by T A Williams
‘Thank you so much for all your kindness, Anna. Without you, I wouldn’t be here now.’ He caught her eye and she saw his remarkably clear blue eyes sparkle in the sunlight. ‘The doctors have made that abundantly clear to me. You’re a lifesaver.’ He gave her a warm smile. ‘And a beautiful one, too.’
Anna took an instant liking to this friendly gentleman – not just because of the compliment. ‘You’re very welcome. Thanks go to your dog really. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and heard him barking.’
‘And thank you so much for looking after George. I hope he behaved himself.’
Anna cast a tender look down to the dog who was snuffling about at his master’s feet. ‘He’s been great. He’s a lovely dog and I’m going to miss him, even though I’ve only known him for such a short time.’
The nurse wheeled Mr Dante down to street level while Anna hurried back to get the car. He climbed into the passenger seat unaided and as the nurse stowed the Zimmer frame on the back seat under the watchful eyes of the Labrador, Anna had a sneaky suspicion that the frame wasn’t going to get a lot of use. The Canadian looked like he was a resilient customer, even though he had had a heart attack less than twenty-four hours ago and he wasn’t in the full flush of youth.
On the way back to the south coast they chatted and she stuck to her story of being here on holiday with a friend who had just had to run off to be with his pregnant wife. Mr Dante was immediately concerned.
‘Does that mean you’ll be here all on your own? How much longer are you planning on staying?’
‘Um, ten days or so, I expect, but I won’t be on my own all the time.’ She did a bit of hasty improvisation. ‘A girlfriend of mine’s coming over to the island on Monday. I’ve been staying at the Hotel Panorama this week but I need to find another hotel from Sunday as they’re full. But I’m going to see if I can find somewhere not too far away so I can come and see you both.’ A thought occurred to her. ‘If you like, Mr Dante, I could try to drop in every day and take George for a w-a-l-k.’ She spelt the last word so as not to overexcite the dog. ‘Would that be a help? Besides, I’d enjoy it.’
‘How very kind. I’m sure he’d love that. George mostly tends to wander about on his own. Living where I do, there’s no traffic to worry about so I let him come and go as he pleases and he always comes back again, so he gets his regular exercise. But he’s a very sociable sort of dog and I’m sure he’d enjoy the company. And please stop calling me Mr Dante. It makes me feel so old.’ He gave her a grin. ‘I’m still a youngster of only seventy-six after all. Please, my name’s Jack.’
‘Thank you… Jack. George’s a lucky dog to be free to roam about in such gorgeous surroundings.’
When they got back to his house, the front door was wide open and a matronly lady in an apron was standing on the doorstep wiping her hands on a cloth, looking pleased and relieved to see Jack again.
‘Signor Jack, we were so worried. Marco told me what happened. Are you all right?’
He climbed out of the car remarkably nimbly and addressed her in faultless Italian. ‘Giovanna, it’s good to see you too. I’m a lot better, thanks. They’ve given me some new pills and I feel ten years younger.’ He paused for a moment before grinning. ‘Well, let’s say ten months younger. Anyway, let me introduce you to the lovely lady who saved my life. Anna, this is Giovanna, without whom I would be lost.’
As Anna shook hands, the housekeeper gave her an appraising look and a smile. ‘Marco was right. You are very pretty, Signora.’
Anna couldn’t help blushing. ‘Marco said that?’
Giovanna’s smile broadened. ‘And a few other nice things about you. I could tell he likes you.’
Anna’s cheeks were now glowing. ‘Well, I like him too. Do you know him well?’
‘I see him three mornings a week when I go to the villa to clean and I’ve been doing that for five years now. I was there first thing this morning, just before he went off. Did he tell you he’s gone to see his grandmother?’
Anna nodded. ‘In Bergamo, yes, he told me, coming back on Sunday night.’
‘So does this mean you and Marco are…?’ There was an inquisitive glint in Jack’s eye but by now Anna was blushing so much it made little difference so she did her best to rise to the occasion.
