Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
‘I ’ve got a suggestion to make,’ announced Leo the next morning, as he bounded into the kitchen looking as fresh and bright as a buttercup in the dawn. She looked up from the text she was sending Steve. Illuminated by a shaft of sunlight from the overhead Velux window, his hair almost looked like a halo, and with that handsome face and, in repose, the slightly sulky (and very sexy) mouth, he could have been a fallen angel. Transfixed, she stared at him, not knowing what to say, while her pulse stuttered a little. For some reason her gaze focused on his lips, always so quick to smile. With his slight tan, that mop of blond hair and the well-washed jeans and soft T-shirt, he looked like a surfer dude. Knowing Leo, he’d probably spent the whole summer on the beach.
She ducked her head and focused on finishing her text, adding a ‘missing you’ that she hadn’t intended as well as a couple of extra kisses.
Having pressed send, she eyed Leo warily, trying not to reflect once again on how flipping good-looking he was. That spontaneous hug yesterday in the middle of the other apartment had unsettled her and she’d spent the whole evening in her room unpacking and rearranging things. Anything to stay out of his way. He’d been so kind to her. She didn’t want him to be kind. She didn’t want to remember the good things about him. Having lost her heart to him once, she couldn’t bear the agony again. She needed to reinforce herself against his kindness and that wonderful irrepressible energy. Leo was the sunshine that attracted everyone. Someone like her would never be enough to hold onto to someone like him – not for ever. It wasn’t that she had a huge inferiority complex – well, maybe a slight one – but she’d witnessed her aunt’s constant vigilance, always looking for the next clue to her uncle’s latest ‘friendship’. Which was why Anna had walked away last time. Before Leo could. There would always be someone waiting to step into her shoes.
She realised Leo was still waiting for an answer to his question.
‘And what’s that?’ she finally asked, all too aware of how the snug T-shirt fitted him a little too well and, despite her self-pep-talk mere seconds before, caused an unwelcome pang of longing. Not going there. She did not fancy Leo, not any more. Muscle memory, that was all, a vestige of how she’d felt a long, long time ago.
‘Want a coffee?’ she asked, feeling it would be churlish not to offer when she’d made a whole pot. She’d nipped out earlier to the bakery down the street to buy fresh bread and had come back with a bag of fresh pastries.
‘Yes, please.’
‘And one of these? A thank you for rescuing me from District Thirteen.’ She pushed the paper bag towards him. ‘They’re still warm.’ The little pastries looked rather like overgrown jam tarts with dough shells and filled with a rich, dark plum jam.
‘Yum. What are they?’
‘ Kolá?e , apparently. They just came out of the oven and smelt so delicious I couldn’t resist.’
‘So,’ said Leo with a playful twinkle in his eye, ‘I have a proposition for you. You can’t spend all your time avoiding me in the flat. It’s not healthy and I don’t want to make you feel you have to. I know I’ve been out a lot but … I can’t keep eating out every night. So how about we pretend we’ve never met before. We don’t talk about the past, don’t make any assumptions or presumptions about each other and don’t bring up old grievances. A completely fresh start.’
The words sounded rehearsed, confirming that they had indeed been considered, but Anna was impressed for all that. They showed a maturity and thoughtfulness that the madcap, impetuous Leo of old wouldn’t have been capable of. Although she wasn’t supposed to be thinking like that. ‘And I’d like to cook dinner for you this evening. It’s daft us eating separately. We might as well take it in turns.’ He held up his hands. ‘I’ll do some shopping.’
‘Okay,’ she said, still wary, wondering how this was going to work.
‘Great.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Leo Knight. I’m twenty-eight. I live in Richmond in London and I want to open a craft brewery. I’m here because I’m passionate about beer and the Czechs make the best beer in the world.’
She took his hand and shook it, playing along, trying not to remember the first time he’d held her hand.
‘Anna Love. Also twenty-eight. I’m an orphan and grew up with my aunt and uncle and three older cousins, Becs, James and Tim. I live in a small village outside Milton Keynes and … I want to be head brewer of my family’s brewery one day.’
