On the way home on Friday, Alice saw a man outside the municipio sticking up posters. Out of curiosity she went over to take a look and received a surprise. The posters were announcing a local referendum to take place in exactly three weeks’ time, but what was striking was the subject of the referendum. It required a straight yes/no answer to the question:
The town authorities believe that opening Varaldo Castle to the public is a bad idea which will negatively affect inhabitants. Are you in favour of allowing this potentially damaging new project? Vote NO on the 29th of June.
Alice pulled out her phone and took a photo which she immediately sent on to Simonetta and Luca. She just added a one line comment:
The following day, after a morning spent shopping, washing and ironing, she drove down to the stables where she had booked a couple of hours on Horace the horse. When she got there, she was surprised – and delighted – to see a familiar car parked outside. It was a silver Porsche and sitting alongside it, scratching his ear with his hind leg, was Frank the Labrador. Recognising her, he came charging across and almost knocked her over with his enthusiastic greeting. Seconds later, his master emerged leading a handsome black horse by the reins. Luca saw her and smiled. He didn’t look particularly surprised, and the thought crossed her mind that maybe he already knew she would be there. If so, might this mean that he had deliberately organised things so as to join her?
‘Ciao, Alice. You going riding as well?’
‘Yes, there’s still a lot of the family’s land that I haven’t seen yet, so I thought I’d take a little ride up the hillside to see what’s what. What about you?’
‘Emilia’s an old friend and Nero here’s my favourite horse. I normally try to ride every Saturday but I’ve had a busy spell over the past few weeks and haven’t been here for a while. I’m just glad to get out again. Want company?’
She did.
Today was less sunny and quite a lot windier. The hilltops in the distance were swathed in cloud and Alice felt sure there was rain on the way but hopefully it would wait until later. They crossed the road onto Varaldo family land and followed the track that would become the main route for the tree fellers when they started to extract the timber. This morning, Rocco with the neck tattoo had emailed a detailed proposal for a joint venture which promised to make the family a good income with very little outlay and very little effort, assuming they approved it at Monday’s meeting. Alice told Luca about this as they rode along, and he gave her a grin.
‘It looks like between us, you and I have managed to pay for ourselves already. By the way, I had a word with a friend in Parma who has a garage specialising in classic cars. When I told him about the Mercedes, he said he reckons it might well be worth even more than we thought. Anyway, if the family agree, he’s going to come and have a look at it, and he can give an estimate for returning it to Concours d’elegance standard.’
The track climbed steadily through the trees and, sheltered from the wind, the sweet scent of resin was heady. The Labrador trotted happily alongside the horses, clearly delighted to be out in the open air. At one point he shot off sideways into the trees, barking furiously, but he returned a minute later in response to a whistle from his master, panting from the chase. Luca explained to Alice.
‘Squirrels. He can’t stand them.’
‘We have red squirrels here. They’re gorgeous; I hope he doesn’t catch them.’
‘Not without a ladder, don’t worry.’
They chatted about all sorts as they climbed steadily until they emerged from the woods onto open grassland. A vestigial track curled around the contour line and they followed this, speeding up to a trot and then a canter across the open land. It was exhilarating and Alice enjoyed being out here and being with Luca. After a while they reached the ruins of a little shepherd’s hut and stopped to give the horses a rest. They sat down side by side on a convenient boulder protected from the wind by the old stone walls, and carried on talking.
There was no getting away from it: she had to accept the fact that the little ripples that shot through her when she was with him were sure signs of attraction. They sat and chatted about her life in England and his time working on ancient monuments in the hilly hinterland east of Naples, and she found she was able to relax in his company. As they talked she studied him surreptitiously and there was no doubt that she liked what she saw. Apart from looking good, he was friendly, articulate and she instinctively felt that she could trust him, or at least she hoped so. Of course, she reminded herself, she’d been attracted to Maurizio as well, but the accident had soured things irrevocably. A glance at Luca’s left hand revealed no wedding ring but that didn’t mean much these days. Still, she told herself, it was better than seeing one on there, wasn’t it?
