Page 104 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

Giles had poured himself a glass of lemonade, and came and sat heavily by Kitty. He smelt hot and dusty. ‘There’s some dispute over whether the name of this island came from the Latin for “goat” or the Etruscan word for “rocky”,’ he said. Kitty supposed he was speaking for her education, but he had not so much as looked at her yet.

‘You know there’s no evidence for Etruscan connections with the island,’ Giulia said, with mock sternness. It sounded like an argument they had had before.

‘If I stayed here long enough, I guarantee I could find them,’ Giles said. ‘The style of that bird fragment we saw, even the horse’s head, the way the bridle was reproduced—’

‘Oh, Giles!’ Giulia said with affectionate exasperation.

‘Oh, everyone! No more antiquities!’ David interrupted, laughing. ‘We were having a nice time talking about normal things.’

‘You must be hungry.’ Lucia said to Giulia and Giles. ‘I should stir myself and see about luncheon, but I’m so comfortable.’

‘I’d like to swim first,’ Giles said.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Giulia, at once. ‘It’s so hot! A bathe would cool us down.’

‘We’ve brought our things,’ said Louisa.

‘Very well, swim first, and luncheon will be ready when you come up,’ said Lucia. ‘You can change in my room, Louisa – David, you can use the wood store.’

The young people jumped up, and the professor said, ‘You make me feel old with your energy. If only the sea would come to me, rise up and collect me kindly, but that walk down the cliff, in this heat …’

Giles was almost in the house when he seemed to remember Kitty, and turned back to say, ‘Are you coming?’

She looked up, but his eyes did not connect with hers. I’m just an afterthought when she’s around. ‘I bathed this morning,’ she said.

He might have said, ‘Come anyway, ‘or ‘You can bathe more than once, you know,’ and she’d have jumped up. If he had even smiled at her … But he said indifferently, ‘Very well,’ and went inside to change.

By the time they came out, changed and ready, Lucia had hauled herself up to go inside and bespeak luncheon, while Flavio had sunk back into his book, and was verging on slumber. Kitty had picked up a book too. ‘Ready?’ she heard Giles say, and the four young people came past her, jumped gaily down the verandah step and trotted across the terrace to the dark place between the trees where the path began – twisting, winding, uneven, down the steep cliff to the rocky cove and the blue, rocking waves. Nobody looked at her or called to her before they disappeared into that dark mouth. She felt abandoned and bitter.

Luncheon was always light, cold meats, cheeses, salads and fruits, served at the big table on the verandah. There was easy talk, and laughter. The light outside was thick and strange, and the heat was so intense that even in the shade it was too warm. Conversation flagged after a while, except for Giles and Giulia, who continued to talk about the ruins they had visited, and the mosaics in particular – a conversation that wandered in and out of history and occasionally fell into Italian and out again, as though there were no difference between the languages. Kitty, her chair drawn back into the deepest shade, watched them, brooding, and felt the ache in her lower stomach again, an ache that made her clench all her muscles.

‘The storm’s coming,’ Louisa said, into a pause. ‘I think we ought to be walking back, Davy. Mama will be worried.’

‘It may pass us by,’ Lucia said. ‘They sometimes go round to the south.’

‘Still, we ought to go,’ David said. ‘Thank you so much for your hospitality.’

‘Shall we see you this evening?’ Lucia asked.

‘Thanks, but Matteo’s friends have asked us – the Morettis.’

When they had gone, Flavio yawned and roused himself to say, ‘A sonnellino, I think, is the answer to this heavy air.’

Lucia agreed. ‘We should all lie down on our beds until it makes up its mind whether to storm or not. My dears, won’t you?’

‘You’re right,’ said Giles. ‘I can hardly keep my eyes open.’

They all went upstairs, Kitty trailing after Giles. The Lombardis turned one way at the top of the stairs, and Giles and Kitty the other. At the door to his room, Giles turned and frowned at Kitty. ‘Are you all right? You’re very quiet.’

Tears came to her eyes. Was this all she deserved? From the man who could chat to Giulia, it seemed, for hours at a time. Who seemed to be able to ignore her very existence when it suited him.

‘What do you care?’ she said, low and angry.

He seemed startled. ‘What do you mean by that?’ She had turned away. ‘Kitty? What’s wrong?’

She didn’t answer, went into her room, threw the door shut behind her – but he was quick enough to catch it, followed her in and closed it quietly.

‘Now, what is all this?’ he asked, in the firm, reasonable tones of a man dealing with a fractious child.