‘Seems like we have something in common,’ said Leo taking a seat and biting into his pastry. ‘Mmm, this is good, thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘I’m going to play tourist today,’ said Leo with his irrepressible grin. ‘I’m going to drink Pilsen and eat dumplings.’
Dumplings and beer sounded really good. A tug of longing pulled at her even as she nodded politely at him. Leo had always been able to make life more fun, wherever he was and whatever he was doing.
‘We could join forces, you know,’ said Leo. ‘As part of our truce. And you can pretend, just for one day, that you don’t hate me.’
Startled, she turned to face him. ‘I don’t hate you.’
‘Whatever,’ replied Leo. ‘But we could play at tourists and have some fun.’
It was that irrepressible quirk to his mouth that did it. The one that made him look like a naughty toddler about to admit to his latest misdemeanour with great glee.
Why the hell not? Leo’s company was better than being on her own all day and she’d barely seen the city because she’d been waiting for Steve to visit. And exploring with someone else was always more fun.
‘Okay, if we can see the Charles Bridge and the Castle.’ She felt guilty that she’d not yet seen either, especially as wherever you went there was nearly always a view of the castle overlooking the city.
‘Excellent. See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’ said Leo. ‘Leave in ten?’
When they boarded the tram fifteen minutes later, Anna hadn’t planned not to talk to Leo, but she was quite happy to take in the unfamiliar streets as they trundled through. He seemed happy with her silence, too, but then Leo’s basic disposition was to be happy. Nothing ever fazed him.
It didn’t take long to reach Anděl metro station, where they disembarked from the tram along with a flow of people all headed the same way.
‘We need to buy tickets,’ Leo announced as they approached the entrance.
‘Really?’ drawled Anna, giving in to a sudden urge to tease him. ‘I had no idea.’
‘Very funny.’ He nudged her with his elbow and, just like that, being with him felt familiar and easy again. ‘I was talking out loud. Lead on. Since you’re such a smartarse, you can buy the tickets.’
He gestured towards the unmissable bright yellow machines. Anna straightened and headed towards them. It was only when she was halfway across the forecourt that it occurred to her: she’d taken the lead. She automatically took a back seat these days because Steve always led the way, sorting out tickets and bookings. Somehow, without thinking about it, she’d relinquished that sort of responsibility and relied on him. After always being the outsider at home, running to keep up and to fit in with her adopted family, it had been a relief to find someone who focused on her, looked out for her and loved her as she was. Now she realised that maybe she leaned on Steve too much and had given him the wrong impression. She’d been lazy in putting forward her opinions and wants, too grateful for his attention. In truth, she wasn’t really a dutiful follower.
Thankfully, the ticket machines offered an English option, so she was able to buy the tickets with relative ease.
‘Here you go.’ With a touch of pride, she handed over his ticket before adding, ‘Make sure you don’t lose it.’
Leo laughed. ‘That was six years ago. Are you ever going to let me forget it?’
‘What?’ She frowned.
Now it was his turn to frown.
‘You remember. When I left the train tickets on the table in the carriage of the first train from London when we changed trains. That time we went to the Edinburgh Festival.’
She snorted a laugh as it all came back. ‘I do now.’ Sobering slightly, she also remembered how, in inimitable Leo style, he’d charmed the female train manager into not throwing them off the train at the next stop. Women always loved Leo.
Just like they loved Uncle Henry. Anna winced, remembering the slow deflation of her aunt’s confidence over the years. How she was always looking over her shoulder. Anna wasn’t going to be that woman.
Quashing the memory, she headed for the escalator, pleased to see that the metro was very easy to navigate, and Leo fell into step beside her.
‘This is very grand,’ he said as they walked through a cavernous hallway with large marble tiles on the curved pillars.
‘It was built during the communist regime,’ Anna told him, remembering what she’d read in her guidebook earlier that morning. ‘Dedicated to the Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship and built in the Soviet style. Originally there were lots of propaganda reliefs and this station was called Moskevská , named after the city of Moscow. As part of the “cultural exchange” –’ Anna’s fingers made quotation marks ‘– there was a metro station built in Moscow named after Prague.’
