Dreaming of Tuscany by Dreaming of Tuscany (retail) (epub)

Author:Dreaming of Tuscany (retail) (epub) [Tuscany, Dreaming of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788630962
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

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That evening, before dinner, Bee checked out Riccardo Negri on the internet and got a major shock. The Wikipedia entry was long and informative, but not only about his art career. As well as charting his professional life from humble art student to international fame resulting in a number of his paintings being exhibited in galleries around the globe, it also included a biography of him. This was a real eye-opener and Bee read it with rapt attention.

Riccardo Negri was born in 1955 at Montegrifone, the only child of Baron Cosimo and Margherita Negri. In 1980, he married an Englishwoman, Elizabeth Greensleeves, who sadly died of cancer some years later. After his wife’s death, Riccardo went through a bleak period of depression, reflected in his paintings of the time. Ironically, this more sombre turn to his art was what brought him to the attention of the critics and saw his career leap forward. The general consensus was that his work after the death of his wife was on an altogether superior level compared to his early work. However, his productivity of late had gradually dwindled to a trickle and he had now almost disappeared off the radar.

But none of that was as unexpected or as astonishing as the fact that the article recorded the birth of his only son. The boy was born some ten years before the death of his wife and his name was Luke.

Bee sat back in amazement. So Luke, the estate manager, was in fact Riccardo’s son. The breath whistled out of her lungs. Why, she wondered, was Luke maintaining a pretence of being just a hired hand when he would presumably inherit the estate, and the redundant title of baron, in due course? What had Umberto meant when he had said the inheritance was ‘complicated’? Why was Riccardo living here alone and claiming he never spoke to anybody? And did that include his son?

Bee knew she needed to talk to somebody about this and the obvious choice was Umberto, who clearly knew all there was to know about Montegrifone. She glanced at the time and saw that she still had an hour before dinner so she went down to look for him. She found him sitting in the shade outside the back door with the dog sprawled out at his feet.

‘Umberto, I wanted to ask you something, but if it’s too personal or a secret, just say so and I’ll forget it. It’s none of my business anyway.’

She saw him turn towards her, the sad smile on his face indicating that he had been expecting this.

‘You’ve been talking to Riccardo again?’ Bee nodded. ‘And you want to know why we have a father and a son in two different houses a few hundred metres apart, who don’t talk to each other?’

Bee nodded once more. ‘But only if you feel like telling me. I don’t want to intrude.’

‘It’s no secret, Bee. Have you ever spoken to Luca about his father?’

She shook her head. ‘No. I only discovered they were related a few minutes ago.

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