Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,24

escape to Tuscany was turning out to be everything she had dreamed of and more.

In spite of being on her own, she was delighted to find she was untroubled by bad dreams of evil men with machetes that night and slept soundly. Next morning she didn’t need an alarm clock. In fact, she was woken at a quarter to six by not one, but a chorus of cockerels. This, in turn, set the village dogs off and, after lying there for a while, she decided there was no way she was going to be able to go back to sleep so she might as well get up. After another few hours unpacking and tidying, she decided to go for a little walk around the village. This proved to be instructive.

As she was turning to lock the front door, she heard a voice.

‘Buongiorno, Signora.’

She turned to find herself being addressed by a little old lady who barely reached up to her shoulder. Her hair was white, her clothes a sombre black, but there was no mistaking the sparkle in her eyes or the smile on her face. Lucy found herself smiling back at her.

‘Buongiorno a lei.’ Lucy held out her hand in greeting. As the old lady shook it, she waved vaguely towards Lucy’s house.

‘Are you living here now?’

Lucy nodded. ‘Yes, I moved in yesterday. My name’s Lucy.’

‘I’m pleased to meet you, Lucy. My name’s Margherita Bianchi. I live in the white house on the corner by the church. But Lucy isn’t an Italian name, is it?’

Lucy explained that she was English, but that she was about to start a new job here. The old lady nodded approvingly.

‘That’s very good to hear. So many of the houses round here are closed up for months on end and only get used in summer by rich Florentines trying to escape from the heat of the city.’ She smiled up at Lucy. ‘Or by foreigners who only come for a week or two. It’s good to know the village will have a bit of young blood.’

They stood and chatted for a while before the old lady set off up the road, remarkably nimbly, and Lucy headed down into the village. Despite the fact that the first part of the name of the village, Castelnuovo, translated as ‘new castle’, she found no trace of any fortifications. Her historical curiosity was kindled and she resolved to do a bit of research to find out what had been here, if anything. All she found was a sweet little Romanesque church, but with the door locked. Just beyond it, on the corner of a modest-sized piazza, was the village shop. It was open and she decided to do a bit of shopping to help the local business. She walked in through a multi-coloured plastic fly curtain and found herself in Aladdin’s cave.

The ceiling was low and the walls were lined with shelves all the way up to the top. On these were items as varied as tinned beans, firelighters, shovels, barbed wire and grappa. Definitely the place for anybody planning a siege. Thought of sieges and castles reminded her once more of her resolve to find out more about the origins of the village and she decided to ask the shopkeeper for any information. Pots and pans hung from hooks driven into the ancient beams that supported the ceiling and directly underneath, in the middle of the shop, there was a deepfreeze. This was packed with everything from octopus to ice cream, with joints of meat and skinned rabbits jockeying for position alongside frozen peas, prawns and what looked like home-made lasagne. At the rear of the shop was a long counter heaped with fresh fruit and vegetables and, behind it, a lanky man whose head almost grazed the ceiling. He was smiling.

‘Buongiorno, Signora. Posso aiutarla?’

On the counter behind him was a leg of dry-cured ham set on a metal rack, with a long carving knife lying beside it. Lucy liked the look of that and she asked for a dozen thin slices and then watched as he carved them by hand with the precision born out of many years of experience. While he was working, she asked if he knew the whereabouts of a castle round here and he nodded.

‘Up on the hill by the Villa Castelnuovo. There’s not much left there now – just a few old walls and a heap of rubble. We used to play up there as kids, but it’s all private now