by T A Williams
‘Thanks, Glynis, you’re a pal.’
‘It’ll work out. Keep telling yourself that.’
At the end of the wine tasting, they all made their way into the restaurant for dinner. Sarah was one of the last to get in there and, when she did, she found Polly had kept her a seat on her table along with the elderly local couple, Signor and Signora Rossi, who had arranged the wine tasting. She glimpsed Miles on the other side of the room on a table with Jo, Glynis and Naomi and could see them smiling and hear them laughing. Again she felt just the slightest twinge of what could have been jealousy. She sat down, took a deep breath, and ended up having a fine evening with these two generous old people, even managing to forget about Miles for a while. They mostly spoke English for Polly’s sake, but from time to time the conversation spread into Italian.
Sarah avoided any more wine and stuck to mineral water, as she didn’t want to try cycling next day with a hangover. From what she could see on the surrounding tables, however, most of the others were less abstemious and she hoped they wouldn’t regret it in the morning. There was a choice of menu and, as they were so close to the sea, she chose grilled sardines as a starter and a lightly fried mixture of little fish, prawns, octopus and squid as the main course. It was exquisite. During the meal, she learnt a lot about the ancient inhabitants of that area, the Etruscans. The next day, the route to Viterbo would take them past some very famous Etruscan sites and it turned out Signor Rossi was something of an expert on these ancient people.
‘Before the time of the Roman Empire, Italy was made up of a collection of different tribes.’
‘So, what’s new?’ His wife was smiling. ‘It’s still very diverse.’
Signor Rossi nodded. ‘Be that as it may, here in the centre of the country was definitely Etruscan territory.’ He glanced across the table and Sarah nodded. This much she had already worked out. ‘There are those who would have it that Romulus and Remus, who supposedly founded Rome, were of Etruscan stock, but who knows? Anyway, I understand you’re visiting a number of Etruscan sites tomorrow.’
He went on to tell them more about these mysterious people who had lived two millennia before. Sarah did her best to memorise at least some of what he said, so as to be able to pass it on to the others the next day. By the time they reached the end of the meal, she felt a lot more confident of the facts. She and Polly accompanied them to the car park afterwards and thanked them profusely on behalf of the group. Signora Rossi kissed Polly and Sarah goodbye and her husband shook hands formally with them both, wishing them buon viaggio for the rest of their trip. They got into their car and Sarah and Polly stood and waved as the tail lights disappeared into the pine trees.
‘Nice people.’ Sarah was feeling decidedly tired now and the sensation of disappointment she had been trying to combat came back with a vengeance. She turned to Polly. ‘What’s the time, Pol? My watch is broken and my phone’s upstairs.’
Polly held out her wrist and Sarah saw it was almost midnight.
When they returned to the dining room, it was to discover that some of the others had also realised it was midnight and they had plans. As Sarah and Polly stood at the door, a whole bunch of people came out past them, laughing and giggling, chanting the same words over and over. ‘Midnight swim. Midnight swim.’ At their head was none other than Paul, with Diana right behind him, an expression of considerable anticipation on her face. Sarah glanced across at Polly and shook her head.
‘What they don’t realise is that tomorrow we’re going to be doing quite a bit of climbing to get up from sea level to Viterbo. Somehow, I think it’ll be a long, slow day.’
‘I might even end up with a few of them in the bus. I’d better stick Lars’s broken bike on the roof tomorrow to make space.’ At that moment Gianluca and Terri appeared and Sarah took him to one side.
‘Gianluca, could I ask a favour? If you’re going down to the beach, please could you see that nobody does anything silly? I’m feeling a bit tired and I think I’ll head for bed.’
He gave her a smile. ‘No problem. You go and get some rest. I’ll keep an eye out.’
Just then, Polly spotted Mike and Dan coming through the door and flicked her eyes across to Sarah for a moment. ‘I think I’ll just go down to the beach for a few minutes as well, just to see what’s happening.’ She gave Sarah the slightest of grins. ‘You sure you’re not coming?’
Sarah shook her head, definitely not feeling in the mood for frivolity. ‘Nope. I’m off to bed. Keep an eye on everybody, will you? A big meal and lots of drink doesn’t always go too well with swimming. For God’s sake, make sure nobody goes out too far.’
