by T A Williams
Anna had no hesitation. ‘I’d be delighted and honoured. I promise if he outlives you – and I’m sure that won’t be the case – I’ll be only too happy to have him and I guarantee I’ll look after him every bit as well as you do.’
‘Thank you my dear. That’s wonderful news.’
Anna leant over and sealed the deal with kisses to Jack’s cheeks.
It was almost seven and the sun had disappeared behind the hills when Jack finally set down his empty water glass and grinned at her across the table. ‘Now then. There’s something I’d like to show you. It’s something I’ve never shown to another living being and nobody apart from me knows of its existence.’
‘Are you sure you want to show it to me?’ Anna was instantly gripped by the mystery and the excitement in his voice; she hoped he wouldn’t change his mind, but felt she should ask anyway.
‘You, Anna, are the one of the very few people on this earth who can appreciate it for what it is, and I know I can trust you.’
‘Well, you can certainly trust me. I promise anything you tell me or show me remains between the two of us – and George. Where is it? Do you want me to go and fetch it?’
‘This isn’t something to be fetched. We have to go to it.’ He pulled himself to his feet. ‘So, if you’re ready, please follow me.’
He picked up his walking stick and led her across the courtyard, down the track and, to her considerable surprise, back to the old stables. She hadn’t locked the door and he opened it, beckoning her to follow him.
‘Come in and lock the door behind us, please.’
Mystified, Anna reached for the key and locked the door. As she turned back again, she saw Jack standing at the rear of the room by the wall which she knew to be partially set into the hillside. He moved an old Japanese screen to one side to reveal a scruffy old wooden door she hadn’t spotted before. He pulled it open and she saw a much heftier steel door set into what was unmistakably solid rock behind it. He produced a long key from his pocket and gave the lock no fewer than five turns until it sprang open. The expression on his face was solemn, suddenly serious, and Anna felt almost apprehensive at what she was likely to find. The door gave a little screech as Jack pushed it wide open and he shot her an apologetic glance.
‘I’m afraid this hasn’t been opened for quite some time. I used to come here every single day for many years but I’m not really up to it any longer, more’s the pity.’
‘Up to what?’
‘I’ll show you.’
He reached inside and there was a click as lights came on. Anna craned her neck forward and peered through the door. In the harsh light of a naked bulb she saw that a roughly rectangular opening had been carved into the rock face. She could see that this led into a tunnel, just about tall enough for a person to walk in, albeit in a bit of a crouch, and was illuminated by a string of light bulbs pinned to the rock wall along one side. To a geologist like herself, there could be no mistake: this was the entrance to a mine.
‘I’ll let you go first. You deserve to see it like I did that very first time.’ Jack pushed her gently ahead of him and pointed down the tunnel. ‘Off you go. Mind your head.’
With great care and considerable curiosity, she set off into the near horizontal adit, taking care not to bump her head as, for once, she wasn’t wearing a helmet. Behind her she could hear the clicking of the dog’s nails on the rock floor. It was beautifully cool in here after the heat outside and she felt sure George with his fur coat would appreciate it. The narrow tunnel led into the hillside on an almost imperceptible downward incline and the marks of tools were visible on the walls. To experienced eyes like hers, it was clear that these weren’t the work of modern power tools. Every inch of the tunnel had been carved by hand a long time ago. She could only imagine the time and effort it must have taken to chop this adit through living rock.
After only about twenty or thirty steps, she came upon signs of more recent work. The tunnel continued straight ahead – no longer illuminated now – and to her right a series of holes had been drilled into the rock. Amid these a narrow crevice, barely the width of a person, had been carved and the electric cable led through the gap. She squeezed through and found herself in a cave, brightly illuminated by four bulbs hanging from the considerably higher ceiling. The cave was quite obviously natural, not man-made, and from the irregular walls and smooth floor, it had no doubt been formed by water over the centuries, although it was bone dry now.
Half of the floor area was piled high with rubble and her eyes were immediately drawn to the outline of a narrow stratum of rock running almost horizontally along the far wall. Two things leapt out at her. The reef of rock making up that wall was unmistakably quartz, not the softer local stone, and the bright golden light sparkling from the narrow strip could only be coming from a vein of gold.
In front of her, tools ranging from a massive pickaxe to delicate chisels were laid out on a slab of natural stone that had clearly acted as Jack’s workbench. She took a deep breath and looked on in wonder, her eyes glued on the treasure before her.
‘Quite something, isn’t it?’
Jack’s voice almost made her jump.
‘This is incredible…’ She felt unusually tongue-tied.
‘Imagine my amazement when I discovered the main shaft out there almost a year after buying the property. I was clearing out the old stables – it was packed with all manner of junk and it took me the best part of a week to clear it enough to reach the back wall. Only then did I discover that what I had on my hands wasn’t just a cellar – as the previous owner had told me – but the entrance to a mine. To a geologist like me it seemed almost like a sign from on high. Quite by chance I had bought myself a house sitting on top of its own mine.’ Anna glanced back at him and saw his eyes sparkling in the light. ‘Can you imagine the feeling?’
