The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop Part 27

'OK. Well, we can work with this. A couple of shots with the dog, too,' Imogen said, taking a few more.

She then zoomed in for some more close-ups.

'Right, all done,' Imogen said.

'Finished already?' Evie said.

'Yes. You were the ideal model. Now, let's take a look and see what we've got.' She pulled up a chair beside Evie.

'That one's rather nice, isn't it?' Evie said, pointing at the screen. 'I think that's the one where I look most like me.'

'Great. I'll edit that one and a couple of others this afternoon and print them for you.'

'Thank you, Imogen. You are kind to do this. Then I suppose I'll put one in with my letter to Luigi. Send that out.' Evie's natural confidence seemed to waver for a moment. 'What if he . . .?'

'He will love getting your letter and your photo,' Imogen said. 'I just know it.'

The bell that announced the arrival of new customers rang out, and Imogen looked over to the door. Clarissa came in; her dark red hair was swept up into a pleat and she wore a knee-length flowered dress and sandals. It was the first time Imogen had seen her outside of the rooms in the guesthouse. She looked energised and her cheeks were prettily flushed.

'h.e.l.lo,' Imogen said, as Clarissa came in. 'This is a nice surprise.'

'Do you mind if I join you?' Clarissa asked. Imogen introduced her to Evie, and she said h.e.l.lo politely, but there was a slightly wild excitement in her eyes.

'I'm sorry, this is so rude of me to interrupt,' Clarissa said to them both. 'But I had to come down here and talk to you. The most unusual thing has happened, and I can't bear to have it all just sit here in my head.'

Evie went to make them all some tea, and Imogen led Clarissa over to one of the booths to sit down. By the time that Evie returned, with a large red teapot and cups, Clarissa was gradually getting her breath back.

'Washington Street,' Clarissa said. 'I've been thinking about it ever since you showed me that address, Imogen.'

'Oh, dear, I guess I opened Pandora's box with that one,' Imogen said, biting the inside of her cheek. She hadn't properly thought through how it might leave Clarissa feeling.

'Yes. I suppose you did,' Clarissa said. 'I've not been able to stop thinking about it, who might be living there now after all, it's over forty years since my mother left it. I even got so far as to reach the end of the road, only to turn back around again.'

'I'm sorry perhaps it was insensitive of me to suggest it,' Imogen said.

'No,' Clarissa said. 'You didn't push me into anything, did you? Just put the idea out there, for me to make up my mind. But then I started to think that maybe I wasn't brave enough. I wondered if they these strangers would even be alive, let alone whether they would be open to talking to me.'

Evie quietly poured the tea, staying out of the conversation, but not moving to leave, either, her presence quietly calming.

'So what did you decide?' Imogen asked.

'That I wouldn't be able to go back to London, never knowing. That I didn't want to think on it too long, only to find I'd left it too late, like I did with your grandmother. So I went,' Clarissa said. 'I went there today. To the house.'

'And?' Imogen said, barely able to contain her curiosity.

'They're still alive, both of them,' Clarissa said. 'Vincent and Catherine.'

She paused, and when she started to talk again, her voice was unsteady. 'And it seems they did want to see me. Very much so, in fact.' Tears filled Clarissa's eyes, balancing on the lower rims of her eyes.

Evie pa.s.sed her a handkerchief, and she dabbed them away.

'They were so vibrant,' Clarissa laughed, her tears still falling. 'That's one plus of Mum having me so young, I suppose. I was expecting to see these elderly people, if indeed there was anyone still alive at all, and instead there's Catherine, who volunteers in the library, and Vincent, who's fit and healthy too. They're both full of energy still. Not that it matters, but . . .' She dabbed again at her eyes, taking a moment to compose herself.

'You spoke to them?' Imogen asked, reaching out a hand to touch Clarissa's shoulder. 'About the past?'

'Oh, yes. There was no stopping us, really,' Clarissa said.

'Had they . . .?' Imogen started.

'Ever looked for me?' Clarissa asked. She nodded. 'Yes, they'd looked. They feel terrible about what happened, what they did. So much so that, when I first explained who I was, and they asked me in, we all just sat there in silence in their living room. Complete silence. I realised they were waiting for me to say something, to be angry. But when I saw their faces they were about to cry, both of them that wasn't what I felt, not at all.

'They told me they'd always a.s.sumed that Mum would come back, in time. They realised they were wrong almost as soon as she left I think it had sunk in that whatever choice their daughter had made wasn't worth losing her for. My father's wife had found out and was distraught, calling Mum every name under the sun, and they had felt so shocked and humiliated that they acted before thinking, they said.'

