by Gill Vickery
The door flew open and a nurse came in. ‘You’re distressing the patient,’ she said to Jade. ‘I think you should leave now.’
‘I’m going,’ Jade blurted out and ran from the room.
Nico and Mrs Baxendall sat on the sofa in front of her spectacular view. Nico lowered the plastic bag he’d been carrying carefully and it hit the floor with a loud thunk. Mrs Bax stared at it. ‘I assume that’s the surprise you rang me about? I despatched Teo immediately you said that you needed to see me urgently.’
‘I exaggerated a bit. I wanted you to have it sooner rather than later. You’ll know how to look after it properly.’
Mrs Baxendall craned forward as Nico lifted out the blue bowl he’d bought in San Gimignano. There was a plant in it. Though it was only a collection of faintly sickly, yellowish-green leaves Mrs Bax’s reaction was startling. She flung herself on the bowl, grasped it to her ample bosom and gazed at the plant as though it were the crown jewels. ‘My dear, where did you find it?’ she demanded.
‘Up against the wall of the garage where the accident happened. The ground was soaked in sump oil. Funny sort of fertiliser but it seemed to like it. It’s the elleboro isn’t it? The last plant you needed to finish your set?’
‘Indeed it is!’ Mrs Baxendall was rapt.
Nico felt smug. ‘Here . . .’ he took handwritten pages out of the bag, ‘. . . is my report, in detail, of how I found it.’
Mrs Baxendall beamed at him. ‘How will I ever repay you?’
Although Nico knew she didn’t mean it literally, she’d unwittingly given him the chance to challenge her with the question he was burning to ask. ‘Actually, you can do something for me.’
‘Hm?’ she said absently, all her attention on the ugly plant.
‘It’s about E. J. Holm.’
Teo poked his head round the door. ‘Signora Bax?’
Go away, Nico thought. Please, go away!
‘You have visitors,’ Teo said and ushered in Signora Minardi and an elderly man. For a moment Nico’s guts clenched as he took in the man’s heavily scarred face and blank eye. He had to be the man Jade had seen in the garden; there couldn’t be two people with an identical disfigurement.
‘Nico,’ Mrs Baxendall said, ‘let me introduce you. This is my father, Alec – Father, this is Nico who has brought me the most magnificent gift.’
‘Whatever can it be,’ the old man said. He held out his hand to Nico. ‘How d’you do?’
Nico saw past the hideous facial distortion to the striking man standing in front of him with a dignified, uncompromising bearing. ‘How d’you do, sir.’
‘Call me Alec.’
The four of them sat down, Alec eyeing the ugly plant. ‘I presume that’s your incomparable gift to my daughter?’
Mrs Baxendall explained, heaping praise on Nico till he wanted to squirm with embarrassment. Desperate to change the subject he asked the Signora, ‘Is there any news of Gaetano?’
‘He is doing very well and will return home tomorrow. Alec and I have just been visiting him. He wishes to pass on some news to Emily and since it involves your friend Jade, we will share it with you also.’
‘Oh?’
Alec put the familiar tobacco tin on the table. ‘Jade found this, as I’m sure you know already.’
‘Yes, I was there when she gave it to Gaetano.’ Nico had no idea what was coming next. Whatever it was, he didn’t think he was going to like it.
‘Since Gaetano knew that it was mine he asked Jade to return it to me herself. He thought that was fitting.’
‘That means you were the spy!’ Nico blurted out as Mrs Bax reached for the tin.
‘I was in the SOE – the Special Operations Executive – set up to work with the partisans throughout Europe. I joined the Uccelli Squad in the winter of ’43. I was lucky enough to be billeted on Gaetano’s family.’
Lucky? That was an odd thing to say when you ended up being shot in the head, Nico thought.
Mrs Baxendall found the picture. ‘A photo of Mother and me,’ she said softly.
‘There was more than a handkerchief and a photograph inside,’ the Signora said. ‘Jade also found a letter.’
To Nico’s mounting horror, Signora Minardi recounted the story of how the letter came to be hidden and what the consequences were. It was hard to take in; it must’ve been harder still for Jade, especially when she was confronted with Alec bearing the indisputable marks of her grandfather’s brutality.
