by Liz Harris
‘Yes, you were.’
He laughed. ‘OK. Maybe I was, although I shouldn’t have been. But why don’t you want to rip off his clothes if he’s everything you’ve said he is? Is it because you’ve got a Mr Right waiting for you back at home?’
‘It’s because when I look at Eduardo, nothing happens. No stars, no flashing lights, no tingling, nothing. It’s a shame, but there it is. And now it’s my turn: you’ve asked me a question, so it’s only fair that I ask you something. Or at least it’s fair for as long as we’re Tom and Evie. When you’re back to being Mr Hadleigh again, you’ll be the boss and fairness won’t come into it.’
‘What a highly gratifying way in which to view our employer/employee relationship, Evie,’ he said dryly. ‘Fair enough – or not so fair as the case may be – I’ll answer the question that you’ve put, but first would you like some wine?’
‘No, thanks, I’m fine. What question? I didn’t know I’d asked one yet.’
‘You were asking me if we were ever going to return to being Mr Hadleigh and Miss Shaw to each other again.’
‘No, I wasn’t, but since you think I was, I’ll have it as my question. So, will I have to start calling you Mr Hadleigh again when we’re back in England?’
‘I don’t know. Will you?’
‘You’ve answered my question with another question. I don’t think even lawyers are allowed to get away with that, are they? You have to answer properly when somebody asks you something. That’s the law.’
‘Ah, but you can do anything you like when you know the law.’
‘You can’t break the law just because you know the law. That would be wrong.’
‘It’s true that you shouldn’t, honest Evie, but if you do break the law and you know the law, you have a better chance of getting away with it.’
The muscles in his jaw tightened imperceptibly.
What! Could he be about to spill all?
She stretched her legs out, her heart racing, and turned to him.
Chapter Eleven
So near and yet so far!
Go carefully, she told herself. Don’t scare him off. He’d picked up on what she’d said about lawyers and had moved them further along that line of conversation, but getting the lowdown about him and Zizi was still a long way off.
‘But there’s more than one lawyer in prison,’ she pursued, squashing the thought that low was a pretty good word for what she was trying to do. She forced a light bounce into her voice. ‘That proves that knowing the law isn’t everything.’
‘You don’t know how many lawyers have got away with breaking the law, though. Also, not everyone who breaks the law ends up being sent to prison. The naughty person might just get his knuckles rapped.’
He shifted into a different position on the grass. She surreptitiously stared at him from beneath lowered eyelashes. She could smell a story in the air. She drew her breath in, slowly, deeply.
‘You seem to know a lot about the secret lives of lawyers, Tom.’ Was that a bit too close to the mark? she wondered. She softened her words with a light-hearted laugh. ‘What about you? Have you ever done anything you shouldn’t have done and got away with it?’
Blimey, his body language! He’d gone as stiff as a board.
‘You’ve still got a question from me to answer,’ he said after a short pause. ‘I wanted your take on whether we’ll still be Evie and Tom when we get back to England. I think we’ll return to that question.’
Her heart pounded in excitement. She thought fast. More wine might do the trick. She gulped her water at speed and held the plastic glass out to Tom.
‘I promise to answer that, but I’d like some of that wine first, please, if your offer’s still open. A glass of wine and a lazy afternoon belong together like a lock and a key. Oh, dear, we’re back to prisons again.’ She laughed gaily as she watched him pour her some wine and then put the bottle back on the rug. ‘Aren’t you going to join me? It doesn’t feel right to drink alone.’
‘I see. It’s goodbye, moral Evie, and hello, wicked Evie, is it? And wicked Evie’s trying to lead me astray. But …’ He gave an exaggerated sigh, ‘… I can’t let you drink alone, even if I do suspect that this is a trick to stop us from going to Montefalco to see its famous murals.’ He finished his water and filled his glass with wine. ‘Now,’ he went on, ‘I’ll have an answer to my question.’
