Every Mother's Son (36 page)

They stayed two more days with Marco, making the most of their time there, and Daniel wondered sadly if they really would meet again, as from Rome they would journey to France and then across to England.

Charles was distraught over leaving Calypso. ‘I love her,’ he told Daniel. ‘I can’t bear to go away from her. She fills me with the joy of life. I never knew that love was like this. I don’t know how she feels about me, as we’re never alone, but, well, do you think it is too soon for me to speak to your uncle?’

‘I do, in all honesty,’ Daniel said. They were sitting out on the terrace. Marco had gone inside for his customary afternoon nap, and Beatrice and Calypso were also indoors. ‘You’ve known her for onny a few days. She’s beautiful, I can see that, but there must be some other attraction than beauty if you’re to be together for life.’

‘I shall come back,’ Charles said fiercely. ‘When we get back to England I’ll speak to my father, ask him to let Stephen take over the estate. It’s what he wants and I don’t, and then I’ll return to Italy to study art. It was to have been France, as you know, but not now. I’ll definitely come back to Italy, maybe Rome or Florence, and then I’ll be able to travel to see her.’

Daniel wondered if Charles might be dissuaded once he arrived home, but he had seemed sure that his future lay in the arts even before they arrived in Italy, and now that he had met Calypso he was even more determined.

‘But only with her father’s permission,’ he said. ‘Would you like me to have a quiet word with Leo? I could drop a hint about your feelings towards her.’

‘Oh, would you? Please! And be sure to tell him that I’m honourable and all that, although I suppose I won’t be rich if Father cuts me off. I don’t think he will; he’s a decent old chap really.’

‘All right,
old fellow
.’ Daniel grinned. ‘I’ll spread ’compliments on really thick.’

‘I’ll do the same for you, you know, Daniel,’ Charles said seriously, ‘if you should meet someone that you care for. Except, of course,’ he hesitated as he saw Daniel’s smile disappear, ‘I think that maybe you already have.’

That evening, whilst Charles stayed behind to talk to Marco and Calypso, Daniel, Beatrice and Leo walked down the mountain towards the harbour, and then across a rocky lane towards a vineyard with a grassy paddock below it. The three ponies were grazing but as soon as Daniel whistled they came trotting towards them. Daniel put his arms around their necks as they nuzzled up to him.

‘Oh, how I wish I could tek you home,’ he snuffled into their silky manes. ‘But it’s a long way back to England, and mebbe you wouldn’t like our weather either.’

‘I don’t think they’d mind ’weather,’ Leo said. ‘They’re used to the cold, but we’ll look after them, don’t worry about that, and when you come back again …’ He smiled. ‘You will come back, won’t you? Marco will be very disappointed if you don’t. He’s so thrilled that he has a grandson, more than he can explain.’

‘And I’m so grateful that he’s accepted me. I still can’t believe that it’s happened, and then to find you as well,’ Daniel choked. It was going to be hard to leave, even though he was missing home.

Beatrice was speaking softly to White Socks, her favourite of the three animals. ‘I’m just telling them that we’ll come back one day soon,’ she said. ‘Do you know of Daniel’s ambition, Leo?’

Leo shook his head and raised his eyebrows in query, and Daniel got a sudden glimpse of his brother Lenny in the gesture. His mother had been right when she said that he looked like Leonard.

‘Daniel would like to breed horses, isn’t that right, Daniel?’ she said. ‘An ambition.’

‘A dream, Beatrice, not an ambition,’ Daniel said. ‘Aye, I love my hosses, we can never do without them; even though they’re bringing in modern machinery that’ll replace manpower, they’ll never replace horsepower.’

‘I’ve heard that it’ll come, Daniel,’ Leo said. ‘Fifty years ago people used to say that railway trains would never catch on, but here they are and everybody uses them.’

Daniel sighed. ‘You’re right. I’ve heard it too, and that’s progress. But I hope it won’t be yet awhile, or some of us will be out of a job.’ He looked at his uncle. ‘Do you miss England? Would you ever come back?’

‘I’ll come back to see you all as I promised,’ he said. ‘And especially to see your mother. I want to see where Harriet lives and meet her husband and your brothers and sisters so that when I return home to Italy – for this is my home now – I’ll be able to picture exactly where you are and what you’re doing.’ He turned to Beatrice. ‘And I hope to meet you and Charles again too, Beatrice.’