‘Still like to do lots of research, then,’ teased Leo.
Anna nodded. ‘It was a long drive here and it’s amazing what you look up on your phone.’
‘Have you looked up somewhere for brunch? I’m starving.’
She allowed herself to look smug. ‘Of course.’
‘Excellent.’
The metro train arrived and a few stops later they disembarked at M?stek, where the green and yellow metro lines intersected. Using her phone Anna directed them down a wide cobbled pedestrianised street, full of shops featuring familiar European brands: Desigual, Zara, Douglas, Nike, Swarovski and Mango. Further down the road, their route followed a one-way street before they came to an old Gothic gate next to a gorgeous Art Deco building.
‘The café’s in there,’ said Anna, pointing to the cream building with its huge arched windows on the first floor and dramatic square ones at ground level. The entrance in the middle was even more striking, with a huge cupola over it featuring an ornate mosaic above a semi-circular balcony with intricate ironwork railings. Inside the airy entrance hall, decorated with stained-glass windows, were a café and a restaurant. They turned left across the mosaic-tiled floor into the beautifully appointed Art Deco room.
‘This is some place,’ said Leo, looking up at the magnificent glass chandeliers and the ceiling’s simple but elegant pale blue and white plasterwork. ‘Is that a fountain?’ He pointed to the water feature at the other end of the room as they took their seats and ordered coffee. Anna chose a delicious-sounding basket of pastries while Leo selected eggs Benedict with Prague ham that he wanted to try.
‘Well, this is one way to spend a Sunday morning,’ he said , glancing around the busy room.
‘Yes,’ said Anna, guiltily thinking of Steve out on the rugby pitch.
‘So how’s the family?’ asked Leo suddenly. ‘Still excelling at everything? I’m assuming the boyfriend is one of James’s rugby mates.’
Anna stared at him, unnerved by the accurate guess.
‘Why would you assume that?’ she asked, her spine as stiff and straight at a broomstick.
‘Is he?’ Leo cocked an eyebrow, barely restraining the ghost of a smirk.
‘He might be,’ she conceded.
‘That’s a yes, then.’
‘And your point is?’ She tried to keep her voice light.
‘No point at all. And what about your aunt and uncle?’ He stuck to the bargain but she could almost hear the unspoken question: ‘still married?’
‘They’re fine.’ Anna studied his blank face.
‘And where do you live now?’
‘I still live in the village. I’ve got a flat above the pet shop.’
‘Not too far from the family, then.’ Leo scowled but before he could say anything more, Anna said, ‘No’ firmly, her tone ending any further discussion of her adoptive family.
‘How about your family?’ she asked, her stomach cramping a little at the thought of Aurelia, Leo’s mother, possibly one of the kindest people she’d ever met. Losing contact with her had been a big regret but it had been the right thing to do.
‘She’s great,’ said Leo, his eyes brightening. ‘She and Ernesto are as much in love as ever. He’s pretty cool for a stepdad. She’s getting all excited, hoping that Raph is going to marry his girlfriend Lia.’ His expression changed and he gave her a cool stare. ‘She’s hoping that one of her boys will be happily married soon.’
Anna refused to rise to the bait. ‘That’s nice,’ she said equably, but learning that there was no unmentioned fiancée in the wings brought more relief than it should have done.
‘Giulia’s eight now. She was a toddler when you last saw her. She’s quite a pickle, that one. Baby of the family but she twists Ernesto around her little finger.’
Again Anna’s heart blanched at the memory of the little dark-haired girl who’d loved to sit on her knee and listen to bedtime stories when she and Leo babysat. Rather than say anything, she took a large bite of croissant.
‘So do you and what’s-his-name live together?’
‘Steve,’ she said, narrowing her eyes, irritated at Leo pretending not to know his name. ‘And no, we don’t. I’m sharing a flat with an old schoolfriend, but Steve and I are looking to buy somewhere together next year.’
