Secrets on the Italian Island

by T A Williams

  Anna couldn’t miss the slight narrowing of the eyes as Loretta reacted to the news that Anna and Marco were friends and this added weight to Felice’s impression that she still liked Marco. Hopefully this wouldn’t result in a shot of arsenic being slipped into the food tonight.

  For dinner she and Jack both chose the same thing – not just, she told herself, so as to lessen the chances of poisoning. For their starter they opted for muscoli ripieni, which were a local speciality of mussels stuffed with breadcrumbs and parmesan, covered in a tomato and mussel sauce. Along with the remains of her bottle of local white wine left over from last night, they were exquisite. They followed this with another fish classic: fritto misto. This remarkably light mix of fried fish, prawns, octopus and squid was accompanied by a mixed salad and, by the time she had finished, Anna knew she couldn’t eat another thing. Jack had put in a plea for a small portion but the chef had clearly ignored it. Anna was impressed to see that he managed to eat almost all of it, and she was equally impressed to see him obey the doctor’s orders and accompany the meal with mineral water rather than wine.

  It was still light when she drove him back to his house so she took George for a quick walk while Jack prepared some warm milk for himself and some coffee for her. This time she followed the road down towards the beach and was pleased to see that it was less rocky than she remembered and it looked as though she would be able to go swimming here next week without difficulty. Night was falling and the clouds on the horizon were advancing. She felt sure the meteorologists had got it right. Tomorrow would be wet and windy.

  She reflected that this probably meant the conditions would be good for windsurfing and this made her think of Marco, yet again. As she thought of him, she started thinking of Toby as well. It looked as though his first few days on his yacht were going to be in some very inclement weather and she hoped he was a good sailor. Yet again these two men occupied her mind; both nice guys, both apparently available, but her damn job prevented anything from happening with either of them. It really was very frustrating.

  When she got back to Jack’s house, she sat down with him in the lounge to drink her coffee, but she could see that he was looking tired by now and she resolved to head home. She just needed to sort out plans for tomorrow first.

  ‘Can I buy you dinner tomorrow, Jack?’

  He shook his head. ‘Thank you, but no. I think I’ll have an early night.’

  ‘Then why don’t I take you out for lunch? You’re the one with the local knowledge. We can go anywhere you like. You choose.’

  ‘That’s very kind, but surely you have more interesting things to do than spending your Saturday with an old man.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to hearing more of your stories of your gold mining glory days.’ She swallowed the last of her little espresso and stood up. ‘I mean that. Anyway, you think about where you’d like to go and then why don’t you go ahead and phone them to book a table? If I come round at twelve o’clock, will that be okay?’

  ‘Twelve will be absolutely fine. Thank you so much, my dear.’

  Chapter 11

  The rain arrived with a bang – or, rather, a lot of bangs – at around three in the morning. Anna was roused from sleep by a series of bright flashes and claps of thunder that echoed around the bay. As the storm drew closer and more intense she got out of bed and went over to the window to admire the spectacle of multiple flashes of forked lightning spanning the horizon and lighting up the sea. At the same time as the thunder came a torrential downpour and, with it, blissfully cooler air. She wondered how the Labrador was coping and if he was scared. Their old spaniel back at home used to crawl under the bed during thunderstorms, and as a little girl she had often joined him. Nowadays she was no longer scared and was able to admire the spectacle until it gradually faded away and moved on towards Monte Capanne.

  Next morning she found a very different scene awaiting her as she went down for breakfast and took a seat at her usual table by the window overlooking the lawn. The grass was dotted with puddles and the paths alongside it were awash with water. Bizarrely, the sprinklers were running even though it was still drizzling. Certainly the idea of an early morning swim had less appeal today than on previous days.