Inevitably, the conversation came around to the upcoming referendum in the town and Luca shook his head sadly. ‘News of my appointment at the castle has reached my father, and this is his way of getting his revenge for what I’m sure he sees as an act of treachery. I spoke to my brother yesterday and he told me that the old man’s livid. Apparently he was stomping around the farmyard kicking the chickens and he actually kicked one of them so hard he killed it. Pretty soon now he’s going to be completely out of control. I just hope nobody gets hurt… including him.’
‘Do you think he’s going to win his referendum?’
Luca shook his head uncertainly. ‘I honestly don’t know. He and his cronies have been spreading a lot of scare stories, saying the town’s going to be invaded by hordes of tourists, coaches will be blocking the roads, and chaos and confusion will reign. I’m sure anybody in the business community would welcome it, because it’s bound to bring valuable revenue and employment opportunities to the town. As far as the don’t-knows are concerned, I suppose it would be wise to come up with some sort of counter publicity.’
‘When we were trying to get planning permission to increase the size of the car park at the manor back in England we took out adverts in the local newspaper and that helped a lot in generating support. Is there a local newspaper here?’
‘That’s an idea. Most people read the regional paper, the Gazzetta, and I sometimes play tennis with one of the editors who works in Parma. You could certainly advertise in there, but before you go spending money on adverts, why don’t I give her a call and see if they might be interested in doing an article?’
‘That sounds brilliant, but what if your father finds out you’re behind it?’
‘I can’t see how he would, but so what? He made it clear to me years ago that he never wants to see me again, and the feeling’s mutual, so what’s the difference? I can get her to contact you and hopefully they’ll send somebody to do a story with a photograph or two. Make sure she mentions the positive things like employment opportunities and helping to boost the status of the town as a prime historic site.’
They had a most enjoyable afternoon, even though persistent drizzle settled in for the last half hour as cloud descended from the hilltops to swathe the whole valley. Alice very nearly invited him around to her flat for a coffee afterwards but hesitated, wondering if that might be deemed unprofessional. However, before she could say anything he told her he had to scoot off as he was playing tennis. He didn’t tell her anything about his tennis partner – in particular their gender – and she didn’t ask.
But she spent all night wondering all the same.
On Sunday evening she went to the restaurant as usual, but there was no sign of Luca and his dog. Maybe Saturday’s tennis match had led to dinner or more and had lasted all weekend, or maybe he was deliberately keeping his distance. Either way, she told herself, there was no point getting hung up on a man with whom she had to maintain a solid working relationship. Any emotional entanglement would only complicate things.
While this sounded very sensible and logical inside her head, it didn’t make her feel any more cheerful.
A lot happened the following week. On Monday, Luca arrived with Carlo, his young assistant, but Alice barely had a chance to exchange more than a few words with him before the two men embarked on the survey. In all, although they were at the castle for two full days, she saw very little of him, and the idea that he might be deliberately keeping his distance kept nagging at her. As far as the survey was concerned, by the end of Tuesday Luca was able to pass on his initial conclusions which were reassuringly positive.
‘Considering the age of the property, the castle’s structurally sound. The roof was obviously completely replaced less than a hundred years ago and as far as I can see there’s no rot of any kind in the timbers which is excellent. I’ve identified a few minor leaks, mainly around chimneys, but they shouldn’t be any trouble for a roofer to sort out. There’s a certain amount of making good of uneven floors and re-plastering of walls to be done, but generally speaking, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how little work needs doing. I’ll draw up the plans and produce a schedule of works and then we can start getting quotes from builders. I’ll do that over the next few days so that we can prepare the submission to the authorities for permission to do everything. All in all, it’s looking good.’
