English Rose for the Sicilian Doc

by Annie Claydon

  She heard Matteo’s sharp intake of breath. ‘What’s that?’ He pointed to a half-buried shape lying at the top of the vertebrae.

  ‘It’s a coin. It’s not unusual to find a coin placed over the mouth in Roman burials.’

  ‘So...the person was laid on a bed of flowers, with a coin over their mouth. Then covered with the slabs, and they were decorated with crystals.’ His voice was almost reverent.

  ‘Yes. And we think that the red ochre on the wall is the remains of some kind of design. The acidity level of the clay is low, so everything’s in a very good state of preservation. Look there.’

  ‘What is it?’ It looked like an egg-shaped ball of clay, with indented markings on the outside.

  ‘Don’t know. It’s roughly made and we haven’t seen anything like it before, so it could well have been just something someone made, which had a personal significance. We’d have to send it off to Rome to see if there’s anything inside it, we don’t have scanning facilities here on the island.’

  He sat back on his heels, silent for a moment. ‘Yes, we do.’

  ‘Not for archaeological use...’ Suddenly she felt almost breathless. ‘What are you thinking, Matteo?’

  ‘Archaeologists have made use of our X-ray equipment before. Why not the CT scanner? Unless there’s some reason you’d prefer to get the finds scanned in Rome.’

  ‘No. They’re fragile and even the journey there’s a risk...’ Rose broke off, grinning at him stupidly. ‘You think the hospital would do that?’

  ‘I can ask. I’ll speak to the head of Admin tomorrow, and do my best to persuade her.’

  Rose doubted that there were many people at the hospital who would resist Matteo’s best attempt at persuasiveness. ‘And...you wouldn’t mind doing the scan?’

  ‘Are you kidding? I’d love to do it.’ He leaned forward again, looking at the skeleton. ‘Whoever this is, they were buried with love, weren’t they?’

  ‘I don’t think there’s much doubt of that.’

  ‘Then I think we owe it to the people who loved them to see this through, don’t you?’

  CHAPTER SIX

  IT WAS A strange feeling. Alec had never been interested in Rose’s work and would feign boredom whenever she talked about it too much. But Matteo wasn’t just interested, she could see her own passion mirrored in his. He called Rose the following afternoon, saying he had an in-principle agreement from the hospital, and would the weekend be too soon?

  ‘No, I don’t think so. I’ll have a word with Professor Paulozzi, and get him to contact the hospital’s administrator and we can take it from there. We’re lifting the skeleton and the grave goods today and tomorrow.’

  ‘Sounds good.’ Matteo’s tone betrayed satisfaction at a plan coming together. ‘What suits you best, Saturday or Sunday? Either’s fine with me.’

  ‘Sunday would be best. Elena and her family are going to a wedding on Saturday so I’ve no one to take care of William. And I promised him I’d take him somewhere, after working last weekend.’

  ‘We’ll aim for Sunday, then.’

  ‘Sounds good. By the way, do you know a good market in Palermo? One that’s not too crowded.’

  She heard him chuckle. ‘Do I know a good market? What kind of question’s that? Of course I do. It does get pretty crowded at the weekends, though.’

  ‘I was hoping for one that’s quiet. I’ll be on my own, so I don’t want to lose William.’ Maybe she’d take William to the beach instead and they could eat out.

  There was a slight pause at the other end of the line. ‘Well, why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you the best market in Palermo. You’ll love it.’

  Just as Matteo seemed to have thought about the question for a moment, Rose had to think about her answer. This wasn’t anything to do with his work, or hers, but it would be fun for William, and still fell roughly within the boundaries she’d set for herself.

  ‘Well... If it’s no trouble.’

  ‘Of course not. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.’

  * * *

  Matteo drove slowly along the street where he’d said he’d meet her, and saw her car. Sliding into an empty parking spot next to it, he saw William and Rose sitting together in the front seats, their two fair heads together, looking intently at her mobile phone.

