Chapter 29
Amy bustled back into Casa del Cibo, in search of Billie.
The phone call that had cut short her coffee time with Hugh and Kathleen had been terse.
It seemed increasingly one of Billie’s unintentional trademarks, to ruin every moment in which Amy found solace or support.
Hugh never got to tell her what he’d wanted to, and the information held in the brief conversation with Billie had narrowed Amy’s options even further.
Billie wanted to get packed and ready to leave.
She’d booked a driver and a seat on a flight and was leaving within the hour.
No mention had been made of what Billie expected Amy to do, or Malcolm for that matter – their flight was, as far as Amy knew, still planned for the following afternoon. But would Billie expect them to head back with her? Had she booked seats for them, too?
There had also been the message from Tad, telling her about the arrival of her suitcase. Bland and factual, the lack of any emotion in his text had bitten at Amy, even though that was exactly what she’d pushed him for.
A door banged on the first floor and Amy recognised the footfalls on the staircase before their owner came into view. Billie rounded the turn in the stairs and raised her eyebrows.
‘There you are. Where the hell have you been? I need you to help me pack. I haven’t got much time before the driver arrives, so if you could hurry it up?’
‘I was fetching my suitcase,’ Amy said, ‘It’s finally here.’
Tad chose that moment to emerge from the kitchen.
‘If you have a second,’ Tad said – his focus on Billie, ‘I would like to apologise for my outburst earlier today.’
Billie’s expression remaining glacial.
‘It was utterly unprofessional of me, and I can only say how sorry I am if I caused you any offence.’
‘If? I would have thought it was rather obvious that you have.’ Billie sounded incredulous, as though Tad was an utter idiot. ‘The last thing I needed today was some provincial chef throwing his weight around.’
‘I never meant to make any of your party feel uncomfortable. I just hope you can find a way to see past our differences and do the right thing by Casa del Cibo. That’s all.’
‘Honey, right now this place isn’t even on my list, never mind being top of it in terms of my priorities.
You will have to wait it out, like everyone else wanting a review from me.
Right now, I have far more important things to sort out.
’ Her attention shifted back to Amy. ‘Like packing my stuff, Amelia.’
Amy paused as Billie started back up the stairs.
There was so much she needed to say to Tad, alongside all the things she needed to say – no, scream – at Billie, and yet still she hung back.
Aware once she started down the path she knew she needed to take, everything in her life was going to change.
‘Amelia. Now, please. It was difficult enough to get a single seat on this flight – I can’t believe I had to book it myself, what with you disappearing into the ether earlier, and so the last thing I need on top of all that is to arrive late at the airport.
Especially if I’m travelling alone. If only there had been another seat for you, I wouldn’t feel so stressed. ’
Billie stomped up the stairs, and Tad took a step in Amy’s direction.
‘Can I say something, Amy?’
She nodded, eyebrows furrowing as she waited to see what he was going to say, hoping he would be braver than she was being.
‘I wanted to say I’m so glad your suitcase – or more specifically your gran’s book – has arrived safely. Some things are irreplaceable, aren’t they?’
‘Yes, they are.’ She smiled at him, and his face lit up, then he folded the expression away again as he began to frown.
‘I also wanted to say how sorry I am, again, about… well, about what happened between us. If it wasn’t what you wanted, I am truly sorry. I thought we were… I thought it was…’ He tailed off with a frustrated exhalation. ‘Anyway. I wanted you to know.’
Amy shook her head. She couldn’t allow him to apologise for something as wonderful as the time they’d spent together.
‘You didn’t do anything wrong, Tad – you have absolutely nothing to apologise for.
’ Amy took a step closer to him, lowering her voice.
‘It’s her. I don’t want this spoiled for you or have Casa’s reputation ruined.
I didn’t know what to do and I thought…’
Billie’s piercing shout for Amy to hurry jolted them both.
‘I’d better go,’ Amy said, heading for the staircase.
‘Come and find me, when you’re finished with her. Please?’ Tad said and she nodded, grabbing at the handle of her own suitcase as she took the stairs.
* * *
Tad was about to retreat into his safety zone – otherwise known as the kitchen – when another door opened, and the entrance hall was bathed in late afternoon light as Hugh and Kathleen hurried in from the street.
‘Ah, Tad. Just the chap,’ Hugh said, shooting across the umber flagstones of the hallway floor as Kathleen closed the door. Hugh was puffing and red-cheeked as he added, ‘Need a word. Also, have you seen Amy?’
