Three Days in Florence by Chrissie Manby

Author:Chrissie Manby [Chrissie Manby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 2019-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-seven

Kathy let Manu hold Faustino’s lead on the walk back to the Casa Innocenti. He accepted with good grace, seeming impressed that she’d cottoned on to the fact it was neither an honour nor a treat to wrangle the small but solid dog. She preferred to carry the heavy basket.

They took a different route back, past a row of small shops, which included the boutique where Carla worked when she wasn’t at the hotel. Carla waved as they passed. Manu had the inside track on all the shopkeepers. Two doors down from the boutique there was a shop that looked like a hoarder’s paradise.

‘Virgilio’s shop,’ Manu said. ‘Nonna says it’s full of ghosts because all the dead people’s stuff ends up in there.’

Kathy shivered as she peered at the display in the window. It did look like the perfect shop for a ghost. Old rings and bracelets nestled in a layer of dust as thick as the velvet padding of an expensive jewellery box. None of it looked as if it would ever find another home. It was terribly sad to think of how treasured those tarnished old bits and bobs must have been once upon a time. Some of the rings must have embodied a promise. An engagement. A marriage. A lifetime of love.

While Kathy was looking at the window display, Virgilio himself suddenly loomed up behind the cabinet and flashed her a gappy smile.

‘Quick! Run!’ said Manu.

Manu set off at speed, with Faustino yapping alongside him. Kathy kept her nerve, of course, and politely nodded at the shopkeeper. Virgilio motioned that she should come into the shop and take a closer look at his wares. Kathy tapped the face of her watch, as if to say, ‘In a hurry,’ and, with a resigned nod, Virgilio melted back into the shadows.

‘He knows witchcraft,’ said Manu, when Kathy caught up with him.

‘I’m sure he’s just a perfectly nice old man,’ said Kathy.

Still, she felt unsettled. Though perhaps not by Virgilio but from the stories his window held and thoughts of her own ring, which was Heaven only knew where.

Back at the Casa Innocenti, Roberta was waiting for them.

‘Did you have ice cream?’ Roberta asked, as she took the basket and dog’s lead.

‘I had fragola and menthe,’ said Manu. It did not go unnoticed by Kathy that he’d neglected to mention the other three flavours. And the nuts. And the squirty cream.

‘That sounds delicious,’ said Roberta, adding, ‘I bet it would have been even nicer with chocolate, vanilla and stracciatella.’ Which were the other three flavours Manu had eaten. His grandmother knew him very well.

‘Kathy,’ Roberta said then. ‘Your fiancé called.’

Fiancé. Kathy was still getting used to the word. She borrowed the house phone to call him back. This time, Neil picked up at once.

‘What’s happened now?’ he asked. He sounded harassed.

‘Nothing,’ said Kathy. ‘I mean, everything’s fine. I’m just calling you back.’

‘I’m in the middle of cooking lunch,’ he said.

‘The pasta sauce?’

‘No.’

Kathy heard the microwave ping.

‘The kids won’t eat pasta.

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