Page 23 of Change of Heart
Alice thanked him and immediately gave the man a call. It rang a few times but then a voice answered. From the sound of it, he was an elderly man. ‘Pronto.’
Alice explained who she was and where she was calling from and that she was planning to set up a herd of alpacas and he expressed interest. In response to her request to visit, he sounded willing and she decided to strike while the iron was hot and go that same afternoon. Once the call had ended, she asked Alfonso if he would like to go with her and he nodded eagerly.
‘Pietro can carry on repairing the fences without me. What time should we go?’
‘How long’s it likely to take us to get there?’
‘If we go down the valley and take the main road, probably forty minutes or so. If we go through the hills, it’s a few kilometres shorter, but it’ll probably take us a little bit longer on the winding roads.’
The idea of driving through the foothills of the Apennines had considerable appeal to Alice so they decided to leave at two so as to be at the alpaca farm before three. It proved to be a most informative afternoon – and not just because of what Alice learned about alpacas.
On the increasingly narrow, tortuous road through the hills, she and Alfonso chatted and he proved once again to be a mine of information. For her part, as Luca Montorso would be seen and no doubt recognised by everybody when he came arrived next morning, she told Alfonso about him and the fact that he would be responsible for upgrading the castle into a tourist attraction. There was amazement, but also maybe a touch of something more, in Alfonso’s voice when he responded.
‘Well, well, well, who would’ve believed it? A Montorso working for the Varaldo family. I never thought I’d see the day. This has to be your doing, Alice, and if you don’t mind me saying so, I’m very pleased and very impressed. I’m quite sure that without you this would never have happened. It’s ridiculous that the feud’s been running for so long. Here’s hoping this marks the beginning of the end of it.’ He paused for a few seconds. ‘Although it all depends on how our illustrious mayor, Cesare Montorso, reacts to it, and I fear he won’t approve one bit.’
Altogether, they spent almost an hour with the alpaca farmer who was very helpful, particularly when Alfonso discovered that his own sister-in-law and Signor Silvestri’s uncle were in some convoluted way related. He took them into a field where there were probably thirty or forty alpacas grazing peacefully. Several of them came wandering over and appeared happy to be stroked and petted. Alice had a little smile to herself. They were certainly very different from those ‘damn ostriches’ at her father’s farm. These docile animals looked similar to llamas, came in a whole range of colours from white to dark brown and appeared to have a permanent smile on their faces.
The good news was that Signor Silvestri told them he would be prepared to sell them a pair of his animals and he gave them contact details of other breeders from whom they should be able to buy more stock to build up their own herd. He also added a bit more advice.
‘They’re no trouble, and all you have to do is make sure they get sheared every spring or early summer. I can give you the names of people who could do that for you, if you like. You’ll make reasonable money by selling the fleeces, but if you want to increase your profit, I’d advise you to go one or even two steps further.’ In response to Alice’s quizzical expression, he elaborated. ‘Instead of selling the fleeces to a buyer who’ll turn them into yarn, do that yourselves. It’s not too complicated and you’ll immediately double the value of what you have. And if you want to make serious money, start making your own woollens; you know, jumpers and scarves and so on. That’s where the real money is. They’re hypoallergenic and they sell for a premium.’
He showed them a little gift shop his wife had set up in an outbuilding and Alice bought herself an absolutely beautiful soft grey jumper that would no doubt help her keep warm over the cold winter months. It wasn’t cheap but it felt wonderful to the touch and she told herself it would hopefully be a useful bargaining chip if the baron decided to go back on his agreement to farm alpacas. As an afterthought, she also bought a cosy scarf to give to Simonetta as a present.
In the car on the way home she discussed the project with Alfonso, and they both agreed that the castle would need to have a souvenir shop, and that this would be the perfect spot to start selling their own woollens. It turned out that Alfonso’s wife had a cousin who lived just outside Prato in nearby Tuscany where she was involved in the knitting business. Apparently a cottage industry had grown up in some parts of Tuscany where people used knitting machines in their own homes to produce high class jumpers for local factories. Every week vans came around to collect finished garments and to deliver fresh wool. He told Alice he would get more information for her and she was delighted.
