“Lovely place. All that’s missing is a pizza and an Aperol,” Einar said pleasantly, pulling a chair for me to sit down gingerly before grabbing his own.
“That could be arranged, actually,” Angelo Rossi, who had come along, replied in similarly civilised tones. “Our chef would be more than happy to make one for you. May I recommend fresh sardines and capers, or are you not a seafood fan, Mr ...?”
“Andersen,” Einar completed for him nonchalantly.
With something of a lurch, I realised that I had never known his surname, and neither has he ever asked mine. In fact, I did not know anybody else’s: Dave’s, Kevin’s, Monika’s ... such things seemed like obsolete relics of the past, useless in our new reality. But perhaps they were coming back to fashion after all.
“Sardines and capers sound good, thank you. Will you have the same, my darling?” Einar turned to me.
“Just plain tomato and cheese would be amazing,” I replied, my mouth watering at the thought.
“Certainly. And how about some Sauvignon Blanc to go with it?”
“Don’t mind if I do, thanks ever so much,” Einar replied with a precisely measured tone, suggesting friendly joviality as well as caution, so that our hosts could hear between his words that he wanted their alliance, but didn’t yet trust their intentions.
Angelo Rossi walked away to see to our refreshments. For a minute or two, all three of us watched the sea waves gently advance and recede with a rhythmic murmur of the sand and scree beneath them.
“Firstly, we do wish to commend you for your selfless service toourcountry, Mr Andersen,” Victor Ioan Santini said with just enough emphasis on the word ‘our’ to convey that we couldn’t claim the same sense of proprietorship of said country. “I’ve heard nothing but veritable legends about the both of you. I can see now that, at the very least, those pertaining to your beauty were entirely true, Mrs Andersen.”
I opened my mouth to contradict him, but closed it, leaving it up to Einar whether he wanted to correct Santini’s assumption of us being married. He did not and conveyed this by giving me an amused look.
I took care not to move a single muscle in my face. Unperturbed by my indifference to his compliment, Santini continued in his flawless English, in a tone that sounded as if he pretended to be impressed but wanted us to know he was pretending nonetheless. “And no matter how very beautiful you indeed are, those rumours weren’t the most sensational I’d heard by far. For example, it has been said that you can single-handedly send fifty furies to their death with nothing but a bow?”
He didn’t take his eyes off me, their look that of a shark ready to devour its prey.
“I’d say seventy on a good day,” Einar corrected him with a wry humour in his voice, but Santini was not to be deterred.
“And you,MonsieurAndersen.” He fixed his sights on Einar as he switched seamlessly to using the French title. “Am I correct in my understanding that you have managed to unite settlements in all the mountain regions? Consisting mostly ofvisitorsin our country, like yourselves?”
A cold smile stretched Santini’s thin lips, all traces of joviality vanishing from his voice. A minor spasm tugging at his arched eyebrow was the only indication of any emotion on his part.
Something creaked in the weeping fig’s branches above our heads, swaying to and fro in the warm seaside breeze. I shifted slightly on my seat to ease the protests of my tormented sedentary muscles, but Einar didn’t move at all. Not even as much as lifting a single finger, he hardly even blinked.
“That is right,” he said as if he had not picked up on Santini’s creeping wariness. “We did what seemed necessary to not just survive, but to thrive again. As a human race in general, quite irrespective of nationality.”
“Oh, quite. But still, it is quite something that you managed to bring together so many people of so very varying backgrounds. Not only that, but you convinced them to do things that some might term ...extreme. I’m not only talking about your mass fury extermination, but also about your successful siege of Bonifacio. Infecting its prior inhabitants was, frankly, a stroke of genius.”
Santini’s tone spoke clearly of words that its proprietor chose not to express out loud.
You’re ruthless,it said,but are you a threat to me?
Reclining back in his chair nonchalantly, Einar gave no sign of detecting the potent undercurrent that threatened to erode the pleasant, benign politeness of the conversation.
“And then, owing to your seizing Bonifacio, you managed to defeat a swarm of thousands of infected, am I right? It wasvery convenient for you to have this big fortress under your command?”
“It certainly made things easier.” Einar shrugged.
Angelo Rossi returned with a wine bottle and four glasses, pouring generously for each of us.
“To our esteemed guests.” Santini raised a toast, and we followed suit.
“Oh, it’s chilled!” I exclaimed in surprise as the pale liquid first touched my lips. “Oh, but that is divine!”
Our hosts chuckled, and the charged atmosphere seemed somewhat pacified.
“Tell me, what is your purpose in Corsica long-term?” Santini asked after a while.
We exchanged glances.