Leo nodded.
‘What about you? Do you have a significant other?’
Leo laughed. ‘You know me. Life’s too short to restrict myself. Still playing the field.’
‘No surprise there,’ said Anna.
‘You asked,’ said Leo and then he leaned back in his chair. ‘Look, we can carry on bitching at each other or enjoy the day. My fault – we agreed we wouldn’t talk about the past.’
Anna stared at him for a moment.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Leo. ‘I’m all growed up.’
‘I didn’t say anything.’
‘You didn’t need to. I’ll be nice to you.’
Anna glared at him. Why had he said that? Again, it was as if he were the wronged one. She’d done the leaving, but only because she knew he would never change, and she’d come to the conclusion that she might have repeated a pattern and married the equivalent of her uncle. With an inward sigh, she decided, in the spirit of their truce, to say, ‘Thank you,’ and move on.
* * *
They meandered through the streets, weaving through fellow tourists and eventually arriving at the town square with the old town hall. Anna glanced at her watch.
‘If we wait a few minutes we can watch the astronomical clock strike the hour and see the twelve apostles.’
‘Have you swallowed that guidebook again?’ asked Leo, back to his usual cheerful self. That was one thing about him, he didn’t bear a grudge. Not that he was entitled to.
‘No. I like to read up on things before I go and see them. Then I get to actually look at them instead of peering at my phone all the time googling everything.’
‘Good point. Okay. I’m happy to wait for lift-off.’
A crowd of tourists had already gathered in front of the famous clock tower, peering upwards at its colourful face, adorned on either side with small figures including a macabre skeleton. As the bells began to chime the hour, the skeleton began to ring the bell in its hand and two wooden windows above the clock opened to reveal the procession of twelve apostles.
The whole performance lasted twenty-seven seconds, one of the guides informed her group in heavily accented English. Anna listened in to other facts that were being relayed, rather charmed by the whole experience. It fascinated her to know that the clock had been here for so long and was the oldest astrological clock in the world. There was something about history that put your own life into perspective. People had lived, loved and laughed for hundreds of years before her and sometimes it was good to remember that.
They spent some time in the square, looking up at the historic buildings, stepping along the cobbles and absorbing the atmosphere. Anna smiled and Leo caught her.
‘Penny for them.’
‘I was thinking how lovely the city is. I’d never really thought what it might be like. There’s so much history here, it permeates the fabric of the buildings and layers the streets.’
‘I know what you mean,’ said Leo. ‘It makes me feel quite inadequate.’
‘You!’ Anna couldn’t hide her surprise. Leo was the golden one, rich, handsome. Everything came easily to him.
‘There’s so much culture here. Art, architecture, theatres – people have created things. What’s my legacy going to be? It makes you aware of your own mortality and how small we are in the grand scheme of things.’
‘I was thinking along similar lines, although funnily enough I didn’t think of inadequacy. I thought more of how minor our problems are when you set them against the shared experience of history. I remember my mum saying we should live our lives to the full because we’re here for such a short time.’
Her mum had been a positive force of energy, always ready to see the good in things rather than the negative. Her regular pithy comment, ‘Well, we can’t change things, we have to work with them,’ had steered the family through many a rainy day, cancelled event or disappointment.
‘Good philosophy,’ he said with a nod, the shadow of sympathy in his eyes.
Anna swallowed her guilt. Poor Mum had no idea that her own life would be cut so short, which made it even worse that Anna had never lived up to that adage. She’d been so desperate to blend into her new life without causing any trouble, in case her aunt and uncle changed their minds about having her, that she’d absorbed their ways and values, never defending their snippy comments about her cheery mother, whom they clearly hadn’t approved of.
She decided things were getting a bit too serious. ‘Shall we head to the bridge?’
The bridge across the Vltava was much wider than Anna had supposed it might be and was lined with statues, which she immediately wanted to know more about.
‘So what can you tell me about the bridge, Tour Guide Barbie?’