‘She’s gone upstairs with the Wicked Witch of the West,’ Tad said.
On reaching him, Hugh stumbled, then grabbed at Tad’s arm.
Unlike before, when Hugh had faked being unable to move a dining room chair, or when he had slipped at the summit of Monte Baldo but had recovered without intervention, this time Tad had to take the full weight of Hugh’s frame as the man all but folded up.
‘I told him not to walk so fast. Stupid old duffer,’ Kathleen said, but her voice was laced with genuine concern.
Hugh tried to straighten, then slumped back into Tad’s arms. ‘I’m fine. Nothing to see here. Although maybe a chair…?’
‘I’ve got you,’ Tad said, hooking his arms under Hugh’s and holding him close to better support his weight as Kathleen dragged a chair across.
‘If I were fifty years younger, Tad, I’d be in such trouble with you,’ Hugh said, earning himself a snort from Kathleen and, despite his level of concern, a laugh from Tad.
With Hugh installed on the chair, Tad sank on his haunches in front of him. ‘Are you OK? Do I need to call a doctor?’
‘God, no. Just out of breath, that’s all. Haven’t moved that quickly in a while.’
‘A glass of water, perhaps?’ Tad said.
Sweat was pooling on the elderly man’s temples, and Tad glanced at Kathleen.
‘Well, if you don’t call someone, I will,’ she said, rounding the chair to face Hugh.
‘I told him to slow down, but would he listen? No. If it’s going to be like this, Hugh, there’s no way I’m travelling anywhere with you.
Although from the look of you it won’t be a problem.
I’d be surprised if you don’t keel over with a heart attack in the next few minutes. ’
‘Stop fussing, woman.’ Hugh tutted. ‘I need to talk to Tad, although I’m not sure I want to do it sprawled out on a chair in the hallway. And Amy – I need to see Amy…’
The words came between hurried gasps for breath and Tad’s concern spiralled.
‘I don’t think we should be worrying about having a chat right now, Hugh. Let me call someone. We can talk later.’
‘No. Now.’ Hugh’s breaths became even more rapid, colour leaching from his face before a strange expression crossed his face, and he reached for his shirt, grabbing up a bundle of the material over his heart as his breaths turned into gasps.
‘Amy – wanted to tell her but that bloody woman phoned her, and she shot off. What she’s done – she doesn’t need to…
Wanted Amy to be able to tell you. Your job here…
Safe… Doesn’t matter what she writes… Amy… Need to talk to Amy…’
‘Oh Christ, he really is having a heart attack,’ Kathleen said, as Tad reached for his mobile and dialled 112.
* * *
Amy was zippering Billie’s suitcase when she heard the siren.
Unsure what it signified, sure it wasn’t a police car – especially right outside Casa del Cibo – Amy craned at Billie’s picture window.
The two-tone blare, like the intro to a pop song gone wrong, was emanating from an ambulance.
And the vehicle had stopped right outside Casa del Cibo’s doors.
‘What’s going on out there?’ Billie said, her gaze fixed on the fingernail she was filing.
‘It’s an ambulance.’ Amy frowned. ‘I’ll go and find out what’s happening.’
‘Well don’t take too long. My car will be here any moment. It had better not still be blocking the road.’
Amy fled the room, suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that something might have happened to Tad. That the ambulance could have been called for him. Billie’s lack of concern barely registered as images of Tad in trouble crowded her thoughts. What if she never got to tell him how she really felt?
Amy was pleading with God for Tad’s safety as she rounded the stairs and took in the scene.
‘What’s happened?’ she said, closing in on the supine figure of Hugh.
She tried to see past the paramedics, to look beyond the fluorescent pockets and strips on their jackets reflecting in the light flooding in through the open doors.
What had happened to Hugh? Last time she’d seen him, he’d been down by the lake and their coffee time had been cut short by Billie’s phone call.
What had happened between then and now to have caused him to have taken ill?
With the sirens quieted, the scene was unnervingly muted as the medical experts worked. Kathleen stood to one side with Tad, his arm around her shoulder as they looked on.
‘Is he OK?’ she said, aware the words didn’t match the gravity of the situation.
‘I don’t know, Amy. Silly old fool. If only he’d taken it a bit more slowly on the way back up the hill.
I was only joking when I kept telling him he was as fit as an ox.
I should never have said it, should never have kept challenging him like that.
Now look at him.’ Kathleen’s voice spiralled away into a wail, raw emotion lacing her words.