by T A Williams
‘Does Marco know?’
‘I wasn’t going to tell him. The fact is, I’ve found nothing and my report will record that, and no further action will be taken. I’m leaving tomorrow and I thought I would just say goodbye and he wouldn’t be any the wiser.’
‘But now you’ve told him?’
She shook her head. ‘I didn’t tell him. Loretta from the restaurant did. I gather she’s dying to get back together with him and she told him, so as to damn me in his eyes. As a result I got a message from him this afternoon telling me he wasn’t meeting me tonight after all and saying goodbye. End of.’ She was mildly surprised to have been able to tell him all this without bursting into tears once more.
‘So now that he knows what you do for a living he said he doesn’t want to see you again?’
‘Would you? Put yourself in his position. We’ve been out together, spent time together, even kissed and cuddled a bit, but now he knows who I really am. My job is what it is, and to him I’ll always be the enemy. We both know how he feels about mining companies and the people behind them. For him, the environment is everything.’ She lapsed into silence, her eyes trained on the dog who had picked up something in her voice and was sitting alongside her, one big damp paw resting on her thigh, his brown eyes staring dolefully up at her.
‘And he said he couldn’t come to see you again before you leave? Not even to say goodbye?’
Anna explained about the chemical spillage and she saw Jack’s face clear.
‘Well, he certainly didn’t invent that story. The local news has been full of it all afternoon. As for choosing the environment over his friends, there’s nothing new there. Ask his ex-wife.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘It’s a noble cause but his fanaticism is screwing up his life and the lives of the people he loves. Such a shame.’
Anna had to agree. She hung her head, but her disappointment wasn’t allowed to last long.
‘Could I be very cheeky?’ Jack’s voice sounded far from downbeat and Anna looked up to see the smile still on his face. ‘I left a bottle of champagne in the fridge for you. If you haven’t already drunk it, how would you feel about opening it? If not, I’ve got more up at the house. It is your birthday after all and it needs to be celebrated.’
This sounded promising. Maybe Jack was ready to forgive her after all. ‘Of course.’
She jumped to her feet, glad to have an activity to take her mind off Marco, the environment and her aborted dinner date. She set two glasses on the table and pulled the bottle out of the fridge. Jack took it from her, expertly opened it and filled the two glasses, pressing one into her hand and clinking his against hers.
‘Happy birthday, Anna, from one geologist to another. Cheers.’
Automatically she took a mouthful and as the bubbles fizzed their way across her tongue she registered that he was still smiling.
‘Cheers, Jack and thanks… for everything. And, again, I’m really sorry I couldn’t tell you the truth before.’
He set his glass down on the table and reached across to catch hold of her free hand.
‘I totally understand. Don’t give it another thought. Now, changing the subject, do you like lobster?’
‘Lobster? Yes… I love lobster. Why?’
He swallowed the last of his champagne and stood up. ‘Dinner at my place at seven. See you then.’
‘But… Jack…’
But he and his dog had already left.
Chapter 20
Anna’s birthday turned into a memorable evening after all.
True to his word, Jack laid on a sumptuous dinner for her at seven o’clock with a mixed seafood platter as a starter and a whole lobster each as the main course. He confessed he had called the Hotel Panorama and they had prepared everything and dropped it round to his house. It was predictably excellent, as was the rest of the champagne that he insisted she finish with the meal while he sipped mineral water.
It was a wonderful evening, but her feelings were bittersweet. With everything that had happened in the last few days, her enjoyment of this final meal together with Jack and his lovely dog – whose nose and flared nostrils spent most of the evening resting hopefully on her thigh – was tainted by the realisation that this beautiful island had brought her as much disillusion as it had joy. While it was wonderful to have met and befriended the generous Canadian and his Labrador, she knew she would always associate Elba with the two other men she had lost.
One positive to emerge from her weeks here was that she had taken the irrevocable decision to make a career change. All she needed to do now was to figure out what that might be.
As a little token of her thanks to Jack for his generous hospitality, his friendship, and for being so understanding, she had brought him the garnet cluster she had found a few days earlier and he immediately added it to his collection in the display cabinet even if it wasn’t a patch on some of the rarities he had there.
To her surprise, he had a present for her. He gave it to her at the end of the meal just as she was preparing to leave. It was a perfectly wrapped little package, about the size of an espresso coffee cup but a lot heavier, and it was tied with a golden bow on top.
‘I was going to give you this as a going-away present tomorrow but, seeing as I now know it’s your birthday today, here it is tonight. It’s a little token of my gratitude to you.’ Seeing she was about to speak, he waved away her protests. ‘Not for saving my life – well, partly for that, of course – but for being so kind and considerate towards me and for being prepared to spend so much of your precious time with an old man like me. I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed myself more in the past few days more than I have in the last decade. Really.’ He pressed it into her hand. ‘Go on, open it.’
Inside the wrapping paper she found a little cardboard box whose contents reduced her to stunned silence. The box contained a rough lump of quartz and running through it like the filling in a sandwich was unmistakably a thick vein of pure gold, glinting in the light. It was spectacular and very valuable, too valuable.
