Chapter 6
Waking early the next morning, Disa raised the electric blinds at the window.
An ethereal veil of mist was hovering above the silver-blue water, in the process of being burned off by an already bright sun.
A family of ducks swam by, bobbing in the wake of a just-passed motorboat. It was going to be a stunning day.
With her trusty iPad on her lap, Disa checked her emails first, then moved on to Wordle, followed by a scroll through her WhatsApp groups. She sent a photo of the spectacular view from her bed and let her various friends around the world know she was having a wonderful time.
Only when that was done did she go to the bookmarked website, mentally crossing her fingers in the hope that the blog she’d been following had been updated.
And hooray, yes, it had!
The post was only short, but that was OK. Avidly, she read:
Hi, all! Wow, what a special day yesterday was, celebrating the wedding of dear friends Julietta and Stefano!
They both looked so beautiful, as did the little bridesmaids in the embroidered dresses made for them by Julietta’s clever mum.
The church was full of flowers, and the reception was the best fun.
I’ll post more photos tonight once I’ve had time to sort through them, but here’s one of me looking hot and frazzled because we’d been dancing!
And now I have to rush off to work, so bye, all, have a great day! Xxx
She’d only posted the update a few minutes ago.
The unfiltered photo was endearingly unflattering, showing her with her hair falling down on one side and her face shiny in the heat, although the happy smile was as infectious as ever.
She was wearing a pomegranate-pink dress that cinched in at the waist and flared out below the knee, and had evidently kicked off her shoes to dance.
She seemed lovely; who wouldn’t want to be friends with a girl like that?
But that was the thing about posting words and photos on the internet; Disa had seen enough instances of people appearing charming and entirely genuine then being found out to be the opposite.
Online, they made themselves seem like a catch in every way.
She preferred to discover for herself just how accurate their portrayal of themselves was in reality.
Especially now.
She closed the page and finished her glass of water. Maybe today would be the day she’d be able to make a start. Outside the window, a duck quacked in noisy agreement.
‘I know,’ she told it. ‘I hope so too.’
By nine thirty, breakfast had been eaten in the restaurant and everyone heading out on the trip to the winery was gathering in the reception area.
And here came Leon, clearly delighted to be joining them. Disa saw Fen’s face light up at the sight of him. In a couple of minutes she would make her excuses and leave them to it.
‘Morning!’ she greeted him. ‘Is your friend not coming along too?’
‘Jamie? He’s being interviewed by a journalist, then photographed for a magazine. Poor guy,’ said Leon. ‘It’s torture for him, what with him being so ugly.’
Better and better. Leon and Fen didn’t need a third wheel to distract them from each other.
Right, it looked as if the cruise manager was ready to lead everyone off the ship and round to where the coach was waiting for them to board.
Disa straightened her spine and winced, but Fen hadn’t noticed, so she did it again.
‘Everything OK?’ said Leon.
‘I’m afraid not.’ She heaved a sigh of disappointment.
‘I hoped it would ease up a bit, but my back’s still giving me trouble.
’ Really, her acting skills were superb; Fen was looking concerned.
‘Sorry, it started last night. Probably only a muscle spasm, but walking around a vineyard might be too much for me today. I think I’d be better off staying here and taking things easy. ’
‘Gran, that’s such a shame.’ Fen sounded disappointed, but maybe she was acting too. ‘I had no idea your back was bad. Do you want me to stay with you? Should we call a doctor?’
‘Goodness, no. No need for that. I’ll be fine,’ Disa assured her, before giving another tiny wince for good measure. ‘I’ll sit in the sunshine and read. You two must go and try all the wine on my behalf. Have a fun day together.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Completely.’ The other guests were disembarking around them.
‘If you’re going to be up on deck, you can watch Jamie having to endure his photo shoot,’ said Leon. ‘Pull faces at him, make him laugh when he’s supposed to be looking moody. He loves it when I do that.’
Disa smiled. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to be too busy reading my book.’
An hour later, she was attempting to do just that, but Jamie and the photographer were proving to be something of a distraction. Only indirectly; it was the woman on a nearby sunlounger who was being the most noticeably distracted.
‘Look at him. Can you imagine how it felt, dancing with him last night? As soon as that photographer guy’s finished with him, I’m going to get another selfie.’
It was the same woman Disa had seen yesterday evening, the one with the spiked-up red and gold hair.
She was wearing crimson lipstick, sparkly eyeshadow and a lime-green bikini.
Her tongue might not be actually hanging out, but it was nearly there.
Luckily, she wasn’t addressing Disa; the observations were being made to the friend next to her.
‘You don’t want to pester him.’
‘I’m not pestering him, Hattie! It’s only a selfie. And he already knows my name.’
‘That’s because it’s on your necklace,’ her friend pointed out. ‘Plus, you keep telling him. You’re going to scare him off.’
‘I’m not scary, though. I’m just giving it my best shot, being friendly. Let’s face it, I’m never going to have another chance like this.’
Unable to concentrate, Disa put her book down and looked over at Jamie.
He clearly wasn’t enjoying being photographed, but was doing as he was instructed with humour and good grace.
