Ilaria felt terrible, she remembered being told about Diego before. Her grandfather had once told her about the winemaker who nearly married her mother. The weight of responsibility for his distress pinned against her chest and she hadn’t even been conscious during whatever upheaval she had caused.
‘He is upset I am here, isn’t he?’
‘No, of course not. He’s just. Well, Diego is Diego. But it is not my place to tell his story. I am sure he can explain himself to you once he’s calmed down.’ Alice handed Ilaria a pair of sandals and a glass of water. ‘You look so much like your mother, you know. Giulia wouldn’t believe that we were together now. It brings me joy to see you, Ilaria. Come on, let me show you around. I’ve been looking forward to giving you a tour of the vineyard.’
Alice led Ilaria out of the room and downstairs into the large open plan living room and kitchen. There was a huge fireplace that was big enough to sit inside and the floor was tiled with terracotta bricks. They went outside and when Ilaria looked up at the ash cloud above her, she felt quite chilly and for a moment thought that a snowflake had landed on her cheek, but instead it was a speck of ash.
‘It’s so cold,’ said Ilaria.
‘Yes, this is not normally the case this time of year. I am afraid it will only get worse unless Speranza listens to reason.’
‘You mean unless I can bond with him so that he listens to me?’
Alice smiled at Ilaria and then gestured for the girl to follow her as they walked up the stony path that cut through the garden. There wasn’t another house around for miles.
‘Usually the air becomes very still and humid around now. You get used to sleeping with damp sheets after a while as even the nights are hot and sweaty, but the ash is blocking out the sun and if it grows we will be in trouble. Ah, look here.’ Alice led Ilaria down a track between two large fields of grape vines, set on a hill overlooking a forest. ‘These are the vines we grow. They would normally be ready to pick in a couple of months and a lot of people usually come here for the harvest. One of Diego’s friends, Francesco, is our head winemaker. He assures the quality, along with Diego, and organises the workforce that pick the grapes. But with the way the weather is turned I fear there will be no harvest this year.’
‘Maybe it’s not too late, not yet! It’s very beautiful,’ Ilaria remarked. ‘What is that in the distance?’ she asked, pointing to a large domed building that stood above the sea of clouds along the hazy horizon.
‘Il Duomo. That is the cathedral in Firenze or Florence. On a clear day, you can see almost all the city, even from here. We have been coming down here to look at her every day and the more she vanishes, the colder it gets. Come on,’ Alice said smiling, ‘I have someone I’d love for you to meet.’
They carried on to the bottom of the path where the vines joined the treeline and suddenly a small red animal darted out from behind a tree. Ilaria jumped back, surprised at first, but then stepped forwards cautiously and approached the ginger cat.
‘This is Nespola, or Red. She seems happy to meet you,’ Alice said as Nespola ran circles around them both.
‘She’s wonderful,’ Ilaria said, stroking the cat who seemed more than pleased with the attention. ‘What is a nespola?’
‘It’s a kind of fruit, medlar you would call it I think. It’s the exact same colour as her coat and it grows even in the winter, not very usual for a fruit.’
‘She doesn’t have a collar,’ Ilaria indicated.
‘No, she is wild, like most of the cats around here. She travels between one house or another being fed randomly by anyone who happens to be nearby at dinnertime. The rest of the day you will find her here, hunting butterflies and other small animals.’
Alice and Ilaria carried on their walk around the farm. They bumped into a beekeeper who had just pulled a fresh honeycomb from his bee hive. He let Ilaria taste it as he was clearly pleased to show off how fresh it was and without question the honey did taste incredible.
Ilaria fell in love instantly with Chiesanuova as Alice led her into the centre of the village to meet some of the locals. There were only three shops in the entire village. A panetteria which made the most famous schiacciata bread in the whole of Tuscany, a small café that became a bar in the evening that Diego ran on the side of his wine business, and a small café at the bottom of the hill.