  She returned to her room and set about writing up her report of the first week of prospecting. There was little to say as they had achieved no appreciable positive results. All she could relate was what they hadn’t found, rather than any successes. Although she knew that Douglas, her line manager, would be disappointed – if not really surprised – she couldn’t help feeling relieved. If she had stumbled upon a mother lode of one of the rare metals, she would have been faced with a major moral dilemma. Ultimately she knew she would have had no alternative but to report it to her employers and hope the environmental impact on this beautiful island wouldn’t be too catastrophic. She sighed as she worked, her mind once again on the advisability of a career change.

  Just as she pressed Send on her report, her phone bleeped and she saw she had a text message from Toby.

  Hi Anna. Skipper tells me we should be there on Wednesday. How about I meet you and take you out for dinner? It’ll be great to see you again. He says we’ll be stopping at Portoferraio. Is that near you? x

  She replied immediately.

  Hi Toby, I’ll be there. Portoferraio isn’t far from here. Can’t wait to see you again too. Give me a shout early next week when you have more definite timings. And why don’t I take you out for dinner? xx

  She received an immediate answer and couldn’t miss the fact that he had also included two little kisses this time.

  I asked first xx

  At lunchtime she drove down the now seriously muddy road to pick up Jack for their lunch date and she was once again greeted enthusiastically by George and almost as warmly by his master. As she stroked the happy dog she asked Jack where he had chosen to go for lunch. His reply was reassuringly unadventurous.

  ‘If you’re happy just to go back to your hotel, that would suit me fine. After all the rain, the roads are going to be muddy and potentially flooded in places. I see you’re driving a four-by-four, but it might be prudent not to go too far.’

  ‘You’re right about the mud so, if you’re happy with the Hotel Panorama, that’s great. And we know they won’t mind if we bring George.’

  Lunch was predictably delicious. It turned out that on Saturdays the hotel always laid on a buffet lunch and Anna helped herself to a selection of salads, olives, sundried tomatoes and a local speciality of cold spicy octopus served with lemon, olive oil and chopped parsley, along with a hot skewer of grilled prawns. Jack opted for steak and French fries and Anna wondered if this was a hang-back to his days of living in the Americas where meat was still king. She remembered some of the meals she and Charlie had had in Argentina where the chef had done his best to feed them half a cow each. Her much lighter meal today was lovely and as they ate, she got Jack to tell her more of his stories.

  What was inescapable was that the lodestar of his working life had been gold. He had searched for it in every conceivable way from mine workings deep underground to huge sprawling opencast mines where trucks the size of London buses carted the rock away. He had spent weekends alone in the wilderness, panning for gold in mountain streams and hundreds of hours with a metal detector. He told her about places he had been and she realised that she had also visited a number of them – even the exact same mines – but, of course, she couldn’t tell him and that now familiar feeling of frustration struck her repeatedly over the course of the meal. To a young geologist, his stories were fascinating and she had to make a conscious effort to curb her enthusiasm, for fear that it might become too obvious that she was demonstrating more interest than was normal for somebody with little or no knowledge of the field.

  By the time she drove him back to his house the rain had stopped and she left him to have a little nap while she took George for a good long walk. As Jack had predicted, the tracks and paths were awash
with water and by the time she got back to his house an hour later her trainers were soaked and filthy while the dog’s lower half was a sticky mess of viscous brown mud. She got hold of a hose and an old brush and cleaned him off by the horse trough outside before leading him round to the side of Jack’s house. Needless to say the first thing the dog did as she finished was to shake himself and, in the process, turn her light blue shorts and clean white top into a speckled mess. When they got round to the loggia where Jack was sitting, he gave her an apologetic smile as he set eyes on her.

  ‘Sorry, Anna. George never was very big on personal hygiene. Now, what can I get you? A cup of tea, a glass of wine… a towel?’

  ‘If you’ll join me, I’ll go and make some tea.’ Seeing him starting to stand up she shook her head. ‘Please just stay there and make sure your soggy doggy doesn’t try to follow me into the kitchen. I’ll find everything, don’t worry.’