  ‘Ah! You found us.’ She jumped when he looked in through the open window of the driver’s door, and got out of the car. William scrambled across the seats to greet Matteo with a bongiorno.

  ‘Look, what I found.’ Rose was obviously far too involved with whatever it was she had on her phone to bother with preliminaries like Hello, or How are you today? In the bright sunshine of her smile, they seemed entirely dispensable to Matteo as well.

  ‘What’s that?’ He took the phone, and looked at it. ‘A camera?’

  She laughed, reaching into the car for her bag. ‘No. Although if it looks like that to you, I suppose it must be working. It’s an app that simulates colour-blindness. I can see what William sees. I’m not sure if I’ve got it adjusted quite right, though.’

  Matteo pointed the phone up at the sky, and its image looked drab and flat. He bent down to William’s level, putting his arms around him so that they could both see the phone. ‘How does that look to you? The same?’

  William shook his head.

  ‘I think you’ve got the blue turned down. How do you adjust it?’

  ‘There are controls for each colour.’ Rose leaned in, tapping the side of the screen, and a set of three sliders appeared. Matteo adjusted the one that controlled blues, pushing it right up to the top.

  ‘Better?’ He showed William.

  ‘It looks the same.’

  ‘Yeah. Looks the same to me too.’ He repeated the process with a red car, which Rose pointed out to him, and then a green car, adjusting the sliders to change the colour balance until William saw a difference. Then he handed the phone back to Rose.

  ‘I think that’s about it.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She pointed the phone straight up at the sky and gave him a bright smile. ‘I’m so glad you both see that the way I do.’

  She switched the phone off, keeping it in her hand, as if she might want to consult it later. ‘Which way to the market?’

  ‘Down here. We’ll follow everyone else.’

  It seemed odd to be with both of them again. Matteo had just about managed to reconcile his feelings about Rose, telling himself that she was someone with a fascinating job who just happened to be intoxicatingly attractive. And William was a bright boy, who had much of his mother’s zest for new things. But together they were a family of two, and that was proving to be a challenge.

  He solved the problem by ignoring it. Walking next to William, he responded to his chatter, taking his hand when Rose stopped to look at something through the colour filter on her phone. Almost as if she wasn’t there and it was William he’d come to see.

  * * *

  Matteo was dressed for the weekend, his cream-coloured trousers and shirt making his skin seem even more golden. The breeze tugged at the thin fabric of his shirt, moulding it to the shape of his shoulders, and his relaxed gait made him look even more delicious. He was a study in what a man should look like.

  The streets were getting more and more crowded, and Matteo hoisted William up onto his shoulders. William’s shining face, as he clung to Matteo, tugged almost painfully at all the instincts that told her that her child should have a father.

  As they approached the marketplace, the streets were full of stalls. Fruit and vegetables, laid out in great splashes of colour, which looked strange and a little unappetising through the filter on her phone.

  Matteo’s leisurely pace slowed to a crawl. It seemed that choosing what to buy was a serious business for him, and he passed rows of stal
ls that seemed to offer perfectly good, fresh produce before he got to the ones where he stopped to buy and taste. Clearly, just reaching for a net of oranges, the way that Rose did at the supermarket at home, wasn’t in his shopping vocabulary.

  Inside the huge, covered market there was a whole new set of sights and smells. Stalls with different kinds of cheese. Fresh fish, laid on ice and still smelling of the sea. Coffee beans, which Matteo lingered over for a while before making his choice.

  ‘Don’t you want to stock up a bit?’ He’d bought a small packet of coffee, just about enough to last a week.

  ‘What for? They’ll be here next week, and it’s better to buy fresh.’

  ‘What if they’re not here next week?’ This way of life seemed based on so many uncertainties.

  Matteo laughed. ‘Then I’ll go over there.’ He nodded towards another stall, a press of people crowded round it. ‘That’s the thing about a market. You buy for today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.’