‘…friends, Jack. We’re friends. I only met him a couple of days ago and we’ve been out for dinner once, so there’s nothing between us. How could there be, after such a short time?’
He grinned at her. ‘All I can say is that I’ve always admired Marco’s taste in ladies.’
Anna didn’t like the sound of his use of the plural, but she let it go for now.
‘He’s a nice guy.’
Thankfully, Jack then changed the subject. ‘Now, if you can spare the time, would you like to stay for lunch? I took the liberty of calling ahead and asking Giovanna to prepare enough for two. I asked her if she would like to join us but she has to go home and cook for her husband.’
Anna was delighted to accept and she followed him into the house. He ostentatiously refused to use the Zimmer frame that she had retrieved from the car and he looked surprisingly steady on his feet. Yes, she thought once again as she carried the unused frame into the house, underneath his aged exterior, this was one tough old guy.
Lunch was taken under the open loggia at the side of the house, looking out over the coast and the clear blue sea. There was just enough breeze here in the shade to make it an ideal temperature and Anna thoroughly enjoyed the meal of finocchiona, a fennel-flavoured salami, and lovely cold orange-fleshed melon, followed by Giovanna’s homemade lasagne. She and Jack chatted about all sorts of things – although she still skated around the specifics of her job – until he started talking about his mining career and she was riveted. One thing he said, in particular, caught her attention and struck a very familiar chord.
‘My only regret is that I spent so much time travelling, I never had the opportunity to put down roots and look for the lady of my dreams. Or, rather, when I did finally find a job where I could settle down, I was too old and too set in my ways to represent an appealing prospect to any lady.’ He took a sip of wine – although he had told her the doctors had apparently warned him to stay off alcohol – and glanced across at Anna with a smile. ‘Ah, to have met you fifty years ago, my dear.’
‘I sometimes feel a bit like that about the travelling involved with my job, too. Over the past few years I’ve almost literally been on a different continent each month. Like you say, a lifestyle like that doesn’t lead to any serious lasting relationships.’
‘Is that how your relationship with Marco will finish? Will it just die a death?’
‘I could hardly call it a relationship after just one meal, but it’s bound to end up like that.’ Of course, what Jack didn’t know was that relations with Marco were based on a lie and couldn’t lead anywhere apart from disaster even if she were to stay here for years. She did her best to put a brave face on it and repeated her mantra. ‘Carpe diem, Jack. It’s the only way to live a life like mine.’
He shot her a glance over the top of his wineglass. ‘Just don’t leave it too late, that’s all I say.’
He then went on to talk about some of the places where he had worked over the course of his life and there was one strand linking them all together: gold. He had started in the gold mines of the Rockies – now overtaken by other countries in terms of gold production – and from there had moved on via Australia to the high Andes of South America, but the longest he had lived in one place had been when he was already middle-aged and this had been in France. Anna didn’t know much about gold mining in France so she queried him about it and his response was fascinating.
‘I worked at the Salsigne gold mine near Carcassonne. It was a huge opencast mine in the Languedoc region of south-west France. For many years, right up until it closed in 2004, it was the largest and most productive gold mine in Europe.’
‘Why did they close it?
’
‘Environmental pollution.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘The method we used for extracting the gold was to crush hundreds of thousands of tons of rock to flush it out. Unfortunately, in so doing we released all manner of toxins into the surrounding ground and from there they leached into the watercourses, doing all sorts of damage.’
Anna knew all about the detrimental effects mining could have on the environment but she made no comment other than to ask, ‘What sorts of toxins?’
‘The worst was arsenic.’ He wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were trained on the remains of the lasagne on his plate, his tone sombre. ‘Arsenic’s often found together with gold but as long as it stays in the rock, it isn’t harmful. Crush it into powder and it can poison everything and everybody around it, long-term. To put that into context, the mine’s been closed since 2004 and it’s still forbidden to eat or sell any produce grown anywhere in that valley to this day. It’s appalling the damage our mine did to the environment in one of the most developed countries in the world, and I bitterly regret having been part of it.’