She smiled. ‘Be sure that you will.’ She raised a questioning glance at Daniel.

‘Yes. As a matter of fact,’ Daniel hummed and hawed, ‘I’ve, erm, I’ve been entrusted with a mission on Charles’s behalf as he feels it’s too soon to speak of it himself.’

Leo let out a great bellow of a laugh. ‘Don’t tell me – he’s fallen in love with Calypso!’

‘It’s very obvious, isn’t it?’ Beatrice said. ‘But it is the very first time he has been in love.’

‘He’s completely smitten,’ Daniel added. ‘And I’ve been charged with advising you of his good and honourable intentions.’

‘He’s only known her five minutes,’ Leo bantered, ‘and she’s still a child, spoilt by me and her grandfather – a butterfly!’

‘That’s why he’s fallen in love with her,’ Beatrice told him. ‘He’s never met anyone like her, and Charles is so serious. She lightens up his life.’

‘Well,’ Leo said, ‘I didn’t expect this.’ He laughed again. ‘My little girl! But I suppose it’s something I must get used to.’

‘Charles wants to be ’first in ’queue,’ Daniel grinned. ‘And I heartily recommend him for my cousin Calypso.’

They were ready to move off at six o’clock the following morning in time to catch the first ferry to Genoa. Leo was coming with them to the railway station. Calypso wanted to come too but her father refused, as he was staying in the city to conclude some business. She’d sulked, but Daniel had appeased her by saying that it wouldn’t be long before they met again.

‘Come up ’hillside and watch the train go past,’ he suggested. He’d checked out the rail system and seen that the train passed above or through all of the five villages, although it didn’t stop every day at all the stations. ‘We’ll look out for you.’

‘Oh, I will,’ she said eagerly, her moodiness quickly disappearing. Daniel saw why her father called her a butterfly and wondered how Charles would cope with that if indeed they began a courtship.

He said a tearful goodbye to Marco; both were emotional and Marco reminded him that he was not a young man so Daniel must return soon. ‘And bring Rosie too,’ he added. ‘Is she in good enough health to travel?’

Daniel thought of Granny Rosie trudging up the hill to visit them at Dale Top Farm, which was not as steep as the hills on Vernazza, but replied that she was bonny and robust.

Charles was very quiet on the ferry, and Daniel asked Beatrice whether he’d spoken to Calypso before they left.

‘Yes,’ she murmured, ‘he did, and took her hand. She seemed to grow very still.’

Is that all it takes, Daniel wondered. Just a simple gesture to tell someone you love them? Or do they already know, or are they unaware, no matter how long they’ve known someone? He looked back at Vernazza as the ferry pulled away. So much had happened in such a short time that it seemed impossible. Meeting his uncle Leo and discovering his grandfather, and most of all having Beatrice in such close proximity. This was something he would lock into his memory until he died.

They had said goodbye to Leo at Genoa, and Daniel had noticed that Charles had shaken hands with Leo with a firm grip, although neither of them had mentioned Calypso. The small local train steamed along the coastal track towards Vernazza and La Spezia, the Mediterranean below them a shimmering, dazzling blue with dashing white-crested waves. They gathered by the window ready to wave to Calypso if she had climbed the mountain path as promised.

‘There she is,’ Charles shouted and waved a handkerchief, but Daniel’s gaze was on the white-haired old man waving his straw hat, whilst behind him two men stood with a sedan chair.

‘Look,’ he said, waving a hand but barely able to speak or see through his tear-filled eyes. ‘It’s Nonno! They’ve carried him up the mountain to say goodbye.’

He felt a soft hand close over his. It was Beatrice’s, and she was smiling and weeping too.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

It was very late in the evening when they arrived in Rome, but it seemed that the Romans didn’t retire early to bed. The streets were thronging with people, either strolling along or sitting in their doorways chatting.

‘We must be careful,’ Charles said as they stood on the concourse wondering which direction to take. ‘There’s a good deal of poverty here and we probably look like rich foreigners.’

‘We are rich foreigners,’ Beatrice murmured, ‘in comparison with some of the people here.’

‘No wonder that so many are emigrating,’ Daniel said. ‘There are people without shoes on their feet!’

