Secrets on the Italian Island

by T A Williams

  One thing that emerged from her deliberations was that she really didn’t feel like making polite small talk with Ruby tomorrow. In consequence she sent her a text saying she had drawn a blank as far as rare metals were concerned and would be setting off for home tomorrow, even though her plan was to leave the day after. That way Ruby was free to do whatever she wanted tomorrow and Anna would be spared any further awkwardness.

  She bolted on her happy face and spent an hour at Jack’s house. After serious thought, she decided not to burden him with her problems and settled down with the damp dog across her feet to listen to more of his seemingly inexhaustible tales of his quest for gold all over the globe. As always, this fascinated her and helped to take her mind off this afternoon’s events. Finally she saw him beginning to tire and she left him with his equally tired-looking dog and went back to the old stables. She wasn’t very hungry so she made herself a sandwich and took it outside to the loggia along with a big glass of cold white wine. She sat down and did her best to relax after what had been an unexpectedly stressful day. As the sun began to disappear behind the far headland and the sky beyond was transformed into a deep crimson glow her phone rang and she saw that it was Charlie.

  ‘Hi, Anna, sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you. If they’d given me a workshop manual before we created little Violet, I might have thought twice about it. How can something so small make so much noise and produce so much poop? Talk about turning our lives upside down…’

  ‘Hi, Charlie.’ Anna was delighted to have a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. ‘At least it sounds as if she’s healthy. How’s Mary bearing up?’

  ‘She’s as knackered as I am but, all joking aside, Violet’s a little sweetie and we wouldn’t be without her. Mind you, a volume control would be useful for those powerful little lungs of hers. Anyway, I’m calling to let you know that I spoke to Angela, my friend at NMM New York, about Ruby.’

  He then went on to outline what Ruby had already told her about the man she had left behind, but Anna was quick to set him straight.

  ‘I think it’s safe to say that guy’s now history. Ruby’s moved on.’

  ‘Already? That was quick. Who’s the lucky bloke?’

  ‘My friend Toby from Bristol. I think I told you he’s on a sailing holiday. He stopped off here last night and I introduced him to Ruby. The rest, as they say, is history.’

  ‘I thought you said you rather fancied him yourself?’

  ‘I do – I did – and according to him last night he felt the same way about me, but we were both wrong.’ She gave him a brief account of the events of the last twenty-four hours and he, as ever, was sympathetic.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Anna. You aren’t doing too well with the men in your life, are you? On that subject, any developments with Windsurfer Guy?’

  ‘Only that tomorrow night’ll be the Last Supper. I leave first thing on Saturday and that’ll be the end of that but I’d already made up my mind that you’ve been right all along and Toby was the man for me. Looks like we were both wrong.’

  ‘I’m sorry for you, Anna. Still, a pretty girl like you…’

  ‘…will probably end up down a mineshaft.’

  ‘Cheer up, Anna. It’ll be okay.’

  The question still going round and round in her head as she ended the call was, will it?

  Chapter 19

  Anna got up later than usual on Friday morning. She hadn’t slept very well and had only really dozed off properly in the small hours. As a result she was a bit bleary-eyed as she put on her bikini and headed down for a swim to clear her head. The Labrador had presumably got fed up with waiting and wasn’t in his usual spot on the doormat but as she reached the beach he came charging out of the pine trees with a broad canine smile on his face. She crouched down to cuddle him, conscious that this was her last full day on the island. She was going to miss George. And Jack. And, whatever his defects, Marco.

  She spent the morning checking out the last few crossed pickaxes on the old map before ending up in Marina di Campo at lunchtime. She didn’t feel like eating much – especially as she knew she would be having a big meal with Marco later on – so on impulse she went to the beach bar where he had taken her the previous week and managed to find a table overlooking the beach. California Dreaming by some Sixties group whose name she couldn’t remember was playing in the background but at this time of the day and year, the young surfer set appeared to have deserted the place and most of the other clients were probably twice Anna’s age. Clearly, September after the schools reopened was the chosen time for pensioners to descend on Elba.

  She ordered what was probably going to be her last ice cream on the island. If all went smoothly, by this time tomorrow she expected to be well on her way northwards towards France and home. She pulled out her laptop and took a few minutes to add today’s negative results to her report and then emailed it across to Douglas in London. As she did so, she wondered how their boss would react if his daughter were to take the decision to abandon work and jump onto Toby’s yacht for a long sunny holiday. She took a big mouthful of apricot and dark chocolate ice cream and decided she was pleased not to be in the office at the moment if that really were to prove to be the case. The atmosphere there was unlikely to be as relaxed as it was here by the beach.

  She was just finishing her ice cream when she heard a voice at her shoulder.

  ‘Buongiorno, Anna.’

  She glanced up to see the smiling face of Felice from the Hotel Panorama and smiled back at him. It was incongruous to see him in shorts and a T-shirt instead of his work uniform. ‘Felice, it’s good to see you again. I’m delighted you’ve managed to get some time off.’

  ‘Now that high season’s over we can all relax a bit. How about you?’ He glanced around and lowered his voice. ‘So, tell me, did you strike gold?’

