Chapter Fifteen
On Sunday, life threw Jade a new curve ball – in fact, two – when Vittoria and Carlotta trooped into the kitchen and, gazes flickering uncertainly, asked to see her when they finished their shift at two o’clock.
Jade, preparing a tray of lattes, glanced at them askance. ‘Can’t we talk now?’
The cousins exchanged glances. ‘It will be better later.’ Vittoria’s brows met over her nose. ‘Now, you need me for the breakfasts and Carlotta to begin upstairs.’
‘OK.’ With a wriggle of unease, Jade hoped there was no more illness in their family. Life was tricky when they needed to be off simultaneously.
But when the three women finally convened in the front office at 2 p.m., the situation proved much worse than she’d anticipated.
Vittoria plunged in first, hands twisting in her lap. ‘I’m very sorry, Jade, but I need to take my annual leave soon – not in September, as we agreed.’
‘Oh.’ Heart sinking, Jade turned to the computer on the desk and opened the staff roster. ‘When?’
Vittoria pulled an agonised face. ‘Tuesday.’
Jade’s jaw dropped. As the conversation was in Italian, she breathed, ‘Mamma mia! The day after tomorrow? Has something happened?’ Vittoria never left her in the lurch without good reason.
‘Sort of.’ She and Carlotta again exchanged unreadable looks, before Vittoria continued in a rush.
‘You remember that Angelo hates his commute into Milano? His company has offered him a financial package and a living allowance if he’ll relocate to the city.
It’s a great opportunity for us.’ Again, the agonised face.
‘So . . . we want to look for an apartment. It’s a generous package and we could afford something nice. ’
Slowly, Jade sank back into her chair, digesting this news with an empty, oily sense of loss – not just for her best employee, but for her best friend. ‘You’re leaving Como? For good?’
‘For the foreseeable future.’ Vittoria gesticulated.
‘It’s sudden, no? But such an opportunity.
Angelo says relocating will improve his prospects, and he won’t be wearing himself out on crowded trains and then having a twenty-minute walk to the office from Milano Centrale.
Our landlord here will accept a month’s notice,’ she added, almost apologetically.
‘We talked all evening and into the night. Angelo is enthusiastic. And me . . .’ She sucked in a breath. ‘I’m excited. A new life in Milano!’
‘In just a few weeks,’ Jade finished for her.
Her eyes burned. ‘I’ll miss you so much.
You’ve worked here for twenty years.’ Yet she could see elation behind Vittoria’s apprehension at breaking the news and couldn’t begrudge her bestie a wonderful new life in Milan, the centre of fashion and culture in northern Italy .
. . even if it meant Jade being left behind with fresh headaches and no Vittoria providing hugs and wise counsel over wine or coffee.
Vittoria’s eyes reddened and she rounded the desk to drag Jade into a hot, hard hug. ‘But you will visit me in Milano? And I’ll visit Como.’
‘Of course.’ Jade returned the embrace, though aware days off to visit Milano were going to be scarce for a while.
She’d depended on Vittoria when the going got tough.
Who else would she have trusted to sleep over at the pensione after Gran’s funeral, so Jade could let go of the responsibility for one night?
‘Well,’ she said, blinking back tears. ‘Exciting for you and Angelo!’ She realised Carlotta had said nothing during this exchange. Obviously, as the two were close cousins, she probably already knew Vittoria’s plans. She sent Carlotta a rueful smile. ‘And you’ll miss Vittoria too.’
Carlotta’s black hair swung over her face as she directed her gaze to her lap. ‘I didn’t realise, when I made my plans, that Vittoria would be leaving.’
Jade felt a slither of dread at Carlotta’s miserable tone. ‘Plans?’
Carlotta sighed and met Jade’s gaze. ‘I mentioned before that Ludovica’s mother is unwell. Now, she’s decided to retire and has offered us her silk shop to run together.’
Jade felt like a woman in the old-fashioned illusion shows, shut in a box and run through with a dozen swords.
‘Oh, Carlotta . . . !’ She gathered her lips into some semblance of a smile.
‘I’m sorry about Ludovica’s mother, but what an opportunity for you.
’ Silk was what Como’s prosperity was built on and every item in such a shop would carry a hefty price tag, attracting the monied and the celebrated. ‘How much notice can you give me?’
Carlotta grimaced. ‘I am hoping a week . . . ? Ludovica’s mamma must start treatment.’
Jade had little option but to nod. Neither Carlotta nor Vittoria had a written contract with a defined notice period, because Gran had taken them on as casuals and their roles had gradually grown. And a week’s notice was standard for hotel housekeeping staff.
