What Happens in Tuscany... (28 page)

Katie decided to sort out the man from the restaurant. She stood up and waved her arms around a bit. ‘Hi, Paul. This is Martin. Do say hello. I'll just go and see what we're having for lunch. Oh and Martin, can you see that Paul gets some champagne?'

She just glimpsed Martin advancing upon Paul with his hand outstretched before she dashed through to the kitchen and opened the back door. A man in a white uniform and chef's hat emerged from the van and proceeded to bring in enough food for a very hungry family for a week. There was roast pork, an enormous roast duck, a pile of sausages, chops and other roast meats. There was a tray of assorted bruschetta, a tub of olives and slices of polenta with melted cheese. There was an enormous foil container of roast potatoes and other roast vegetables. She just about managed to find space on the table for it all. She gave the man a ten Euro tip and showed him out. His
buon appetito
echoed around the room.

‘Bloody hell, how many people are coming to lunch?' She felt Martin's arms around her waist and leant back against him.

‘Vicky did say she might have been a tad OTT.'

‘Christ! There's enough here for a rugby team. And I know what I'm talking about.'

‘Here, make yourself useful. Take this tray of bruschetta through to the lounge. We can eat them as a starter.'

‘First things first.' Martin spun her round to face him and pulled her to him.' I haven't seen you for twelve hours.' He gave her a long, passionate kiss, his hands pressing her body against his. She felt a wave of lust wash over her and kissed him hard in return, her hands catching and holding the back of his neck.

‘Oh, sorry if I'm interrupting.' Both of them jumped at the sound of Paul's voice. Katie stepped back in embarrassment.

‘Sorry, Paul. We…we haven't seen each other for a while.'

He gave her an embarrassed smile. ‘I tell you what, why don't I take the bruschetta through to the lounge and leave you two lovebirds to renew your vows.'

Martin gave him a grin. ‘I've already been given that job, Paul. You could bring the olives if you like.' He winked at Katie, picked up the tray of toasted bread and headed for the lounge.

‘Hello, Katie. Sorry to surprise you like that. Vicky sent me through to see what was keeping you.' His expression wasn't his normal cheery one.

‘Hello, Paul.' He was wearing a very smart white shirt and clean jeans. As always, he looked gorgeous. Katie reached out and caught him by the shoulders, pulling him close enough to kiss him on both cheeks. ‘Sorry about that.'

He ignored her remark. ‘So, where are these olives then?' He seemed in a hurry to get away.

Katie picked up the tub of olives and tipped them onto a plate. She grabbed a pot of cocktail sticks and added them to the dish. ‘Here, off you go. I'll just see if I can stick this stuff in the oven to keep warm while we eat the starters.' He went off as directed and she did her best to squeeze as much of the feast into the warm oven as possible. When there was no way anything more would fit in, she pressed the door shut and made her way through to the lounge.

Vicky had managed to get herself onto the sofa with a man on either side of her. She looked remarkably cheerful and Katie realised, if she hadn't before, that Vicky was taking to the whole socialising and flirting thing like a duck to water. Katie went over and picked up her glass. She raised it vaguely in their direction and then set it down again. For some reason the idea of alcohol didn't appeal so much. She picked up the bottle and went round topping everybody up. Deliberately, by the time it came to her turn, there was none left. Martin jumped to his feet and came over to offer her some of his. She gave him a smile.

‘No thanks. If I drink too much at lunchtime I tend to fall asleep in the afternoon.'

‘I can't think of a better way of spending an afternoon.' He leant forward and kissed her softly on the forehead.

‘Katie, Martin, listen to this. Go on, Paul, tell them what you just said.' Vicky sounded very excited. Katie took a seat in a big armchair and Martin perched on the arm, his thigh pressing against her arm.

‘Donatello's friend at the police station told him they've caught up with the count.' Katie looked up with real interest. She half-turned towards Martin and hissed.

‘I'll tell you all about it in a minute.'