Polly grinned more broadly. ‘Yes, Mum.’
Sarah stood there by the door as the cyclists came past, a few taking the stairs up to their rooms, but many of them heading out of the front door towards the beach. One of the last was Miles, with Jo by now actually hanging on to his arm, and Glynis and Naomi close by on the other side of him. He avoided Sarah’s eyes, but Glynis gave her an encouraging look. ‘We’re all going down to the beach. You’ve got to come with us, Sarah.’
For a few seconds, Sarah had a graphic image of going skinny-dipping with Miles in the moonlight, but then common sense kicked in. For a start, there would be another twenty people along with them and, anyway, she was tired. Besides, from his attitude towards her earlier that afternoon, it was unlikely he would be interested in her company anyway. If she stayed up much later she would be even more tired, and she knew tomorrow would be hard going. With considerable regret she did the sensible thing. ‘No, I’d better not. I think I’ll head off to bed.’ She caught Miles’s eye for a second and read what might have been regret, but the moment passed as quickly as it had come.
‘Well, good night and sleep well.’ Miles and his retinue headed on out and she turned and climbed up the stairs.
As she got to her door Sarah heard her phone ringing inside the room, and hurried to open the door and answer it. As she reached the phone and picked it up, she checked the caller ID and got a shock. It was James. She waited there, holding the handset, hearing it ring, and wondered what to do. Should she answer it, swipe the red button to reject the call, or just let it ring until he hung up? In the end, it was the latter. As she was still trying to make up her mind, the ringing stopped. She pushed the door shut behind her and stood there, staring stupidly at the phone for several minutes, trying to get her head round what had just happened. What did James want? Why was he ringing now, for the first time since writing that damn letter? Should she have swiped the red button to make it clear she didn’t want to talk to him? What if something had happened? Should she have answered?
Then the phone suddenly started ringing again. She got such a surprise, she almost dropped it. She juggled frantically until she had hold of it again and looked down at the screen. It was him. She took a deep breath and swiped the green button.
‘James, hello.’ She was glad to hear her voice sounding fairly normal, with little or no audible trace of the inner turmoil the calls had sparked off.
‘Sarah, hi, hi. Thank goodness. I’ve been calling all evening… Hi, it’s you.’ He sounded far from his usual confident self.
‘Yes, it’s me.’ She wasn’t going to make this easy for him.
‘Hey, yes, um, yes, of course it’s you.’ Nobody said anything for a few seconds until she broke the silence.
‘So why the call, James?’ She felt an upsurge of anger. ‘Couldn’t find any paper to write me another letter?’
‘Oh, God, Sarah… Yes, I know. I mean, no, it’s not that.’ She heard a deep intake of breath from him. ‘Look, Sarah, I had to call and speak to you. I feel awful. I think I may have made a big mistake.’
‘You think you may have made a mistake?’
‘I mean I know I’ve made a big mistake, the biggest.’ He was gabbling now, tripping over his words. ‘The thing is, Sarah, I shouldn’t have written that note.’ He paused, but she restrained herself. ‘It was stupid,
it was childish and it was cowardly.’
‘You’ve got that dead right.’
‘You see, Sarah, I miss you and I know I did the wrong thing. It’s just that I didn’t want to go through with the marriage. I thought you’d understand. I don’t want to lose you, Sarah, and I want you back. Do you think you could possibly find it in your heart to forgive me and let me have another chance?’
Sarah was flabbergasted. She slumped down on the end of the bed, her eyes focusing bizarrely on the bathroom door handle. Never, in all the times she had thought of James over these past two weeks, had she expected him to admit he had made a mistake.
‘Sarah, can you hear me? Are you still there? Sarah?’ He sounded alarmed.
‘Yes, I’m here.’ Her head was spinning, but her heart was hardening. ‘So, you thought I’d understand? You thought you could just tell me the wedding was off and I’d meekly accept it? I was supposed to agree that you needed to be able to go off and sleep with any number of other women and then let you come creeping back when you felt like it? Is that what you thought, James?’