They picked up some of the famous bread from the bakery after Ilaria had impressed some of the locals with the couple of Italian words she could speak and walked back up the hill to the villa to prepare the evening meal. To Ilaria’s surprise they didn’t eat until nearly ten o’clock that evening and her tummy rumbled for hours beforehand.
Alice stirred a huge pot of pasta that she had prepared by hand and told Ilaria of her love of cooking; always with fresh ingredients and never anything frozen.
‘Diego should be home soon,’ Alice said. ‘We’ll eat together and you can ask us whatever questions you want. I know you must have a lot going through your mind right now.’
Ilaria certainly did have a lot going on in her head and that was without even mentioning the elephant in the room that was the hundred-foot-long dragon that had recently saved her life.
‘Thank you, it’s very kind of you to take me in like this. I wasn’t expecting it when I set out originally. I assumed when I arrived that I would just go and find a bench in a park somewhere to sleep on and spend days walking around, trying to find someone who knew my family.’
‘Don’t be silly, we’re as good as family. This is your home now as well, for as long as you need.’
Ilaria went a slight shade of scarlet but before she had the chance to thank Alice for the hundredth time that evening, Diego came bounding through the front door and dumped a crate of wine and water. He headed towards Alice and gave her a kiss before dipping his finger in the pasta sauce and tasting it. ‘Mmm, buona,’ he said approvingly then walked straight to the dining table without paying any attention to Ilaria whatsoever.
Ilaria sighed. It was going to be a very long and awkward evening. After all she had been through, the heartache and adventure, she had grown up and Diego, whatever issues he had, were to do with her mother and not her. She wanted to be his friend and not his enemy. She dished up a plate for him and held her head up high as she went to join Alice and Diego at the dining table and she wasn’t afraid. After all, she was the girl who had ridden a dragon.
12
They ran freely through the fields, stepping over the jutting roots of the vines. The early spring sun beat down upon them and as it warmed the earth, a low mist rose from the previous night’s damp.
All those years ago they had been the closest of friends; Alice, Giulia and Diego. Never apart for more than a day at a time. After school, they would travel back together on the yellow bus that dropped them a few kilometres down the road from Diego’s parents’ farm where they now played.
It was a Saturday afternoon like any other in the Tuscan countryside. The three friends loved to play hide and seek amongst the vineyards and forests at the back of the house. Giulia and Alice both lived in apartments next door to each other in the centre of the village and neither of them had the luxury of a garden so they always went to play at the vineyard. The vines had been left to rot as Diego’s father had no interest in making wine but Diego vowed one day to bring it back to life.
‘Nature is the most important ally we have, and yet we let her waste away like she was a mad old woman seeing out the rest of her days,’ Diego said, as the three friends had stopped chasing each other to take a break by the nearby lake.
They dipped their toes in the cold spring water and watched as the ducks swam back and forth.
‘It’s a lot of work to keep a vineyard in order. I remember what your father explained to us. Maybe you should listen to him too,’ Giulia said.
‘Listen to him? He wants to sell the land, or lease the fields to other families.’
Alice spoke next. ‘Well there is a lot of competition aroun
d here. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea? What do you know about making wine anyway? Have you ever pruned a day in your life?’
Diego stood up and hovering above the two girls he shouted angrily, ‘You’re both stupid. I’ll bring this place back to how it was before, you’ll see. Then you’ll both work for me as my servants in the house.’
Giulia and Alice burst out in fits of laughter that only angered Diego more and he dove into the lake and swam away from them.
‘Diego! It’s freezing,’ Giulia cried out.
‘Oh, Giulia, what are we going to do with him?’ Alice asked.
‘I don’t know, but I get the feeling he’ll bug us for as long as we both live.’
Alice and Giulia stood on the rock from where Diego had dived and jumped in together causing a tremendous splash. Half the ducks in the lake flapped their wings and flew to the far side, nearly crashing into Diego in the process. When he had managed to make his way out of the group of ducks he smacked his hand in the water, cursing at his two friends who continued to laugh at his expense. It was that day, when Diego was just fourteen years old, that he vowed to himself that he would prove everyone else wrong and turn the farm into the best winery in the area.
