Saturday April the twelfth was a very special day.
At six o’clock in the evening the newly restored drawbridge was lowered over the now rubbish-free moat, the gleaming portcullis on its new chains hauled up, and the castle was finally open to the public for the very first time. A steady stream of specially invited guests began to arrive and make their way inside. Alice stood to greet them as they passed through the reception area by the main gate and she was delighted to see many familiar faces. As well as a number of locals ranging from Giorgio and Leo from the restaurant to Tonino from the minimarket, there were other guests from further afield, among them Architetto Bolognese and his wife, Rocco from the sawmill with his family, and a delegation from the Belle Arti who had scrutinised the conversion work every step of the way.
Newly appointed staff members directed the guests up to the first floor where the official opening reception was to take place, and at six thirty Alice took one last nervous glance in the full-length mirror outside her office and hurried upstairs to join the assembled throng. The bar set up in the main living room was dispensing drinks to the guests while half a dozen staff members passed around the room carrying trays of appetisers.
The furniture had been moved so as to allow space for everybody to mingle and Alice spotted her mum and dad over by the fireplace chatting to the baroness with the help of Simonetta who had surprised Alice over the winter by demonstrating an unexpectedly good command of the English language. Alongside them were Fenella and Ronald, who had been only too happy to accept Alice’s invitation to come over for the occasion. Lord F-C himself was obviously having a fine time practising the Italian he had learned forty years earlier.
Further along was Achille with Silvia, now his fiancée, who was looking charming, if a bit overwhelmed to be on the arm of the future baron. The baron himself was deep in conversation with the head of the Belle Arti and Alice had little doubt that the topic of discussion was likely to be the new museum of the Varaldo family, which was the baron’s pride and joy.
As she stood there, she felt a touch against her good leg and glanced down to see a happy dog looking up at her, tail wagging. As she bent down to ruffle his ears, she felt another touch, this time to her bare shoulder, and she looked up to see a familiar and welcome face. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Ciao, bello.’ And he was looking bello in an immaculate dark grey suit.
‘Ciao, bella.’ He was looking tense and her heart went out to him. It was a big moment for all of them. She saw his eyes flick across towards the door. ‘He’s arrived. Tommi’s down in the courtyard with him. They’ll be on their way up in the lift in a minute or so.’
‘Okay, I’ll go and spread the word.’ She gave him an affectionate smile. ‘By the way, I like the suit. Very smart.’
‘Well, I love the dress. You look gorgeous.’
She glanced down to where her prosthetic leg was on display for the very first time and felt that same shiver of uncertainty that had dogged her ever since he had persuaded her to go out and buy the dress. Reluctantly she had heeded his advice to embrace what had happened to her, but it was taking time to adapt after years of denial.
‘You sure?’
In reply he smiled and kissed her again, very softly, on the lips. ‘I said gorgeous and I meant gorgeous.’
Reassured, she headed across to Simonetta. ‘Luca’s just told me they’re on their way up.’
Excusing herself to the others, Simonetta set down her glass and went across to tell her father. Alice stood with her parents and Fenella and Ronald while Simonetta’s grandmother went over to join the baron as well. Silvia, still looking a bit overwhelmed, appeared at Alice’s side as Achille joined the reception party by the doors of the newly installed lift. Alice gave her a supportive smile and caught hold of her hand.
‘You look as nervous as I feel. What’s it like being seen by everybody as the future Baroness Varaldo?’
‘Absolutely terrifying.’ Silvia gave Alice’s hand a squeeze. ‘I’m so pleased for you, Alice. You’re so brave.’ Her eyes flitted downwards for a second. ‘You look wonderful in that dress.’
Alice was about to return the compliment when the lift door hissed open and the hum of conversation in the room dropped. In the ensuing silence Tommi emerged from the lift, pushing the wheelchair out and into the room. As he did so, the baron stepped forward and inclined his head formally in greeting.
‘Signor Montorso, welcome to Varaldo Castle.’
The figure in the wheelchair stretched out his hand and returned the greeting, his voice stronger than his shrunken, pallid features would have suggested.
‘Thank you for inviting me here, Barone. I’m sorry it’s taken us so long to come to this point.’ He held out his hand towards the baroness. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Signora Beatrice, and of course I know your granddaughter well by now.’
The old lady took his hand in both of hers and shook it formally. ‘You can’t imagine how happy I am that the day has finally arrived when our two families can meet in friendship.’
Cesare Montorso insisted on lifting himself unaided from the wheelchair and onto his crutches. Alice couldn’t help comparing how he was now, both physically and mentally, to how he had been when she had first met him. As for his crushed legs, he would never walk properly again but she was pleased to see his determination to overcome his disability as much as he could. Somehow, this made her decision to bare her prosthetic leg and be damned so much easier in comparison.
It was heart-breaking that it had taken such a catastrophic accident so similar to her own to bring him the medical care his brain needed and the resulting improvement in his mental health. What they were seeing now was a changed man in so many ways.
As Cesare Montorso and the baron started to converse, Alice felt her mother’s hand on her arm and her voice at her ear, sounding unusually emotional.
‘You can’t imagine how happy your father and I are for you, Alice. I’m not just talking about all this, your job, or even about Luca, but about how you’ve regained your self-confidence.’ She pointed downwards with her free hand. ‘I almost burst into tears when I saw you appear in this dress. You look so beautiful…’ There was a catch in her voice and Alice leapt in before her mother managed to make both of them cry.
‘I couldn’t have done it without the support of the two of you over the past few years.’
‘And of course you’ve been helped by somebody else.’ A twinkle now appeared in her mother’s eye and Alice gave a surreptitious sigh of relief that the crisis had been averted. Her mum reached out and caught hold of her left hand. ‘Show me the ring again, would you? It’s lovely. I’m so glad he finally asked you. How did he do it?’
‘Yesterday morning we rode to a very beautiful place called the Blue Lake and he asked me there.’ She could feel the tears threatening to spring to her eyes again at the memory of the moment. ‘And I couldn’t be happier.’
‘I’m delighted for you. You couldn’t have done better.’
Alice leant across and gave her mum a kiss on the cheek.
‘That’s the way I feel, too.’
At that moment she felt a hand land on her shoulder and she glanced up to find Luca there. ‘We’ve just been talking about you.’ She was still speaking English so she deliberately spoke slowly, although he, like Simonetta, had surprised her with his ability to speak her language.
‘Good things, I hope.’
‘Very good things.’
He smiled at her and leant forward to kiss her softly on the forehead.
‘Well, that’s rather nice.’