‘No, you’ve got me wrong, Sarah. It wasn’t like that.’
‘Oh, but it was, James.’ As she spoke, Sarah felt her confidence growing. ‘And that’s the way it’s always been with you, James. Looking back now, I find myself wondering why it took me so long to realise. What you want is a doormat you can trample all over. Well, listen carefully – I’m no longer that doormat, so get that into your head.’ She could have gone on, but an overwhelming sense of fatigue swept over her and she ground to a halt.
‘But I can change, Sarah, I…’ Although there was no doubt in her mind what her answer was, she decided on a stay of execution, too tired for a long drawn out argument tonight. ‘Listen, James, it’s midnight here. I’m tired and I’ve got a long day tomorrow. I’ll call you tomorrow night.’
‘And you’ll think about it? You might be prepared to forgive and forget?’
‘Forget, James? Never. Never in a lifetime. As for forgiveness, I doubt it. Good night.’ She swiped the red button and dropped the phone on the bed beside her. ‘Oh God…’
It was some time later that she roused herself and started getting ready for bed. She felt sticky and dirty after the heat of the evening and took a shower to freshen up after cleaning her teeth. She was just towelling herself down when she heard somebody tapping on her door. Wrapping a towel round herself she went across to open it a crack. To her surprise she saw it was Paul.
‘Paul, hi, what’s up?’ Her eyes dropped to his hands and she saw that he was holding, of all things, a laptop.
‘Sarah, hi, look, we’ve got a problem. At least, I’ve got a problem, or rather I’ve created a big problem.’ He looked positively anxious, definitely without his normal suave, sophisticated expression. She opened the door a bit more, noting his eyes as they ran down across her body under the towel, but she dismissed this as just a conditioned reaction to the presence of any woman who had just stepped out of a shower.
‘What on earth’s the matter…?’
‘I’ve cocked up, big time, Sarah. We’re in a real hole. Can I come in?’
There was no getting away from it; he looked mortified. After another pause for reflection, she stepped to one side and he hurried into her room, laptop in hand. She closed the door and went across to him, keeping the bed between the two of them just in case he had been drinking and this was all some kind of scam, just so as to get into her room and then into her pants. As that thought went through her head, it occurred to her that she in fact wasn’t wearing pants or anything else under her towel, so she remained vigilant. ‘So, what’s the problem?’
He slumped down on the end of the bed, very much in the same pose and position she had adopted after speaking to James. He looked unusually subdued as he set the laptop on his knees and opened it. ‘Today’s Tuesday, isn’t it?’ She nodded, still keeping her distance. ‘While you were away the other week, Polly asked me to book the restaurant for our final night; a gala dinner and dance. I’ve just been down on the beach and one of the girls happened to mention that they were all flying home at the end of the ride on Friday. For some reason I thought everybody was going home on Saturday.’ He looked up at Sarah, his eyes wide open and pleading for forgiveness. ‘So, our last night all together is Thursday, isn’t it? So the dinner dance should be on Thursday, shouldn’t it? And I’ve gone and booked the restaurant for Friday, haven’t I?’
‘Oh Paul, how could you?’ Sarah sounded as exasperated as she felt. The trip had all been going so well, with hardly a hiccup, and now this…
‘I know, Sarah, and I’m so sorry.’ He caught her eye and shook his head ruefully. ‘Sort of proves what Miles has been saying all along, doesn’t it? Should try harder. Could do better. He’s going to crucify me when he finds out.’
Sarah sat down demurely on the only chair and glanced down. The towel was only just long enough not to be indecent but, from the look on Paul’s face, seduction was far from his mind at the moment. She leant forward and took the laptop from his unresisting grasp and read the email on the screen, definitely confirming the dinner reservation for Friday night. She looked up. ‘Have you contacted them?’
He nodded disconsolately. ‘Just now, but it was fairly disastrous. The manager had gone home, and the girl who answered hardly spoke any English and you know how little Italian I speak. Anyway, if I’ve understood her right, they’re closed on Thursdays so they can’t just bring it forward by a day.’ He caught her eye. ‘So we’re stuffed, aren’t we?’