'Did you tell them, about the way things really happened? The fact your mum didn't consent?'

Clarissa frowned, and there was pain in her eyes then. 'No,' she said. 'No. I couldn't face it. What an awful thing to know. I find it hard enough but they've been living next door to that man all these years. But I will, in time. I think it's important that they know the truth.'

Evie put an arm around her, instinctively, and she seemed to welcome it.

'Of course. It's a horrible situation. So they did search for you?' Imogen asked.

'They came to Elderberry Avenue, looking for Mum, but Vivien didn't tell them anything about where we were she'd sworn to Mum that she wouldn't. The only thing she told them was that the baby I was a girl. She'd taken pity on them, by the sounds of things, and told them that.'

'But they never tracked you down?'

'Mum married again the next year, and I took my stepfather's surname. I wonder now if she wasn't glad to be rid of the name, anyway: it sounded from the diary as if her heart was broken by it all. Then she died. They knew about that, somehow. Perhaps they my grandparents, although it seems so strange to say that perhaps they could have looked harder, I don't know. Maybe they respected that she'd not wanted to be found.'

'And, now that you've found each other, do you think you'll meet again?' Imogen asked hopefully.

'Oh, yes,' Clarissa said, brightly. 'It's already in the diary. I'm meeting them for tea next week. Then they're going to come and see me in London, at the start of September. I think it's about time I went home, don't you?'

Imogen smiled.

'I can't thank you enough, Imogen,' Clarissa said. 'You helped make this happen and I'm so very grateful.'

Chapter 40.

'Buongiorno,' Maria said brightly, coming into the ice cream shop.

'Buongiorno,' Anna replied, comforted by seeing her Italian teacher's face. 'Can I get you a drink?'

'I can't stay long. I came in to see how Carolina is doing,' Maria said. 'Have you had any more updates?'

'She's much better, thank you,' Anna said. 'In fact yesterday we got some very good news. Carolina's well enough to come home.'

'I'm really happy to hear that,' Maria said. She laid a box of chocolates on the counter. 'These are for her. Not much, of course, but I find chocolate often helps.'

'Thank you, that's really kind,' Anna said, taking them and putting them with the cards that regulars from the small town had presented her with.

That week, it felt as if things were slowly returning to normal at the ice-cream shop. Matteo, so pale and drawn over the preceding days, was even starting to look more like his old self. He'd spent lunch hours and evenings with his sister, taking her in fresh fruit and her favourite puzzle books. He said she was seeming better with each visit.

'It must have been a very difficult time for you all,' Maria said, gently.

'It has been, yes, but they're a strong family,' Anna said.

'No arguments, you're staying with us,' Matteo said, loading Carolina's things into the back of the taxi. 'Isn't that right, Anna?'

'Absolutely,' Anna said. 'We won't take no for an answer. You need time to rest and recover. You'll be back to the summer house soon I know you're eager to go there again, but for the next few days what you need is looking after, and that's what your family are here for.'

'You two go in the taxi,' Elisa said. 'I'd like to speak to Anna alone for a moment.'

Matteo looked over at Anna and their eyes met. 'You go,' Anna mouthed silently to him. Elisa led her away from the hospital building and into a park. They sat down together on a bench. Anna's heart beat fast.

Elisa took her hand. 'I'm sorry, Anna,' she said, quietly.

Strain showed in the deep creases around Elisa's eyes. Those brown eyes so much like Matteo's seemed more open, trusting, than before.

'For what?' Anna asked.

'You know what for,' she said, shaking her head. 'You don't need to be polite. I haven't made your life easy.'

'I know you love Bella, and you've always shown that.'

'I do and I have. But what I haven't shown enough, my dear, is that I also care about you.'

Anna felt emotion well up inside her. She'd become so used to her encounters with Elisa fraught with unspoken resentments. This felt different.

'We won't ever agree on everything,' Elisa said. 'And I still can't understand how you can put your wishes before-' Anna's mouth tightened, and Elisa reacted, putting a hand up. 'Sorry, this is not what I mean. What I'm saying is, perhaps these things don't matter quite as much as I thought. Because you have shown you are family, Anna.'

She looked Anna directly in the eye.

'You were there for Carolina. You listened to her when she needed someone to talk to.'

'I was honoured that she trusted me enough,' Anna said, honestly.

'Times have changed. And that is difficult for me sometimes. Carolina has chosen to leave her marriage, and Matteo tells me I need to accept that. I was wrong about Filippo. I can see that now. Yet still, if she'd come to me, told me she was pregnant, I would have insisted she went back to him.'

