Page 35 of Change of Heart
‘Look up there.’
Remembering how she had misinterpreted his intentions last Sunday night, she resisted the temptation to grab hold of him and kiss him; instead she obediently followed the direction of his pointing finger. Almost immediately she saw what had attracted his attention. There were two huge birds wheeling in the clear blue sky. He kept his voice low, even though the birds themselves were probably a hundred metres above them, maybe more.
‘Can you see them? They’re eagles. They’re very rare here. We’re lucky to see them.’
She sat there and looked up in awe as the majestic birds scoured the hillsides for some poor unsuspecting little animal to provide them with lunch. She liked the feel of Luca’s hand on her shoulder and she leant against him, feeling his warmth through her arm. Then, all too soon, he removed his hand and suggested that they should follow the example of the eagles.
‘Feel like lunch?’
The way she was feeling up here with him in this romantic spot, food wasn’t high on her agenda, but she nodded all the same.
‘Sounds good. Is everything ready for the inspectors?’
‘It should be fine. I know the builders quite well by now and they’ve done a good job. I’d like to ask them for a quotation for Varaldo Castle if you agree. They’re real specialists in old properties.’
‘Definitely, particularly as you’ve worked with them before. It’s a beautiful spot up here, isn’t it?’
‘Absolutely, although it’s a fortress, it somehow feels very peaceful. It makes a real change from the cares of everyday life.’
Thought of the cares of everyday life finally galvanised her into action. She couldn’t put it off any longer. ‘Luca, would you mind sitting down for a moment? There’s something I need to tell you.’ She could hear the tension in her voice and he must have picked up on it.
‘Of course, is something wrong? Are you all right?’ There was real concern in his voice and she took heart from it.
He sat down on the boulder alongside her and she launched into her prepared speech, choosing her words carefully. ‘I need to tell you what happened to me. You see, four years ago I was caught in an avalanche high up in the Dolomites.’ She shot him a glance and saw him watching her attentively. ‘I was trapped for almost an hour until I was found by a rescue dog.’ The stress of the memory must have infused her voice and attracted Frank’s attention as there was a movement at her feet and the Labrador’s head landed softly on her lap. Clearly, he had been listening and had picked up on the emotion in her voice.
‘Were you hurt?’ Luca’s voice was low.
‘My shin and ankle were caught between two rocks and severely crushed.’ She took a deep breath as the memory of the agonising pain returned. ‘As a result, my left leg had to be amputated below the knee.’ To make sure there could be no confusion in his mind, she lifted her hand from caressing the dog’s ears and tapped her prosthetic limb, producing a dull clunk. ‘So that means I’m now legally disabled. I have a stick – even if I try not to use it too often – and I know I’ll never run or dance again.’ It was a struggle to keep her voice level.
His hand instantly reached over and caught hold of hers, and she felt him give it a squeeze.
‘Running and dancing are seriously overrated pastimes.’ He gave her a little smile, raised her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers one by one. ‘You can walk, you can ride, you can drive a car, you can hold down a big job and you do all that while still managing to look gorgeous. You’re an inspiration.’
She felt such an intense wave of relief wash over her that she couldn’t help herself. She burst into tears. His arm encircled her shoulders and pulled her tightly against him. As she sobbed into his chest, she was dimly aware of a cold wet nose poking her ear and she heard Luca remonstrating with Frank to get off. The banality of this helped immensely and she straightened up, reaching into the pocket of her jeans for a tissue. She wiped her eyes and blinked a few times as she looked up at him.
‘You don’t mind?’
‘Do I mind? Of course I do!’ There was real strength in his voice now. ‘Do I mind that you almost got killed? Yes, I do, because if that had happened, I would never have met you. Do I mind that you felt you had to confess this to me as if I might object? Yes, I do. In case you hadn’t noticed, Alice Sterling, I like you a lot and I like all of you, from your blue-grey eyes to the brain in there behind them and the rest of you – and that includes your legs, your arms and all the other bits, whether you’ve had them all your life or whether they’ve been added later. What I mind most of all, though, is the fact that you thought I might somehow think less of you as a result of something like that. So, in answer to your question, yes, of course I damn well mind.’
In case there might be any lingering doubt in her mind, he pulled her close once more and kissed her tenderly on the lips. As he did so, she felt as if her heart might explode with joy. Apart from delight at his reaction to her tale, the all-encompassing feeling running through her was one of relief; relief that she had finally managed to unburden herself of the weight of the secret she had been keeping, not just from him, but from so many people. Somehow this simple admission to him had lifted some of the enormous grey cloud that had been hanging over her for four long years. All right, she had a prosthetic leg, but so what? It was nothing to feel guilty about. She felt relieved, but also liberated, like she was finally emerging from a deep dark chasm into the daylight.
Lunch was in a tiny restaurant – hardly more than a bar with a few tables – at the side of a minor road in a little hamlet, partway down a series of hairpin bends on the other side of Abetone. A plaque on the wall indicated their altitude as 1200 metres above sea level, and the air was cooler but not cold as they sat outside under a faded Martini umbrella. From here they had a breath-taking view down over the foothills of the Apennines into Tuscany to the south. The road signs were already pointing towards Florence, and Alice knew she would have to take a trip down to visit the city sometime soon. Luca’s Medici tower was just discernible in the distance behind them and there was hardly a sound to be heard. As she sat back and relaxed, her feet serving as a headrest for the weary dog beneath the table, she smiled across at Luca.
‘What a wonderful place. Thanks for bringing me here.’
He smiled back at her. ‘I’m very glad you could come. I’ve been here two or three times now, but this is the first time I’ve brought someone with me.’
She caught his eye for a moment. ‘Do you really live such a solitary existence? Surely you must have loads of friends.’
‘Of course I have friends, but I suppose it’s true that I have been a bit of a hermit over the past few years. Mainly it’s because I’ve been concentrating on building up the business.’
She took a chance. ‘And the other part?’
Luca’s gaze drifted to the landscape beyond them. ‘Let’s just say that things have been complicated for me on the personal front over the past few years.’ He suddenly looked right at her. ‘You’ve no idea how great it is to be here like this with you. Thank you so much.’
To Alice’s annoyance just then the owner arrived with a verbal menu and on Luca’s recommendation she chose cold smoked fillets of trout from a nearby river and a mixed salad that arrived loaded with everything from artichoke hearts to quails’ eggs and walnuts from the surrounding trees. Accompanied by a glass of cold rosé, it was delicious. As they ate, they continued to chat and she could feel Luca relaxing more and more in her company and she in his. She would very much have liked to ask him more about the complications to his personal life he had mentioned, but she could tell he preferred to steer clear of these, at least for now.
In the afternoon they drove lazily back through the hills towards home, stopping from time to time to give Frank a walk and to stretch their legs. Around four o’clock they reached a tiny village with, amazingly, a gelateria boasting a mouth-watering selection of home-made ice cream. Needless to say, Luca had refused her offer to pay for lunch, but this time she put her foot down and insisted the least she could do was to buy him an ice cream now and give him a cup of tea when they got home. It was a lovely afternoon but he didn’t return to talking about anything too personal and she thought it best to give him time and space, although her instincts were increasingly to throw herself into his arms. The more she got to know this kind, generous, handsome man, the more she realised she really did like him a lot – maybe more than like.
