The Secret of Villa Alba by Louise Douglas

Author:Louise Douglas [Douglas, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

62

April had a quick look at the cottage. It was set into the hill, lower than the stables, and was a small, functional building with plastered walls, and a slab roof covered in red tiles with a water tank on top. There was only a tiny patch of garden. Daria’s laundry was pegged to a washing line that ran from the side of the house to a post, and back again. Situated as it was, with two of the walls facing the slope of the hillside, and the others close to the trees, it must be dark inside, April surmised. But at least it would be cool.

She took some photographs and was about to head back down the hill when her phone rang. It was Maddalena. She sounded stressed.

‘I’m in the hospital,’ she said. ‘Milo Conti has been here. He came right to the door of Papa’s room, but luckily Elissa was still here and she told him to get out. He went away this time, but I don’t think we can stop him coming back. Anyone can walk into this part of the hospital. I don’t know what to do!’

‘Is Enzo well enough to come home?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘If it’s safe for him to come back to the villa, we could look after him here, at least until after the broadcast. We could get a room ready this evening and pick him up in the morning.’

‘I’ll find out if it’s possible. Are you okay, April? What are you doing?’

‘I’m at the stables. Giuseppa told me about the stable hand who died in the earthquake. Do you remember him?’

‘Vaguely. I know he was a brilliant horseman. My grandfather thought the world of him.’

‘Do you know his name?’

‘I did… Oh, I can’t remember. But if you divert into the graveyard on the way back down to the villa you can find out. He’s buried there. My grandparents decided to put him in the family cemetery in case anyone ever turned up looking for him. His grave’s at the back, behind the main monument. It’s probably a bit overgrown, but if you persevere, you’ll find him.’

When they’d finished the call, April followed the path down to the graveyard. She opened the gate and stepped across the gulley.

The cemetery was green and gloomy. Nothing grew there; the ground was covered with pine needles and cones and someone had placed an animal skull, a sheep or a deer’s, on the top of the gatepost.

April approached the grand family vault. She glanced at the list of those Borgatas interred inside. Oval ceramic plaques showed the faces of the more recent additions. There was Patrick, a bushy-browed, good-looking man wearing the same cowboy hat he’d been wearing in the family photograph. Below him was Alia Oliveri, Enzo’s first wife; so like her daughter that the image could have been taken from a photograph of Maddalena.

Treading carefully, April walked around the vault. Beyond was an area where the shrubs and trees of the woodland had intruded. The ground was thick with leaf and pine debris.

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