’s knees. ‘But I can’t wait to hear all about it from you.’ And she stood up and looked at Terry. ‘Thank you so much for bringing him here.’

  ‘It’s my pleasure, Grace. We can’t thank you enough for this. Dad never stopped loving Connie, you know,’ he said, quietly, as he moved around to take charge of the wheelchair.

  ‘I can hear you, son,’ Jimmy chortled. ‘I might be getting on, but I’ve still got my faculties intact.’ He looked up at Grace and then added, ‘But he’s right, you know. I never stopped loving our Connie.’

  ‘Right, are you ready then, Dad?’ Terry asked, smiling and shaking his head. ‘To go and meet your daughter?’ And he wheeled Jimmy off towards the powder pink villa.

  Grace listened to Ellis as they walked up the path, holding back a bit to allow the family to go first.

  ‘Are you sure you’re not mad at me?’ he asked, for the third time. ‘It was a huge gamble, not telling you about Lara and Jimmy right away, but I wanted to take the chance … to do a wonderful thing for you, Grace.’

  ‘Of course not, and it is a wonderful thing. I’m so overjoyed that Connie’s daughter can m
eet her father. It’s the next best thing to Lara being reunited with Connie. And here in the very place where Connie was actually happy,’ Grace said, shaking her head in bewilderment as she went over everything he had told her: how Connie’s parents had lied in telling her Jimmy had been killed in the war, presumably to put pressure on her to give Lara up for adoption. But Jimmy hadn’t died; he was missing for a while, presumed dead, until he made it back home having survived in a POW camp. He was in very bad health on his return and spent the last part of the war in a sanatorium, believing Connie had forgotten all about him as she hadn’t replied to any of the letters he had sent when he’d first enlisted. And this broke Grace’s heart all over again, to know that Connie’s parents must have deliberately withheld Jimmy’s letters from Connie. Then, when Jimmy saw Connie in the crowd on VE Day, saw how radiant and clearly blissfully happy in love she was with the GI, with a diamond ring on her finger, he knew that he had to let her go. But, even though he later went on to marry her best friend, Kitty, after her Stanley didn’t make it back home from the war, Jimmy never let Connie go from his heart completely.

  ‘And I still can’t believe Maggie kept all this from me,’ Grace sighed, incredulous. ‘I only spoke to her yesterday and she never said a word … Did Larry and Betty know too that Maggie had managed to find out all this about Jimmy?’

  ‘Yes, but only for a short while, I promise. It all happened so quickly, Grace, and we all wanted to surprise you … to do something really special for you, and well … you do agree that this is much more meaningful than me just phoning you from New York to say that I had found Lara, and then Maggie calling in to Cohen’s to tell you that she had discovered Jimmy was still alive?’

  ‘Hmm, I suppose so,’ she teased, ‘but I can see that I’m going to have to keep a close eye on you from now on, because we have spoken on the phone at least a trillion times in the last few weeks and I never once suspected you were planning such a momentous surprise as this.’

  ‘And it killed me, it really did, Grace, but I promise it was done with the best intentions.’

  They reached the path that led down to where Lara and her daughters were now embracing Jimmy and all his family. Grace stopped walking.

  ‘Do you mind if we join them later … there’s something I want to do first.’

  ‘Sure,’ Ellis said. ‘Would you like me to come with you?’

  ‘Could you come and find me in a few minutes?’ she smiled, letting go of his hand.

  Grace made her way into the villa and went upstairs to the place in the photo where Connie had been standing in the doorway of the veranda with Giovanni’s Venice Salute painting on the wall behind her. She stood in the exact same spot and thought of Connie, telling her:

  They are here for you, dear Connie. Your first truelove, Jimmy, and your darling Lara, together at last, here in Italy, the place where you found happiness. They’ve come back to you and will remember you for always. And I will too.

  Grace walked out onto the veranda, the scent of lemon from the fruit trees filling the warm air all around her as she gazed across the breathtakingly beautiful Italian Riviera. She stood silently and thought of everything that had happened over the last few months. How her life had changed beyond recognition and how Connie, even after her death, had played a part in that. For if she hadn’t chosen Cohen’s Convenient Storage Company to look after her precious belongings, then Grace might never have discovered them and ultimately never have met her own truelove. For that’s what Ellis was. Grace had known it right from the moment when she first met him. But hadn’t allowed herself to even dream of a different life with him at that time. How things change … And talking of whom, she felt his hands gently touch her shoulders. Ellis was there now, standing behind her and wrapping her in a hug as he placed his arms around hers. She leant back into him, resting her head on his chest, savouring the moment here with him in this glorious place.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he asked softly, his lips warm on the side of her neck.

  ‘Mmmm,’ she murmured, nodding her head. ‘I was thinking about Connie and how her legacy has changed my life.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t have met you if it wasn’t for her.’

  ‘True. And I have her to thank for that too. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, Grace,’ he told her.