On a more personal level, all that Alice managed to get out of him was the arrangement to meet up for another ride on Saturday afternoon, but that didn’t necessarily indicate that he wanted anything more than a riding companion. As she watched his car drive off, she felt a little pang of regret that she hadn’t been able to spend more time with him and she wondered how next weekend might pan out.
Meanwhile, Alfonso had managed to locate another three pairs of alpacas and he was sent off in the Land Rover and trailer to collect them and bring them to their new home. Alice was there when the first of them arrived and her initial impression as these fluffy, delicate, long-necked sheep-like animals picked their way unsteadily down the ramp and into the field was one of immediate attraction. She was pleasantly surprised that they seemed quite happy for her to walk up to them and stroke them. Certainly, most sheep would never have let her do that. And as for her father’s ‘damn ostriches’…
She got Alfonso to take a photo of her with her arm around the necks of a pair of them and she sent it to her father with the caption, No pecking, no kicking, no aggression. Great idea, Dad. xx.
Next day there was a call from a woman at the Gazzetta in Parma who identified herself as the features editor. She said she had spoken to Luca and was interested in doing an article on the family’s bid to open the castle to the public and told them she would send a reporter the following day. Sure enough, at ten o’clock on Thursday morning, Alice and Simonetta were visited by a young man, probably a few years younger than they were, accompanied by an elderly photographer. After taking a number of photos of the two of them, the photographer went off to get some shots of the castle accompanied by Silvia, while Alice and Simonetta sat down in the lounge to talk to the reporter. In all, they talked for about half an hour and the journalist appeared particularly interested in the fact that the civic authorities seemed to be so firmly against the development. By agreement, neither Alice nor Simonetta mentioned the feud between the two families as there was no point in further infuriating the mayor, and by the time the reporter left, they felt confident there would be a positive article in this Saturday’s newspaper.
It was therefore with some anticipation that Alice went into the newsagents on Saturday morning and bought a copy of that day’s paper. She took it into the café and sat down to read the article over a cappuccino. It came as a considerable shock to find that the young journalist the paper had sent had dedicated almost half of page three to the story – and what a story! The banner headline that ran right across the page read:
BLOOD FEUD RESURFACES AFTER 500 YEARS
Alice barely noticed the arrival of her coffee as she read and re-read the article several times. Along with a number of very good photos of the castle and one of Simonetta and herself in the living room, the article immediately homed in on the feud between the families, and Alice found herself wondering how they had found out. She wondered if Luca had said something but then quickly discovered that he hadn’t been the origin of the leak after all. According to the article, it had emanated from none other than the owner of the establishment where she was currently drinking her cappuccino. She remembered that Luca had told her that there was no love lost between his father and Giorgio Chiesa here at the restaurant. Clearly, the journalist had headed for the café after Wednesday’s interview at the castle and Giorgio had been only too happy to dish the dirt.
The article made it quite clear that in the opinion of the Gazzetta, a serious abuse of power was taking place and that this merited further investigation by higher authorities. It ended with a single line:
We approached the mayor of Varaldo, Cesare Montorso, for comment but he was unavailable.
Alongside it was a photograph of Luca and Tommaso’s father in his official regalia, no doubt taken from some ceremony he had attended in the past. Alice studied it carefully. This was the first time she had seen the face of the man she had come to think of as some sort of demon, and she was mildly surprised to see that he was a good-looking man sporting a friendly smile on his face. Unlike his sons, he had dark hair, but the family likeness in the cheekbones was clear to see.
She had just finished reading the article for the third time and was reaching for her now cold coffee when a shadow fell across the table and she looked up to see the restaurateur himself standing there.
‘I see you’ve read it. Rather good, I thought.’ There was a hint of a smile on his face.
‘Wow, this is going to put the cat among the pigeons.’
Giorgio’s smile was replaced by a scowl. ‘It’s about time somebody took him down. He’s been getting far too big for his boots.’
‘I just hope it doesn’t make him even more extreme in his behaviour.’