Paul picked up the story. ‘Apparently he'd checked into a private nursing home in Fiesole. Ironically, it was the fact that his credit card bounced that led to his capture. The people at the home contacted the bank, who contacted the police and voilà. He's now languishing at the Italian equivalent of Her Majesty's pleasure. At the moment they've definitely got him for stealing a motor vehicle and fraud, but they may well get a lot more on him as the investigation continues.' Paul looked across at Vicky with a smile. ‘You will no doubt be saddened to hear that his broken ankle needs to be re-broken and reset. It would appear to have taken a bit of a bash, probably when he was making his unscheduled departure for the hospital in Florence.'

Katie gave Martin the details as Vicky passed the bruschetta around. At the end of her account, he shook his head and gave the lawyer's opinion. ‘It's a pity you guys don't want to press charges against him. What he did to you, Vicky, sounds grim. Who knows what might have happened?'

‘Still,' Katie looked on the bright side, ‘they'll probably dig up loads more dirt on him as a result. Anyway, the main thing is that he's in custody. Now, I think we should head through to the kitchen before the oven blows up. It's little bit full at the moment.'

They took the meal in easy stages and, altogether, it lasted almost three hours. By the time Katie served the coffee and Vicky dug out a plate of cantuccini biscuits, it was approaching four o'clock. There was still lots of food left over, not least because Katie had eaten very little. For some reason she wasn't feeling so good. They piled up the dirty plates and made their way through to the lounge once more. Outside, the air temperature had been rising steadily all day but in here, with the shutters half-closed, it was still pleasantly cool. None of them had drunk excessively, but they were all feeling pleasantly relaxed. Paul chose an armchair and Vicky sat down alongside him. Katie wondered when he was planning to tell her the story of his mother and her father to explain why he had been a bit cool when they had first met.

As she sat down opposite them on the sofa, Katie once again caught that same quizzical look in Paul's eyes. She did her best to put him at his ease.

‘I saw Marco yesterday. He was looking very smart.' She tapped Martin on the arm. ‘Now there's a really handsome man.' Turning back to Paul she told him what Marco had said. ‘He said he was going to a funeral. Not somebody close to him, I hope?'

Paul nodded sadly. ‘A good friend's mother, I'm afraid.'

‘Oh, how awful. Was she old?'

‘Not at all. She had cancer, I'm not too sure where, but I think it was pretty much all over her body. You met her daughter at my party last week. Do you remember Loretta?'

Katie nodded blankly. Of course she remembered Loretta.

‘Loretta's mum died last Wednesday. Loretta phoned me from the hospital for a bit of support.' He looked across straight at Katie. ‘She's got nobody here nowadays. Her dad's dead and her only brother lives in the States. The irony is that he flew over to see his mother that very day, but managed to arrive in Florence three hours too late. The funeral's been a mad rush because he had to get back to America where his wife is expecting a baby this week of all weeks.' He shook his head sadly. ‘I suppose Marco and I are the next best thing to brothers to her. I went straight to the hospital after she called me, but her mum had already been pronounced dead. You can imagine what sort of state Loretta was in. I walked her home from the clinic. It's not far, but she was very tottery on her feet.'

‘God, I can imagine.' Katie was very sorry for Loretta and her mum. More to the point, she now realised she had jumped to totally the wrong conclusion when she had seen them together. She felt awful. ‘How's Loretta now?'

‘Still very, very upset. She phoned me when we were on our way back from the seaside the other day. She was still coming to terms with it and hadn't found the courage to tell anybody at that stage. Her brother was jetlagged to hell and, to be honest, he's a bit of a waste of space, so he was next to useless. In fact, once I'd dropped you two off on Thursday, I went straight round and we spent a couple of hours phoning everybody who knew her.'

‘And the funeral?' Vicky looked at him sympathetically. ‘Did that go well at least?'

‘As well as these things ever do. I hate them.' He shook his head and Vicky caught his hand to comfort him. Katie sat back, surreptitiously rubbing her belly, leaning against Martin's shoulder, doing her best to take in what she had heard. So presumably Loretta and Paul weren't back together after all. Did it mean Marco hadn't been joking when he said Paul was going to be jealous? The pain in her abdomen came again, more insistently. She heard Martin's voice in her ear.

‘Carpe diem.' Sensing her upset, Martin stretched his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him. ‘Live for the day. Who knows what could be around the corner?'

