I Remember You (25 page)

Night was falling when Tess and Peter finally emerged from the hospital. They had seen Leonora Mortmain, tiny in her starched white hospital bed, with the yellow light from an outside lamp flooding the little room where she lay. Her hands were resting on her chest, and her lined face in repose was curiously strong, the cheekbones high and defined. It was shocking to see her like this, passive, laid out on the bed where anyone could walk past and see her. She was wearing a pale blue hospital gown. Her shallow breathing rattled in the echoing room.

‘She will not remember you,’ Dr Veltroni said. Her tone was comforting, though Tess wasn’t sure that was what she intended.

They were standing now in a quiet little square in front of the hospital. Tess had not really got her bearings, and she looked around her, realizing once again she was on an island, in the middle of the river. The hospital was behind them, a church in front of them. An ancient white marble bridge led back to the centre.

‘That’s the oldest bridge in the city,’ Peter said. ‘Ponte Fabricio. It was built even before Caesar. There—there’s a cool fact for you.’ He wrapped his arms round her and she
rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Oh, honey. This isn’t the time I had in mind for you. You OK?’

‘Yes,’ Tess said. ‘Yes, fine.’ She shook her head, wishing she could sink into his arms and stay there in the twilight. ‘I’d better get back, though. I need to see if everyone’s all right back at the hotel. See what’s happened with finding Mrs Mortmain’s nearest and dearest.’ She spoke the last word bitterly.

‘You don’t like her, do you?’ Peter said. Tess’s eyes flew open.

‘No,’ she said eventually, leading him away from the hospital, so they were in the middle of the piazza, where only a couple of straggling tourists remained in the dusk. ‘I don’t like her. Sorry, but I think she’s an evil woman.’

Peter shook his head. ‘Tess, that’s awful.’

‘I know.’

‘No, that’s an awful thing to say,’ Peter said, shaking his head.

‘I know that, too,’ Tess told him.

‘What’s she done to you? You don’t know what made her that way.’

His tone was light, but there was a serious note behind it, and Tess was serious too. ‘She’s—not been very nice, to most people. That’s the trouble. That’s why I don’t know what to do.’

‘How so?’ Peter folded his arms, and sat on an old iron bollard. ‘What’s she done that’s so awful?’

‘Well…’ said Tess. ‘She’s made a lot of enemies. She thinks she’s better than everyone else in the town. In Langford. Where I’m—they’re all from.’

‘Why does she think that?’

Tess shrugged her shoulders, looking around her. ‘I wish I knew.’ She told him briefly about the water meadows, and the planning permission that had been granted. ‘I think the timing of this holiday is unfortunate, from that point of view,’ she said, chewing the corner of her index finger. ‘There are
people here now who fought her every step of the way on those plans, and they’re very cross with her.’ He nodded, his intelligent dark eyes watching her, but she didn’t feel he understood. ‘It’s their town, you know. Their home. They’ve grown up there, they’ve raised their children there, or they’ve chosen to live there and she just doesn’t seem to care. Like—where are you from?’ She realized she wasn’t sure. ‘Upstate New York, yes?’

‘Long Island,’ Peter said. ‘Lot of good dental work and collagen there. Not many water meadows.’ He said the last sentence with a terrible English accent, and she realized how foreign it all was to him, of course it was. ‘But hey, my mom’s Italian, and the village her parents are from, up near Turin, the mayor tried to put up a statue of Berlusconi last year, and he had his legs broken.’ He nodded. ‘Both of them.’

She loved him for trying. ‘It’s silly, I know. But she is—honestly, she’s not a very nice person.’

‘You said she was evil.’

Tess threw up her hands. ‘OK, OK! Perhaps she’s not…
evil
. She’s just hard to like, that’s all.’

‘That’s better,’ said Peter, standing up and putting his hands on her shoulders. ‘Actual evil, that’s really bad. You don’t know, something could have happened to make her that way.’ He paused. ‘Something that changed her.’

His face was serious. She stroked it, and drew his mouth down to hers, kissing him. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I understand.’

He drew back a little and stroked her hair. ‘Do you want me to come back to the hotel with you?’

Tess really did, but she knew it probably wasn’t that great an idea, to rock up back at the Albergo Watkins with a hot young man by her side—she knew the rumour mill would have been started already by Ron and Andrea and she didn’t need any more fuel added to that particular fire. Plus, she was afraid, suddenly, afraid that all this—real life, is that what it was?—would get in the way of what had been, till Leonora
Mortmain dropped to the floor in front of them three hours ago, something almost perfect. She didn’t want real life getting in the way of this. Not yet. Let it be in its own bubble, just for the moment.

