Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
CASALTA, 1 MAY 1985
LUCREZIA
Matteo and I were admiring our masterpiece, when I heard the phone ringing from inside the house.
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, Matteo! This is amazing!’ I gave him a peck on the cheek. ‘Sorry, must run!’
A peck on the cheek? The old Lucrezia wouldn’t even have touched another human. I’d changed, or maybe I’d become the person I was always meant to be.
‘It’s been a pleasure,’ he said and patted one of the smooth, soft wood planks while I turned around and ran.
‘Hello?’ I answered, out of breath. It was Gherardo.
‘Lucrezia, my dear! I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I need your help, if I might ask.’
‘Of course.’
‘I have a nice lady here who’s helping us redesign the house. And I need both your advice and Bianca’s,’ Gherardo said. ‘We really want everything spruced up. A new beginning.’
I laughed. Was he for real? This was not a request I would have expected from my father’s former archenemy. ‘Signor Orafi?’
‘Gherardo!’
‘Gherardo. I don’t know anything about interior design. And if you listen to Bianca your whole house will be pink and frilly.’
‘Excuse me!’ Bianca, who’d just come down, elbowed me. I signalled to her to come and listen, and we sat cheek to cheek with the receiver between us.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to ask Mum and Mia?’
‘I did, but they’re busy, and the designer can only come today.’
‘Gherardo,’ Bianca said.
‘Yes.’
‘Since when were you so into decorating?’
‘I’ve always been, my dear. Can I send you the car?’
‘It’s okay, we’ll drive there.’
‘Does this make sense to you?’ I asked Bianca as we stepped out in the sunshine.
‘Nope. It sounds strange. But he asked for our help, so let’s go.’
The following two hours were spent looking at fabric swatches with Gherardo and a woman with talon-like scarlet nails and enormous hair, named Annasara. ‘Forest green. Very manly ,’ she gushed.
Signor Gherardo looked like he was somewhere between losing the will to live and falling asleep. I could relate.
‘Can I take you signorine for a visionary stroll around the estate?’ Annasara offered.
I gave Gherardo a pleading look. ‘Sure,’ Bianca said wearily, always helpful.
At that moment, the phone on Gherardo’s bedside table rang, and he lifted the receiver.
‘A-ha. A-ha. A-ha. Girls, you’re needed back home,’ he said.
Bianca and I exchanged a look. It was all too strange.
‘Well, I’m sorry we couldn’t be much help, but I’m sure that Vanni and Lorenzo…’ Bianca began.
‘ Sì, sì , they’ll do it.’ Gherardo waved her off. ‘It’s time you go.’
‘Oh, sure.’ He was almost throwing us out of the house.
‘You’re probably tired,’ Bianca said, considerate as always.
‘Exhausted!’ Gherardo adjusted his position on the armchair, and I saw that under his house jacket he wore steel-grey linen trousers and a white shirt. A very stylish outfit. Probably a little too stylish for the house, even by Gherardo’s standard?
‘Can we get you anything before we go?’ Bianca asked.
‘I’m perfectly fine, thank you. Susanna will see you out.’ He rang a bell and Susanna arrived, ready to take us and Annasara to the door.
‘What was all that about?’ I said, once inside the car.
Bianca shrugged. ‘Maybe he’s a little confused?’
‘Bianca, he’s unwell physically, but his mind is perfectly sound.’
‘Well, we’ll ask Mum. Poor Gherardo.’
‘ Forest green is so manly ,’ I imitated the designer, and we both dissolved in fits of laughter.
‘Shame we missed the visionary stroll ,’ Bianca said drily.
‘We have visitors,’ I said as soon as we arrived at the house. Cars were lined up outside the courtyard, under the dryads’ watchful eye.
‘That’s Gherardo’s car? What…’
Mum stood in front of the kitchen door, preventing us from getting inside. ‘To the gardens, girls!’ she commanded us. She wore a bright flowery dress down to her ankles and a rose behind her ear. The penny was beginning to drop.
‘Oh, Lulu! I think…’ Bianca began, taking my arm. ‘It’s the first of May, our birthday. With all that happened, we forgot all about it!’
The rose garden was decorated with red and pink ribbons, and a table laden with food and wine had been set up. Nora and Mia were there, and Gabriella. Vanni, Lorenzo, even Gherardo! How had he made it here so fast? Matilde stood beside Gabriella, and I spotted Matteo, Pera, even… was that Cavalli? Everyone began intoning ‘Happy Birthday’, and to my shame I started to cry. Thankfully Bianca was crying too…
So did Cavalli. For some reason. ‘He begged me to come,’ Mum said, following my gaze. ‘Didn’t have the heart to say no.’
‘I can’t believe you did all this for us! You’re right, Bianca, with all that happened I forgot about our birthday!’
‘I never forgot. Every first of May, I celebrated you,’ Mum said quietly.
Next thing I knew, Vanni was beside me. The look we exchanged said everything – and although we were in a crowd, I had to bend over and kiss him.
The party was in full swing. There was way more food than we could eat, as is the case in every Italian celebration. The wine was flowing, and old-fashioned music played in the background, with Nora and Matteo dancing, and Matilde twirling around with Pera. Mia was dancing too, on her own, in Mia’s style. Bianca and Lorenzo, instead, sat at opposite ends of the table, Bianca beside Mum, Lorenzo beside Gherardo.
When the party was folding and people beginning to leave, I took Vanni’s hand and led him behind the house, where his surprise was waiting for him.
Matteo and Nora had done a wonderful job. Planks of wood made a sort of open box with the tree branch for a roof and pine needles for a floor, and blankets decorated and softened the walls. It was almost identical to our old treehouse, except it was on the ground. I’d threaded fairy lights in the branches, like fireflies in the twilight gloom.
‘Oh, Lucrezia!’
‘Do you like it?’
‘It’s amazing! How did you…?’
‘My sister and a friend helped. Come,’ I said, and helped him on the ground. He settled under the branch-roof, and I sat beside him. From under a blanket I revealed a basket with a bottle of wine and two glasses. ‘Ta-da!’
He laughed. ‘Ta-da indeed!’
‘To us.’ We clinked the glasses together.
‘To us. I didn’t think it was possible,’ he whispered. His face looked so perfect, so beloved, in the half-gloom and twinkling lights.
‘To be together again?’
‘To come to life again,’ he said, and kissed me, and there was no more reason to speak.