  This wasn’t the careful, thoughtful Matteo that she’d seen at the hospital or on site. He was well and truly off duty, laid back and living in the moment.

  He turned his attention back to William, whom he was carrying on his hip now, and reached for a sliver of cheese from a stall and gave it to him. ‘You like that?’

  William nodded, taking another bite. It was nice to see them together, but Matteo seemed a little distant from her today. Maybe the bond she’d felt with him over her work was just that, a common interest in the work and not each other. She would have sworn she’d seen his own very personal response on more than one occasion, though.

  Maybe he was just one of those men who didn’t feel it was appropriate to flirt with a mother in the presence of her child. And that was all to the good. If Matteo was just a friend in William’s eyes, then he could never get hurt.

  She reached into her bag, pulling out her purse and turning to William. ‘If you like it, I’ll get some.’

  Matteo signalled to the stall holder, who hurried across to take her order.

  * * *

  He took her heavy shopping bag, so that she’d have her hands free. The idea of Rose being free of all the weight that she carried was intoxicating.

  She had a demanding job, and a child to care for. And she seemed to do it all with such ease, even though he knew that it was anything but easy. In the moments when her mask had slipped, he’d seen the stress and the sadness that she guarded so carefully, as if it were something terrible that had the power to overturn everything, instead of just simple, human emotion.

  ‘What are you doing for lunch?’ They’d turned, meandering back the way they’d come, towards the cars.

  ‘I thought we might eat out somewhere. Would you like to join us?’ Her bright eyes stirred something deep inside him. Something he’d rather not admit to but which couldn’t be resisted.

  ‘I’ve got a better idea. Come to my place, there’s a beach just behind the house, and William can play there.’ If he got Rose on her own, then there might be the chance of the one look that he craved. That closeness, which had eluded them this morning.

  ‘You have your own beach?’

  ‘It’s not really mine. It’s pretty secluded, though. You either have to walk across the cliff tops or through the house to get to it.’

  She nodded. ‘Okay, thanks. I’ve got William’s beach things in the car. Is it very far?’

  ‘Just outside Palermo. Not very far at all.’

  * * *

  Matteo’s home was an effortless combination of old and new, stylish but at the same time comfortable in its secluded, rural setting. The irregular, pale stonework, the arched doorway and the long shuttered windows, with wrought-iron balconies on the first floor, were all in the traditional style of some of the larger houses she’d seen in Sicily. But the house boasted an extra storey, modern and white painted, set back a little behind a high stone lip that ran around the edge of what had originally been the roof.

  It was picture-book pretty. The idea of someone living here, all year round, was an exercise in almost impossible dreams.

  Matteo stopped his car in the semi-circular drive and got out, waiting as Rose drew up behind him. Then he led her and William around the side of the house, through a gate and up a short flight of stone steps onto a roofed patio, which ran the full width of the house and was edged by stone balustrades. A table and chairs, along with wicker easy chairs, attested to the fact that he must spend a lot of his time outside. Who wouldn’t, if they lived here? The only thing between the patio and the sea was a strip of sandy beach.

  She followed him into the house, keeping hold of William’s hand. To the right was a large, modern kitchen, of the kind of unfussy good quality that put cooking and eating at a premium. To the left was an open-plan seating area that seemed to take up most of the space on the ground floor, the clean lines of the pale leather seating and elegant glass table showing off the best of modern Italian design.

  William was looking around, open-mouthed. That would have pretty much been Rose’s reaction if she couldn’t feel Matteo’s quiet gaze on her. Instead, she tried to formulate some kind of cogent opinion.

  ‘What a lovely location. Did you make the alterations to the house? On the roof?’

  ‘The extra storey was there when I bought it but the place had been empty for a while and it was in a pretty bad state. I added a roof garden at the back.’