  Anna very nearly dropped her spoon bearing the remains of her ice cream into her lap. ‘Did I what?’

  Felice glanced down at the chair opposite her. ‘May I?’ She nodded mutely and he sat down, leaning forward across the table towards her, a little grin still on his face, keeping his voice low although their only close neighbours were an elderly French couple. ‘New Metals Mining, if my memory serves me right.’

  ‘How on earth do you know that?’

  He was grinning more broadly now. ‘The person who made your original reservation confirmed it with an email from your company. So, did you find anything?’

  All Anna could think of for a moment was Mrs Bloody Osborne, the dozy old bat! Sir Graham’s PA had given the game away. All their subterfuge had been for nothing. She stuffed the last of her ice cream into her mouth to give her time to think. By the time she had swallowed it and followed it with a big swig of water, she had decided there was no point in trying to deny anything. Besides, this time tomorrow she would be far away.

  She looked across at Felice and shook her head. ‘No gold, no new metals, no nothing. In fact I’ve just sent off my report indicating that we’ve found nothing of interest anywhere on the island. No further action to be taken.’

  ‘I’m sorry for your lack of success, but I daresay your friend Marco Varese will be relieved. You know he’s big in the local conservation society, don’t you?’

  An ice-cold spasm shot through Anna’s gut and it had nothing to do with the ice cream she had just eaten. ‘Does Marco know about this? About me being here prospecting?’

  To her horror, she saw him nod. ‘I promise I didn’t tell him. I haven’t told anybody. That’s hotel policy. I always respect the privacy of our guests.’

  ‘So, who…?’ She guessed the answer before he supplied it.

  ‘You know Loretta, the owner’s daughter, don’t you? Well, I’m afraid she’s told him. She was talking about it only this morning.’

  ‘Does that mean she and Marco are still together after all?’ Anna began to feel as if she was drowning. First Toby, now Marco. Things were getting worse and worse.

  ‘I don’t thi
nk so, but I’m sure she’d like it if they were. She’s been talking about that, too. A lot.’

  ‘So you think she told him just so she can get back into his good books…?’

  Felice shrugged. ‘I’m afraid that’s the way it looks. She, too, knows the hotel policy about being discreet, but I’m afraid where affairs of the heart are concerned, hotel policy takes second place – at least for her.’ She saw him make an effort to live up to his name once more. ‘Cheer up. I expect he won’t mind. After all, you didn’t find anything, did you?’

  But I lied to Marco and now he knows it! The voice in her head was screaming.

  With an effort, she mustered a weak smile and did her best to make polite conversation with Felice for a few more minutes before excusing herself and getting up. She had only just got back to the car when her phone bleeped. To her horror, she saw that it was a message from Marco and it wasn’t what she wanted to read in the slightest.

  Hi Anna. I’m sorry but I can’t make it this evening after all. There’s been a massive chemical spillage on the mainland and a group of us are on our way over there right now to help out. I’m very sorry to miss seeing you before you leave. Have a safe journey home. Arrivederci

  Anna just stood there for some time, staring blankly down at the screen, seeing nothing. After a while, as her brain gradually started to work again, two thoughts were uppermost in her mind. First and foremost, this meant that she had seen the last of Marco. There would be no birthday dinner, no fond farewell, and almost certainly no further meeting with him ever in her life, even though he had signed off with arrivederci, ‘until we meet again’. As she took in the implications of the message, she realised that, in spite of her best intentions, there had still been a spark of affection for him lingering inside her all the same.

  The second thought swirling around in her head was that this chemical spillage was in all probability just an invention to avoid seeing her again, now that he knew she had deceived him. After what Felice had said, she was convinced that Loretta’s desperate effort to get Marco back might have worked. No doubt as soon as Marco had heard about her duplicity, he had chosen to invent the excuse of a non-existent environmental calamity rather than tell Anna he never wanted to see her again.

  First Toby and now this. Elba had just kicked her in the teeth once again.

  She wandered aimlessly around Marina di Campo for a couple of hours, idly watching the owners of the bagni starting to remove the umbrellas and sun beds from the beach and store them away until next year. Even the shops were mostly displaying end of season sale signs and some had the shutters down already. There was an autumnal feel to the place, even though the temperature was still summery. The sense of something coming to a close, the end of an act, struck a familiar chord with Anna and when she finally drove back home to the old stables for the last time she was in melancholy mood.

  Even the appearance of the Labrador with his waggy tail and a big smile on his face as she got back to her little house failed to raise her spirits much. She went in and made herself a mug of tea and pulled out her sponge cake, but that didn’t help either. It was still boiling hot outside so she gave up on the hot tea and the cake and changed into her bikini. Together with George she walked down to the beach where she flung herself into the blessedly cool water. As she floated idly about, watching the antics of the dog hunting for stones on the shoreline and then losing them again in the sea, she let her emotions take over and felt tears trickling down her cheeks. She couldn’t decide whether these were tears of sorrow, of anger, or just of blank frustration.

