What Happens in Tuscany... (15 page)

‘Don't believe a word of it. I'm just the assistant. Give your thanks to our host.' A thought occurred to her. ‘And to Cynthia.' Another round of applause greeted her words. Marco bowed in all directions and took his plate from her. He squeezed onto a long bench by the side of the table and made space for her beside him.

The music continued and Katie was introduced to a lot of new faces and names, some of which she still remembered the next day. Around midnight, she caught Victoria's eye. She looked happy, if half-asleep, sandwiched between the count and Loretta. Katie decided it was time to go home, and she sought Marco out and made her excuses. He kissed her on both cheeks and then did the same with Victoria.

‘Thanks again for your help, Katie. And both of you, you know where I live now and you're welcome any time. Come and see me.'

Chapter Thirteen

Katie wandered into the kitchen on Monday morning and found Victoria sitting at the table, playing with her smart phone, a half-eaten slice of toast, butter and honey in front of her. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and Katie nodded approvingly. Only a few weeks ago she would have been dressed like Alice in Wonderland.

‘Sleep well?'

‘Really well for the first few hours, then I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep for a good long while. What about you?'

Katie gave her a smile.

‘Pretty much the same. I don't know about you, but I think it was the heat. I hate air conditioning, but if it's as hot again tonight I may have to bite the bullet and switch it on.' She reached for the teapot and poured herself a cup. ‘At least, I imagine that's what kept me awake.'
Or was it Paul Taylor,
she found herself wondering yet again. ‘So what was it that kept you awake?'

‘Not the heat particularly, I don't think.' Victoria sounded puzzled. ‘It was my brain. I couldn't stop thinking about things. I was like it all day yesterday, too.'

The previous day they had both taken it easy, getting up late and doing very little. In the afternoon they had driven up into the Chianti hills, talking and enjoying the views. Both of them had opted for an early night.

‘What sort of things?' Katie gave her a wink. ‘Or are we talking men here?' Victoria's face reddened and Katie pounced. ‘Right, I see. So, any particular man, or just all men?'

At that moment, the back door opened and Rosina came in with a shopping bag, closely followed by the dog. She waved to the two of them and headed for the sink. ‘What are you girls doing today? Are you here for lunch?'

Katie looked at Victoria as she scratched Dante's ears. ‘I don't know about you, Vicky, but I think I'd better start cutting back on the amount of food I've been eating.' She glanced over to Rosina. ‘I love your cooking, Rosina, but I can almost feel the kilos piling on. I think I'll just have a snack at lunchtime, and I can make it myself.'

She returned her eyes to Victoria and saw her looking a bit sheepish. Clearly she had something to say. ‘Erm, I got a text this morning, asking me out for lunch.' Katie wasn't surprised. It was only a matter of time before the vultures started circling. Victoria was beautiful, rich and, of course, a little bit naïve. ‘Would you mind terribly if I went off and left you, Katie?'

‘You do what you like, Vicky. I'm very happy to potter around here by myself like I did yesterday. Besides,' she glanced down at Dante the dog who had positioned himself at her feet, ‘I'll have company.' She reached down and gave his ears another scratch.

‘So no lunch for either of you?' Rosina sounded disapproving. ‘I got some porcini mushrooms and thought I could make a risotto. Are you sure you don't want me to make some for you, Katie?'

She shook her head. ‘No, really, I need to cut down. But maybe tonight?' Rosina still didn't look convinced, but she nodded in agreement and returned to the sink. Katie switched to English. ‘So, can I ask which of your admirers has got the pleasure of your company today?' Victoria was blushing now.

‘Erm, to be honest, it's Filippo.' Katie did her best to keep the disapproval off her face at the name of the count, but something must have showed. ‘Is something wrong, Katie? Don't you think I should go out with him? Is it because he's a bit older than me?'

‘A bit? I bet he won't see forty again. That's a fifteen-year age gap. It's not insurmountable, but it's pretty huge.'

‘But he said he's only thirty-five.'

Katie choked on her tea. ‘Is that what he told you? If you take my advice you'll check his passport.' A thought struck her. ‘Or cut off his head and count the rings like you do with trees.'