‘And you came here when the mine closed?’
‘That’s right. As I’m sure you can imagine, there was a lot of resentment and a lot of negative publicity both at local and national level so I knew I wanted to escape to somewhere remote.’ He glanced up at her. ‘The devastation we caused is not something I’m proud of and I wish it had never happened. Since leaving the mining industry I’m a changed man – I don’t even use insect spray for the mosquitoes or weed killer in the garden. Elba’s such an unspoilt gem of a place, it would be awful to ruin it. That’s something I have in common with Marco. I’ve been here for almost fifteen years now and I don’t regret it in the slightest.’
Anna would happily have stayed there listening to his stories all afternoon, but she could see that he was tiring so she got up and started ferrying the dirty dishes back to the kitchen, which turned out to be remarkably modern. As she brought the last of the plates into the house, he joined her at the kitchen door.
‘Just leave them, Anna. Giovanna will be in tomorrow morning. She’ll see to everything.’
‘If you’re sure. Now, I think I’m going to go off and let you get some well-earned rest. Would you mind if I call round to see if you’re all right this evening? I’d like to, if you don’t mind.’
‘That’s very sweet of you. Why don’t you come for dinner?’
‘There’s no need for that. I’ll eat at the hotel. The last thing you want is a guest in the house right after you’ve had a heart attack.’ She hesitated. ‘What about you? Would you like me to bring you something to eat from the hotel?’
‘You’re so very kind, Anna. No, thank you, I’ll just make myself a sandwich if I’m hungry. But after this big lunch, I’ll probably be fine with a glass of milk.’
‘So is it all right if I look in at, say, around seven? I won’t stay long or bother you, but I’d just feel happier knowing you’re all right.’
Chapter 9
That afternoon Anna took the car and drove over to the old mine workings at Capoliveri and spent a happy half hour ferreting around in a specialist mineral shop in the pretty hilltop village, admiring the fine array of crystal specimens on display. It was remarkably busy and it occurred to her that settling down somewhere like this and opening a rock shop might be one way of getting away from her itinerant lifestyle while still maintaining her interest in geology. For a moment she had a vision of herself living here on Elba with a friendly Labrador on one side of her, and just maybe with Marco on the other. No sooner did the image appear than it was replaced by the same shop, the same dog and Toby alongside her.
Life could be so very confusing sometimes.
She then spent a sweaty hour and a half in the burning sun, digging about in the old slag heaps around the opencast mines high on the bare slopes on Monte Calamita, where magnetite, an iron-rich mineral, made the very ground magnetic in places. She managed to find a few small pieces of the unmistakable grey pyramid-shaped crystals but found no traces whatsoever of anything more valuable. Apart from one scary moment when a sinister-looking snake appeared from beneath a rock just ahead of where she was kneeling, it was a most enjoyable, if hot, afternoon. The views across to the mainland of Tuscany were panoramic although her eyes were glued to the ground for the most part. When it got too hot, she decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.
The first thing she did was to change into her bikini and head for the beach for a refreshing swim. As she bobbed around in the warm waters of the bay, she thought a lot about the two men she had met since arriving here on Elba. Both, for their own reasons, had escaped to Tuscany and had chosen this idyllic island in which to live their lives. Jack was now happily retired, but she had no clear idea of whether Marco still worked from home or how he spent his time – or, indeed, how he earned enough to allow him to live in a beautiful villa. She had to admit that Jack’s smaller, less ostentatious house probably appealed to her more, particularly the loggia at the rear with its wonderful views. What was definite was that she had formed distinct, if different, attachments to both men in a very short time and she found herself looking forward to seeing Jack this evening almost as much as she was looking forward to Marco’s return and her sail with him on Monday.
It was as if the island were trying to tell her something.
After a shower and a change of clothes, she spent a few minutes in her room with her laptop, checking out some of the hotels the tourist office had indicated as still having vacancies. Most were on the east side of the island, although she knew she would really prefer something as near the Hotel Panorama as possible. The closest she could find was a hotel on the outskirts of Marina di Campo and she decided to book accommodation there once she had spoken to Ruby – unless the boss’s daughter had other plans.
