Chapter Twenty-One
Over the following two days, sunlight returned to Lake Como and water cannon were set up in the lakeside road to return flood water to the lake.
Mario applied for permission to erect scaffolding.
Jade tried not to worry about the insurance company.
She didn’t feel their policy document was even ambiguous.
Of course owners didn’t need to be listed.
They were not employees. She’d notified the change of ownership.
The insurance company couldn’t pluck from their back pockets conditions that didn’t exist at the time of policy purchase.
But still she felt sick whenever the word insurance crossed her mind.
Carlotta, though busy with her silk shop and Ludovica, had soon spotted Pensione Three Sisters suffering the indignity of being crowned by blue plastic tarpaulin. First she and then Vittoria phoned to say they could come back for a while if Jade needed them.
Vittoria added, ‘Oh, bella. I feel as if I deserted you.’
Jade’s heart filled to know that her friends and erstwhile employees would put apartment hunting or a new business on hold to help her. ‘Thank you.’ Jade sniffed. ‘I think I’ll manage.’
Still, she mentioned Vittoria and Carlotta’s kind offers to Rosalie, Erin and Leo over lunch in the apartment kitchen on Saturday. Erin shrugged. ‘We’ve been doing OK on our own, haven’t we? You have new staff beginning Monday week. We don’t need to incur unnecessary costs at a time like this.’
Jade tried to stay patient with Erin. ‘You can leave worrying about money to me.’
Rosalie wrinkled her forehead. ‘But the insurance company—’
‘All in hand. One of the many joys of management,’ Jade said, as if the subject wasn’t worrying her at all.
‘You’ve done brilliantly. But although we joked about it on WhatsApp, you didn’t really come to Como to work.
And Leo has his own stuff.’ He was just being his own lovely self in continuing to work alongside Jade every day.
Rosalie’s frown vanished. ‘I’m enjoying it. I feel grown-up taking responsibility during a crisis. More grown-up than wearing a bear costume, anyway.’
Erin grinned. ‘I’m happy to be part of the team too.’ She gave everyone a fist bump, to prove it. Jade didn’t think she’d fist-bumped since school.
Leo sent Jade his slow, sexy smile. ‘I’m still mulling my options. A new, unexpected opportunity has come up,’ he added tantalisingly.
Jade’s heart dipped as she tried to read the expression lurking in his eyes.
Would this new opportunity still involve staying in Como?
With her disaster at the pensione and his now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t bank balance, they hadn’t discussed it lately.
She swallowed. It was inappropriate to question him before Rosalie and Erin, especially when he’d been deliberately cryptic about the mystery possibility.
‘OK,’ she said brightly. ‘Thanks, everyone. I’ll tell Vittoria and Carlotta. ’
Rosalie sent Jade a sympathetic look. ‘Geneva’s not coming back?’
Jade smothered a sigh. ‘Doesn’t look like it.
’ Geneva had never returned to Three Sisters, not even for her boots and the oversized coat.
That she’d left the building the instant Harry from Huddersfield had reported the theft was just one of the weights on Jade’s shoulders – and one on her heart, too.
Though wondering guiltily if she could have dealt with her mother better, she had no idea what to do . . . if anything.
Apart from Yara on Reception, the others finished work in the early afternoon. Unable to settle to time off herself, Jade went into the office. The name Harry Markham in her email inbox gave her an unpleasant jolt. Harry Markham was the guest who’d reported the missing money.
The subject line was Red face and his communication was blunt.
We had 2 girls in our room. Just received a msg from 1 saying she saw the other take the money while I was in the bathroom and my mate was passed out. Sorry to have created. I owe you 130 euros. Can I send by PayPal?
Really sorry. Dead embarrassed.
Harry.
Jade’s first thought was that Harry had shot up in her estimation for having a conscience and acting on it.
The next was to wonder at Sorry to have created, which was a new English idiom for her.
Presumably it was short for created a fuss, or something.
Then, like a punch to her stomach, she realised that Geneva didn’t do it!
Mortification turned her blood to water.
She’d let Geneva remove herself from Pensione Three Sisters under an unjust cloud.
Jade wanted to rip into Harry and make him feel as conscience-stricken as she did.
But that wasn’t fair. He’d told her the situation as he’d understood it, and she’d reacted.
She tapped out a reply, including her PayPal details. Thanks for being honest, she added. Not everyone would be.
With feet that felt as if they dragged twin burdens of responsibility and chagrin, she sought the apartment.
She found Erin working on her laptop at the kitchen table while Rosalie looked ready to go outdoors.
Jade plummeted into a chair. ‘It wasn’t Geneva who took the money.
’ She recounted the contents of Harry’s email.