Anna nodded, listening.

'That's why she didn't tell me,' Elisa continued, glancing down, her pain evident. 'I thought I knew my daughter. I thought I was close to her, but she kept this a secret. And, while that hurts, I am more grateful than you can imagine that she is still here. That she is OK. And that she had someone to talk to about this, someone who gave her good advice. That someone was you.'

'She loves you,' Anna said. 'She was just worried you would judge her.'

'And she was right,' Elisa said, frankly. 'I wish it could be another way, but it's not. And what I've seen is it's not her who needs to change, it's me.'

In the time since Carolina had been injured the long, caffeine-fuelled hours of waiting at the hospital, united in their desperate need to hear positive news from the doctor about the person they all loved dearly something had shifted inside Anna. Matteo's family had gone from being Matteo's family to being truly her family. And somehow, in that moment, the distance that she'd thought could break her and Matteo up seemed to disappear.

Back at the apartment, Anna set up the sofa bed in the living room for herself and Matteo.

'Your mother apologised to me just now,' she explained to him.

'She did?'

'Yes. She was very kind, actually,' Anna said. Since talking to Elisa she felt that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, that she had been accepted, that she could be part of the Bonomi family after all.

'I'm glad,' Matteo said, taking her hand. 'I know you've had to be patient, Anna. And that part of that was my fault. You've been so good to us all.'

'It's because I love you, that's why,' Anna said, a smile coming to her lips. 'And I'm annoyed with myself that I let anything get in the way of that.'

He squeezed her hand, and for a moment there were just the two of them, standing there.

'I'd better get Carolina's room ready,' Anna said, reluctantly pulling away.

'Yes,' he said. 'Thank you.'

She went through to put fresh sheets on the bed in the room where Carolina would be sleeping. She plumped up the pillows. Carolina sat in the chair by the window, a citron presse freshly made by her brother in her hands.

'Thank you for this, Anna,' she said softly. Her bravado was gone now, and instead Anna saw a piercing vulnerability.

'I spoke to him, you know,' Carolina said. 'Filippo called. While I was in the hospital. He didn't manage to actually come and visit.' She shook her head, a wry smile on her face. 'Of course not. That would have been far too much for him . . . Don't worry. I won't go there,' Carolina said. 'If the last week has taught me anything, it is that I have to look forward, not back. I cannot be angry any more. He's not worth the energy and, G.o.d, I don't even have the energy even if I wanted to spend it on him.' She laughed in spite of her obvious distress.

'I have got no time for bitterness,' she continued. 'I know now just how short life really is I can feel it. I think I even saw the white light, back there, Anna. Can you believe that? It's been the most insane thing. To know that I was so close to death. So close I could almost have chosen it. I could have reached out, and let go of being here on earth. And, believe me, there were times when I was with Filippo, dark times when I would have done that. Even before the accident I knew I had the power to choose life or to choose the opposite. Anyway, what I am saying and I know it's a long, rambling way in which I am saying it is that I was that close to death, Anna. I should have felt alone. But I didn't. Not for a moment.' She put her hand on her abdomen and looked at Anna. 'So I told him Filippo what was going on.'

'You did? How did he react?'

'I think he's in shock. He says he needs time to think about it but he's never wanted children; he's hardly going to change his mind about that now.'

'And you're all right with that?' Anna said.

'I think so, yes. It's me and the baby now. And it may not be perfect, but that's OK. Having him in my life wasn't healthy, Anna. And I don't think the baby would benefit from it, either.'

Anna sat down on the edge of the bed and looked her sister-in-law in the eye.

'You're not going to be on your own,' she said. She'd felt compelled to say it, and knew as the words came out that it was the right thing. She felt torn of course she did. But this wasn't just about her. Matteo would want to be here for his sister, to give her whatever she needed. 'I don't know where we'll be living in the long term, here or back in England but, either way, we'll be here for you.'

'Thank you, Anna,' Carolina said, laying her hand on top of Anna's, her olive skin dark against Anna's pale fingers, the turquoise stone in her chunky silver ring bold even in the dimmed light of the bedroom.

'I appreciate that. And of course I'll have my parents back in Siena. And while my mother might be many things' she gave Anna a knowing smile 'she is certainly a devoted grandmother. Yes, she would rather the circ.u.mstances were different, but I know she and Dad will be there for us.'

'I'll talk to Matteo. I know he'll want . . .' Anna started. She couldn't make any promises. It was still too early for that.