‘Well,’ she said slowly. ‘I guess it all depends upon whether or not we’re becoming friends – proper friends, that is, not just people who have to get on because they’ve been forced to spend time together.’
‘So, are we becoming proper friends?’
She thought for a moment. ‘I think so. Or put another way, I can’t think of anything we’ve done that makes us improper friends.’
‘Then that rather means we’ll still be Evie and Tom in London, does it not?’
‘I suppose. But it’s your call.’
‘Here’s to Tom and Evie, no matter where they are.’ He raised his glass to her and took a drink.
‘Now that I’ve answered your question, proper-friend Tom, it’s over to you to answer mine, which was, have you ever been a naughty boy and done something you shouldn’t have done, but got away with it?’
‘That’s not very likely, is it?’ he said slowly, staring motionless at the wine in his glass. ‘I’m a libel lawyer. I deal with people’s reputations. The essence of libel is that one person can’t destroy the good name of another if that other person has already destroyed his good name himself. My role in court is to see that any unjustifiable damage to my client’s good name is punished. What kind of lawyer would I be – libel or otherwise – if I came to court with dirty hands myself?’
‘So your answer is no?’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘On some level, everyone’s done one or two things in their life that they shouldn’t have done. I bet you nicked sweets from Woolworth’s when you were little. Be honest now – you did, didn’t you?’
‘You’ve done it again! It’s my turn to question you, but you’ve turned it into a question for me to answer. You’re so slippery.’ She forced a laugh.
‘If ever there was a case of the pretty little pot calling the kettle black, that’s it. And you’ve cunningly avoided answering what I first asked you.’
‘Huh?’ She wrinkled her brow and stared at him. ‘I don’t think much cunning was involved. I can’t even remember what the question was now.’
‘I asked you if you’d found your Mr Right yet.’
‘So you did. No, I haven’t.’
‘How come? Without the brogues and those huge glasses, you’re quite easy on the eye. I would have thought you’d have been snapped up by now.’
‘I don’t want to be snapped up, as you put it, by any old person. It’s got to be by the right person, and I haven’t met that right person yet. When I do, I’ll know it. And if I don’t meet them, then I won’t get married. And what about you? Is there a significant other in your life?’
‘Yes, my work. And talking about work, we’d better make that call to Eduardo now and ask him to fix up a meeting with the man he’s found. You could also suggest after breakfast tomorrow, before we set off for Perugia. That would be better than having to clock-watch at the end of the day.’
‘Will do,’ she said, and she picked up the phone.
A few hours later, Tom stood under the pergola outside the kitchen and watched Eduardo and Evie stroll around the outside of the pool.
So much for Montefalco, he thought. By the time that Eduardo had cleared off, it would be too late for them to go that far, and anyway, he wasn’t in the mood any longer. They might as well go straight back to Il Poggio for dinner.
He stepped out from under the pergola and walked a little way across the grass so that he had a better view of what they were doing as they walked down to the grove of olive trees.
Whatever Evie may have said about not being interested in Eduardo in the way that he’d feared she was �
� well, not feared, that was a bit strong – not in the way that he’d thought, looking at them both together, it was hard to believe. They were obviously getting on brilliantly and were doing very nicely without him.
Admittedly, he could have walked round the garden with them, but he hadn’t wanted to. He couldn’t join in the conversation – no matter however good the interpreter, everything had to be relayed through another person and that was a distancing thing – and also he’d wanted to observe them when they were both together. Not for any particular reason, just out of interest.
He stood still and stared down the slope at them. Eduardo had stopped and was bending over, pointing to the short grass at the base of an olive tree. He heard Evie give a little squeal and saw her jump back. He smiled. Eduardo must have been telling her that they had to keep the grass cut short at the foot of the olive trees so as to avoid snakes. It was a habitat they liked.
So Evie didn’t like snakes any more than she liked scorpions. Well, that was predictable. And the issue of beetles was yet to be resolved, he thought in amusement, remembering what she’d said to him on their first morning in Italy.