Katie doubled up in agony as another wave of pain struck her, really stabbing into her this time. She fell to the floor, clutching herself and squealing.

‘Katie, are you all right? Katie…'

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘So Paul phoned Nando, and he phoned the doctor, and the doc shot round almost immediately. You were rolling around on the floor by that time.'

‘Oh, God, I'm sorry, Vicky.' It didn't sound like her own voice. Katie cleared her throat and tried again. ‘I'm so sorry for ruining the party.'

Vicky snorted. ‘Don't be so silly. Anyway, a few phone calls, a rather swish private ambulance and they brought you here.'

‘I recall some of that. I think I can remember being wheeled around the corridors, but that might have been on my way to the operating theatre.'

‘That would have been at nine o'clock last night. That's when they did the op and removed your appendix. They told me it was just in time. It was ever so swollen and could have gone pop at any moment.'

Katie lay back on the crisp white pillows and surveyed her surroundings. The hospital was unlike any hospital she had ever been in before. First of all, she had her own room and, by the looks of it, her own bathroom. Second, it looked more like a hotel bedroom, and a posh one at that, with tasteful pictures on the walls and stylish curtains. And thirdly, the view out of the window over the hills to the south of Florence was delightful.

Vicky was sitting on a chair near the bed and the huge bowl of fruit and the bunch of flowers she had brought with her were occupying most of the bedside table. Somewhere underneath them was Katie's phone, tablet computer and Kindle. Vicky had thought of everything. She was smiling happily, obviously delighted to see Katie looking and sounding better. ‘Have they told you how long you'll have to stay here?'

Katie shook her head. ‘The surgeon is supposed to be coming to see me later on after he's finished his rounds. Hopefully it shouldn't be too long.' She reached out and caught Vicky's hand. ‘Thanks for organising all this and thanks a lot for coming to see me. Have you heard from the others; Martin or Paul?'

‘Martin drove me here. He sent me in first, but he's outside waiting anxiously to see you, and Paul told me he would drop in some time later today.' Katie felt an immediate charge of excitement, but whether it was at the sound of Martin's name or Paul's was too hard for her befuddled brain to fathom out. Vicky hesitated. Katie knew her well enough by now to know something was bothering her.

‘What's the matter? Something bothering you?'

Vicky shook her head. ‘No, nothing bad. I just wanted to tell you that I asked Martin if he would stay at the villa with me last night. I hope you don't mind. After the whole paparazzi episode, and what the count tried to do to me, I was feeling a bit frightened at being there all on my own.' She was looking embarrassed. ‘Actually, I asked Paul first, but he said he couldn't, as he'd got Loretta staying. Apparently she's been there for a couple of nights.' She caught Katie's eye. ‘Paul's got such a kind heart, you know. Anyway, you don't mind my asking Martin, do you? I mean, it was all above board. He didn't actually stay with me, if you know what I mean.' Now she was blushing red. ‘He slept in one of the other bedrooms.'

‘Of course I don't mind, silly. So you're still at the opera singer's villa? I wouldn't want to be there all by myself either. There's just something a little bit creepy about the place by night.' She squeezed Victoria's hand. ‘I think choosing to have a big strong rugby player alongside you was a good move. I approve.'

Vicky looked relieved and explained. ‘With all the kerfuffle last night we never got round to moving out, but we will today. There's been no sign of the paparazzi for a few days now, so Martin said he'll help me this afternoon. We'll collect all your stuff and see that your room back in our villa is set up for you when they let you out of here.' She stood up and glanced at her watch. ‘Martin'll be jumping up and down by now. He's dying to see you and to know that you're all right. He was really worried last night.'

‘He's very sweet!' Katie reached up to tidy her hair. ‘Vicky, am I a hell of a mess? I wouldn't want to frighten the boy off.'

Vicky giggled. ‘For somebody who's just come out of the operating theatre you look just fine.' She bent over and kissed Katie on the cheek. ‘Now just you get well. All right?'

Ten seconds after the door closed behind Vicky, it swung open again and Martin came rushing in. Katie was pleased to see his worried expression turn to one of relief as he saw her. Presumably she didn't look too bad after all.