Alec’s soft voice broke into Nico’s roiling thoughts. ‘Your friend, Jade, might need company. She was very distressed at what she learned.’
‘I’ll go now,’ Nico said. He gave polite if perfunctory goodbyes and Teo drove him back to Florence. Jade wasn’t answering her phone, which probably meant she wanted space. He sent a text saying he knew about Alec and asking her to contact him when she was ready, then he asked Teo to drop him off Oltr’Arno. Jade wasn’t the only one who needed time and a place to think.
Jade didn’t tell her family about what Nonno had done; it was too horrific. She’d talk to Nico about it later. Instead she told them about the letter and how it had been lost until now and then she gave it to Mum. She read it out loud.
‘When I told them about the letter,’ Jade said, ‘I left out the bit about Elena not loving Gaetano. I thought that might upset him.’
‘Good girl,’ Dad said.
‘What do you want to do with it, Mum?’ Amber asked.
Mum held it for a moment then ripped it up.
‘Mum!’ Jade and Amber shouted.
‘What’s the point of keeping it? The story’s over and done with, your nonno’s gone, Elena’s gone. Gaetano mustn’t know what Elena really said; it would be too cruel after all this time. We’re making friends with our family over here – we don’t need an old letter stirring things up again.’
It’s a bit late for that, Jade thought. How were those traumatised old people ever going to get over what Nonno had done to them? Especially Alec.
Mum threw the pieces in the bin. Her face was glowing. ‘It’s a relief to get to the truth, even if it’s not the truth I wanted. And tomorrow we’ve got a real treat, at least I have.’
‘What?’ Jade said.
‘I’m going to meet Sofia. She’s coming back from Milan especially. We’re going to the Villa dei Fiori tomorrow to meet my sister.’
Nico walked and pondered. He wondered what Jade would tell her family, especially Amber who, until Dario, wouldn’t hear a word spoken against Roberto. Nico was certain the shock of seeing Alec must’ve hurt Jade more than the Signora’s lecture tour; he was a living example of what Roberto had done and it couldn’t be explained away no matter how much the twins wanted it.
Nico headed for Alessandro’s trattoria near Via Drago D’Oro. Mum and James were sitting at a table outside. They looked happy. Nico didn’t mind any more. He decided not to disturb them and found a small square with a restaurant serving pizzas.
He made himself stop thinking about Jade and Roberto and concentrated on his search for E. J. Holm. Mrs Baxendall definitely had strong connections to the Alessandro Lupo books: there were the locations in the novels while the theme based on the Roberto–Gaetano–Elena triangle surely had to mean E. J. Holm was a friend or acquaintance of the people involved? Mrs Baxendall was certainly friends with Gaetano, and they were both friends with Ilaria Minardi.
Nico groaned in frustration and switched to people-watching. Locals went about their business, laughing and smiling; a young woman stopped and washed her feet in a nearby fountain and chatted to an elderly man perched on its rim. The warmth and friendliness and lack of inhibition about things that didn’t matter summed up everything he liked about being in Florence.
After his meal, he walked to the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, which was on his must-see list. He found the fresco he wan
ted to look at. It showed Adam and Eve walking from Paradise into the real world. It was a simple painting, in muted ochres and washed-out blues and greens, and it felt to Nico as though the two figures embodied the grief of the world. He thought of the partisans, of the Villa Triste, of Roberto, Gaetano, Elena and Alec and lit a candle for them all.
Jade knocked at the Signora’s door and Ornella let her in. Signora Minardi was sitting by a window reading Revenge unto the Fourth Generation. Jade noticed she’d almost finished it.
‘I’m sorry I got angry at the hospital,’ Jade said. ‘It was a shock.’
‘I understand.’ The Signora didn’t look particularly understanding though Jade didn’t blame her.
‘The letter, from my nonno, I need to ask you about it.’
‘What would you like to know?’
‘It’s not exactly that I want to know anything. It’s that you’ve read it and even though it was a long time ago you probably still remember it.’
