Read Online Patricia and Malise by Susanna Johnston - Free Book Online Page B

neighbourhood.
    â€˜You are popular round here. They knew you well at the village shop.’
    It was after midday and Patricia asked him to stay and join them for lunch. He planned on staying a good deal longer than a mere lunch hour but said ‘Thank you kindly. Delighted to do so,’ as he pulled at his imaginary forelock.
    A stone table stood beside the house. It was sheltered from the sun by a vine and on it sat a tray covered in fig leaves and piled high with peaches.
    Patricia carried a plateful of rissoles and a tomato salad from the kitchen, only two paces away, and asked Antonio to fill a jug with clear, cold water from a nearby spring.
    â€˜I hope there will be enough’ she said ‘I barely eat at all when Andrea is in Pisa – and we hadn’t catered for company had we Antonio?’
    Malise thought her a little confused and feared that he, too, showed what his stepmother would have called ‘lack of finish.’
    He spoke jerkily as he looked to the table and muttered ‘a rissole, fruit and salad. All anyone could wish for.’
    It wasn’t, of course, all that he wished for but, a rissole, fruit and salad passed muster for the time being.
    Antonio returned with spring water and began, at once, to pester and also to diffuse the awkwardness. It wasn’t quite the moment to begin on the ‘Capitano’ business, so he allowed the boy to continue with cries of ‘Sir. Sir. Did you bring your hammock? I have found two trees where it can go.’
    Three kitchen chairs were pulled up to the stone table and, as they ate, the discomfort started to dwindle. Patricia was proud of her rustic haven and pleased to show it off to an Englishman. Her Italian friends found it weird and inconvenient.
    Malise provided a rewarding willingness to exclaim on the splendour around them and asked, with keenness, how she had ever come by such an enchanted spot.
    He told her that he had planned to drive on to Volterra that day; had research to do there. It had been obvious from Antonio’s instructions that they lay, indeed, on the route to that city. The detour he made appeared convincing and Patricia relaxed as he gave way to Antonio’s persuasions.
    A spindly boy, of an age with Antonio, appeared from the terrace below. A date had been made for the children to spend the rest of the day together. Antonio raced towards the visiting boy and cried ‘A friend of Mamma’s,’ pointing to Malise, ‘Sir here – has a car – below. A fantastic car. We will make him take us to it.’ The visiting boy looked startled and admitted to having wondered at the sight of Ruggles – never guessing that he was to meet the owner.
    Patricia melted. This handsome newcomer had captured the heart of her only child. She had reading and painting to do as well as many an odd job to see to around the house. Allow Antonio to be amused and entertained. Let her off the hook. She doted on her son but doted, too, on free time.
    Malise, Antonio and the extra boy walked down the track that lay between a ditch and a precipice – to the dilapidated barn beside which the Lagonda was parked.
    â€˜Now boys!’ he said, attempting playfulness, ‘If I give you a ride in Ruggles, I shall expect you to call me Capitano.’ He spoke in faulty Italian with appeals to Antonio to translate for the visitor.
    Before taking a ride, they had to empty the back of the car – the carrying orchestrated by Malise. All objects were stacked in the ruin of a barn on the step of which a toad squatted.
    The boys talked feverishly in both languages – the one translating for the other.
    â€˜Capitano. Will you come swimming with us? In the stream. We aren’t allowed to unless grown-ups are with us.’
    Malise said ‘Yes’ to everything as they cleared Ruggles of equipment.
    â€˜First a spin, then a swim.’ Malise was near to being in his element although anxiety