Marco had told them of the vast emigration of the populace who had scraped together enough money to buy a ticket to America and look for a new life. Weary of the political upheaval that had reigned until Italian patriots Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppi Garibaldi spearheaded a revolution, thousands had left even before the unification of Italy, when Victor Emmanuel II was pronounced king a mere twenty years ago. In 1871 Rome was declared the capital of a united Italy and there came to be a kind of peace.

Once more they looked for a café or trattoria where they could take refreshment and enquire about lodgings. They found one on the Via Giulia and ordered bowls of fettuccine with grated cheese and butter. As they waited they were brought a basket of bread, a dish of olives, a bottle of dry white wine and the addresses of two recommended lodging houses.

The first house they tried they rejected as there was only one room available, but in the second there were two rooms and the use of a bathroom which had no bath but a wash stand with a jug and bowl and the promise of hot water, and a water closet.

‘It’s clean and homely,’ Beatrice said, on inspecting the rooms, ‘and quite adequate. I’m so tired I could happily sleep on the floor.’

She didn’t have to, as the beds were comfortable and the rent was cheap, and as it was only for the one night they elected to stay. Their host, Enrico, spoke little English but they managed with their few words of Italian and sign language to make their requirements clear.

Their windows overlooked the narrow street and they could hear music playing and voices singing and talking, and then the sound of church bells ringing out the hour, which lulled them to sleep, but all felt the lurch and roll of the train and heard in their dreams the whistle and screech of the engine.

They awoke to hear their host singing, not well, but pleasantly. Beatrice, fully dressed, opened her door the better to hear just as Daniel and Charles came out of their room.

‘Bravo,’ they all said, entering the small dining room, which they guessed also served as a living room.

‘You lika ze opera?
La Traviata
– Brindisi – they drinka.’

‘The drinking song, I think,’ Beatrice explained. ‘We were to read
The Lady of the Camellias
at the academy but then it was banned. Madame Carpeoux said it was considered immoral so it was not suitable for us young ladies.’ Her eyebrows twitched provocatively. ‘But we managed to obtain a copy. It wasn’t immoral at all, it was about love, and I think that’s what the song is about. They’re drinking a toast to love.’

‘Well, I’ll join them in that.’ Charles raised his cup of black coffee.

Daniel laughed and raised his cup too. ‘You never cease to amaze me, Beatrice! What a lot you know.’

She smiled. ‘A little about a lot of things,’ she said. ‘That’s what happens at finishing school. We’re told many things about lots of subjects so that we are able to have conversations with …’ she hesitated, ‘young people, particularly young
gentlemen
, who will then be dazzled by our wit and intelligence!’

Daniel nodded sagely. ‘I think it just might be working, don’t you, Charles?’

Charles leaned back in his chair and said nonchalantly, ‘Difficult to say as Bea’s my sister, but I might ask her to coach me when we arrive home and find out if it works in reverse.’

Enrico told them that they could leave their belongings there until the evening in case they wanted to stay another night. Daniel suggested they should, as they were not certain that they would be offered accommodation with Marco’s relatives. Enrico helpfully gave them directions to the Colosseum, from which they would be able to find the Orsini home on their map.

He had seemed impressed when told the district they were looking for was near the Parco del Colle Oppio, and rubbed his fingers together to indicate wealth. Then he studied Daniel closely. ‘
Italiano? Come ti chiami?
’

Daniel smiled. Are you Italian? What’s your name? He was getting used to this question and now knew what it meant and how to answer. ‘English,’ he said. ‘My name is Daniel Orsini.’

‘Ah!’ Enrico threw up his hands and talked volubly and at great speed and they couldn’t understand a word, and then he took a piece of paper and wrote on it
Teatro di Marcello
. ‘Palazzo Orsini,’ he said. ‘You go.’

But first they made their way to the address near the Colosseum, and this was easy to find, the Colosseum being recognizable from a great distance. There were many shops and businesses down the busy street, which was packed with carriages, carts and hundreds of pedestrians. On the top floors of the buildings were apartments rather than the houses they were expecting.

The door number they wanted was outside a bank, a building with many floors and windows, and down the side street they found an entrance with a mosaic floor and a stone staircase with an oak stair rail leading to the top floor.

‘Take a deep breath,’ Daniel said. ‘It looks like a long walk up.’

Beatrice was hampered by her skirts, but telling Daniel and Charles to go ahead, she hitched them up above her ankles and set off behind them. The apartment they required was on the third floor, and from behind the door they could hear the sound of a violin playing.