Page 99 of Last Letter Home
‘I just thought you were bowled over by Aruna, just as so many men are, so I left you both to it. No one wants the plain friend hanging about.’
‘Plain? Plain? That’s how you see yourself?’ Luke took Briony’s face in his hands and looked at her with exasperation. ‘The trouble with you is that you don’t believe in yourself.’
‘I do,’ she tried to say, but they were already kissing.
‘Oh my god, you’re beautiful,’ he stopped to say, then they kissed again and Briony found herself melting into him with an astonishing sense of letting everything go. A terrific burden had been lifted from her.
‘So are you,’ she whispered when they drew apart, and she felt the prickle of tears in her eyes.
They lay down together on the sofa, face to face, and he pulled the comb out of its knot and stroked her hair, soothing her. ‘I first began to feel doubts when we were in Tuana,’ he said, ‘and was rather ashamed of myself. After all, I was fond of Aruna, and she was great. It was all great, but there was still you. The truth didn’t properly hit me until we came down here in the summer. Aruna was being grumpy about something and my mother dropped one or two telling comments. It just made me think.’
‘My darling friend called me a witch, I seem to remember.’
‘In your gingerbread cottage. Yes, you’re very witchy. You’ve certainly put a spell on me.’ Once again he stopped to kiss her.
‘I don’t know what to do about Aruna,’ Briony whispered. ‘We can never be friends again. Not like we were, anyway.’
‘No. It would be difficult.’ They were silent for a moment, each lost in thought. ‘But let’s forget Aruna for a bit.’
‘But I feel so guilty.’
‘Don’t. Think about the ways in which she’s hurt you.’
‘She wouldn’t have meant to.’
‘You’re a good-hearted woman.’
‘No, I’m not, I just hate falling out with people. Luke?’
‘Still here.’
‘Have you got to go anywhere this evening? I mean, will you stay here with me?’
‘That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,’ he said, and they laughed and held each other close.
Forty-seven
Tuana lay sleepy under the afternoon sun as Briony and Luke strolled hand in hand through the main square, he with his jacket draped over his shoulder, she in the stylish pale green dress he’d picked out for her in a Naples boutique and a soft straw hat that framed her face. Here was the pavement café with its scattered tables and chairs where she and Aruna had rested, even the same waiter, clearing the table where they’d sat. It was odd coming back, for the memories were mixed ones. Luke hadn’t wanted to, but Briony had persuaded him. She still ached for Aruna, but needed to see the town with her new knowledge of what had happened here, to think about it all and what it had meant for her family. To gain some kind of peace about it.
‘I really don’t remember going in here,’ Luke murmured, as she mounted the steps to the church.
‘You must have done.’
He shook his head. ‘I was at the dentist when you went, remember? And the other times we came it was to shop.’
She pushed open the wooden door and they entered the cool gloom, their footsteps echoing in the high-ceilinged space. Soft flames from a rack of votive candles drew her to the altar. ‘There it is,’ she whispered, and pointed with her sunglasses to the oval plaque on the wall next to the altar rail.
‘Antonio,’ Luke read aloud and his rich voice bounced from wall to wall until they heard the whole place whisper the name, Antonio, Tonio, onio.
‘Sorry,’ Luke said more quietly, and Briony, selecting a narrow candle from the box beneath the votive, shot him a smile. ‘Do you think that does any good?’ he asked, watching her place it in a holder and light it.
‘It’s symbolic. It was my relatives who were responsible for the boy’s death. I can’t imagine there’s anyone left alive to say sorry to.’
‘Maybe you’re right.’ He didn’t appear sure, but at least he was trying to understand. She reached out and briefly squeezed his arm.
They left the church to its memories and its dreams and stepped out into the sunshine again. Briony unfolded a tourist map. ‘The town hall’s down this way,’ she said and set off down one of the narrow streets that meandered off the square, Luke obediently in tow. They found it, but there wasn’t much to see, it being a rather plain edifice with a round arched double doorway that was locked, so they continued on until they came to where more recent properties had caused the town to creep out across the hillside. Briony shaded her eyes against the sun and looked around for a building that might have been the barn where the town’s wartime rations had been stored, but wherever it had been it must have gone. Instead her gaze swept the valley and up to where the shoulder of the mountain rose steeply above the town. It should be there somewhere, yes, that was it.
‘Hey.’ She nudged Luke and pointed to an ochre blob among the dark mass of trees, waiting until he saw it.
