Why the hell not? Leo’s company was better than being on her own all day and she’d barely seen the city because she’d been waiting for Steve to visit. And exploring with someone else was always more fun.
‘Okay, if we can see the Charles Bridge and the Castle.’ She felt guilty that she’d not yet seen either, especially as wherever you went there was nearly always a view of the castle overlooking the city.
‘Excellent. See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’ said Leo. ‘Leave in ten?’
When they boarded the tram fifteen minutes later, Anna hadn’t planned not to talk to Leo, but she was quite happy to take in the unfamiliar streets as they trundled through. He seemed happy with her silence, too, but then Leo’s basic disposition was to be happy. Nothing ever fazed him.
It didn’t take long to reach Andel metro station, where they disembarked from the tram along with a flow of people all headed the same way.
‘We need to buy tickets,’ Leo announced as they approached the entrance.
‘Really?’ drawled Anna, giving in to a sudden urge to tease him. ‘I had no idea.’
‘Very funny.’ He nudged her with his elbow and, just like that, being with him felt familiar and easy again. ‘I was talking out loud. Lead on. Since you’re such a smartarse, you can buy the tickets.’
He gestured towards the unmissable bright yellow machines. Anna straightened and headed towards them. It was only when she was halfway across the forecourt that it occurred to her: she’d taken the lead. She automatically took a back seat these days because Steve always led the way, sorting out tickets and bookings. Somehow, without thinking about it, she’d relinquished that sort of responsibility and relied on him. After always being the outsider at home, running to keep up and to fit in with her adopted family, it had been a relief to find someone who focused on her, looked out for her and loved her as she was. Now she realised that maybe she leaned on Steve too much and had given him the wrong impression. She’d been lazy in putting forward her opinions and wants, too grateful for his attention. In truth, she wasn’t really a dutiful follower.
Thankfully, the ticket machines offered an English option, so she was able to buy the tickets with relative ease.
‘Here you go.’ With a touch of pride, she handed over his ticket before adding, ‘Make sure you don’t lose it.’
Leo laughed. ‘That was six years ago. Are you ever going to let me forget it?’
‘What?’ She frowned.
Now it was his turn to frown.
‘You remember. When I left the train tickets on the table in the carriage of the first train from London when we changed trains. That time we went to the Edinburgh Festival.’
She snorted a laugh as it all came back. ‘I do now.’ Sobering slightly, she also remembered how, in inimitable Leo style, he’d charmed the female train manager into not throwing them off the train at the next stop. Women always loved Leo.
Just like they loved Uncle Henry. Anna winced, remembering the slow deflation of her aunt’s confidence over the years. How she was always looking over her shoulder. Anna wasn’t going to be that woman.
Quashing the memory, she headed for the escalator, pleased to see that the metro was very easy to navigate, and Leo fell into step beside her.
‘This is very grand,’ he said as they walked through a cavernous hallway with large marble tiles on the curved pillars.
‘It was built during the communist regime,’ Anna told him, remembering what she’d read in her guidebook earlier that morning. ‘Dedicated to the Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship and built in the Soviet style. Originally there were lots of propaganda reliefs and this station was calledMoskevská, named after the city of Moscow. As part of the “cultural exchange” –’ Anna’s fingers made quotation marks ‘– there was a metro station built in Moscow named after Prague.’
‘Still like to do lots of research, then,’ teased Leo.
Anna nodded. ‘It was a long drive here and it’s amazing what you look up on your phone.’
‘Have you looked up somewhere for brunch? I’m starving.’
She allowed herself to look smug. ‘Of course.’
‘Excellent.’
The metro train arrived and a few stops later they disembarked at Mustek, where the green and yellow metro lines intersected. Using her phone Anna directed them down a wide cobbled pedestrianised street, full of shops featuring familiar European brands: Desigual, Zara, Douglas, Nike, Swarovski and Mango. Further down the road, their route followed a one-way street before they came to an old Gothic gate next to a gorgeous Art Deco building.
‘The café’s in there,’ said Anna, pointing to the cream building with its huge arched windows on the first floor and dramatic square ones at ground level. The entrance in the middle was even more striking, with a huge cupola over it featuring an ornate mosaic above a semi-circular balcony with intricate ironwork railings. Inside the airy entrance hall, decorated with stained-glass windows, were a café and a restaurant. They turned left across the mosaic-tiled floor into the beautifully appointed Art Deco room.
‘This is some place,’ said Leo, looking up at the magnificent glass chandeliers and the ceiling’s simple but elegant pale blue and white plasterwork. ‘Is that a fountain?’ He pointed to the water feature at the other end of the room as they took their seats and ordered coffee. Anna chose a delicious-sounding basket of pastries while Leo selected eggs Benedict with Prague ham that he wanted to try.
‘Well, this is one way to spend a Sunday morning,’ he said , glancing around the busy room.
‘Yes,’ said Anna, guiltily thinking of Steve out on the rugby pitch.