‘I hope you like it.’
‘Like it? Like it, Jack? It’s amazing, but you can’t give me something as valuable as this. It’s worth a fortune. I can’t accept it.’ She could feel tears stinging in the corners of her eyes.
‘We’re not going to start all that again now, are we?’ Reluctantly she tore her eyes off the shiny metal and looked up to see him grinning mischievously at her. ‘You didn’t win our last bargaining session and you won’t win this one. Take it. I want you to have it. No excuses.’
‘But, Jack…’
‘Take it, Anna, with my thanks and my love. You’re a lovely girl and I feel honoured to have met you and to be able to call you my friend, my very dear friend.’
Anna reached out and hugged him tight and the tears in her eyes began to run. ‘You shouldn’t have, but I promise I won’t object anymore. I’m privileged to have got to know you and to have become your friend. You can’t imagine how frustrating it’s been for me listening to your stories of mines and mining and desperately wanting to ask all sorts of questions, but having to bite my tongue. I promise I’ll guard this with my life and every time I look at it, I’ll think of you.’ She kissed him warmly on the cheeks and stepped back, her eyes dropping to the piece of gold once more. It was clear to see that it had been chiselled out of the living rock. By him? She glanced up at him again and wiped her eyes.
‘Can I ask where it comes from?’
He was still smiling. ‘You can ask but I can’t tell you. It’s a secret. But I can assure you that I came by it by legitimate means. You aren’t handling stolen property.’
She smiled back. ‘Nothing could be further from my mind. Thank you so much. Thank you for this, your hospitality, for everything.’
She kissed him again, hugged the dog and returned to her home. When she got there she went outside and sat under the loggia, watching the lights of Marina di Campo flickering in the distance and did her best to put her affairs an
d her emotions in order. Conscious that she still hadn’t acknowledged Marco’s text message, she pulled out her phone and kept it simple.
I’m sorry not to see you, too. Thanks for everything, I’m going to miss you.
She didn’t bother adding a little x at the end. There was no point.
* * *
Next morning she left at nine o’clock after getting up very early and doing her best to scrub the little house clean. As she was loading her bags into the car George appeared and jumped athletically onto the back seat, tail wagging hopefully, but regretfully she had to turf him out. Jack was standing beside the car, looking on, and he clicked his tongue to call the dog back to his side.
‘I would give you anything, Anna, but I can’t give you my best friend.’ He bent down to tousle the dog’s ears, an emotional expression on his face. ‘George, Anna’s not taking you anywhere. And she’s not taking me anywhere either, more’s the pity.’
Anna hugged the dog and kissed Jack goodbye, feeling very moved. As she drove back up the track there were tears running down her cheeks. She had thoroughly enjoyed being with Jack and George in the gorgeous little house and it was a real wrench to leave. The bond she had forged with both of them was deep and before leaving she yet again promised she would come back to the island to see them both as soon as she could. Although this would mean risking meeting Marco and most probably facing his wrath or even worse his disdain, she knew she would keep her promise.
Chapter 21
It felt strange to step into the lift on Monday morning along with a group of silent strangers in suits and ride up to the NMM offices. Anna stopped to chat briefly to Ezra at the front desk before making her way through to see Douglas. It was barely half past eight but she felt sure he would already be at his desk. She wasn’t wrong.
‘Anna, welcome back. Thanks for your report. It’s pretty much what we expected but Sir Graham wanted to be sure we could rule that part of Italy out.’
‘Will he want to see me about it, do you think?’ Anna kept her fingers crossed that the answer would be no.
Douglas shook his head and pointed towards the door. ‘Push that closed and take a seat.’
Anna did as he said and listened intently as he revealed what had happened. He kept his voice low, even though they were alone.
‘He’s not in the office today and tomorrow, maybe all week. He’s gone to France.’
‘Sir Graham’s taking a holiday?’ This would be a first as far as Anna could recall.
Douglas shook his head. ‘No, this is personal business.’ He lowered his voice even more. ‘There was one hell of a stink here on Friday.’
Anna felt sure she knew what was coming next, but she let him say it.
‘It’s Ruby; she’s gone AWOL. She’s done a runner.’
‘Don’t they know where she is?’
‘Her father knows now. She phoned him at the weekend. That’s why he’s gone to Cannes. He was ranting and raving all day on Friday. You should have heard him… It appears she’s gone off with some man and her father’s flown over to make her see sense.’
Anna knew full well which man she had gone off with but she hesitated to say anything, loath to be drawn into Sir Graham’s line of fire. Instead, at least for now, she just expressed surprise and did her best to offer a bit of support to Ruby. With her irate father on her heels, she was going to need it.
‘That’s unexpected. She was sounding quite normal when she joined me last week, but I left on Friday so I didn’t see her that day.’ She actually hadn’t set off until the following morning, but Douglas didn’t need to know that. The good news was that it sounded as though Ruby had had the decency to keep her out of it – at least for now.
They talked some more about Elba and then he broke the news to her that she would be heading off again in just two days’ time. On the one hand she was sorry not to have a bit more breathing space back here in the UK but, on the other, this would have the advantage of keeping her out of Sir Graham’s way for a week or two. Hopefully, by the time she got back, things should have calmed down.