Diego took another sip of wine as he paused from recounting his story to Ilaria. Almost thirty years had passed by since that spring afternoon. She was engrossed to hear about all the mischief her mother had got into when she was not much older than Ilaria was now. Ilaria, still sad, smiled to herself, feeling like she knew her mother a little better now, though it made her longing for her even stronger.
‘Thank you for telling me your story, it means a lot to me,’ Ilaria said.
‘Alice is right about most things. You should thank her. I’m sorry I was rude to you earlier.’
‘Sure.’ Not allies yet, Ilaria thought. But it was progress. ‘How did you come to meet my father?’
Diego scoffed at that question. ‘Him. I don’t talk about him, you want to know about your father you speak to Alice, preferably when I am not around.’
‘Oh, okay.’
Ilaria knew that she had stepped over the line. At least she knew where it was now. Diego continued sincerely, ‘Listen, Ilaria, a lot has happened that you do not know, nor are you responsible for. But you should understand that your arrival brings with it a flock of memories that are not always full of happiness.’
Ilaria looked down, ashamed. But then a thought came to her. Diego had spent his childhood and early adult life in the company of her mother who she had never known, so he in fact had a lot to be thankful for. She felt angry then. Was he so ungrateful?
‘Fair enough, but I think you should understand something too. I never got to know my own parents, I know them only through the memories of others. I never got to swim in the lake with my mother or learn about farmland from my father. So, let’s not pretend that you are alone in suffering.’
Ilaria found herself getting more and more worked up as she spoke. She surprised herself as she hadn’t intended on getting upset but after she’d said the words out loud, a horrible wave of confusion came over her and she could no longer bear to sit at the table.
Ilaria got up, leaving half her dinner untouched and went upstairs, slamming the door to her room behind her. Alice stood to follow her but Diego placed his hand on her arm and shook his head.
‘Lasciarla in pace, Alice. Give her some space,’ he said.
A couple of hours passed by but Ilaria couldn’t sleep. Part of her felt guilty for her little outburst, and she felt foolish for being so weak though surely it was justified. Once she had argued fiercely with her grandfather because he had forgotten to collect her from school. She had been right to point out his failing and yet at the same time she couldn’t help but feel ashamed at the way she had spoken to him. Ilaria hated her guilt. It was worse than any other emotion she knew.
Ilaria was completely restless so she wandered around the bedroom. There were several bookshelves filled with books that were entirely to do with agriculture. She picked one up to read but couldn’t understand the words so she put it back and sat on her bed, wondering what it must have been like to grow up in this village. It certainly would have been a lot easier to pass the time outdoors than in Southbourne. She hoped that one day she would get to feel the Tuscan sun on her face and swim in the lake by the forest. She thought about the ash cloud and reached out, trying to find some sign of Speranza.
Are you there?
Nothing. She didn’t understand the connection she had felt with Speranza when he saved her, even without the heart fragment there had been something between them. Then.
You should be resting.
You can hear me? I don’t understand.
Stop interrupting me, girl. I don’t want you poking around inside my head.
You must stop breathing so much of your fire. I think something bad is going to happen.
Another long silence.
It isn’t that simple. Imagine it is as if you could hold your breath for no more than a minute but you were asked not to breathe for an hour.
Ilaria felt her head begin to hurt, and the connection was lost. She filled her mind with other thoughts to clear the dragon from her mind. She thought about Johnny and hoped that his father was okay. It wouldn’t be long before the volcanoes beyond Europe began to erupt too, if Speranza carried on at the rate he was.
A knock came at the door and Ilaria threw a blanket over her head to hide, desperately pretending to be fast asleep.
Diego opened the door ever so slightly and quietly spoke. ‘Ilaria, I know you’re awake, I heard you talking to yourself.’ Ilaria felt silly. When had she begun this habit of thinking out loud?