‘It must have been amazing. And how long did it take you to find this cave and the seam of gold?’
‘Not that long. Of course, I had the benefit of modern methods and equipment and pretty soon it became clear that there was a void off to the right of the main adit that the old miners had missed. I drilled a few holes and on the third one I suddenly saw the dust being sucked back into the hole. There was clearly a void back there.’
‘And you did everything yourself? You didn’t get help?’
‘I did it all. Don’t ask me why, but I just knew in my bones from day one that this was something very, very special and I needed to keep it to myself.’
‘And when you finally managed to cut your way into the cave and saw this seam of gold, that must have been a climactic moment.’
‘See that rock over there? I just sat down on it and wept like a little kid. I cried and I cried and I cried. You can’t imagine the outpouring of emotion I felt.’
Her heart was racing and her eyes were stinging by now. ‘I think I can, Jack. It must have been the most overwhelming feeling.’
‘It was and you’re right. You can imagine how I felt. You’re probably the only person I know now who can truly appreciate what I had discovered and how it made me feel. That’s why I’m showing it to you today.’
‘Jack, I feel honoured.’ She had a thought. ‘So this is where that piece you gave me came from? You actually gave me something you carved out of the rock with your own bare hands? You can’t imagine how much that means to me.’
‘You are so very welcome.’
‘Have you taken much gold from here? The seam still looks as if it’s loaded with ore.’
‘At a rough estimate I would reckon there’s enough gold left here to buy a small country. I’ve been taking some, piecemeal, to supplement my pension, but I don’t need much these days – just enough to buy a few bottles of champagne, and now the doctors won’t even let me drink much of that anymore.’
‘How do you sell the gold? Don’t people want to know the provenance?’
‘I take a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, once a year and sell it to a very discreet dealer
I’ve known for fifty years. He doesn’t ask questions and I don’t tell him a thing.’
‘And you intend to keep this place a secret forever?’
He raised his eyes from the glittering seam of gold and she saw that his face was serious once more. ‘You’ve seen Capoliveri. You’ve seen Kabwe. You’ve seen what mining has done to parts of Australia, South Africa, Chile, Bolivia and so many other places all around the world. I couldn’t let that happen here – and it would. If word of this ever got out, this whole valley, the hillside and God knows how many square miles of land all around would be sacrificed. This is why it’s remained my secret. And now it’s also yours.’
Anna was stunned. ‘I don’t know what to say. For you to be prepared to trust me with something as massive as this is breathtaking. All I can do is to promise to keep this secret every bit as well as you have done. I give you my word on that.’
‘That’s all I need. I know I can trust you. By the way, see that over there?’
She followed the direction of his pointing finger and could just make out a depression in the cave floor way over in the far corner. She walked across and saw that it was a small hole in the ground, no bigger than the size of a shoebox. It had probably started out as a natural feature but the chisel marks where somebody – presumably Jack – had squared off the corners were clearly visible. She glanced back at him.
‘You planning on burying something?’
She saw him nod. ‘Yes, me.’
‘You?’
‘When I die, I’d like nothing better than for my ashes to be buried in here, to keep an eye on the place.’ He gave her a little grin. ‘Sorry for sounding like one of the pharaohs. I hope you don’t think it’s too macabre. If you don’t mind, I’ll leave a note with my lawyer to tell him you’ll be responsible for the disposal of my ashes.’
Anna stared into his final resting place, nodded to herself a few times before making her way back to where he was still leaning against his walking stick, his faithful hound beside him.
‘I don’t think it’s macabre and I definitely understand, and of course I’ll see to it – hopefully a long time from now.’ She leant over and kissed him warmly before continuing. ‘I think what you’re doing by not revealing the presence of this mine to the world is wonderful. You’re a very special man, Jack, and I’m proud to be your friend. Thank you for sharing your secret. I’ll cherish it but, more than that, I cherish your trust.’ She couldn’t help herself; tears started running down her cheeks. There was a movement at her side and she felt George’s cold, wet nose nudge her thigh in a show of support. She leant down to ruffle his ears but the tears kept on coming.
‘Thank you, my dear. Go ahead and cry. That’s what I did. When you spend your whole life searching for something and then, finally, the thing you discover exceeds your wildest dreams, it’s bound to be an emotional moment. And when you finish crying, let’s go back to my place. Now you see why I thought it appropriate to open a bottle of champagne.’
Back at Jack’s house he refilled her glass and slopped a dribble into his own. Lifting it up, he clinked it against hers and smiled.
‘Cheers, Anna. And all along you thought you were the one with the secret. Now you know you weren’t alone.’
She had stopped crying by now and even though she was still trying to come to terms with what lay beneath her feet, she was able to reply in a more normal voice.
‘And don’t forget your neighbour and his secret, or secrets. I refused to believe what he really was like until I stumbled across it in the shape of a blonde on a bike.’
‘So that makes you, me and Marco, three secrets.’
‘Four if you include Toby. You know, my friend from Bristol who told me he loved me one day and then hopped on a boat the next and sailed away into the sunset with my future boss.’