‘Ooh.’ Rosalie clapped her hand over her mouth.
‘Och, fuck.’ Erin squared her mouth in an agonised grimace.
Both stared at her with wide eyes, one pair honey-brown and one whisky.
Jade dropped her head into her fists. ‘I’ll call her and apologise. See if she wants to come back till Monday. It’s the least I can do.’
Rosalie swung a pink bag from one hand. ‘You didn’t actually accuse her, though?’
‘Next best thing,’ Erin declared. Then she winced. ‘Sorry, Jade. That was unhelpful.’
With a huge sigh, Jade trailed into her bedroom, cool behind its shutters, and made the phone call to Geneva, picturing the small, wiry woman, who’d returned to Jade’s life so unexpectedly.
Listening to the ringtone, she opened Gran’s jewellery box and touched the little group of Gran and Nonno’s rings.
Miss you, she thought. Things aren’t going well.
The call rang out, without even the opportunity to leave a voice message.
Thwarted, Jade sent a text.
Please will you call me as soon as possible? Jade.
No call came.
That evening, Jade poured out her worries to Leo over a plate of linguine carbonara and a glass of crisp, white Gavi wine on the shady terrace of Villetta Nascosta. ‘She might be unable to pay her rent and be living in a cardboard box for all I know.’
Leo lifted her fingers to his lips. ‘You care about her, after all?’
A strange, ambiguous, anxiety-combined-with-uncertainty rippled through her.
‘I want her to know she’s in the clear. Believing her now, when I have proof, isn’t much like believing her in the first place, so I must apologise too.
I don’t strictly need her this week as you and the others are helping, but if she worked a few more days, it would leave you free to view those apartments or whatever. ’
He frowned. ‘I’m not sure there’s a deal to be done there. In fact, I’ve been waiting to discuss something else with you—’
‘Leo!’ A shout interrupted them, and Jade saw Massimo and Sofi strolling hand in hand up the winding path beneath the palm trees, looking relaxed in shorts and T-shirts.
‘May we join you? We have news that we’ve already shared with Mum and Papà.
’ Sofi’s shy but beaming smile suggested it was good news.
‘Of course.’ Leo pushed out a chair invitingly. ‘Would you like water, Sofi? Or fruit juice?’ Sofi was showing a small but distinct baby bump beneath her top now.
‘Fruit juice, please,’ Sofi said, and Leo soon returned with a glass of orange juice for her and an empty wine glass for Massimo to fill from the bottle he and Jade had been sharing.
After helping himself, Massi beamed as he raised his glass. ‘We’ve seen our baby today! It was our sixteen-week scan. It’s too early to be certain, but, from what we saw, we think perhaps a daughter.’ His eyes shone with happy tears.
‘Fantastico!’ and ‘Congratulazioni!’ Jade and Leo said, and everybody spoke at once.
Massimo’s face shone with delight. ‘Mum and Papà haven’t gone home yet. Shall I invite them to join us?’ His phone was in his hand before the words were out of his mouth.
Leo said, ‘Of course, of course.’ Then he sent Jade a speaking glance and whispered, ‘Sorry. I wanted to tell you something.’
‘But who can begrudge Massi and Sofi wanting to share their happiness?’ she whispered back.
The senior Sartoris arrived bearing Franciacorta from the bar and a mocktail for Sofi, festive with curly straws and umbrellas. Everyone made guesses as to what the new baby would be called.
Sheenagh had secured a seat next to Jade, who took advantage of the hubbub to tell Sheenagh about Harry’s email. The good spirits Jade had been feeling on Massimo and Sofi’s behalf plummeted. ‘I keep calling and texting, but she doesn’t answer.’
‘Ghosting you.’ Leo obviously had one ear on the conversation.
Sheenagh gazed at Jade. ‘I don’t feel you owe her anything.’
Jade watched a moth fluttering around a nearby lamp.
‘Yes, I do,’ she said coolly. ‘I owe her the truth. What if she needs a reference for her next job? I could give her one. And,’ she added, her voice catching in her throat as realisation dawned too late, ‘I feel a sense of loss. I knew her for such a short time. She’s just another normal, fallible human being. ’
Sheenagh’s brows dipped, meeting the worried lines above her nose. ‘So . . . you care?’
Jade didn’t have to think about it. ‘I must, at least a little.’
Sheenagh lent in and hugged her, enveloping her in her familiar perfume. ‘Leo asked once if I was jealous. I denied it, but maybe I was. I’m over that selfishness now and I hope it works out for you.’
Jade returned the hug, glad that Sheenagh seemed to be making an effort to paper over the cracks that had appeared in their friendship. She may have gained a mother and two sisters this summer, but, despite the age gap between them, this woman was one of her oldest friends.