  ‘It’s the same for me,’ she said, drawing his arms tighter around her as she snuggled further into his chest, wishing they didn’t live so very far apart. She couldn’t bear the thought of parting from him again at the airport in a few days’ time. Maybe she could move to America? But what about her mother? There was a time when Grace would have jumped at the chance to escape the burden of caring for Cora, but it was different now. She actually enjoyed spending time with her, and the others were visiting more often too … Bernie had even been talking of booking a spa day for her and her mother … Grace had overheard her on the phone to the hotel when she had last come to see Cora. And Grace would miss her best friend, Jamie, terribly, unless he came to America too, as he had joked about on the phone that time.

  Grace and Ellis stood together for a while, just enjoying and relishing each other’s company as they soaked up the romantic atmosphere there on the hilltop, until eventually Ellis gently turned her around until she was facing him.

  ‘Grace, I have another surprise,’ he said, kissing the side of her neck again.

  ‘Oh?’ she smiled, her eyelids fluttering as he traced a path up her neck to her mouth with his lips.

  ‘Are you sure you can handle another surprise?’

  ‘Um, I think so,’ she grinned. ‘It depends what it is?’

  ‘Well, what would you say if I told you I wanted to be able to see you, and hold you, laugh with you, watch a movie, hang out, shop for groceries, make love to you … like all the time?’ He pulled a silly face.

  ‘All the time?’ She lifted one eyebrow, teasingly.

  ‘Yes,’ he nodded and smiled suggestively and then promptly clarified, ‘in the evenings, of course … and weekends too. When you’re not busy doing other stuff, like working, or doing all the other things you enjoy … oh jeez, this is coming out all wrong. I’m making myself sound like a crazy, possessive jerk. I mean, I’d like to be with you more, not that I want you to only see me and have no life away from me.’

  ‘It’s OK, I know what you mean,’ she laughed gently.

  ‘Phew. That’s a relief.’

  ‘Oh, why is that?’

  ‘Because … I’ve been offered a job at Sotheby’s …’

  ‘In London?’ she murmured, excitement bubbling inside her, but caution too – she didn’t want to get her hopes up, in case he wasn’t saying what she truly hoped he might be.

  ‘Yes … if you’ll have me?’ he asked, his toffee-brown eyes searching hers. And, as it sank in, she nodded, slowly at first, until she could bear it no longer and threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight.

  ‘Yes please, I’d love to have you,’ she gasped, letting him go momentarily so she could look at his gorgeous face again. He smiled, resting his forehead gently on hers, his fingers caressing the tops of her arms.

  ‘Grace Quinn, I love you.’

  And as she moved her lips onto his, Grace knew that she absolutely loved him too …

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Love and thanks to my kind friend and brilliant editor, Kate Bradley, for always knowing what I mean to write and for showing me the light at the end of a sometimes very long tunnel. Thanks too to Kimberley Young, Emilie Chambeyron, Katy Blott and the rest of the hardworking team at HarperCollins. Special thanks to my amazingly patient agent, Tim Bates, for continuing to help me keep calm and carry on. A special mention to my copy editor, Penny Isaac, for tweaking all my mistakes right from the start. Emily Deane for sharing her legal expertise regarding inheritance laws in the UK, any errors within the novel are totally down to me. Claire, Lucie and Charlotte for sharing a picture of their gorgeous cat, Gypsy, who
became the inspiration for the cat called Gypsy in this novel. Thanks to my girls, Tara, Sarah and Ingela for changing my life with their friendship, warmth and unwavering love and support, plus prosecco and passing on a passion for slow cooking. My dear best friend, Caroline Smailes, for always being there and for always getting it. Thanks always to my husband, Paul Brown, aka Cheeks, for knowing exactly when to bring tea and treats to my writing room, and an extra special thank you to my darling girl, QT, the bravest, kindest young girl – you continue to amaze me with your perseverance every single day, my love. As always, I couldn’t write at all without my beloved Northern Soul music to evoke the right emotions, so thank you for helping me to keep the faith and keep on keeping on.

  Lastly, and by no means least, a huge thank you to all of you, my wonderful readers. You’re all magnificent and your kindness and continued cheerleading spurs me on every day – writing books can get lonely sometimes, but having you all there is like a family — our special community — and that is very precious to me indeed. I couldn’t do any of this without you. You mean the world to me and make it all worthwhile. Thank you so very much for loving my books as much as I love writing them for you.

  Luck and love

  Alex xxx

  BETTY’S TRULY SCRUMPTIOUS BABKA CAKE

  Makes 1 loaf

  Ingredients

  For the dough

  100mls milk

  350g strong white bread flour

  50g caster sugar

  7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

  1 large egg, lightly beaten

  100g butter, softened and chopped into small pieces,

  plus extra to grease

  For the filling

  75g unsalted butter

  75g dark chocolate

  150g caster sugar

  25g cocoa powder

  1tsp ground cinnamon

  For the syrup