That evening at just after six, Sophie was roused from her laptop by the sound of a bell closely followed by a woof from Jeeves who jumped to his feet and charged out of the room. It took her a moment or two to work out that this had to be the front doorbell so she followed the dog into the entrance hall, heaved the heavy door open and looked out. The doorstep was empty but of course the main gates were locked. Presumably somebody had rung the bell outside in the square. She picked up her keys and went out to see who it was.
She was about to open the gate when she had a sudden thought that it might be Claudio casually dropping in to renew his acquaintance with her, and she almost slammed it shut again. Still, taking a deep breath, she pulled it open and was relieved to see an unfamiliar face. He was a good-looking man with dark hair and a closely trimmed beard and he looked friendly.
‘Good evening, can I help you?’
‘Good evening, my name’s Dario Fornero. My cousin Gianni told me you had a problem with the pool.’
‘Oh, thank you very much for coming but it isn’t so much a problem as a query.’ She beckoned him in and explained about Jeeves and the water and she saw him nod. As if following the conversation Jeeves nudged him with his nose and got a pat on the head in return.
‘Gianni mentioned that to me. It should be fine but what I would recommend is to line your skimmer basket with a skimmer sock.’ He must have noticed the blank expression on her face. ‘Don’t worry. It’s simple. I’ve brought a pack with me and it’ll only take a few moments to fit one. Shall I show you how?’
They walked round to the pool and found Rachel, thankfully wearing both parts of her bikini this evening. Hanging onto Jeeves’s collar with one hand to prevent him from leaping into the water, Sophie introduced Dario to Rachel and couldn’t miss the look he gave her sister. Clearly he liked what he saw. He opened the pool house door and squatted down to fiddle with something and Rachel gave Sophie a wink.
‘I’m beginning to see why they call this place paradise, Soph. Another hunk!’ Evidently she approved.
‘If you’d like to come over here, I’ll show you how to fit it.’ Dario waved to them to join him. They did as instructed and watched as he demonstrated how easy it was. ‘Check it every week or two. If you see a lot of dog hair caught in the sock, just peel it off and replace it, okay?’ Seeing them nod, he reached into his bag again. ‘Seeing as I’m here, I’ll just check the pH level of the water, but it looks and smells fine to me.’ He produced a little piece of apparatus and dipped it in the water. Pulling it out, he checked the result and smiled at them. ‘Perfect. No need to alter anything. Your pool’s fine and your dog’s quite okay to swim as much as he likes – as are you.’
No sooner had Dario stopped talking than Jeeves looked up at Sophie as much as to say ‘You heard’. She released her grip on him and as he flung himself into the water she turned to Dario and asked how much they owed him. He shook his head and waved her offer away.
‘No charge. You’re very welcome.’
‘The least we can do is to offer you a glass of wine.’ Rachel made the suggestion and Sophie decided it was her turn to act as wine waiter tonight.
‘We’ve got red, white or champagne. You choose, Dario.’
‘If it’s no trouble, a glass of red would be great.’
Sophie left them to it and returned to the kitchen, reflecting that Dario appeared to be as efficient and generous as his cousin, who had given her car back to her earlier sounding as smooth and quiet as if it were new – and hadn’t charged her the earth. Remembering what Rachel had told her, she found several unmarked bottles of red in the fridge and carried one back out to the pool along with three glasses and a tub of the intensely flavoured local Taggiasche black olives. Dario was sitting on the edge of a sunbed directly opposite Rachel and didn’t appear able to keep his eyes off her. Sophie set down the tray and poured the wine before taking a seat a tactful distance away from the two of them. Dario managed to tear his eyes off her sister’s body long enough to give Sophie a glance and raise his glass.
‘Cheers, and thank you.’
‘Thank you, Dario.’ Rachel reached over and clinked her glass against his. ‘Cin cin.’
Sophie planned to drink her wine and leave her sister with the handsome Italian – if that was what she wanted. She took a big mouthful and had to agree that Beppe’s red wine made with the castle’s very own grapes was excellent.
‘Are you ladies planning on staying here long?’
Dario politely managed to include Sophie in the conversation although his eyes were still on Rachel, who didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Sophie left it to her sister to explain that they would be here until the end of September. After a few minutes, Sophie swallowed the last of her wine, stood up, thanked him again and excused herself. Rachel gave her a little wink as she did so. As Jeeves was still wet Sophie took him for a walk around the garden so that he could drip dry himself before going back inside.
