The night that followed was amazing. Lucy felt as though she was living in a dream and she knew she couldn’t be any happier. She stayed with him at the villa in his lovely big bedroom. Early next morning she was there, resting on her elbows, gazing out through the lace curtains that fluttered gently in the breeze. The view was even better than from her cottage and she could clearly see Siena in the distance with the unmistakable bulk of the cathedral distinguishable among the red roofs of the old town. Beyond that, the hills continued until a vague dark strip on the horizon where the Apennines were virtually hidden by the haze. She sighed with real pleasure and couldn’t help comparing this view to the orange dust and sun-scorched scrub that extended for miles all around the Mabenta clinic with hardly a single house to be seen amid the trees.
‘A penny for your thoughts.’ She was roused from her daydream by the feel of his lips on her neck. ‘You looked miles away.’
She turned towards him and kissed him softly. ‘Just thinking.’
‘Let me guess: about Africa?’
‘Yes, but also about just how happy I am right now. You’d better keep your distance, I think I might explode.’
He grinned down at her. ‘We wouldn’t want that to happen, now, would we? If it helps, I haven’t been this happy for years and years, maybe never.’
As he settled back beside her, she decided the time was right to ask him a direct question.
‘So does that mean you’re feeling healthier mentally, as well as physically? I know about your knee, but what about inside your head?’
‘You mean my depression? I’m fine now. And it’s down to three things. First, less than two years ago, after Rosy had been gone for a few months, Armando and Fioretta persuaded me to get Boris.’ He glanced across at her and grinned. ‘To be honest, they didn’t give me much choice. Armando just turned up one day with a little black ball of fur in his hands and said I needed him. And I did. Labrador puppies should be available on prescription. He did wonders for me, just as a friend and a silent, non-judgemental companion who forced me to get off my ass and outside into the fresh air. Second, Franz Berlin. That man’s a miracle-worker. He has a knack of helping you get to the root of your problems all by yourself – or so it seems. He’s been invaluable to me.’
As Lucy leant against his shoulder, her eyes were drawn to the curve of the cypress trees alongside the drive leading down to the gate. A sudden movement revealed what had attracted her attention. This time no fewer than three red squirrels were chasing each other from branch to branch, tree to tree and she felt herself smiling as she watched their antics. ‘Franz helped me so much too. My experiences in the Congo – particularly those last really scary weeks – were weighing me down more than I was prepared to admit at first. I was still having awful nightmares even after weeks had gone by, but he sorted me out. Yes, Franz is a good guy.’ She reached over and kissed David softly on the lips. ‘And so are you. And the third thing? You said there were three.’
He smiled down at her. ‘Need you ask? The third, and most important was you, Lucy.’
‘But you and I have only just got together.’
‘I knew it from the first moment I saw you.’ He ran a finger gently across her cheek and she rubbed her face against his hand. ‘Honest, I mean it. Even as I was lying there bleeding from that stupid bullet wound, it registered with me that you were something very special.’
‘But you were so grumpy the first few times I saw you.’
‘You think that was grumpy? You should have seen me a few months earlier. Believe me, what you saw was sweetness and light compared to the bad-tempered wreck of a man I was before I met you.’
‘You really must have been in a bad place. And you must have been on your own for ages. So how did you spend your time here after your wife left?’
‘Walking the dog and reading history books, and doing a hell of a lot of nothing.’
‘Well, it worked out in the end and if I’ve helped in any way, then I’m pleased, and I’m sure Boris would like me to say the same on his behalf.’
‘You and Boris are great, but you’re even better than him. Apart from anything else, your breath smells a whole lot sweeter and you don’t pee on the plants.’
‘Erm, I might need to talk to you about that…’
The only bit of bad news that morning was that he told her he had to fly back to the States the next day for almost a week and she realised she would miss him tremendously. Still, they would have tonight, so she went off to work with a smile on her face. It remained on her face even when Charles joined her at her table at lunchtime.
‘Hi, Lucy. You’re looking tanned. Been out in the sun?’
‘I had a trip to the seaside yesterday. What about you? Cheered up since we last spoke?’
He hung his head. ‘Not really. I still feel the same way and she hasn’t changed. I didn’t realise it could be so hard.’
Lucy choked back the urge to tell him it served him right after his behaviour towards her and no doubt countless other women, but she bit her tongue. Instead, she kept the smile firmly on her face. ‘Give it time. You’ll get over it. It worked for me.’ And she returned to her ginseng.
Mid-afternoon, just as she was coming out of theatre after a fairly routine appendectomy, she was met by Bruno with a request.