She turned suddenly and waved up at him. Taken by surprise, he took a step back. Then she said something to Eduardo, who also looked up and waved.
Raising a hand to acknowledge them, he realised that they’d have seen him smiling for no reason, and he quickly turned away, hoping that they’d been too far away to see him standing there, grinning at nothing. What must he have looked like!
Mildly irritated at being caught out like that, he went over to the towels and straightened them up. Then he sat down on one of them, linked his fingers in front of his knees and stared at the pool.
The shining water lay smooth and still in the late afternoon sun. Beyond the water, the grey-green tips of the olive trees stood stark against the purple contours of the distant heat-hazed hills. As he watched, the dark shape of a solitary bird swooped low over the surface, feathering the tips of the water before it rose sharply to the sky, an insect trapped in its beak. In its wake, glittering ripples widened slowly across the pool and reached out to the far corners where shadows gathered.
Every so often he heard Eduardo and Evie laugh, but they were beyond the pool and among the trees, far out of his sight. He couldn’t decide if it was more relaxing not being able to see them and having to imagine what they were doing, or being able to see them and finding himself trying to decipher their body language. Perhaps relaxing was the wrong word. Neither situation had the remotest element of relaxation about it.
He glanced at his watch. Yes, time was getting on.
Admittedly his meeting with Luigi had swallowed up most of the afternoon, but it had had to be done – the man was going to look after his house, garden and pool, after all.
On the one hand, they’d been lucky that Eduardo had been able to collect Luigi immediately after Evie’s phone call and bring him up to the house as it meant that they’d be able to take their time over breakfast the following morning, and then go straight from the hotel to Perugia, where they were going to meet Eduardo and Gabriela. A much better arrangement all round.
Luigi had seemed pleasant enough and the meeting had gone well. He was going to start looking after the house and garden immediately, and he even had a sister who would clean the house. Yes, Eduardo had done well there – Luigi was obviously a real find, and it was a great relief that they’d been able to finalise everything that afternoon.
On the other hand, however, he’d lost a large chunk of time that he could have spent alone with Evie.
He’d assumed that Eduardo would leave as soon as Luigi left, but not so. Apparently, Luigi had refused Eduardo’s offer of a lift down to the town, saying that he wanted to look at some fields on his way back down the mountain, and he’d gone off on foot. But then, instead of getting into his noisy convertible and driving off, Eduardo had gone over to Evie and sat down next to her.
For a moment he’d thought he’d seen a look of annoyance sweep across Evie’s face when she realised that Eduardo was intent on staying with them, and his spirits had soared. But the moment had swiftly passed and he wasn’t entirely sure that he hadn’t been mistaken.
‘We’re back.’ Evie’s words cut into his thoughts. He looked up and saw her standing next to him, a slender silhouette outlined against the sun. Eduardo was at her side.
‘Good walk?’
‘It was brill, thanks,’ she replied. She hesitated a moment. ‘About dinner tonight. I know you wanted to go to Montefalco, but Eduardo has suggested that the three of us go to a little place not far from Todi. He said they do wonderful local food there. He could book a table for eight thirty, if we wanted. Gabriela’s off visiting someone she knew at school, so if he doesn’t come with us he’s going to be on his own tonight. What do you think? Is that OK?’
No, it bloody well wasn’t OK!
He’d spent the whole of the previous day in Città di Castello with Eduardo, not to mention the whole evening, too. He’d had him up to the house that afternoon, and he was going to be spending the whole of the following day with him. Enough was bloody well enough. And now the idea of having to be Eduardo’s companion for the evening, rather than him having to spend the evening alone – well, he wasn’t Eduardo’s keeper and it absolutely was not OK!