‘You don't like him, do you?' Victoria was looking less embarrassed and more piqued. ‘I thought he was simply charming, a real gentleman.'

Oh, Lord
, Katie thought to herself,
has all my teaching been for nothing? Who the hell goes looking for a gentleman these days?
She kept her thoughts to herself and hastened to explain. ‘Well, that's fine, Vicky. You're the only one that matters. I just thought he was a bit flash.'

‘Flash? What do you mean by that?' Katie could hear from Victoria's tone that she had better tread lightly.

‘Just a bit ostentatious, maybe? You know, that stuff about the Ferrari and the swimming pool.'

Victoria snorted. ‘I've got three Ferraris.' She caught Katie's eye. ‘Or maybe four, I'm not sure. And a Lamborghini and all sorts of other cars. Does that make me ostentatious too?'

Katie realised there was nothing to be gained by carrying on along this tack. She gave Victoria a smile. ‘Of course it doesn't. Don't listen to me, I'm always judging people. My mum always tells me off about it. You'll get to know Filippo better after today.' She hesitated, realising that the urgency of having The Talk had increased. She decided to get breakfast out of the way and then sit down with Vicky somewhere they could be alone, while she explained the difference between the birds and the bees. In particular the difference between a millionairess and an Italian count, if that's what he was. Victoria caught her eye.

‘I thought you and Paul Taylor looked as if you were getting along very well. Pity he disappeared.' The puzzled expression was back on Victoria's face again. ‘I think he's really rather handsome and I like him. I wonder why he doesn't like me.'

‘Doesn't like you?' Katie managed to get a good bit of incredulity into her voice, even though the same thought had occurred to her various times the other evening and repeatedly during the course of the previous day. ‘He doesn't know you. I'm sure he likes you. Whatever makes you think that?'

Victoria looked down at the remains of her breakfast. ‘I don't know. I just got that impression.' Her face cleared as a thought struck her. ‘Of course, maybe he was totally besotted by you and didn't have eyes for anybody else. From the moment he laid eyes on you, he was smitten.'

‘Vicky, for crying out loud, nobody gets besotted or smitten these days. Stop trying to sound like something Jane Austen might have written. I don't for one moment think that Paul Taylor took an immediate fancy to me. He's a nice man, but I didn't get the impression he was about to throw his cloak over any puddles for me. Besides, if was that keen on me, you'd have thought he would have stuck around, instead of legging it.'

‘Legging it means going off?' Vicky was memorising the lesson. ‘And instead of smitten, I should have said he had the hots for you, shouldn't I?' She was looking proud of herself. ‘I'll remember next time somebody has the hots for you.' A thought occurred. ‘So what about besotted?'

‘Erm, besotted?' Katie had to think about this one. ‘Sort of the same really. You could try “be mad about” or “have a crush on”. Anyway, I think it could take a while before he or anybody has the hots for me. And it could take even longer before I decide to have the hots for anybody.' As Katie stood up, she wondered just how true that was. ‘I'm going up for a shower.' Just at that moment, Victoria's now ever-present phone bleeped. She glanced down at the screen and looked straight up again at Katie.

‘It's a text from Tom.'

After the events at Paul Taylor's party, Katie had almost forgotten about Victoria's army officer. She stood with her hand on the door handle and waited while Victoria read the message. She looked up at Katie after a few seconds, her face a mixture of surprise, satisfaction and pride. ‘He wants to take me out for dinner tonight.' There was a pause before she carried on. She was looking less sure of herself now. ‘What should I do?'

Katie gave it some thought. There was no doubt in her mind that Tom was by far the better option than the count, but she knew she couldn't say that to Victoria. The lunch date with Ferrari-man was now set in stone, so Tom was going to have to wait. ‘Two different men in one day is maybe a little bit ambitious, don't you think, Vicky? Why not go back to Tom and say you'd love to, but you've got a thing this evening?'

‘A thing?'

‘An appointment or something. It doesn't matter and, anyway, it's only a text. You don't need to go into too much detail. Suggest tomorrow night.' She did a brief calculation. One day seemed to resemble another over here, but she managed to work out that it was Monday today. ‘Say, why not Tuesday?'

‘That's a good idea.'

Katie left her to it.