‘It’s old,’ said Anna with a giggle. ‘I didn’t look this one up, I’m afraid. I don’t know anything about it.’
‘Why don’t we walk across? We’re going to be here for a while. Veronika has offered to show me around one weekend. It’s always better to hear about a place from people who are native, I think.’
Anna wasn’t going to ask who Veronika was. In a few weeks’ time she’d have Steve here to show around.
‘You’re right. You get a different perspective.’
‘Yes, like the time my great-uncle Pavel tried to push his wife off the bridge and the truly dreadful occasion when my great-aunt Sophia dropped her handbag over the edge.’
Anna giggled. ‘You idiot.’ That blithe irreverence had always been able to make her laugh. Already she could feel the lightness of spirit that being around Leo had always given her. Or maybe it was the autumnal sunshine. Either way it felt good.
They walked across the bridge among all the tourists, both of them stopping to take pictures with the leisurely ease of people on holiday. Anna couldn’t remember the last time she’d not had to be somewhere by a certain time.
They meandered past shops peering in the windows. Passing the impressive baroque fa?ade of St Nicholas Church, they found themselves walking uphill on a cobbled street just one car wide, lined with cream-and-golden stone buildings and with attractive double-lanterned lampposts which at home Anna would have described as Victorian, although that couldn’t be the right word here. The buildings varied in style, some with detailed stone covings, others topped with statues. There were elaborate sculptured porticoes, plaques, decorative window sills. Everywhere, there was something new to see and Leo was as quick as she was to observe a new feature, like a wrought-iron balcony flamboyantly framing a large upper-storey window, or the carved columns of the Romanian Embassy.
They were so busy chatting and pointing things out to each other that all of a sudden they were at the top of the hill and almost upon the castle. Following the cobblestone lane up a sharp right turn, they came upon the perfect viewpoint. Below them, the city opened out on a magnificent vista of spires, turrets, gables and cupolas, grand stone buildings with terracotta tiled roofs, the whole scene dappled by patches of greenery. The straight lines of the buildings guarding the waterfront, with their symmetrical windows. Gothic towers, baroque cupolas, white gables.
After admiring the view in comfortable silence for a good ten minutes. Leo turned to her.
‘It must be time for a beer. This place needs more time and we can come back another day,’ he said with an enthusiastic grin, without even looking at his watch. ‘I know just the place.’
‘It’s not even eleven o’clock.’ Anna shook her head.
‘It will be by the time we get there. It’s about a fifteen-minute walk.’ He turned the screen of his phone towards her, showing a line of little blue dots on a map.
Anna smiled. ‘So you haven’t looked up anything about the sights of Prague, but you have researched the best places to drink beer. Why aren’t I surprised?’
‘You wouldn’t want to miss out, would you?’
Retracing their steps, they walked back down the hill and took a few turns not far from the bridge before arriving at Lokál , a building on a corner. Inside, Leo led the way past busy tables, all of them full, down a set of stairs to a stone-vaulted cellar, the scarred tiled flooring proof of the pub’s popularity. Anna marvelled again at Leo’s confidence. It was as if he knew where he was going. Simple, well-worn dark wooden tables filled the room, while the bar itself was all modern technology with a stainless-steel counter over a glass cabinet containing stainless-steel tanks and the pump equipment to ensure quick delivery from tank to glass.
‘Wow,’ she said, the hairs standing up on the back of her arms. Okay, so she was a beer nerd. ‘That’s some bit of kit.’
‘I know,’ said Leo, throwing her a delighted smile. ‘Natálie said I had to visit this place. What are you going to have?’
‘I’ll have a Pilsner Urquell,’ said Anna. How many new friends had he made since he’d been here?
‘And how do you want it poured?’
Anna cocked her head slightly. Was this a trick question?
‘In a glass?’
‘Lesson number one in Czech beer coming up,’ replied Leo, without a hint of condescension as they chose a table and each picked up a menu. ‘There are several pour options. Pilsner insist that their beer is only poured by a trained tapster. There are three options: hladinka , a standard pour; ?ynt , which is two fingers of beer, three fingers of foam and a finger of empty glass, or mlíko , which is nearly all foam apart from a sliver at the bottom.’
