INSTRUCTING THE TAXI driver to wait, Cesare Saracino swung his long legs to the wet pavement and headed towards the small, old-fashioned butcherâs shop at the end of the largely deserted narrow high street, his dark eyes grim with determination.
His investigator had tracked down her widowed motherâs home address with no difficulty at all. Personally he couldnât see Jilly Lee actually returning here, never mind living in a flat above a butcherâs in a small market town on the border of Wales where nothing much ever happened. She needed bright lights, the company of admiring free-spending males. Glitz and glamour.
She wouldnât be here but her mother would know where she had gone since her sneaky disappearance from the villa. Jilly Leeâa soft and silly name for a first class bitchâwould be made to pay. Heâd find her and haul her back to Tuscany, demand reparation, force her to put her hunt for a wealthy husband and her thieving activities on hold and do the job sheâd been hired to do.
His mouth tightened with pain. The way things were going, Jilly Lee wouldnât be in harness for long. Nonna was visibly growing more frail, though it galled him to have to admit that since the arrival of the Lee woman sheâd brightened considerably.
âThere are no signs of clinical disease,â her specialist had informed him three months ago, early in the new year. âBut your grandmother is well over eighty and has been a widow for how long?â
âThirty years.â
âAnd one by one she will have seen most of her contemporaries pass away. The body gets increasingly frail and so the will to live dwindles, there is less and less to look forward to.â
Hating the thought that Nonna was simply letting go, heâd kicked against it and suggested hiring a congenial companion.
âSomeone to read to me while I do my embroidery? And drone on in a tedious, elderly way about the misdeeds of modern day youngsters and bore me with interminable tales of her own long-gone youth?â Sheâd patted his hand, her smile, as ever, kind and fond. âI donât think so.â
âSomeone to keep you company.â
âRosa can do that.â
âRosa has her hands full of housekeeping duties. She canât spare the time to go around the garden with you while you snip things off!â
A dry look. âThere are plenty of gardeners to pick me up if I fall over while Iâm deadheadingâif thatâs what worries you!â
Heâd taken both her frail hands in his. âI spend as much time here at the villa as I can but Iâm often away. Of course I worry about you. You took me in when I was a stroppy twelve-year-old. You cared for me. Let me now care for you. And thereâs no law that says a paid companion has to be in her dotage.â
Heâd drafted the advertisement himself, offered sky-high wages, sat in on the interviews and had noted the first spark of any real interest in the faded old eyes when Jilly Lee had been shown in.
On first sight sheâd seemed vaguely familiar. A face glimpsed at a nightclub in Florence when heâd been entertaining an American client whoâd expressed an interest in unwinding in a hot spot? But then these out-on-the-prowl bimbos all looked alike. Flowing long blonde hair, pouty scarlet lips, skimpy dresses designed to show pneumatic bosoms and endless legs. Ten a penny. Heâd been hit on by enough of them during his thirty-four years to know the type. No wonder Nonna called him cynical.
Heâd dismissed the impression. True, Ms Lee had long silky blonde hair but it had been neatly tied back with a black velvet band and the blue shift dress sheâd been wearing, although doing nothing to detract from her blatant curves, was demure enough in the hemline stakes.
As in the three previous interviews heâd simply observed, leaving Nonna to run the show, only inputting when heâd felt the need for clarification.
On the face of it she had seemed ideal. Twenty-five years old, so definitely not the middle-aged bore Nonna had stated she wouldnât countenance. English, but with very passable Italian. Excellent references from a famous London store. The time spent in the interim travelling in Italy, picking up the language, taking odd jobs to eke out her savings, moving on, never staying in one place for very long. Now she wanted to settle permanently in this beautiful country.
Rarely sparing him a glance, sheâd chatted away with ease, charming and outgoing, and when Nonnaâalready captivatedâhad asked her to withdraw for a moment, told him with the first flash of excitement heâd seen coming from her in months, âI like her. Sheâs young, lively and lovely to look at. Just what I need since you point blank refuse to marry and bring a young bride here to brighten my days and keep me on my toes! Plus, we can practice my English together. I once spoke it as well as you do, but now I am rusty. What do you think? Shall we hire her?â