When they reached the far end of the vineyard, she sat on a conveniently sited bench and looked out through the fence, down across the olive groves and vineyards towards Santa Rita. Even from this distance she could see that the promenade was still packed. No doubt it would get even busier in a few weeks’ time when the main holiday month of August started, but up here, Paradiso was living up to its name. As if to emphasise the point, a beautiful orange and black butterfly almost the width of her hand fluttered past and landed on Jeeves’s head. He was stretched out on the dusty ground, eyes closed, looking as if he had just run a marathon, and blissfully unaware of his temporary guest. The butterfly sat there for a few seconds, wings pulsing in the sunlight, before deciding that there were more fragrant places to take a rest and flitting off again.
Sophie started thinking about the idea of writing a book, and a story began to develop in her head. Here she was in a medieval castle, so what better place to set the story? The Middle Ages were a fascinating time and, she reminded herself, she had the added bonus of having a medievalist living just down the road, who would no doubt be able to help her get her facts straight. What did they eat and drink seven hundred years ago? What clothes did they wear? Did they have Labradors? What did they do without television? Did they really have chastity belts? She realised she would have to spend quite a lot of time with Dan in order to get to the bottom of all these queries and the idea of seeing more of him had considerable appeal – particularly if Rachel had found herself a man in the shape of the handsome Italian pool guy. Of course, that left the question of Chris unanswered, but there would be time to worry about that the weekend after next when he came to stay.
As for the plot of her book, she rather liked the idea of a story of two sisters, both countesses or duchesses or princesses – she had better add medieval aristocratic titles to her list of queries for Dan – who lived here in the castle. The girls’ father was away on the Crusades – when were the Crusades please, Dan? – and they had been left in the not-so-tender hands of their stepmother. The story could involve different suitors, rivalries and jealousies as well as a shot of heartache and a few hints of something steamy. There could be a masked ball, a couple of banquets and maybe a wild horseback ride across the mountains to escape an attack by Saracen pirates. She sat there and let her mind tick over, and by the time she stood up again, the nucleus of a story had started to take shape.
Back inside the castle there was no sign of Rachel so Sophie threw together a salad laced with gorgonzola, walnuts and pieces of speck, the lovely smoked ham from the Alps. She accompanied it with a glass of red from another bottle in the fridge and switched on the TV in the corner of the room to watch the news. She had just finished her meal and was feeding Jeeves when the back door opened and Rachel reappeared. Jeeves didn’t look up – dinner time was far too important for that – but his tail did wag a little bit harder.
‘Hi, Soph, sorry I’m late for dinner.’
‘No worries, there’s plenty of salad left over. Has your guest gone?’
Rachel winked at her. ‘Yes, for today…’
‘But tomorrow…?’
‘Tomorrow he’s taking me out for dinner and then, in a few days’ time when he can get away, he said he’s going to take me out on his yacht.’
‘Just remember what happened last time you were on a yacht – it sank.’
‘It didn’t actually sink like in a Titanic kind of way. It just sort of died in the harbour. When we went to bed at night it was fine. When we woke up next morning there was a foot of water in the cabin which just kept getting deeper and deeper until there was only the mast left sticking out of the water.’
‘Well, just be careful.’
‘Yes, big sister.’ In spite of the jibe, Rachel looked happy.
‘And if you bring him home, remember my room’s next door to yours. I wouldn’t want you to make so much noise you frighten Jeeves.’
‘Yes, big sister.’ Rachel was still smiling as she poured herself a glass of red and sat down. ‘But I have no intention of leaping into anything with Dario – at least not until I know him a lot better. He seems like fun so why not, but you don’t need to worry about me bringing him or any other random men home.’ She pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘So when’re you going to go for that walk with Dan, you know, to his little chapel in the hills?’
‘I’ve given him my number. I’ll wait for him to call or, if I don’t hear in a few days, I’ll call him. After all, I don’t want to sound too eager.’
‘Why not? If you like him – and you do – you should be brave and make the first move. Besides, a walk to an old ruin isn’t quite in the same league as dragging him upstairs to your bed.’
‘Yes, but… there’s Chris, to consider. I’m not some sort of femme fatale juggling suitors and breaking hearts, you know.’ She very nearly added ‘like you used to be’ but stopped herself in time.
‘Look on it as seeing how the land lies. Maybe Dan’ll tell you he’s married with five kids. It wouldn’t hurt to find that out before things get serious. And, after all, you have no idea whether Chris feels the same way about you yet anyway. Go for a walk with Dan and see what you can find out. Wasn’t it Sun Tzu who said that sometimes a mere scrap of intelligence could be mightier than a thousand men?’
Sophie was impressed that her sister remembered the legendary author of The Art of War, but it didn’t really help her much. The way her luck had been going over the last twelve months, it would most probably turn out that both men were unavailable. Still, as Rachel had said, it wouldn’t hurt to find out more about the handsome American.