  Shrugging off her trainers, she went inside in her bare feet and made the tea. When she carried it out to the loggia she found Jack with a map of the world laid out on the table in front of him. There were red markers all over it, presumably where he had carried out his search for gold. As she settled down alongside him she noticed there was a red mark over Elba.

  ‘Are these all the places you’ve been prospecting for gold?’

  ‘That’s right. Five continents – six if you consider North and South America as separate continents.’

  ‘That’s quite some journey you’ve been on. And did you find gold everywhere?’

  ‘I either found it or helped others to find it and mine it.’

  ‘Even here on Elba?’

  ‘Elba’s different. It’s my home.’

  ‘Is there gold on Elba?’ She already knew the answer. Gold had never been found here on the island despite there being numerous deposits of quartz which often played host to gold but, of course, she had to act clueless.

  He shrugged. ‘Who knows? One of the main reasons I chose Elba was the fact that it’s such a rich source of all kinds of minerals. Just because nobody’s found gold here doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You never know – maybe somebody’ll find it here some day and that would be quite something.’ His expression darkened. ‘But it would be disastrous for this lovely island.’

  Anna had often fantasised about happening upon a seam of gold, and she knew just how he felt. ‘It would be fantastic to strike gold, but I’m sure you’re right about the effect a new Gold Rush could have on Elba. Somehow I don’t think your neighbour would approve.’

  ‘Marco would freak out – and quite rightly so.’ Jack caught her eye and shook his head sadly. ‘He’s a man on a mission these days. He was a fairly normal guy when he and his wife first came to live on the island but then he caught the conservation bug in a big way. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for saving the planet, but you can’t let it take over your whole life. Did he tell you that’s one of the things that ruined his marriage?’

  ‘No, not at all. To be honest, we only went out the once and he didn’t say much about his ex-wife.’ This wasn’t strictly true but when Marco had spoken about the collapse of his marriage, he certainly hadn’t mentioned his interest in the environment as a possible contributing factor. In fact the way he told it, it had been the fault of the island that she had left. Certainly nothing to do with him.

  Jack carried on. ‘There was a lot more to it than that of course, but I can still remember her sitting here exactly where you’re sitting, crying her eyes out as she told me she realised she came second in his affections after some rare orchid he and his group had found halfway up Monte Capanne.’

  Anna shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. It felt almost improper to be occupying the selfsame spot Marco’s ex-wife had occupied and to be talking about her. Listening to what Jack had to say, one thing was for sure: any chance of Marco forgiving her for being ‘the enemy’ was a forlorn one. Still, Jack clearly knew a lot about him and she decided to press for a bit more information.

  ‘Apart from his environmental concerns, any idea why they split up?’

  ‘Like I say, it was a lot of things. Belinda felt a bit lost here, she didn’t share his love of the sea and…’ She saw him hesitate. ‘And he didn’t behave himself very well.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘I don’t want to put you off, Anna, but it turned out he’d been seeing other women; a succession of other women.’

  ‘Ah…’ This appeared to confirm what Felice had said and what Charlie had suspected. Jack meanwhile was trying to offer some encouragement.

  ‘Who knows what really went on between him and Belinda? But I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth.’

  ‘Thanks for the warning.’ Doing her best not to dwell any longer on this line of thought, Anna decided it would be better to change the subject.

  ‘Do you miss all the travelling you used to do?’

  He shook his head. ‘The travelling, no. What I did miss at first was the searching, the hunt for something that hadn’t seen the light of day for millennia, that had been lying there since the dawn of time here on earth. There was always that simmering excitement that a big strike might be just around the corner. Looking back, I now see that this was the driving force that kept me constantly on the move and, ultimately resulted in me ending up alone.’ His voice tailed off and Anna was quick to leap in to reassure him, although his words had struck a worryingly familiar chord with her.

  ‘But you aren’t alone. You’ve got George, and for the next week or so you’ve got me to keep you company. And, remember, you live in an amazing place.’