Sarah went through the itinerary in her head. Tomorrow was Wednesday and they would be at Viterbo and then the day after, Thursday, the last night, they would be by the lake in Bracciano. Surely, she thought to herself, there had to be other places around the lakeside where they could eat and, if possible, dance, even if it meant ferrying people about in the minibus or booking taxis. She checked the time at the top of the screen. It was almost half past midnight and everywhere would be closed now. There was no way they could do anything about it until the next morning. And she knew she was the one who would have to do it, as it had to be done by phone and in Italian. She was just about to send him off and tell him she would get on to it the next day when she was interrupted by an urgent knocking on her door. Along with the knocking came a voice she knew well. It was Miles.
‘Sarah, is Paul in there?’ He was keeping his voice low, but she heard it clearly.
‘Oh, shit.’ Paul jumped to his feet, whispering desperately. ‘For the love of God, don’t let him find me here with you. He made me promise not to lay a finger on you and he’ll go ballistic if he thinks that’s why I’m here.’ For the first time his brain appeared to register what Sarah was wearing. ‘And with you as good as naked…’
Sarah also jumped to her feet, pulling the towel even tighter around her as she did so. For a moment she thought of opening the door and leaving Paul to his fate, but then, just as quickly, she realised she didn’t want Miles to find her with Paul, especially when she was dressed in just a towel. She called out in a low voice, but just loud enough to be heard through the door. ‘Miles, is that you? Hang on, I’m just coming.’ She opened the bathroom door and herded Paul inside, just remembering to stuff his laptop into his hands as she did so. She caught his eye. ‘Keep the door closed and not a word, right?’ He nodded and pulled it to, as she went across to the bedroom door. She took a deep breath and opened it. Miles was standing there, looking unusually flustered. He was still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing that evening and she registered the fact that they were dry. Clearly he had either taken them off before plunging into the sea or he hadn’t gone in. Shaking these thoughts from her head, she gave him as innocent a smile as she could manage. ‘Hi, Miles, who’re you looking for?’
‘Paul. Is he here?’
‘Paul?’ She deliberately allowed the door to swing open, revealing the empty room and the untouched bed. For some reason it was very important to her that Miles
should see that the bed was untouched. ‘Why, did you think he might be here?’
She followed his eyes as they suspiciously searched the room, pausing for a moment at the bathroom door, but then moving on. ‘I’ve been looking for him everywhere. We’ve got a video conference with the States in ten minutes’ time and he’s disappeared off the planet.’
‘Sorry, I can’t help you, Miles.’ She was loath to lie to him and was greatly relieved when he nodded and stepped back from the door.
‘That’s all right. Sorry to bother you, Sarah. I’ll see you in the morning.’ Just as his eyes turned away from her she caught a flicker in them that might have been disappointment. She closed the door and subsided against the back of it, feeling the blood coursing round her body, pumped by her madly beating heart. After a few seconds she straightened up and went across to the bathroom. Inside, Paul was sitting on the edge of the bath looking more worried than she had ever seen him.
‘Has he gone?’ He kept his voice to a whisper. ‘Do you think he suspected I was here?’
Sarah shook her head, hoping she was right. ‘I don’t think so. But did you hear what he said? You’ve both got a video conference in ten minutes’ time. You’d better get yourself over to his room pronto.’
Paul’s expression of concern relaxed slightly. He stood up and came out into the bedroom. As she reached the door, her hand on the handle, she turned back to him. ‘Tell me something, Paul. Why don’t you and your brother get on?’
He hesitated for a few seconds before finally making up his mind. ‘I suffered from a lot of illnesses as a kid and I suppose that resulted in my getting a lot of the attention growing up.’ He caught Sarah’s eye. ‘He maybe already told you that?’ To Sarah’s relief, he didn’t wait for an answer. She really didn’t want him to know they had been talking about him behind his back. ‘The fact is, though, he’s always been the chosen one in my dad’s eyes. There’s never been any question as to who should take over the business. It’s always been Miles, only Miles. No discussion.’ He looked back across at her again. ‘I did really well at university, you know, as well as this last year at Harvard. If I didn’t have this moral obligation to join the business, I know I could find a really good job elsewhere. I’m really tempted, you know…’