The Signora smiled. ‘My memory is reliable.’
‘I thought it would be,’ Jade said. ‘I expect you noticed, when I talked about what was in the letter, that I changed it a bit? Elena didn’t really love Gaetano like I said. I mean, she said she liked him but she loved Roberto. I didn’t think Gaetano needed to know that.’
‘You are a wise child,’ the Signora said. ‘And a kind one.’ Her stern expression softened.
‘You won’t tell Gaetano will you? My family won’t and Nico said he won’t and Mrs Baxendall’s father can’t remember.’
‘I agree that there is no point after all this time. It is a sin of omission that will hurt no one. However, there is still a problem.’
‘What?’ Jade asked warily.
‘The letter itself; your mother will no doubt want to show it to Sofia, perhaps even Caterina, and the truth will one day emerge, as the letter has done.’
Jade shook her head. ‘No, Mum ripped the letter up. It’s gone, for ever this time. Mum said we’ve found new friends and family over here. She doesn’t want to spoil things by talking about what happened in the past.’
‘Ah, at last.’
That’s a weird thing to say, Jade thought. And even stranger that the Signora sounded elated. Ilaria Minardi rose from her chair. ‘Thank you, Jade, it’s good to know that the story has ended. We each of us know the whole truth and can put the past behind us.’ She placed her hands on Jade’s shoulders. ‘Don’t you agree?’
‘Yes,’ Jade said.
She went back to the apartment wondering why the Signora’s words, when they were perfectly reasonable, had left her feeling so uneasy.
CHAPTER XXII
NICO’S MOTHER HAD been thrilled with her invitation to visit Mrs Baxendall, awed by the house and overwhelmed at the sight of shelves of E. J. Holm books in the lounge.
‘Emily, these are wonderful,’ she gushed.
It wasn’t that long ago, Nico thought, that his mother had been calling Mrs Bax a dangerous old bat and forbidding him to go near her.
Mum touched one of the books. ‘May I?’
‘Of course,’ Mrs Bax said. ‘Help yourself.’
Mum opened a copy of the first in the Alessandro Lupo series, The Leopard’s Kill. She stroked the ornate bookplate reverently. ‘This is signed and there’s a dedication in Italian.’ Mum had never tried to learn Italian; her excuse was that she was rubbish at languages. ‘What does it say?’
‘Something along the lines of, “To a fellow Italophile,”’ Mrs Bax said airily.
‘How wonderful.’ Mum slotted the book back, sighed noisily and sank into the sofa. ‘I wonder if we’ll ever know who E. J. Holm is.’
‘I would imagine the truth will come to light sooner or later,’ Mrs Bax said. ‘Not much stays hidden these days.’
Nico wondered if that was a covert message for him.
‘Now, I know that young Nico here has told you all about my Primavera project. Would you like to come and see it?’
Mum, dragging James with her, followed Mrs Baxendall to the study where the hellebore was flourishing in its blue bowl next to the computer.
Mrs Baxendall stroked a petal of the greeny-yellow hellebore as though it were the dewiest of roses. ‘It’s difficult to believe that I have all the plants at last.’
‘What will you find to do next?’ Nico asked with a grin.
‘Plenty – first I have to finish the book on Botticelli’s garden. Which means, Nico my dear, you have to perform your last task.’ She wafted everyone into the annex and gave Nico a sticker and a marker pen. ‘You know what to do.’
Nico wrote, Hellborus Viridis – elleboro – hellebore and stuck the note on the pom-pom flower under the grace’s foot.
James leaned forward and peered at it. ‘Is that in the right place? It doesn’t look like the real plant.’
‘It’s correct,’ Mrs Bax said, ‘and I shall be eternally grateful that Nico found such a beautiful specimen for me.’
James straightened up. Please, Nico thought, please don’t say you were the one who took me to the garage where I found it and I couldn’t have done it without you.
‘Brilliant stuff,’ James said. ‘I’d never have noticed it if I’d gone round looking with a plant guide in my hand.’