  He looked across at her and smiled. ‘It’s certainly quite a place and I’m so happy to have your company. Who would have thought a heart attack would result in me meeting a lovely girl like you?’

  It was almost five o’clock by the time she finally said goodbye to Jack and George and drove back to the hotel. Once in her room she showered and changed out of her Labrador-scented clothes into clean ones. She remembered seeing a washing machine in the old stables and added washing powder to her list of things to buy tomorrow before moving in. She was planning to buy ingredients to make something nice for dinner tomorrow night as she wanted to invite Jack over. There was no doubt in her mind that real affection was developing between her and the old man. He reminded her of her dearly beloved granddad who had died when she was still a child. She knew she would enjoy spending more time with him and listening to more of his stories of gold.

  She was in the middle of packing her things when her phone rang. It was an unknown number which turned out to be Sir Graham’s daughter.

  ‘Hello, Anna? It’s Ruby Moreton-Cummings. Is it all right for you to talk?’ Reassuringly, she sounded friendly enough.

  ‘Oh, hello.’ Anna wasn’t sure how to address her, so she tried to avoid using her name. ‘I’m fine to talk. Where are you calling from? New York?’

  ‘No, I’m in London now… I’m sorry to say. I flew in this morning and I’m feeling a bit zonked. I’ve just woken up to be honest. My father’s told me I have to be in Elba on Monday. I hope that suits you better than it suits me. Would that fit in with your schedule? If it doesn’t, just say.’ She sounded unexpectedly considerate, if miffed, and Anna felt a wave of relief. Although Ruby was supposedly younger than she was, Anna had been dreading finding herself partnered with an irascible female version of Sir Graham. Her relief, however, was qualified by the fact that it sounded as though Ruby wasn’t too keen on coming to join her, so this might mean trouble on the horizon. She did her best to reply in a positive tone.

  ‘That’s absolutely fine with me. What sort of time, and do you want me to pick you up from the airport?’

  ‘No need, thanks. My flight gets into Pisa at six and I’ve rented a car. That way you won’t be inconvenienced and we can both be independent.’

  Anna smiled to herself. This girl sounded like she might prove to be a less troublesome prospect than she had envisaged.

&n
bsp; ‘Well, if you’re sure. What about accommodation? I’ve been offered a place to stay down on the south coast near Marina di Campo. It has two good-sized bedrooms so you’re welcome to stay with me.’ Although, deep down, she knew she would really prefer to be on her own.

  ‘That’s very kind of you.’ The hesitation in Ruby’s voice was unmistakable. ‘What’s the place like?’

  Anna gave her a brief description of Jack’s property and ended with the words, ‘It’s in the most wonderfully quiet location, with virtually nobody else around. You should be able to catch up on your sleep.’

  She heard Ruby grunt. ‘It sounds delightful but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll book myself into a hotel somewhere with a bit more life. I’ve had a tough few weeks and intend to enjoy myself while I’m there.’

  Warning bells began to ring inside Anna’s head. What did Ruby mean by ‘tough few weeks’? How could she forget that Sir Graham had told her she would be in charge of looking after Ruby and making sure she didn’t get into any more trouble? Still, if Ruby didn’t want to stay with her at Jack’s house, she could hardly insist, even if she wanted to.

  ‘No problem. Where were you thinking of?’

  ‘I was going to ask you. Somewhere I can meet a few people, maybe with a club or two. You know, somewhere with something to do. Where do you go for nightlife?’

  For a moment Anna felt almost ashamed. As far as nightlife was concerned, she could hardly remember the last time she had been dancing and her evenings here on Elba had contained little more than walks with the dog and that one dinner with Marco at La Brace.

  ‘I haven’t been going out much while I’ve been here.’ She could almost hear Ruby’s disbelief. ‘But Portoferraio’s the biggest town and there are loads of tourists milling around. Besides, you can get the ferry direct from Piombino to there on Monday, which should save you any more driving that night. Why don’t you look for somewhere there? Or I can help if you like.’