‘Come in then,’ she said.
Diego crept into the room and sat on a pallet by the side of her bed.
‘You remind me of her you know. I am sorry that this causes me pain, when it should bring me joy. I think my own pride sometimes controls me.’
‘Why did she leave you?’ Ilaria’s muffled voice trembled from beneath her blanket.
Diego took a deep breath but found himself surprisingly calm. ‘Ever since that day, I told everyone that she left me because I was too busy with the farm. Through my ignorance she had made a friend in an English guy who she met while visiting her grandparents in the UK. The worst part was that I actually really liked him, your father. He was a very decent man. But I pretended that I didn’t have time to love Giulia. The reality is, she just didn’t love me. No reason, sometimes you either feel something or you don’t. We’d been friends for so long I think she was trying her best to fall in love with me, but when she met Christopher she found out what love truly was.’
It was hard for Ilaria to hear her parents being spoken about in this way. Such a complex web adults weave for themselves.
Diego continued. ‘We make up reasons and excuses when other people hurt us in matters of the heart. It is difficult to accept that there is no logical reason. Maybe if I’d spent more time with her, maybe if I hadn’t been so busy trying to prove myself all the time I would have noticed I was losing her. I asked myself these questions and hundreds like them for years. None of those things matter in the end.’
Diego took a deep breath and wiped his face with his sleeve. ‘I don’t think your mother ever forgave me when she told me about your family and the dragons. She took a huge risk by confiding in me and at first I refused to believe her. Then when I did, I told her she was selfish to want to spend so much time working with the other bonded humans.’
Diego stood up from the pallet and turned towards the bundle of blankets that Ilaria was hiding beneath. ‘So, now you have heard my confession. Something I never told anyone, not even your grandfather. I love Alice, Ilaria. You must know that. It’s just that you have thrown salt on old wounds.’
Ilaria emerged from the sheets and faced Diego. She saw a weary but rugged face before her. A strong and proud man, also arrogant. But he had a kindness in him that had been expressed
through his admission that Ilaria would always be grateful for.
‘Are you bonded with a dragon?’ she asked.
Diego chuckled. ‘No, no. They would never allow me to be part of the order. I’m just a friend, who keeps an eye on things for the others sometimes. Everyone knew that you would eventually come here. Speranza told them shortly before Brian died that he planned to bring you here. But he has forgotten himself. It is as though he has fragments of his memory. That’s why we need to get to him before there is no human connection left in him at all.’ Diego sighed. ‘It is incredible that you made it here all by yourself.’
‘Well, not quite by myself,’ Ilaria replied, thinking about all the help she had had and how she had been carried all the way from Sicily by the dragon. Was Speranza behind all her good fortune? ‘Thank you for your honesty. Not many people in my life have given me the truth before.’
‘Well, you strike me as the kind of girl who won’t give up, ever, in the pursuit of the truth. You are a mystery, Ilaria, somehow Speranza has been watching over you, in spite of the fact you are not bonded.’
‘He spoke to me. I mean, I heard a voice in my head.’
‘That can’t be possible. No one has ever spoken to a dragon without being bonded.’
Ilaria was confused; it had happened so effortlessly she’d assumed it was normal. Somehow Speranza guided her and yet his human connection was fading. The hourglass was quicksand beneath her feet.
‘You’re very strong, Ilaria. Believe me when I tell you, you are going to need that strength. Tomorrow we travel deep underground, to the deepest den. We must find that pendant. A lot of people are waiting there to meet you. It is time that you learnt about this great responsibility you have inherited, because we haven’t a moment more to lose.’
13
Ilaria awoke suddenly, her heart racing. She breathed out and a cloud of mist drifted into the room. For a moment, she thought she was still dreaming. Dreaming perhaps that she was becoming a dragon. But then she realised that the breath was not smoke from fire but an icy vapour and her bed sheets were cold. A gelid cold.
The Heart Thief Page 7