‘No, that’s OK,’ she said. ‘I’d better go back on my own. You understand.’

‘I do, but call me if you need me,’ Peter said. He clutched her wrists. ‘You are beautiful, Tess.’ His expression was intense. ‘So we’ll go our separate ways on the bridge. I’ll call you tomorrow, shall I?’

‘Yes, please,’ she whispered, wishing then that he was coming back with her. He kissed her, his hand under her chin, and walked away, up over the bridge. Tess turned, heading south, back to the hotel, to the rest of her life.

‘Tess, there you are!’ Carolyn Tey was sitting in the lobby of the Albergo Watkins, clutching a tissue, her faded pink face stained with tears, her fluffy blonde hair even fluffier than usual. Jacquetta sat next to her, patting her hand, fluttering her long lashes in time to the hand-patting, as if she were on autopilot. ‘Oh—oh, dear, how is she?’

Tess patted Carolyn’s shoulder as she made her way towards the bench, under the painting of the Colosseum. She knelt on it with one leg, feeling a bit dizzy all of a sudden, and the bright strip lighting of the lobby making her eyes hurt. At the desk, on the phone, was Diana Sayers, and next to her was Jan. Relief flooded through Tess as she realized, then, what she already knew, that Diana and Jan were sensible people, strange in some ways, yes, but sensible to a degree. And that was what she needed at the moment.

‘She’s not great, I’m afraid,’ Tess said. ‘The doctor says tomorrow will tell us more. She’s not in any pain. But she is unconscious.’

‘The doctor, did he say it was ca—caused by anything?’ Carolyn said.

Tess looked up; Andrea Marsh and Ron were standing at the bottom of the stairs, side by side. They looked back at her, fear in their eyes.

‘She. The doctor is a she,’ Tess said. ‘She’s called Francesca,’ she said unnecessarily, and she started as she realized the connection. Francesca…What was her Francesca doing now, back in rainy Langford on a Friday afternoon? It seemed a million miles away. ‘She didn’t say it was caused by anything. She said Mrs Mortmain was quite frail, that was all.’

‘Poor girl,’ said Diana, who had put the phone down and was striding across the lobby. She patted Tess on the back and Tess was touched to realize she was talking to her. ‘What a day. No more news?’ Tess shook her head. ‘She’s still hanging on, then?’

‘Diana!’ Jan protested, scandalized. ‘Oh, my goodness, you can’t say that!’

‘Well, is she or isn’t she?’ Diana said calmly. ‘I don’t mind either way, but on balance, we don’t want our holiday ruined by a fatality, do we?’

Tess laughed, partly out of shock. ‘Did you get hold of Jean Forbes?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ said Jan. ‘She’s talking to the Mortmain’s solicitors. She—oh, she said—’

Diana interrupted her suddenly, looking at Tess with concern. ‘You look washed out, Tess, if you don’t mind me saying so. It’s been a long day. Have you eaten?’

What with the long morning sex session on the floor, the Prosecco, the walking around, the medical emergency and then the hours of waiting, Tess realized that she probably hadn’t eaten anything all day, beyond a few pieces of bread and cheese at Peter’s. ‘No,’ she said. ‘And I’m starving. I might go out and—’

‘Don’t worry,’ said a voice behind her, and she turned to find Liz and Claire standing in the doorway, holding a white package. ‘We went to the bakery on the Campo dei Fiori. We
got some stuff, because we didn’t know what everyone would be doing tonight. We thought you might be hungry.’

Tess stared at them gratefully. ‘I love you both,’ she said.

‘No worries,’ Liz said briskly. ‘Thought it was something we could do to help.’

‘Come out onto the terrace,’ Diana said. ‘Eat it there, we’ll get some wine sent up, too. What a day.’

‘What a day, oh, my days,’ said Jan, following behind her. She touched Jacquetta on the shoulder. ‘You coming, dear?’

‘In a minute,’ Jacquetta said heavily. ‘I’ll just make sure Carolyn is all right—’

‘I’m fine,’ said Carolyn, dissolving into tears ago. ‘I—I’m fine…Oh, dear, it’s all so awful, isn’t it?’

Tess stared at her, not sure how to respond. She was in charge, and she didn’t really know what to do, how to lead them, what was the right thing to say. ‘Come on,’ Claire said, guiding Tess slightly by the arm. ‘We can discuss what we’re going to do up there. It’s a lovely evening. Let’s try and catch the rest of it.’