The Talk took place outside on the stone bench, overlooking Florence in the distance. For once, it was a clear day and the distant spires, towers and domes of the city were easily visible in the bright sunlight.

To Katie's relief, it turned out that Victoria knew quite a lot more about sex than just avian and apiary reproduction. Having established, without things getting too uncomfortable, that she knew the mechanics of the process, Katie settled down to discuss the ethical and cultural side of things. In a nutshell, how far to go on a first and subsequent dates. Katie's experience was not vast and she had reservations as to whether she was the most suitable counsellor for her friend. Nevertheless she did her best.

‘You remember when we were round at Tom's place the other day you were talking about feeling it was a bit like the bull sniffing the cows and vice versa?' Victoria nodded. ‘Well, think of it like this: you are the cow in the field and there will soon be an ever-increasing queue of bulls outside the gate whose only concern is to get inside your pants.' The analogy of cows and knickers wasn't terribly satisfactory, but she saw comprehension in Victoria's eyes. ‘You are a particularly desirable target because you are beautiful, clever and, don't let's forget that you are very, very rich. It's a heady combination even for the most reticent of young men.'

Gradually, with a number of embarrassed silences, they talked their way through this thorny subject. By the end, Katie knew that she had done her best. She was fairly confident that she had explained twenty-first century mores as well as she could, at least from her own point of view. As she kept repeating to Victoria, different people held different views. Some relationships moved at a faster pace than others. Ultimately, this was something Victoria would have to work out for herself, just as countless billions of women had done over the course of history. The main difference for Victoria was that she was doing this about ten years later than most of her contemporaries. Katie approached the end of the session with a feeling of considerable compassion for her. It wasn't going to be easy.

She finished up with a quick foray into the intricacies of contraception and dangers of sexually transmitted infections. Katie sincerely hoped that Victoria would be careful, but, at least, she now knew all about it. It was gone eleven o'clock when she finally ground to a halt.

‘So, that's all I can tell you. It's up to you now.'

Victoria reached out and caught her hands in hers. ‘Thank you so very much, Katie. I've been desperately hoping we could talk about this stuff for ages, but I never had the courage to ask. You've been terrific.'

Katie smiled at her. ‘I taught sex education to teenagers for a couple of terms. I though that might help, but it didn't. This talk today was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. Anyway, like I say, you now know a bit more about it. I hope at least some of what I've told you helps.'

Victoria leant over and kissed her on the cheek, looking genuinely grateful. She went off to get changed, ready for her date with the count. Katie sat there for a while, relaxing after her ordeal. She was roused by the arrival of a familiar shape.

‘Hello, dog. Fancy a walk?' Curiously, although she was speaking in English, the dog started wagging his tail. Maybe some words didn't need translation.

She stood up and, together, they headed off. This time she followed a different footpath though the olive trees. It was a long, winding path that climbed steadily for almost half an hour. This brought them out onto the dirt road quite near the top of the hill. She was sweating by the time they got there. She turned gratefully downhill and headed back down, towards the villa where she had met Paul Taylor two days earlier.

As she walked down the hill, feeling increasingly hot in the noonday sun, she spared a thought for Martin back home in England. They had spoken the other night and he claimed to be missing her. She had told him she felt the same, but part of her knew she was already being seduced by Tuscany, the people, the scenery and maybe more. Martin was inextricably linked with England and she had no idea when she would be back there. To be totally honest, she currently had no desire to return, even for Martin. She and Victoria had only just arrived in Tuscany after all. No doubt it would be a good while before they set off for home again.

That raised the question of where exactly home was now. Before coming down to Devon, she had lived for most of her life in Dorset. Bournemouth was where her mother was, along with most of her friends, but it was also where Dean, her ex, continued to live and work. The idea of sharing a town with him had no appeal, so she had pretty much decided she needed a change of scene. She looked around at the lovely old gates of the villas she was passing, dotted here and there across the hillside. The idea of making a new life in Italy had definite attraction. The time would come, probably sooner rather than later, when Victoria would decide she no longer needed the services of a mentor. Katie made up her mind that she would spend a day in Florence the following week, looking into employment prospects. She knew there were lots of English language schools there. Maybe adult education might prove to be a possible career path.