  ‘You’ve made a fantastic job of it. It’s beautiful.’ She would have liked a guided tour, but she suspected that Matteo would rather spend his time showing her the sky and the sea.

  He put her shopping bag onto the countertop in the kitchen. ‘I’ll put your shopping in the fridge. Would you like some coffee?’

  ‘Yes, thank you.’ He bent and took a moka pot out of the cupboard, shooting her a querying look as he put it onto the stove. ‘Whichever way you take it is fine with me.’

  He smiled. ‘Strong with no milk. Sure?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ She would have been quite happy with a cup of instant, but if Matteo could take it, then so could she.

  She took William out onto the patio, rubbing sun cream into his face, arms and legs, and taking his sandals off in favour of a pair of canvas beach shoes. Matteo had left the kettle to boil and disappeared, reappearing in a T-shirt and a pair of cut-off jeans, just in time to fill the moka pot.

  Bringing two small espresso cups, one for him and one for her, he put them down on the table in front of her, walking over to a box in the far corner of the patio and producing a football. William left her side, running over to him.

  ‘Tufnell Park Cheetahs vs The Palermo Panthers.’ He grinned down at William, bouncing the ball.

  ‘Yes-s-s.’ William grabbed the ball, tucking it under his arm, and ran down the steps onto the beach.

  ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ Matteo walked over to the table, chuckling, and picked up his coffee. ‘Are you playing?’

  ‘No, I’ll just...drink my coffee, if that’s okay with you.’

  ‘Sure.’ He downed his coffee in two mouthfuls, putting the cup back onto the saucer. Rose smiled at him, deciding to sip hers when he was safely out of sight, down on the beach.

  He waited for a moment and she stared back at him. Finally, she gave in.

  ‘I know you’re off duty, but if I choke, you will slap me on the back, won’t you.’

  ‘Yes. Full resus procedure. No holds barred.’

  No holds barred sounded like something she’d like to try with Matteo. Rose raised the cup to her lips, savouring the smell, and then drank it down.

  ‘Oh... That’s...’ She closed one eye, wrinkling her nose.

  He chuckled. ‘That’s the essence of good coffee.’

  ‘What, thinking your head’s about to explode?’

  ‘An exper
ience you can’t quite put a name to, until the taste triggers the pleasure response.’ He turned, leaving her to deal with the promised pleasure response on her own, running down the steps to where William was waiting for him.

  She watched for half an hour while he and William played football on the beach. Her beautiful son, running in the sunshine, shouting with glee when he kicked the ball across the line in the sand that Matteo had drawn. It was a perfect picture.

  Not a complete one, though. If she joined them, and tried to complete the illusion of a happy family, it would all break apart. It was best to let them play alone.

  Lunch was a leisurely affair, which involved Matteo throwing things into pans in a seemingly quite random manner, letting William taste the ingredients as he went. It turned out to be delicious, a warm spinach salad with Sicilian sausage and potatoes, which was served with a glass of red wine.

  When they’d finished their meal William started to yawn and Rose laid him down to sleep on the wicker sofa at the far end of the patio. Elena usually let her own children sleep after lunch, and it seemed that he was getting used to that routine too. She cleared the table, helping Matteo carry the plates and glasses into the kitchen.

  ‘Coffee?’ He grinned at her. Suddenly, with William asleep, the barrier between them seemed to have been lifted.

  ‘Well, they do say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ She grinned back. ‘Go on. I think I might be getting a taste for it.’

  ‘Go and sit down. I’ll bring it out.’

  ‘Can’t I stay and watch? I might learn something.’

  ‘You want to learn how to make drinkable coffee? Might take a while...’

  Rose held up her hands in surrender, laughing. ‘Okay. I’m going.’

  This time, she knew to smell the coffee then savour the round, smooth taste on her tongue. Then wait for the pleasure response. Matteo watched her then drank his, leaning back in his chair and slipping off his beach shoes.

  ‘When you go back home, you’ll miss this.’