‘Of course, so that makes four secrets. Do you think you’ll ever see him again?’
‘He’s sent me a message to say he’s calling in at Portoferraio tomorrow and inviting me out for dinner.’
‘And what are you going to reply?’
‘So far I’ve said yes – I wanted to try to prove to myself as much as to him that I’m strong enough to look him in the eye even though he lied to me. I’ve never been very confident with men and I feel it would be a positive step to force myself to face him. Mind you, I have to admit, after what’s happened with Marco today, I’m very tempted to tell Toby to get knotted. He’s just another liar. Why should I waste my time?’
‘I can understand that. But, like you’ve just said, why don’t you go and see him? Prove to yourself that you do have the confidence to face down any man. I know you have. If you’re brave enough to risk your life doing the job you do, you can easily handle this guy or any other. Take the moral high ground and let him see that you know what he’s done. Call his bluff. If I were in your shoes, I think that’s what I’d do, and I’d enjoy it.’ He grinned. ‘And you can borrow one of my shovels to hit him with if you like.’
Anna nodded a few times. He was making a lot of sense – well, maybe not the shovel part. ‘Then I will go through with it. I’m not sure how much I’m likely to enjoy it, but you’re right, it’ll do my self-confidence a power of good. I’ll go and meet him.’ She took a sip of champagne and grinned at him. ‘Tomorrow can hardly be any more eventful than today, after all, can it?’
Chapter 25
She drove up to Portoferraio next day with seriously mixed feelings. In spite of what she had said to Jack, she wasn’t sure just how well she was going to be able to face up to Toby. What if Ruby was still with him? Could she bear the thought of having to sit through an excruciating dinner with the two of them? Yes, she knew she had to work on strengthening her self-confidence, but was this likely to be a step too far?
As she drove past Marco’s house she saw a white van parked outside, with a man busy sticking up a FOR SALE sign. By now Marco would be on his way to New Zealand and she wondered if his blonde cycling friend would be at his side. She had thought a lot about him overnight and could honestly say she had finally been able to rid herself of the blind infatuation for him that had gripped her ever since that first meeting in the sea. Now all that was left was distaste tempered with a sense of relief. She felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was able to drive on past his villa without a second glance. That chapter of her life, at least, was now well and truly over.
The other thought that had occupied her mind overnight had been Jack’s gold mine. She still could hardly believe it. On the one hand it was incredible that such a rich seam of gold should exist here on the island, but equally amazing was the fact that this good man had chosen to keep it a closely guarded secret for fear of an environmental disaster. If only Marco and his Save Elba group had realised, the old Canadian was far more of an eco-warrior than they would ever be. She just hoped she would be able to behave as responsibly once she began her new career in conservation. Jack was going to be a hard act to follow.
When she got to Portoferraio she parked the car and made her way along the quay to the restaurant. It was cooler than last month, but still easily warm enough to dine outside. The only real difference she noted was that it was now a lot easier to find a parking space near the harbour than before. As she approached the restaurant she checked out the yachts moored along the quayside and caught sight of the familiar shape of Toby’s twin-masted ketch only a hundred yards further on. She didn’t have time to concentrate on it, however, as she reached the restaurant and glimpsed him sitting at the exact same table as last time. When he saw her, he jumped to his feet and waved, but her eyes were drawn to the woman sitting beside him. Her heart sank as she saw that it was, indeed, Ruby. Unexpectedly there was a third person there, and she wondered idly if it might be the skipper of the yacht.
‘Anna, hi, we’re over here.’
Both Toby and Ruby looked immensely happy to see her, while Anna felt anything but. Still, she took a deep breath and walked acro
ss to face the music. As she reached them, Toby took two steps forward, threw his arms around her before she could step back, and kissed her on the cheeks, his face beaming.
‘I’m so glad to see you again.’ He sounded it.
She was about to launch into the speech about cheating and lying she had been preparing for a couple of days when he got in first. He turned towards Ruby and the other man and pointed. ‘You know Ruby, of course, and this is Scott. By sheer coincidence I bumped into them in Bastia last night and when they heard you were back on Elba and I was coming to see you, they hitched a ride.’
Anna didn’t reply immediately. She had been expecting something of the sort – a concocted story to explain what had or hadn’t happened – but why involve a third party? As she was still trying to decide what to say or do, Ruby came rushing over and enveloped her in a warm bear hug and kissed her cheeks as if she and Anna were long-lost sisters. Then she stepped back and reached out her hand to grab hold of the dark-haired man behind her.
‘Anna, it’s so great to see you again. I want you to meet my fiancé.’ She waved a sparkling ring in the air. ‘That’s right, I said fiancé. This is Scott, from New York. You remember I told you about him, don’t you?’
Anna’s brain was struggling to make sense of it all. Gradually she managed to recall the scene on the top of Monte Capanne when Ruby had told her about the man she had been forced to leave behind in New York when her father had summoned her back to Europe. His name had been Scott. So how come Ruby and Scott now claimed to be engaged and were travelling on the same boat as the man with whom Ruby had originally set sail? Or had she?