Archie points at Lina. “Curly hair?”
I raise both eyebrows. “No, but you’re getting warmer.”
I give him an encouraging grin and sit back down, as he swims towards Lina and Callum.
“You know, I was sad to lose Willie,” Angelika continues, “but I think he was ready to go. He used to say he and Arnaldo had been apart for too long.”
I nod. “Twenty-five years is a long time.”
“Absolutely.” She takes out another cigarette and lights it. “I’ve managed five without Edgar and that’s bad enough.”
“Callum!” Archie shouts, excitedly. He dives down to retrieve the key from under his brother’s foot.
“By the way,” says Angelika, “now you’re in the house, we need to carry out Willie’s wishes for his ashes. You know he wanted to have them scattered with Arnaldo’s?”
I’m embarrassed to realize I hadn’t even thought about this. “Oh, right. Where’s that?”
“In the castle, darling.” Angelika takes another drag and directs a plume of smoke into the sky. “Well, actually, we stood next to the wall up there and threw the ashes over the side. We weren’t allowed to scatter them around the actual castle, as it’s a protected building. You have to get permission for these things.”
“Shit, how do I go about doing that?”
Archie is hauling himself out of the water and running over to me. “Adam, that wasn’t fair!”
“It’s fine, I’ll do it,” says Angelika. “I did it for Arnaldo and Edgar. I know the man in the town hall in Camaiore.”
I brace myself as Archie throws himself at me. “Has the same guy been doing the job for twenty-five years?” I ask Angelika, as he starts attacking me with wet slaps.
“And the rest,” she answers, stubbing out her cigarette. “You know what small towns are like. But he’s divine. And he knew Willie and Arnaldo’s story. He was very sympathetic, actually. I’ve seen him since Willie died and we’ve spoken about it, so it won’t be a problem.”
I lift up Archie and shake him, making him giggle and squeal. “Thank you,” I say to Angelika.
“Now come on,” she commands, standing up. “Let’s find this one a treat.”
At the sound of the wordtreat, Archie wriggles out of my grasp and onto his feet. “Yes, please!”
Angelika smiles. “I don’t think any of the others will be interested.”
I look at Mabel and Freya, who are engrossed in devising some kind of synchronized swimming routine. Lina is sitting on Callum’s shoulders so he can throw her off and she can scream, loudly.
“No,” I agree.
Angelika flips open her lace parasol. “And would you like to see Willie?”
Lina screams again, so loudly it makes me wince. “What do you mean?”
“His ashes?” Angelika replies. “They’re in the living room.”
“Oh, right, sure.”
Her eyes twinkle. “When we pass the kitchen, let’s pick up another bottle of Prosecco. If Lina’s going to carry on screaming like that, I’m going to need it.”
Later, Theo and I make the children pizzas, then leave them to go out on a date night. The idea came up when Callum and Mabel offered to babysit Archie. At first I said thanks but declined: I’m still worried about money and how I’m going to pay Giuseppe for the retaining wall and storm damage—although Angelika gave me an idea on that front. But Theo insisted we should take the kids up on the offer and it would be his treat. So we’ve come to Lucca, to the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro.
It’s a lovely evening and still very warm, but we’re bored of wearing shorts and T-shirts so have dressed up in chinos, loafers and linen shirts, which we ironed—joking it was the first time we’d ironed anything in weeks. We stroll around the oval-shaped piazza, admiring the buildings of various heights that are painted lemon, wheat and a gorgeous honeycomb, their upper floors privateresidences—many of them with balconies—their lower floors occupied by restaurants, most of which have outdoor seating spread out over the paving stones. We find a table at the same restaurant where we ate on our first night in Italy—which we remember wasn’t expensive—and order a bottle of house red.
“Here’s to your fab A level results,mio carissimo,” I say, holding up my glass.
“Thanks,mio tesoro,” says Theo. “Here’s to all the students getting good news tomorrow!”