‘Hi, Lucy. I don’t suppose you could do a few nights for me this week, could you?’
She thought quickly. Tonight was a definite no, but then David would be away until the following Sunday or Monday. And if she did nights while he was away, she would be able to spend more nights with him when he got back. It was a no-brainer. ‘Yes, of course. Not tonight, but any other nights this week. The whole week if you like. What’s the emergency?’
‘Not really an emergency. Virginia wants me to take her away for a few days. There’s some stuff we need to sort out.’
Lucy wondered if this might be the occasion that he finally asked Virginia to marry him and she was happy for them – even more so now that she had David. ‘Well, why don’t I do Tuesday to Saturday? Come to think of it, I might need a day or two off next month as a friend’s getting married in Avignon, so if I scratch your back…’
‘It’s a deal. Thanks a lot, Lucy.’
That evening, she insisted that David come to her house and she prepared dinner for him. Although food was secondary to what she had in mind, she stopped off at a fish shop in Siena and bought some fresh crabmeat and served it, according to one of Daniela’s mum’s recipes, mixed with grated apple and avocado, accompanied by a tomato salad made with wonderful aromatic big tomatoes from Donatello’s shop. While she was there she also bought strawberries and ice cream. If the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, she felt sure that on a swelteringly hot night like tonight this cold spread would do the trick.
It was fortuitous that she chose to serve cold food, as the first thing she did when David appeared at her door was to give Boris a big bowl of dog biscuits, specially bought the other day when Boris and Barolo had come to dinner, while she dragged his far-from-unwilling master upstairs to her bedroom. They didn’t sit down to eat until after nine, but he didn’t complain, and neither did she. By this time Boris had made himself at home and they found him sprawled across the sofa, snoozing happily. As they came down the stairs, one eye opened and his tail started thumping lazily against the cushions.
‘Boris, dogs are meant to be on the floor, not the furniture. Shame on you.’ David wagged an admonitory finger at him but that only made the tail wag harder. Lucy was in such a good mood, she just went over and patted the Labrador’s head.
‘You stay there, Boris. It’s an old sofa anyway.’
But, needless to say, as she retrieved the food from the fridge and set it on the table, Boris conveniently forgot that he had eaten barely two hours earlier and jumped off the sofa to position himself under the table with an expectant look on his face.
As they ate, they chatted some more and she asked David something she had been thinking about for a week now.
‘David… just say no if you don’t want to, but… a good friend of mine called Nicole, one of the nurses I worked with in Mabenta, is getting married next month. She’s French and the wedding’s going to be in Avignon. The invitation is for me plus one. I don’t suppose you’d like to come with me, do you?’
He didn’t hesitate. ‘Absolutely. I’d love that. I love France and, the way I feel about you, I’d be happy just to be wherever you’re going to be. Count me in.’
‘You’re sure? I mean, people are going to recognise you.’ She had a sudden thought. ‘Come to think of it, what if somebody takes a photo of the two of us together? They might post it on the Internet. Shouldn’t we maybe wait until you’ve got your divorce settled?’
‘You sound like my attorney.’
‘You’ve spoken to your attorney about me?’ She didn’t know whether to be pleased or intimidated.
‘Indirectly. Meeting you has been the kick up the ass I needed to make me get on with my life. I spent an hour on the phone with him this afternoon. That’s the main reason I’m going back to the States. I want to get the divorce papers settled as soon as possible and, like I told you, the sooner the divorce settlement gets done, the sooner I’ll be able to think seriously about setting up some sort of charity. As long as you don’t mind, if people see you and me together before that, so what? As both you and my lawyer say, the break-up was technically Rosy’s fault every bit as much as it was mine – in his eyes a good deal more. Being seen with you isn’t going to hurt – and it means we’ll be together.’
‘Well, if you’re sure. I’m just happy to be where you are, too. Does this mean you’ll be seeing your wife this week?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll find out in the next few days.’
Lucy found herself wondering what the reaction of his wife was likely to be when she found her husband once more looking and sounding normal. Might this rekindle the love she presumably must once have felt for him? The thought that this might mean losing him so soon was unsettling, even though Lucy kept reminding herself that getting together with him, amazing as it was, would ultimately have to end anyway. She knew only too well that her conscience would never let her settle down in the lap of unashamed luxury when so many people were suffering in squalor. Once again, her thoughts were drawn to the people she had left behind in Africa and she found herself struggling, caught between these two so very different worlds.
Carpe diem, she told herself. Enjoy the moment, because sooner or later these wonderful days are bound to come to an end.