Vittoria wiped fresh tears. ‘I’m so sorry that my news and Carlotta’s have come at the same time.’
‘Me, also.’ Carlotta sniffed noisily. ‘We’ve worked for you and Mairead for so long.’
‘And just when Mairead has died and you have to share the pensione with your new sisters,’ Vittoria added tragically.
Though she felt like snapping, ‘Thanks for pointing that out!’, Jade knew her duties as an employer as well as a friend.
‘Well,’ she said, turning to the computer, ‘it’s a shock, but you must live your own lives.
Carlotta, can you think about how you want to arrange your days off this week?
You’re due off on Friday and Saturday, but, if you’re giving me notice today, you might want to change it to Saturday and Sunday, then it would make your last day here Friday.
’ She swallowed a lump in her throat. ‘Vittoria . . .’ Despite her best efforts, her voice shook.
Noisily, Vittoria blew her nose. ‘I should give you notice from today. But my notice period will be covered by my annual leave.’
So, though Vittoria had begun the conversation by asking to take her holiday early, really, she’d made up her mind to move to Milan.
Shocked panic thudded through Jade. ‘I understand.’ Her lips turned down in a spasm and when Vittoria yanked her into her arms and apologised over and over again, Jade let herself cry with her friend, rather than her employee.
That evening, Jade put up the Reception Closed notice half an hour early, showered, then finger-combed her hair until it hung in loose chestnut curls. A simple-but-flattering white sundress set off her golden skin.
Temperatures were still high, but a touch cooler beside the lake where the air wasn’t hemmed in by buildings.
As she strolled, taking in the first tatters of sunset glittering on the water and the ring of mountains like green-clad guardians, she thought about the evening ahead, imagining Leo in shorts and bare feet, preparing a meal.
Even after the unpleasant shocks of the day, it made her spine tighten.
She knew that when Leo had suggested dinner at Villetta Nascosta, the message hadn’t been: And if you accept, then I have expectations. Leo Sartori was not presumptuous.
No. The message had been: The evening will be full of possibilities . . . of which her going home straight after coffee would be one.
But not the only one.
After the disbelief of hearing Vittoria and Carlotta’s news, she’d spent the afternoon feeling stunned and fragile. Someone to talk to would be great. As Leo himself had said, they knew each other.
Massimo, in his dark blue blazer, was dealing with a couple at the front desk.
When he saw Jade crossing the foyer’s glossy tiles, he flashed her a grin.
She indicated the way through to the back of the hotel and he lifted one eyebrow, as if he were thinking, visiting Leo, eh?
She smiled serenely, continuing down the corridor and out into the gardens, for once empty of guests, presumably all enjoying dinner somewhere.
At Villetta Nascosta, where the whirr of insects filled the oleander-scented air and birds rustled in the cypresses, she found the door wide open and the sound of Wheatus’s ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ playing at a controlled boom.
Pausing in the doorway, she found Leo exactly as envisaged – in black shorts, bare feet and his hair hanging over his forehead as he attended something hissing in a skillet.
The air smelled of meat, sage and wine. ‘Saltimbocca?’ she asked.
‘I remembered that you love it.’ A big smile. ‘Do you want it inside with the air con or outside with the bugs?’ He nodded in the direction of placemats, glasses and cutlery waiting on the end of the counter.
‘Outside would be great. I spend too much time indoors.’ She stepped inside the bright, comfortable space and dumped her bag on a sofa.
He gathered up the place settings, paused to lean in and brush kisses on her cheeks, then went out onto the terrace to the table, calling back to her as he went. ‘Wine, beer, whisky, water, lemonade . . . ?’
‘Wine, please.’ She resisted the temptation to touch her tingling cheeks where his lips had landed.
‘There’s a Chianti open,’ he said. ‘Pour one for me, please.’
She kicked off her sandals before crossing to the bottle of Chianti on the counter and finding two glasses in a cabinet.
He strode back in and leant past her to where the saltimbocca – veal wrapped in prosciutto – sizzled, shaking first that pan and then one of sliced potatoes.
‘There’s a bowl of salad in the fridge and the bread’s in that bag.
’ She retrieved both while he set out two plates and swiped the pans clear of the hob.
‘And we’re ready.’ He looked so pleased with himself that Jade laughed as she helped carry everything outside.
A citrus candle to discourage insects added its scent to the appetising, herby aroma of the food. As soon as Jade seated herself, Leo sent her a keen glance. ‘Something up? Your eyes look . . .’ He made a droopy, sad face.