Page 8 of A Chance in a Million
‘Definitely off the tourist trail – and that was welcome. I hadn’t realised just how claustrophobic it could be here in Venice.’
‘You think it’s crowded now? Just you wait till next month. It’s almost impossible to move in July and August. Did Maria tell you we’ll be decamping for the hills in three or four weeks’ time? We normally stay there until September; it’s the only solution.’
‘Yes, she did. In the Something-or-other Hills, I believe she said. I didn’t quite catch it.’
‘Colli Euganei or, as immortalised in the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the Euganean Hills. My husband’s family have a house up there and my mother-in-law still lives there. It’s a beautiful area and it’s also where David, my son, lives, although he’s away this month.’
‘Is that for work? I gather from Maria that he’s also a writer.’
Lady Cooper nodded her head slowly and for a second or two Jane spotted that same compassionate expression she had seen on Maria’s face. ‘He’s in northern France at the moment ferreting around the battlefields of the First World War – research for a book he’s working on.’ She drained the last of her coffee and set the cup down. ‘Now then, let’s have a talk about what I’d like you to do for me. Shall we sit down?’
They talked for well over an hour, during which Miss Leonard handed over a variety of documents including her diary – remarkable for the number of blank pages in it – and explained what commitments she had and what she would like Jane to do about them. Jane learnt the name of her literary agent in London as well as the people to contact at her publishers. These snippets of information came with a caveat.
‘Eleanor, my agent, loves nothing better than to come over here and try to twist my arm. She’s decided to make it her mission to get me writing again and she’ll jump at any opportunity to come and badger me. I’m counting on you, Captain Reed, to put her off. I’m not in the mood for being badgered.’
Jane added a few notes to the list she was compiling, but her employer hadn’t finished yet.
‘And the same applies to anybody from my publishers. They’re constantly on at me to send them something. Now, in that bag over there’s a heap of letters from readers. I’d like you to make a start at answering them – not all of them, just the non-crazy ones.’
‘You get letters from crazy people?’
‘Fans come in all shapes and sizes. You’d be surprised how many of them identify intimately with my characters. Some of them can be really deluded. At all costs don’t get into lengthy correspondence with anybody too weird and, whatever you do, don’t breathe a word of where I live, my address or my contact details.’
‘How did the letters get to you if nobody knows your address?’
‘Via the publishers or my agent or both.’
‘What about your name? I imagine your married name is in the public domain?’
‘Yes, people know I’m married but, like I told you yesterday, I think it’s better if you always refer to me by my penname.’
By the time the meeting concluded, it had been agreed that Jane would work out of the office in her flat and she and Miss Leonard would meet up every day at noon so that Jane could discuss developments and receive orders. Finally, Miss Leonard sat back and breathed deeply.
‘Excellent. Having you here is going to take a tremendous burden off my shoulders, Captain Reed.’
‘On that subject, Miss Leonard, would you like to call me Jane? To be honest, I no longer use my military rank. That’s the old me, not the new me.’
To her surprise, this drew a wry smile from her employer. ‘You sound just like David. He’s said those selfsame words to me on numerous occasions. I suppose civilian life is so very different from the army, isn’t it?’
Jane glanced around this quiet, peaceful, luxurious room and out of the windows at the ever-changing spectacle that was the Grand Canal and nodded. ‘Totally different, Miss Leonard.’
‘Different in a good way?’
At that moment a gondolier in his striped jumper appeared just below the window and sculled past. There was a muffled call from the jetty as somebody, probably Alvise, shouted a greeting which the gondolier returned with a wave. It was beautiful, peaceful, and it couldn’t have been more different from her experiences in the military. She returned her eyes to her employer.
‘Definitely in a good way.’ She even felt herself smiling. Progress.
Jane went for a little walk in the afternoon and when she got back to the palazzo, she found Alvise waiting for her with further instructions from Miss Leonard.
‘If you’re free now, I’ve been told to take you over to the mainland so you can equip yourself with everything you need for your office. There’s a big office supplies store in Mestre where you should be able to find everything. Here’s her credit card. The code is 1234.’ He grinned. ‘She’s not very bothered about security matters. She told me to tell you to buy yourself a new computer and anything else you think you need.’ He lowered his voice a little. ‘And don’t worry about the expense. One thing there’s no shortage of in this house is money.’
To Jane’s surprise, they were joined on their shopping trip by a very happy Labrador. As she followed him into the immaculately varnished wooden launch moored at the palazzo’s private jetty, Alvise explained.
‘While you go shopping, I’ll take Dino for a quick run in the fields. He’s used to having all the exercise he wants at the estate in the hills so he finds life in thecentro storicoa bit constricting. I take him out whenever I can.’
‘When you say “estate”… Is it a big property?’
‘It’s huge. I forget how many hectares of land.’ Seeing the expression on her face, he smiled. ‘What did I just tell you about this family and money? It’s been in the family for generations. They were a very important merchant family here in Venice with roots going back to the Middle Ages.’