‘Nico has flair for seeing things the rest of us miss,’ Mrs Bax said. ‘Now, would you like to see Botticelli’s garden itself?’
When Mum and James said they would Mrs Bax gave them directions and sent them off while she kept Nico with her. She sat on a tall stool, brogues planted at ten to three, and studied the picture. ‘D’you see that modest yellow flower near the middle grace’s foot?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s a euphorbia, a sunspurge. Medicinally it’s said to be good for the eyes; symbolically it means, “Look carefully”.’
Nico remembered a passage from The Shattered Mirror where Alessandro Lupo was researching the Primavera. ‘Isn’t the middle grace supposed to be the historical Semiramide and Mercury is Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici? And Cupid’s aiming his arrow straight between the grace’s shoulders.’
‘I believe the message is indeed Look carefully at Mercury – he’s Lorenzo, your intended bridegroom, while the message to the observer is Look carefully at this painting, it contains many messages.’
Mrs Baxendall pointed to a white flower. ‘That unobtrusive little plant is an antirrino, what we call bachelor’s buttons in English. In Latin it’s Lychnis alba, which means “white lantern” and symbolically it’s saying, “See the light”. Put those two flowers together and what message do you get?’
‘Look carefully and see the light?’
‘Exactly.’ Mrs Bax sighed contentedly and closed her eyes.
Nico concentrated on the Primavera: what was he supposed to be looking for? Clues to who E. J. Holm really was? Or was Mrs Baxendall simply saying, Open your eyes, the answer’s right in front of you, which she was at that very moment. The old lady didn’t move, not even to blink or yawn. She looked as though she’d gone to sleep, upright on her stool. Nico waited a bit longer. Nothing happened. He clumped out as quietly as his boots would let him.
Jade was surprised Mum had agreed to let Teo drive them to the Villa dei Fiori. She was quite serene on the journey though Teo’s driving was still style over substance and Dad, on the back seat next to Jade, watched every manoeuvre that he made.
Jade giggled.
‘What?’ Dad asked, taking his eyes off Teo for a moment.
‘I was just thinking of your roadie stories, about doing the accounts while you were driving the Xtreme Measures van?’
‘That was then – I’m a grown-up now.’
Jade snorted, ‘Since when!’
Dad leaned over and whispered, ‘Don’t tell anyone, I don’t ever intend to grow up.’ He straightened and said loudly, ‘Since I bec
ame a dad. It gives you a different way of looking at things once you’re responsible for children.’
A red flush crept up the back of Teo’s neck. The car slowed down though not much. It had reached the dirt road and jounced along between the stream and the chestnut trees till it reached the Villa dei Fiori.
‘Pretty,’ Dad said as they got out.
Mum smiled. ‘Yes, it is.’
Jade couldn’t get used to the way her mother was opening up to the things she’d denied herself for so long. Her face was glowing as she took in the terracotta tiles, the golden stucco and the wisteria blossom.
The door opened. Caterina flew out to kiss Mum and hold her hands. ‘You are ready?’
‘Yes.’
Mum was calm, which was more than could be said for Jade: her heart was pounding as she and Dad followed the two women and Teo into the kitchen. A short, plump woman sat at the table, her hands resting on a surface so fiercely polished its shine reflected the vase of young irises set in the centre.
‘Mamma,’ Caterina said, ‘this is Luisa and her husband Kevin and one of the twins, Jade.’
Jade had never felt more in need of her sister than right now. She’d have done anything to be able to link arms with Amber for mutual support.
The woman stood up, her chin tilted proudly – or maybe defiantly, Jade couldn’t tell.
Caterina drew Mum forward. ‘Luisa, this is my mamma – your half-sister Sofia.’
There, it was said. Jade’s heart raced even faster.
‘I’m very pleased to meet you.’ Mum held out her hand.
Sofia took it and leaned forward to give her long-lost sister the customary two kisses. ‘Welcome to the Villa dei Fiori.’
‘We’ll leave you to talk,’ Caterina said.
‘We can’t leave Mum!’ Jade said.
‘Our mammas, they need to talk on their own.’
‘She’s right, love,’ Dad said.