Read Online The Italian Affair by Helen Crossfield - Free Book Online Page B

garden. It was his signature look. So whilst the gloves protected his fingers and hands in life, they gave him no flexibility as tried to undue his shirt when he was dying. When he fell, by the time I’d wobbled off the stool I was standing on next to the sink and grabbed hold of one of his hands he was gone.”
    “That is so tragic Issy,” Dan said looking down into the sea. “So you never even got to say a proper goodbye?”
    “No,” Issy replied quietly “not even a single syllable. He never uttered a word to me once he reached the kitchen floor. As he fell he stretched out his hand towards mine and his eyes flickered as they tried to refocus through the intense pain in his chest. That’s what I remember most vividly, the pain in his eyes and the finality of that last look at me.”
    “Bloody hell” Dan said pulling himself up from the ground. “I am so sorry. Please forgive me for being so insensitive I had no idea that you needed to go so far back to tell me your story. I just thought you would talk about the affair and that by sharing what had happened with Jeremy it might help you in some way.”
    Issy stretched her hand upwards and pulled him back down beside her.
    “Hey! You weren’t to know about my dad. I’m just thinking of the past to see if it helps me make sense of the present, that’s all. I suppose the shorthand is that the fact I lost my father probably draws me towards older men. Maybe I was just looking for a father figure and that’s why I felt so strongly towards Jeremy. He was strong, good looking, intelligent and interested in me just like my father. It was a potent combination at a time I was feeling so lost and alone. I guess he just helped remove me from the void of my own reality.”
    “Um yes I understand,” said Dan scratching the top of his head. “All of those things added together no doubt had a quite a bit to do with why you fell for him.”
    “Or maybe,” said Issy putting her sadness to one side and smiling “all of what I’ve just told you explains why I fell in love with an ancient Greek first and then fell in love with a married man!”
    “Er hang on,” Dan said with his mouth wide open. “That’s a big jump for my small brain to make. Can you please explain the ancient Greek bit?”
    “Don’t laugh. You promised me you wouldn’t do that.” Issy said self-consciously. “I’m allowed to laugh at myself but you aren’t allowed to laugh at me. That’s the deal. I’m going to go for a swim to cool down and, afterwards, I’ll decide if I’m going to tell you anymore.”
    As Issy slid off the rocks into the water like a mermaid, Dan watched as her body disappeared into the water. Standing up he shouted out after her. “You can’t leave me here onshore hanging like an overripe piece of fruit. Not at the very moment you were about to tell me about an ancient Greek and how it follows that you ended up with a married man in Oxford.”
    Issy was pleased that there was no one around as they had started to descend into a kind of madness. As she watched Dan clamber to his feet, and jump into the water, she noticed as soon as he started to swim towards her that he seemed much less sure of himself afloat than when he was on dry land.
    As Dan splashed around messily to keep his head above water he started to ask more questions unashamed of his inability to swim. “Ok. Where were we? You said that loving an ancient Greek and your dad dying young led you to the married man at Oxford called Jeremy – or for now I’d prefer it if we called him Charles Ryder II. Please explain before I drown in Priano bay HOW all of those things are related?”
    As Dan swam closer, Issy started to swim away from his questions and the painful memories of her fractured past. She liked Dan but trying to piece it all together would take time. It took her back to a point in her own history and to a place she tried hard not to remember.
    Confused, Issy lowered her head a few inches beneath