‘I suppose we’ll have to agree,’ he said irritably, getting to his feet. ‘I’m amazed that Eduardo doesn’t mind spending so much of his time with us. Surely he’s got plenty of other things he’d rather be doing. We’d certainly understand if he wanted to do them.’
He glanced at Evie’s face and saw the disappointment he felt mirrored in her eyes.
A sudden rush of heat ran through him.
So she’d really meant it when she’d said that she didn’t want Eduardo at the house that afternoon, and she had looked annoyed that he’d stayed on after Luigi had gone. And she didn’t want a dinner for three any more than he did. She’d rather it was just the two of them alone. Oh, Evie! It was worth enduring another evening with Eduardo to have found that out.
He turned away, excitement mounting within him. And then he stopped, struck hard by a sudden thought.
It might quite simply be that she wanted a break from translating, which she’d have if there was no Eduardo around. Maybe it was that and not the thought of the two of them being unable to be alone that made her regret he’d be there. He looked back at her. She was staring at the grass and biting her lip as she listened to Eduardo telling her something. It must be a strain for her always being the one at the chalk face with Eduardo. Maybe it was that and nothing more.
He mentally shook himself. What was the matter with him, wasting his time in speculating about her reasons for not wanting Eduardo with them? There could be any number of reasons, and whatever it was, it was none of his business.
He bent down and picked up the empty bottle of wine.
Chapter Twelve
The power of a peach!
‘My feet are killing me,’ Evie sighed. ‘I can’t wait to sit down – it was loopy of me to wear these heels, but I didn’t figure on walking quite so far. And Gabriela and Eduardo walk so fast – they must be miles ahead of us. It’s been a fantastic morning, much better than I thought it was going to be, but I think I’ve had enough now.
‘We do seem to have covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it. The huge frescoes in the palazzo opposite the cathedral are really astounding.’
‘And I loved the fountain. I thought it was really beautiful. Gabriela certainly knows Perugia well. It’s just that she’s so intense that it’s wearying. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, though – her being able to say everything in English is a real break for me. There was nothing for me to do all morning but listen, which makes a change.’
‘It would for most women,’ he said dryly.
‘Sexist pig.’ She laughed, spun round towards him and made a move to dig him in the ribs.
He caught her hand mid-air. A bolt of electricity shot through her. ‘Well, perhaps not a pig.’ Her voice came from a trillion miles away.
She coughed quickly, hoping to scale her voice back down to somewhere near normal. Fat chance of that, though – he was still holding her hand.
‘Pig is probably not a recommended way of addressing your boss,’ she squeaked.
‘I’m sure I’ve been called worse things,’ he remarked cheerfully. He turned them into a narrow medieval street that led to the entrance of a high-tech escalator running in sections from the old town on top of the hill down to the bottom. His hand tightened around hers. Her spine tingled. ‘At least pigs are clean,’ he added, ‘which is more than you can say for some of the names I’ve been called.’
Sod the effing pigs! He was still holding her hand. What was going on inside his head?
‘Aha, here’s the entrance we’re looking for. This is the escalator we came up on. I wouldn’t want to end up near the wrong car park. Go carefully, Evie.’
Side by side they stepped on to the metal stair. She glanced down at the hand holding hers, then quickly looked away and stared down the moving steps. Where on earth were they going now – and she didn’t mean on the escalator.
‘The others must have virtually run all the way down, if you can imagine Gabriela running anywhere – I’m not sure that I can. I can’t see them anywhere.’ She hoped that her voice was loud enough to cover the thud of her heart. ‘Come to think of it, we’ve not seen them for ages.’
As if she cared.
If just the touch of his hand could do what it was doing to her … Her heart thudded even more loudly.
‘I’m sure we’ll catch up with them eventually,’ he said airily. ‘They’re probably in a hurry to get lunch over with. I’m sure they’ll want some time to themselves between lunch and the end of the afternoon. I can identify with that. As you so rightly said, it’s a stunner of a city, but like you, I feel that I’ve had enough sightseeing for one day.’