‘You know your stuff,’ said Anna, scanning the menu, a little embarrassed that she didn’t know this.
‘That’s the bit I’ve been swotting up on. We make the perfect team, you with your touristy knowledge and me on the food and drink. We could eat here too, if you fancy it.’
The place felt very authentic but also pleasantly touristy and she was keen to try the beer.
‘What are you having?’
‘I’m going to try a mlíko as it’s not lunchtime yet,’ he teased. ‘Less beer but plenty of flavour. So I’ve been told.’
A waiter appeared to take their order. Anna was about to play it safe and order a standard beer but at the last minute she ordered the same as Leo because she was intrigued. That was his effect: he’d often persuaded her to do uncharacteristic things. She could imagine Steve’s response. He didn’t hold with fizzy lager, no matter how often she’d tried to explain that real pilsner was nothing like the gassy lager so freely available in English pubs. He’d run screaming from a glass full of foam.
When the beer arrived they took simultaneous sips, Anna ending up with foam on the tip of her nose, which Leo immediately swiped away for her. A frisson ran through her at his casual touch, igniting nerve endings that she’d hoped were impervious to him. Although she froze, she carefully maintained an impassive expression. It probably hadn’t been so much as a blip on his radar, while for her it had been a quick electrical surge of bitter awareness. Leo had always been able to affect her without even trying; that had been a big part of the problem. It was far too easy to love Leo. From the day she’d met him, she’d fallen hard, even though she’d known he was way out of her orbit. It had been the biggest surprise of her life, the first time he’d kissed her.
She took a gulp of the foamy beer, rolling the texture around her mouth, savouring the sweet, creamy flavour.
‘That’s delicious,’ she said, perhaps a touch over-enthusiastically, determined not to let Leo know that his touch had affected her in any way.
‘It is,’ said Leo, perusing the menu. She took advantage of his concentration to watch him as those deep brown eyes, still the colour of whisky, flecked with gold, narrowed as he pondered his choices. No one would ever have said Leo’s face was one for playing poker, every emotion flashed across those mobile features.
He was totally absorbed in the menu and clearly not the least bit aware of the battle going on in her body as her hormones clamoured for his touch. God, she’d been in his company less than a day and already, she was reverting to the same old pattern. It was just physical attraction, she told herself sternly. It didn’t mean anything – any more than it would mean anything to him. Their short marriage had been a colossal mistake. Leo thrived on novelty and jumping into things without thinking. She’d fallen for him so hard that it had blinded her to reality. So she’d been equally spontaneous and married him – and her one and only flirtation with spontaneity had ended in heartbreak.
At that moment, Leo looked up and smiled at her, that sweet, guileless smile that had reeled her in, the very first time she’d laid eyes on him.
‘I’m spoilt for choice. I can’t decide between the Prague ham and whipped horseradish or the Frankfurters and whipped mustard and horseradish. ’
He gave her one of his endearing grins.
She rolled her eyes, determined to harden herself against his charm. ‘Yes, I’ll share with you.’
‘I hoped you’d say that.’
‘You knew I would.’
‘Because I know you love your sausage.’ He paused and pressed his lips together as if that might recall the inadvertent double entendre. ‘What I … I … um … meant … is that I know you really like …like ham. Meat. So I kind of figured…’
‘I’m happy to share, Leo,’ she said. Amused by him tripping over his words but keen not to be a complete pushover, she added, ‘But I do want to try a dumpling so why don’t we order a main course, Czech Goulash, dumpling and dill sauce.’
‘Done,’ said Leo. ‘I’m starving.’
‘You’re always starving,’ said Anna, once again without even thinking.
‘I know.’ Leo grinned, his eyes meeting hers in that shiny joyful way that made her heart speed up. Being around him was always fun but she had to remember that that was all it was. You could never take Leo too seriously. She’d made that mistake before.