  Her plan to keep the truth from Marco had backfired at the last moment. Her secret was out, and he knew she had lied to him. On top of that, her blossoming friendship, or more, with Toby had been torpedoed by Ruby. In the space of twenty-four hours she had lost the only two men who had aroused any real emotion in her for years, if ever. She stayed there, sniffling, for what felt like a long time with just one thought uppermost in her mind: whatever man – and she felt sure it must have been a man – it was who had said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.

  She was still feeling miserable when she came out of the water and settled down on her towel to dry off. The dog, sensing something was seriously amiss, came over and did his best to cheer her up by climbing all over her. This resulted in her having to return to the water to wash the sand and gravel off her body, but he did manage to raise her spirits somewhat and for that she was immensely thankful. She dried herself a second time, wrapped the towel around her body and headed back up the hill towards home. No sooner had she opened the door and stepped inside when she heard a voice behind her.

  ‘Anna, how lovely to see you.’

  It was so good to see the friendly Canadian and she even managed a smile as she beckoned him inside.

  ‘Hi, Jack, come in and have a cup of tea.’

  As he walked in, she saw both his and the dog’s nostrils flare and it almost made her laugh in spite of everything. ‘Do I smell cake?’ The words came out of the mouth of the human but it was blindingly obvious that the dog was thinking the exact same thing.

  ‘Yes, it’s my birthday cake. Would you like a piece?’ Even she could hear the despondency in her voice.

  ‘Is it your birthday today? Many, many good wishes, but you don’t sound very happy. Is there something wrong?’

  Anna hesitated, unwilling to reveal the depth of her deceit to this kind man who had been so hospitable. After all, it wasn’t only Marco to whom she had lied. ‘It’s okay, really. Sit down and make yourself comfortable while I put the kettle on and go to change into dry clothes. Then I’ll make us both a cup of tea.’

  After dashing upstairs to pull on a T-shirt and shorts, she busied herself making the tea and cutting the cake. She put big slices on plates for the two of them and, as an afterthought, cut a third piece and dropped it into George’s dish on the floor. It disappeared in the wink of an eye and he then spent the next five minutes licking the bowl clean and pushing it across the kitchen floor in the process. She made two mugs of tea and set them on the table. All the time she felt herself under observation – not just by the ever-hungry dog – and when she finally sat down opposite Jack, he very quickly demonstrated that he didn’t miss much, even if he was almost an octogenarian.

  ‘Something is wrong, isn’t it? Can I help? Do you want to talk about it?’

  Anna looked up and nodded slowly, more to herself than to him. She owed it to him to tell the truth about why she was here on the island. Besides, he would no doubt hear it from Marco or on the local grapevine soon enough.

  ‘Thanks, Jack. I’ve spent the past two weeks trying desperately not to talk about it but, yes, I do want to tell you my tale, even though I know you’re going to think a lot less of me as a result.’

  She saw him lean forward on his elbows, a gentle smile on his face. ‘I’ve never been one to judge other people, Anna. God knows, I’ve done enough stupid things in my life. Just tell me. Talking about it might help.’

  Anna was pretty sure this would only make things worse, but she knew she owed it to him to be honest, even so late in the day. ‘The fact is, Jack, I haven’t been totally straight with you.’ She ground to a halt and he had to prompt her.

  ‘About…?’

  ‘About why I’m here.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You see, I’m not really on holiday at all. I was sent here to do a job. I work for a company called New Metals Mining and I’m here to look for precious metals – principally palladium or iridium, maybe even rhodium. So I represent what Marco would call “the enemy”. My partner and I were given strict instructions to keep a very low profile and that meant not telling anybody… even you.’ Her voice tailed off and she looked up and was surprised to see him still smiling. This wasn’t the reaction she had been expecting.

  ‘So Gray sent you to Elba, eh?’ His voice was gentle.

  ‘Gray…?’

 
‘Your boss, Graham Moreton-Cummings, or Milord Moreton-Cummings or whatever he calls himself these days. He and I go way back to the days before he stuck a hyphen in his name. The first time I met him he was just starting out and we were both scraping a living in the worked-out goldfields of Dublin Gulch in the Yukon.’

  ‘You know Sir Graham?’ Such was her surprise, Anna could hardly get the words out.

  ‘As well as I know anybody, although we’ve lost touch over the past twenty years or so. We had a major falling-out a long time ago. He’s an awkward customer – at least he was back then. Maybe he’s mellowed, but I doubt it. I heard he was still working.’ His smile broadened. ‘Some guys just don’t know when to retire. So this means you’re a geologist too?’

  ‘Um… yes.’ Anna was still processing his revelations.

  ‘Well, all I can say is I liked you a lot before, but I like you a hell of a lot more now. Who’d have thought? A geologist saved my life.’

  ‘And a geologist lied to you, don’t forget that. I’m so very sorry, Jack, especially after you’ve been so kind and generous to me. I should have told you the truth but Sir Graham’s a scary boss and he made it quite clear I wasn’t to tell a soul.’ She caught his eye and shrugged helplessly. ‘Precisely so as to stay under the radar of the very organisation that Marco represents.’