‘Of course, the best people to talk to about knitting are Ines and her daughter, Silvia. They’re both dead keen and they sell their stuff at the local farmers’ market every spring and autumn.’
‘Thatisinteresting. I had a drink with Silvia outside the café on the square last night and she strikes me as being very bright. Maybe she might be the right person to look after that side of things and to run the gift shop?’
‘I’m sure she’d leap at the chance. She’s bright all right and I’m sure she’d be delighted. I imagine being a kitchen maid can get pretty boring.’
‘I’m surprised she hasn’t got herself a more interesting job already? Is it because she wants to be near her mum?’
‘It’s because she wants to be near somebody, but that somebody’s not her mother.’
Although she felt sure she knew the answer, Alice shot him an inquiring look. ‘I’m not following. Who does she want to be near?’
Alfonso began to look a little uncomfortable. ‘I’m sorry, I was just repeating gossip. Forget I said anything, please.’
Alice respected his request and didn’t press him further, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. She was increasingly convinced that Silvia’s one true love that she had mentioned the previous day would turn out to be none other than Simonetta’s big brother, Achille. Silvia had fallen in love with the future Baron Varaldo. Of course this would explain why she had convinced herself that nothing could come of her infatuation because of their different situations. It occurred to Alice that if the Varaldo family were prepared to employ one of their enemies as their architect, might they also be prepared to consider a marriage that crossed historic social divides? She would have dearly loved to know what Achille thought about this but, of course, this was a personal matter and there was no way she could ask him, or even his sister. Maybe with time…
Besides, she could hardly criticise Silvia for not disclosing her true feelings when she herself was harbouring her own secrets. Mind you, she thought to herself, having secrets appeared to be the name of the game here in Varaldo, for everybody – including herself.
Chapter 16
The Varaldo family’s newly appointed architect arrived early on Wednesday morning. The clock in the village was just striking eight when Alice saw a car drive into the courtyard and park alongside her little Fiat. It was the silver sports car she had seen the previous month, this time with the top down. Inside it, two heads were visible: one human, one canine. She got up and went out to greet Luca Montorso and Frank the dog. The man gave her a little wave as she approached, and the Labrador jumped to his feet and put his paws up on the dashboard, his tail wagging energetically as he looked at her over the top of the screen.
‘Good morning, Alice. Frank, get down! The car’s scratched enough as it is. I’m afraid I forgot to ask if it was all right for me to bring Frank. Don’t worry if it isn’t. I gave him a walk on our way up here and he’ll sleep happily in the car for a few hours.’
‘Good morning, Luca. Thanks for coming. I would imagine it’ll be fine for Frank to follow you around, but we’ll ask Simonetta just in case. You know her, don’t you?’
‘Of course.’ No doubt sworn to secrecy, he didn’t mention the connection between Simonetta and his brother. ‘And I know Achille as well from when we were kids, but there hasn’t been much contact between us since then. I’ve never met the current Baron although I did meet his wife once. I liked her. She was a nice lady.’
He climbed out of the car, and the Labrador jumped out after him and came across to Alice’s side to say hello. She was just bending down to stroke him when she saw Simonetta emerge from the front door and walk over to greet Luca. At the same time Alice couldn’t help noticing the net curtains on her grandmother’s window twitching. There was a strange, slightly embarrassed look on Simonetta’s face as she held out her hand towards Luca, and Alice wondered if this meant she hadn’t yet found the courage to break the news of her relationship with Tommaso to her father and was afraid he might be watching. Officially, of course, neither Simonetta nor her brother had had any contact with the Montorso twins since their schooldays.
‘Good morning, Luca, I’m delighted you’ve said yes.’
‘Hi, Simonetta, it’s good to see you again.’ Luca shook hands formally and it was clear that he, too, was on his best behaviour, and Alice almost giggled. He indicated Frank the dog. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I brought my four-legged friend with me. If you’d rather not have a dog in the house, I can leave him in the car. It’s not a problem.’