‘So where to this time? The North Pole?’
‘Ukraine.’
Anna wasn’t sure which sounded more welcoming.
* * *
The British Airways flight to Kiev left on time on Wednesday evening and Anna settled back in her seat, wondering what the weather would be like over there. Since her return to the UK it had been getting steadily cooler and she had dug out thicker clothes after the heat of Elba. Their NMM contact in Kiev hadn’t been able to help very much, telling her it could be warm and sunny or it could be close to freezing, and had advised being prepared for all eventualities. In consequence, her bag contained thick jumpers as well as cotton T-shirts and shorts alongside her overalls. Somehow, she didn’t think the suntan she had picked up in Italy was going to last long.
She glanced over at bearded Vince sitting in the window seat. He was already fast asleep in spite of the noise and the shaking as the aircraft took off and gained height. He was three months off retirement and from the speed with which he had downed two pints of Guinness at the airport, he was already demob happy. Anna had worked with him before and got on well with him, but it would have been nice to have Charlie to talk to. She had a lot to tell him.
She had heard nothing from Ruby, who was presumably still on the yacht with Toby somewhere around the Côte d’Azur – if she hadn’t been snatched back by her father. Anna spared her a sympathetic thought, regardless of how things had ended between them. One thing was for sure: she certainly didn’t envy Ruby the encounter she would face with her father when he eventually caught up with her.
Her drive back from Elba at the weekend had been tiring but uneventful. She had spent the Saturday night in a hotel in France just off the motorway somewhere near Lyon. One positive effect of the ten-hour drive had been to allow her to fall asleep almost immediately and she had managed to enjoy a good night’s sleep, untroubled by thoughts of what had happened and what might have been. All the same, she arrived at the Channel Tunnel on Sunday afternoon feeling despondent. On the way up the motorway her head had been buzzing with memories of the days she had spent on the island, the clear blue sea, the whirring of the cicadas, the wonderful food and, of course, the men and the dog she had left behind. She knew she would miss all of them.
While she was sitting in the queue to board the Eurotunnel shuttle that Sunday afternoon, eating a croissant and sipping black coffee, she received a text message and when she saw the name of the sender she was suddenly wide awake. She had read it and reread it many times since then but the message had been unmistakable. In her head she had decided that the best way to summarise it was: Goodbye from Marco.
He repeated his apologies for having been unable to have dinner with her before she left and made absolutely no mention of her real purpose on the island or whether he even knew about it. His only reference to that was to wish her well with her job. There was no indication in the message of any feelings he might have developed towards her. It was short and to the point and the lack of any sentiment spoke volumes. Goodbye from Marco.
She replied with two lines, thanking him for his text and wishing him all the best for the future. And that was that. She didn’t start crying all over again. His terse, matter-of-fact tone actually helped. The way he was apparently able to cut her out of his life without any compunction or regret served to remind her that this was allegedly a man who already had considerable experience of breaking up with women and, while she wasn’t another notch on his bedpost, she was no doubt just another goodbye. It didn’t cheer her much, but it did harden her heart a bit.
Anna spent nine days in the Carpathian Mountains, trying to get her head straight. By the time she returned to London she had done a lot of thinking but she couldn’t honestly say her head was any straighter than it had been before. She had heard nothing from Toby, which didn’t surprise her, but she had spoken to Jack a couple of times and he had been very insi
stent she should come back over to the island to relax. By now it was early October, and as Charlie was still off and there were no pressing projects, she arranged with Douglas to take the two weeks’ holiday due to her and headed back to Elba to see Jack and George.
She had no further communication from Marco but, to her surprise while waiting for her morning flight to Pisa on Sunday, she received a chatty message from Toby, apologising for the breakdown of communications due to him having somehow managed to drop his phone in the sea. He told her how he was getting on as he came to the end of the penultimate week of his cruise. He sounded unrepentant, even affectionate, and Anna realised that if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she would have had no idea that he had gone off with a companion on the yacht with him. He made no mention of Ruby and only spoke about the places he had visited, amongst which was Cannes. Anna would dearly have loved to know what had transpired there and if Sir Graham had managed to make contact with his daughter, but she told herself this was no business of hers and just sent a polite, fairly lukewarm reply telling him about Ukraine and indicating she was looking forward to a couple of weeks of R&R back on Elba.
The other reason why she decided to take her holiday now was so as to postpone the time when she would have to meet Ruby’s father again. He was apparently back in the office after his brief stay on the Côte d’Azur and although so far she appeared to have been spared his wrath, there was no guarantee she would remain unscathed as the dust began to settle on Ruby’s act of mutiny.
This time she did as Ruby had done and picked up a rental car at Pisa airport. Her flight from London arrived on schedule and at six o’clock that evening she reached the island and drove off the ferry. It was already beginning to get dark and there were noticeably fewer people about – no doubt partly because of the strong northerly wind that was blowing in driving rain from the sea – and the whole impression could have been depressing had it not been for the knowledge that she was about to be reunited with her friends – well, one man and his dog to be precise.