Her research was interrupted by a phone call and she was delighted to see it was from Toby.
‘Hi, Toby. It’s great to hear from you.’
‘Hi, Anna, I was glad to hear you got over to Tuscany all right. What’s it like there?’
At the sound of his voice all thoughts of the hunky windsurfer evaporated and she smiled happily. It really was good to hear from Toby again. She gave him a quick description of the hotel, the beach and the weather before telling him what had happened with Jack Dante and how the boss’s daughter was about to descend on her.
After hearing her news, Toby then gave her his.
‘I’ve finally managed to get through to the people I’m chartering the yacht from. They say it should be no problem to take in a visit to Elba around the middle of next week. Will you still be there?’
Anna’s smile broadened and a thrill went through her at the confirmation that he really did want to see her again. It would be so great to meet up with him, and knowing he was coming would make it so much easier for her to maintain her resolve not to let things progress between her and Marco.
‘That’s fantastic news! Yes, I’ll be here all next week and maybe even some of the week after, depending on whether we find anything. So far we’ve found nothing. But it’ll be really great to see you again. Let me know when you have more details and I’ll keep those days clear. I can’t wait.’ They chatted for a while longer about various things before saying their goodbyes and Anna couldn’t keep the grin off her face for at least an hour after they’d hung up.
Just before seven she walked across to see how Jack was faring. Before she reached the house she heard the crunch of paws in the dry pine needles and was almost knocked over by a joyous greeting from the Labrador who was evidently out for a solitary stroll. She crouched down beside him and petted him as he poked her with his cold wet nose, trying to reach up and lick her face, his tail wagging feverishly.
‘Ciao, George. It’s good to see you, my friend. How’s your master doing?’
His master turned out to be doing fine. He was sitting out on the loggia and had left the front door wide open. Presumably he was a very
trusting person or maybe there weren’t too many instances of sneak thieves here on the island. As she walked round to the loggia he looked up from the newspaper with genuine pleasure on his face.
‘Anna, my dear, how kind of you to come.’ He pushed himself to his feet with the aid of the tabletop. ‘Before I offer you an aperitivo, there’s something I’d like to show you if you have a few minutes. Come along with me.’
He led her and the dog back through the house and out into the courtyard. As she had expected, he wasn’t using the Zimmer frame but she was pleased to see that he had at least got a walking stick to lean on if necessary – although it didn’t appear to be getting a lot of use. He took her across the courtyard and down a short stretch of track to the other stone building she had spotted from the sea. It was partially built into the hillside and the front portion looked as if it had been recently renovated. As they got there, Jack stepped to one side and ushered her in.
‘Take a look, Anna. They told me this used to be the old stables. I started converting it two years ago, with a view to selling it, but then I changed my mind and hung onto it. Tell me what you think of it.’
Anna stepped inside and was immediately struck by the light flooding in through a wide glazed archway in the side wall. Even better, outside that she found a replica of the loggia at the main house. Although a few metres lower down the hillside than Jack’s home, the views towards Monte Capanne, with glimpses of the sea sparkling in the evening sunshine, were equally spectacular. There was just one big room downstairs, divided into a living area with a sofa and armchairs, and a dining area with a table and four chairs. Over to one side, the kitchen section had clearly been fitted at the same time and by the same people as Jack’s new kitchen and it was sparkling clean and visibly never used. The granite work surfaces were a lovely shade of blue-grey and the cupboards a matching light grey colour. It was charming.
‘Upstairs there are two bedrooms and two bathrooms.’ She heard Jack’s voice behind her and felt George’s nose nudge her bare leg. ‘I was thinking, after what you told me earlier, maybe you might like to stay here for the rest of your time on Elba instead of booking into another hotel. And if your girlfriend wants to stay with you, you’d both be welcome. I’ve got loads of bedding and so on.’