Page 64 of My Lemon Grove Summer
‘Great. And no problems with the family? They still don’t know anything about it?’
He shakes his head. ‘No problems at all. Zelda is very discreet.’
‘Good, can’t have the secrets of Sicily getting out.’ She checks the bottle is safely secured in her bag, and I feel a tiny pang of irritation but manage to push it down again.
‘Bye, Zelda. Good luck with the wedding preparations. I envy you that beautiful dress. Actually, I just envy you!’ she says, and laughs. She kisses me on both cheeks and I clumsily knock noses with her. I’m trying hard not to like this woman, but failing. She envies me, and my married life here in Sicily. And that is why I came here. I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I remind myself.
‘Which way did you come in?’ Luca says as he sees her to the door.
‘Through town. But I have a hire car. Everyone thought I was just a tourist passing through, on my way to Etna.’
‘You could always use the tunnel,’ Luca says. ‘Park on the outskirts of town or down by the sea.’
‘I know, I know. But it’s fine.’ She smiles at him, and I wonder if the two of them have history. She kisses him on both cheeks, and again I get a little spike of jealousy.
Once Emily has disappeared, Luca looks around at the sketch pad and the tape measure. ‘I think we’re all done here,’ he says, and I get the impression that he’s drawing a line under whatever it was that either of us might have thought we felt. ‘You sure you wouldn’t like to see down the tunnels?’
‘No, thank you. I told you, tunnels, dark spaces, they’re not my thing,’ I say with a shiver at the thought of it.
I stand at the top of the steps leading down from the apartment and look around. For no reason that I can understand, I have a strange, uneasy feeling. It’s as though I’m being watched, even though there’s no sign of anyone here.
‘I should get back,’ I say.
‘Hello. Where’ve you been?’
‘Sophie! Hello, you made me jump!’ I say, my heart lurching and then coming back to land again. I’m relieved to be out of the bright and very hot afternoon sun and in the shade of the old buildings just off the square. But I’m increasingly nervous of the crumbling balconies overhead, and I glance up quickly and move myself and Sophie out of the way of one that is looming over us.
‘Where’ve you been?’ Sophie repeats.
‘Nowhere,’ I say, smiling at her constantly inquisitive mind.
‘You must have been somewhere? Nobody goes nowhere, it’s not possible.’
‘Just for a walk,’ I say, still with that strange, uneasy sense of being watched. What if Luca is found out? What if his father insists he hands over the lemon grove for subsidies? I think about Romano with renewed annoyance.
‘Where are you going, then?’
‘Um, well, back—’
‘Home?’ she finishes for me.
‘Back to Il Limoneto, the farmhouse, yes.’
‘Can I come with you? You could teach me more English.’
‘No,’ I laugh. ‘I have things to do.’
‘What things?’
‘Well, a wedding to plan for starters. I have to tell Valerie . . . my mother-in-law about my dress.’
‘My mamma says there isn’t going to be a wedding, not if she can help it.’
I stumble, almost like I’ve been tripped up.
‘Does she?’ I eventually say as evenly as I can. ‘But we want to keep Etna happy, don’t we? I’m sure your mamma wants that too.’
‘She says she’d rather take her chances with Etna than have a bunch of foreigners move in here, like Il Nonno says,’ and I realise she’s talking about Romano.
