Hearts On Fire Episode 02
Mark loaded his suitcase into the back of Jacopo’s vehicle as instructed and headed out to stand with the older man, Luca.
Luca’s saloon wouldn’t take all their luggage, so Jacopo took the cases plus three people in his SUV.
Luca spoke barely any English, and Mark spoke no Italian. But that loud woman, Charlie, was going with Jacopo, so travelling with Luca was a no-brainer.
Two other women opted to come with him, including a quiet, sweet-faced woman with a neat pixie haircut.
She introduced herself as Julia. This was their tutor.
“I’ll take the front and let you two ladies sit together,” he volunteered. “If that’s OK with you?”
They both nodded, and they all climbed aboard.
For the first few minutes, Mark tried to keep up a conversation with the ladies in the back − Julia and Debbie − but he found it difficult without getting a crick in his neck.
Eventually he turned back to the front to enjoy the countryside.
He’d signed up with Villa Davide for several last-minute reasons, one of which was its position in the Umbrian countryside.
Plains on either side were bursting with sunflowers, late poppies, stone farmhouses and poplars.
It was an artist’s dream.
Flowers and fields weren’t really his thing. He preferred boats on the salt marshes of his native Norfolk.
But he was here to learn and relax. He didn’t care what he painted as long as he returned home feeling better.
And he could hardly feel worse than he had done over the previous six months.
At a junction, Luca pointed to the right and said something that Mark didn’t catch.
“Pardon?” he asked.
Luca repeated the incomprehensible sentence.
Julia interceded.
“I think he said that’s the turning for Lake Trasimeno.”
Luca’s face lit up.
“Si!” he exclaimed, followed by another string of Italian.
Mark turned to Julia and was struck by the clear blue of her eyes.
“Am I supposed to know this lake?”
“It’s famous. Hannibal defeated a Roman army there.” Julia gave a reassuring smile.
“The Hannibal?” he asked, trying to focus on facts, not feelings. “As in elephants over the Alps?”
Julia nodded.
“It’s famous. The Romans expected Hannibal to invade from Africa through southern Italy, but he decided to march all the way round, up through Spain, across and down from the north.”
“Didn’t the Romans know he was coming?” he asked.
“Of course. Which is why the defeat at Trasimeno was even more remarkable. Hannibal had a smaller force, but was tactically brilliant.”
Luca had clearly been following all of this, because he started nodding again and contributed further in Italian.
Mark turned to Julia.
“What did he say?”
She bit her lower lip and her eyes shone with glee.
“I have no idea.”
“Then how did you know he was pointing the way to the lake?”
Julia laughed.
“I saw the road sign.”
Which, Mark thought wryly, was why she was the teacher and he the pupil.
He laughed, too.
“Observation, Lyons,” he said with an admonishing finger.
Julia and the other woman, Debbie, both grinned.
“There’s no point coming to learn if you know everything already,” Julia told him.
Indeed. Mark turned back to the front and stretched his legs in front of him.
He had a good feeling about this trip. It would be literally just what the doctor ordered – relaxation and pleasure.
That feeling faded as the journey progressed.
Luca turned off the main road on to one that wound up into the hills.
Soon they were in dense woodlands.
Up and up they climbed, leaving the open farmland way behind.
After 20 minutes of this, Mark turned to the other passengers.
“Isn’t Villa Davide a farm?”
“The website said so,” Julia replied. “Marianna sent me pictures of chickens and olive groves. Why?”
Mark fought the sense of anxiety that had been his constant companion since that terrible day when he’d allowed his neighbour’s son into a dangerous situation.
He thrust the final and haunting image of Damian’s smile, so trusting and proud, out of his head.
“I thought we’d be back there, in the valley. Not up here in the woods.”
“We’ll see soon enough,” Julia replied. “It looks stunning from the photos. I’m sure it’ll be a fabulous.”
Maybe. But news images of the forest fires that had ripped through Europe in recent summers flickered in Mark’s memory.
What were the chances of a forest fire happening here, right now, on his watch?
To be continued…