Page 52 of A Place in the Sun
As one, they turn to the mayor, who looks terrified and I don’t blame him. This was a dreadful idea. What were we thinking? I glance at Giovanni, whose face tells me this may not be turning out as we’d hoped.
‘I think, really, you’re all winners today,’ the mayor says nervously. He is visibly shaking.
‘But what about the taste test?’ demands Nonna Teresa, determined to have her revenge.
‘Really, you’re all winners,’ the mayor repeats.
‘How can you choose without tasting?’ Nonna Rosa frowns at him.
‘You mean you cannot decide?’ says Nonna Lucia, folding her arms across her chest.
‘Or are you not man enough?’ Nonna Teresa purses her lips.
‘We were promised one winner.’ Nonna Rosa slaps the table, making the mayor jump.
‘For a summer festival!’ Nonna Lucia unwittingly sides with Nonna Rosa, and Nonna Teresa joins in, narrowing her eyes at the mayor.
‘Perhaps we have been lured here under false pretences!’
Nonna Rosa turns on Giovanni. ‘I think the world of you, but what is this sham of a competition?’
‘Shame on you!’ Nonna Teresa says indignantly.
‘Yes, shame on you,’ Nonna Lucia joins in.
One by one, the women huff and strip off their aprons, stuff them into their baskets, collect up their favourite utensils, including Nonna Teresa’s pasta machine, and strut towards the door.
‘No, wait! Please.’ I try to stop them. ‘Really, we want you all to be winners, to be a part of this. Let me explain.’
‘Help yourselves,’ says Nonna Lucia to the waiting crowd, gesturing at the bubbling lasagnes.
‘Lucia, won’t you eat with us?’ I plead.
She looks in the direction of the othernonnas, leaving through the gate. ‘I’d better go,’ she says, then smiles and makes for the door, clearly not going to break ranks against the new common enemy, the mayor. He is evidently shaken and is being given more wine, as he dabs his forehead with a napkin.
‘Wait!’ I catch up with her just as she’s leaving through the gate.
‘Lucia, we need you. All three of you,’ I blurt out. ‘It’s Alfonso. He’s closing the shop. Giovanni can’t keep La Tavola going without it and we’re trying to find a way to save it. We might be able to, if we can run cookery weekends for tourists to learn how to make Tuscan recipes in the kitchen.’
‘Why would they come here to cook in this kitchen?’ She frowns.
‘Because this is about team-building, working together to create good food. It’s an experience.’
Slowly her expression softens as she thinks about it.‘It’s a wonderful idea,’ she says. ‘I know that at one time my sister, my sister-in-law and I would have loved to be a part of it. Probably still would.’
Thank goodness. ‘Then you think it might work?’
She places a hand on my forearm. ‘If we can’t find a way to overcome our own differences, we are hardly going to be of any use to you in a team-building weekend. I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘I wish it were different.’ She looks back at La Tavola. ‘I shall be very sad to see it go.’
The last breath of wind has just left my sails. All the fight goes out of me.
24
For the next few days I help Giovanni in the house, keeping the buckets of plaster topped up. The heat is my punishment for imagining that the lasagne competition could ever have worked. I feel stupid, and I’ve let Giovanni down. La Tavola doesn’t have a future now.
‘I’ve been to deliver the dishes back,’ I tell him, ‘but they were too busy arguing over their washing lines again to notice me. I wanted to talk to Rosa. If only we could have got her onside, I’m sure the others would have joined in.’
‘You’re right. I think they might. But she’s the eldest, the scariest, and the one to keep this feud going. I don’t think she ever forgave Teresa for marrying the man she loved. And they both felt Lucia took their brother.’