They sat outside on the hotel’s tiny terrace, where the jasmine was entwined with ivy and the sounds of the city wafted over them, as if on a breeze. In the morning, they knew, decisions would have to be made, but nothing could be done now, and Tess relaxed a little. They talked late into the night about anything and everything, laughing, smiling at each other’s stories about awful jobs, about disastrous dates, about friends with children, their hopes for the future, and so on. It was a strange end to a strange day, and Tess realized, for the first time, how nice it was to talk to someone her own age, out here.

‘You were always a bit scary, in class,’ Liz told her, emptying the last of the final bottle into Tess’s glass. ‘I didn’t really feel I could come up to you and say, “Hi! Wanna go for a drink?”’

‘That’s awful,’ said Tess, thinking of how she’d never really
talked to them before, or even wanted to. They were her own age, they’d both left London recently, and she hadn’t noticed, or cared. And how she’d complained it was hard to make friends in Langford. She was…well, she was stupid.

‘Well, it’s good to talk to you now.’ Claire yawned and stretched, and Tess did the same. ‘Although the circumstances aren’t ideal.’

‘No,’ said Tess soberly. She yawned again, and pushed the greaseproof paper that had held her sandwich away from her. ‘I suppose I’d better go to bed. We’ll know more tomorrow and we need to decide then what’s going to happen.’

‘If we go home early, you mean?’ Liz said, kneeling up.

‘It’s up to you all, really,’ said Tess. ‘We’re leaving on Monday, it’s three more days. I need to talk to the insurance company about what people can do if they want to go back tomorrow.’

The two girls nodded. ‘And how you get her home.’ Claire stood up, gathering the paper and bottles together.

‘What?’ Tess was momentarily distracted, looking out across the rooftops, the starry sky, listening to the faint sound of ambulances racing along the main road next to the Tiber.

‘Her. Leonora Mortmain. How you get her home. You’re in charge,’ Liz said, patting her on the shoulder.

‘I am.’ Tess nodded, and a chill ran through her again. ‘Yes. I guess they’ll tell me tomorrow, and then I’ll have to decide what to do next.’

But as it turned out, she didn’t need to make the decision. It was taken out of her hands.

By nine thirty the next morning, Tess was long up, showered and dressed. She had had breakfast and was due to go with Jan, Andrea and Ron to the hospital, to hear how Leonora had been during the night: she supposed that meant whether she had survived the night. Tess was just gathering her things together in her bedroom, as the morning sunshine played in
the trees outside her window. The birds sang, almost raucously. She hummed to herself, trying to buoy herself up, as the sound of a car blocked out the birdsong for a moment. A car door opened, then slammed. Surely, she told herself, if she was dead, they’d have called her, Tess, already? They wouldn’t wait for her to get to the hospital? Perhaps it was good news—if that
was
good news, for someone in that situation—she didn’t know.

She went over to the window, shutting it. The car outside drove away and she heard footsteps up the stairs. It was quiet again. Tess looked for the birds in the trees, but she couldn’t see them. Picking up her keys and her bag, she shut the door behind her and went downstairs. She was the first person there.

‘Typical,’ she said, out loud. ‘If I don’t boss them around, they just don’t—’

But then the front door creaked open, and a man with a bag slung over his shoulder walked in.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.

‘Tess,’ he said. She stared at him, at this tall, strangely familiar man, shaking her head, and then she realized who it was. As if she was seeing him for the first time in her adult life. Her mouth fell open.

‘Adam?’ she said, her heart beating in her throat. ‘Adam, what the hell are you doing here?’

‘Tess. My dear.’ Adam smiled, with his mouth and not his eyes. ‘It’s wonderful to see you.’ He stared at her bleakly, his expression unreadable. He was a man, she thought, a grown-up, how had she not seen it before?

Behind her, someone said, ‘Ah, you’re here.’

Behind Tess, Diana came down the stairs quickly, and hugged him. She clutched his arm, her mouth set, and Tess could see, through her astonishment, that she was trying not to cry.

‘Why—what’s going on?’ Tess said. ‘Adam—what are you doing here?’

‘He’s the next of kin,’ Diana said softly. ‘He’s the one you were looking for.’

Adam spoke then. ‘It’s true, Tess.’ His low voice echoed in the polished hall, but he was speaking only to her.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand—’

He interrupted her. ‘There’s something you need to know,’ he said. He cleared his throat.