She gathered her belongings together and left the deck; after a peaceful period of reading in her cabin, she would head out on her own and have lunch at the restaurant she’d visited yesterday.
An hour later, having changed into a floaty honey-coloured kaftan and narrow ivory trousers, she walked off the ship and began to make her way along the footpath.
It was while she was pausing to take her sunglasses out of her bag that she heard the rap of knuckles on glass, and saw Jamie through a window, waving to catch her attention and mouthing something that looked like Help.
That was when she saw he had indeed been buttonholed once more by the persistent redhead.
Amused, she rolled her eyes and tapped her wristwatch, and he moved across to a section of open window.
‘Sorry, I know I’m late,’ he called. ‘I’m coming out now.’
‘Hurry up then, I nearly went without you.’ Disa watched as he excused himself and made his escape. Less than a minute later, the glass doors in the central reception area slid open and he appeared, hurrying down the gangway to catch her up.
‘She’s still watching you,’ said Disa.
‘She never stops watching me. I mean, it’s fine, but it’s starting to get a bit much. She keeps talking about star signs and telling me how well matched we are because Aquarians and Librans are the best pairing of all.’
‘You lucky thing.’
‘Plus, she told me she had a dream we were swimming together and I rescued her from almost drowning. Then she asked if I’d had the same dream about her, because apparently that happens sometimes and it means we have a special connection.
’ He shook his head. ‘Anyway, never mind. Thanks for helping me to make my escape.’
‘Any time,’ said Disa.
‘And don’t worry, I’m not planning to inflict myself upon you. As soon as we’re round the corner and out of sight, we can go our separate ways.’
‘I wasn’t worried. Not unless you were about to start banging on about star signs.’
He laughed. ‘I promise not to do that. So why didn’t you go on the trip to the winery?’
‘My back was playing up.’ Another effortless lie. ‘It’s much better now. How did your interview go?’
‘It was great. Less fun being photographed, but these things need to be done. All part of the job.’ They crossed the first bridge, with the sunlight bouncing off the ripples on the water and the tethered boats swaying gently in unison.
‘So are you randomly exploring the area, or do you have plans for today?’
‘Just having a wander.’ Disa adjusted her dark glasses. ‘Thought I’d find somewhere to have a spot of lunch.’
‘I’ve been recommended a place. A friend says it’s excellent.’ Taking out his phone, he began to scroll through a ream of messages.
‘Actually, Fen and I stopped for a drink at a restaurant yesterday. Really pretty, lots of trees surrounding a little courtyard. I quite fancy going back and giving the food a try,’ said Disa. ‘It was called La Lanterna di Rosa.’
In a few seconds, he’d found it online. ‘Sounds good. Were you wanting to eat alone, or could you tolerate some company? It’s fine to say no if you’d rather be on your own, I just thought we could chat about my friend and your .
. . Oh.’ He was struck by a thought. ‘Or maybe you have a hot date arranged with a handsome gentleman, an Italian count, perhaps, and the last thing you need is some galumphing ex-rugby player tagging along as a third wheel, ruining everything.’
‘It’s been years since I had a hot date with a handsome Italian count. And trust me, he was no gentleman.’ She smiled. ‘Also, you don’t galumph.’
‘That’s a relief.’ Jamie paused. ‘So shall we try out this restaur-ant of yours?’
Why not? They’d got on well together yesterday while chatting in the private lounge at the airport. ‘Let’s do it,’ said Disa.
When they reached La Lanterna di Rosa twenty minutes later, there was the girl whose photos she had seen online.
She was wearing the all-black uniform of T-shirt and trousers, her wavy light brown hair was tied back in a high ponytail and she was chattering away in rapid Italian to a table of customers.
When she glanced across at the new arrivals, Disa saw her clock Jamie immediately, then nod when he signalled to check that they could sit at the table they’d chosen in the courtyard.
Seriously attractive men had their uses. The girl came to greet them almost at once, smiling first at Disa, then – more lingeringly – at Jamie.
And who could blame her? His eyes were incredibly blue in this dappled sunlight, his teeth were white and there were glints of gold in his almost shoulder-length dark hair.
‘Buongiorno.’ Then she switched to her native English. ‘Welcome to La Lanterna di Rosa.’
Jamie grinned. ‘Thanks. Are you Rosa?’
‘I wish! I’m Molly, I just work here, waiting tables. And I know who you are. Here on holiday, I’m guessing?’
He nodded. ‘We’re on the SS La Violetta, berthed at San Basilio. And what brought you to Venice?’
‘The weather in the UK, mainly. I’ve been working here for almost a year now, and it’s the best move I ever made. Now, let me get you some drinks. What would you like? And are you staying for lunch? I’ll bring menus.’
Disa felt the tension in her body relax; when Molly looked at her, there was no flicker of recognition.
She clearly had no idea who she was. Then again, up until the discovery she’d made in her garage two months ago, she hadn’t been aware of Molly’s existence either.
And she wasn’t ready yet to jump up and make the announcement out of the blue, not before she’d decided whether it was the right or appropriate thing to do.