What Happens In Tuscany...

‘Snoopy?’ Victoria looked up. ‘Who’s Snoopy?’

Katie stared back at her blankly. ‘You haven’t heard of Snoopy? But what books did you read as a kid?’

‘Oh, you know, the usual; Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, that sort of thing.’

‘And Harry Potter?’

‘Now I have heard of him. I’ve often seen him mentioned in the newspaper, but I’ve never read any of the books. And you still haven’t told me who Snoopy was.’

Katie came to a decision. ‘Victoria, we need to go shopping. We need to get you some books, and not just about jet propulsion.’

‘Shopping?’ There was a different note in Victoria’s voice now. Maybe excitement. ‘You mean we go to Exeter or somewhere to buy things?’

‘Exeter’ll be good for starters. We’ve got to get you some books. Anything else you want?’ There was a pause before Victoria replied, and there was no disguising the timidity in her voice. ‘Erm, I was wondering if maybe I should buy some clothes.’

Katie beamed. This was saving her a potentially difficult conversation. She had been dreading having The Clothes Talk. In the days since getting to Iddlescombe, she had only ever seen Victoria in riding clothes, formal clothes or cotton frocks. And the sort of cotton frocks she wore looked like something out of Goldilocks’ wardrobe. And as for shoes…

‘Listen, why don’t we start with a trip to Exeter? It’s only about an hour away. We could head off one morning and make a day of it. Maybe have lunch in a pub somewhere?’ And, she thought to herself, find somewhere with mobile reception.

‘We could do that?’ There was wonder in Victoria’s voice. There was a pause before she repeated her words, this time in stronger tones. ‘We could do that. We can do that.’ She caught Katie’s eye. ‘I’m twenty-five years old and I can do what I want. I keep forgetting that. Yes, we can and we must go shopping. Thank you, Katie.’

Katie was composing a shopping list in her head. ‘Books, clothes, shoes. One thing I haven’t seen here is a computer. I didn’t think there were many households left these days without one. Have I been looking in the wrong places?’

Victoria shook her head. ‘No, you’re right, no computer here.’ She hesitated, uncertain how to explain. Katie thought she knew the answer and offered a suggestion.

‘Your father wasn’t a fan of technology?’

‘I think that’s understating the situation.’ Victoria smiled weakly. ‘He hated, loathed and detested what he described as the insanity of modernity. Have you seen his collection of cars? Ask Mackintosh to show them to you some time. There isn’t one under fifty years old.’ Victoria lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘Mackintosh is a marvel, managing to look after them as he does, but sometimes, particularly in winter, the tractor’s about the only vehicle that’ll start.’

‘So no modern things at all?’ Katie realised there was another item, apart from a computer, that she hadn’t spotted yet. ‘What about a television?’

Victoria shook her head again. ‘They bought one in 1953 so they could all watch the coronation. We’ve still got it somewhere. Of course it doesn’t work now.’

‘No TV? So if I said Eastenders or Coronation Street to you…?’

‘I’d say, what?’

Katie slowly turned over in her head the ramifications of not having a television. It was unthinkable. Still, that, at least, was easy to resolve. ‘Would you like a TV? It isn’t just rubbish on there, you know.’ She paused and reflected, before adding, ‘Although a good bit of it really is crap.’ She saw the expression on Victoria’s face. ‘Crap? You don’t know what that means?’

Victoria shook her head. ‘Oh, I know what it means and I’ve heard it before, but I assumed it was very rude. But you’re not a rude person, and you use it.’ Katie reflected that Jenny would probably have used much stronger language. Victoria carried on. ‘Listen, Katie.’ She was looking down at her feet, clearly embarrassed and sounding bitterly frustrated. ‘Do you see now why I need you? In so many ways I have been so very privileged for the last twenty-five years. I’ve been waited on hand and foot, I’ve lived here in beautiful surroundings, I’ve had the best possible tuition and a free run of a whole library of classic books. But it’s been an artificial existence.’ The frustration was spilling over into anger once more. ‘He kept me here, cut off from the world, because he thought he was doing me a favour. A favour?’

She stopped for a few minutes to compose herself. Katie sat in silence, reflecting upon what she had heard. Immense wealth, it appeared, could have equally immense disadvantages. She remembered Jenny’s comment about money not buying happiness. Here in front of her was the living proof of that. She felt a wave of pity and affection for this twenty-five-year-old who was only now taking her first, hesitant steps into the modern world. It couldn’t be easy.

After a while, Victoria felt able to carry on. ‘Being stuck here in limbo has left me with so much still to learn about what you would think of as normal life. To me, it’s a daunting prospect. My problem now is to somehow jump several decades into the present day. If you like, think of me as one of my father’s classic cars; very expensive, meticulously looked after, envied by many, but a relic of a bygone age that only appears in public very infrequently. I need you to help me, Katie. I need your help so badly.’

For a moment, tears welled up in her eyes once more and Katie saw another glimpse of the desperation beneath. She hunted for the right words of reassurance, but Victoria hadn’t finished. ‘I’m not stupid, you know. I’m well aware of the real world. We get the Daily Telegraph twice a week and I read it from cover to cover. I know it’s a different world out there on the other side of the glass curtain and I know that the time’s come for me to go out into it. Help me, please.’

She rubbed the back of her hand across her face and Katie made a mental note to add make-up to their shopping list. She waited until Victoria had recovered her composure and then did her best to be supportive and positive.

‘Don’t let it get you down too much, Victoria. Your father wasn’t all wrong, you know. I drove around for years in my little car and, believe me, it was crap. It was forty, fifty, sixty years younger than your dad’s cars, but it wouldn’t go up hills, it leaked like a sieve and, in winter, it never wanted to start. And, in fact, it’s died now, completely. So it’s not all good out there in the twenty-first century. But we’ll soon get you up to speed. It won’t take you long, I promise. You’ll see.’ She gave Victoria a bright smile and was gratified to see the beginnings of a smile on her young employer’s face.

‘Anyway, if you’ll let me, I think we should be able to get a TV and a computer installed up here in a very short space of time. And then, I’ll take you on a trip through the modern world that’ll blow your mind.’ Seeing Victoria’s expression, she translated. ‘That’ll amaze and astound you.’ As she was talking, she was thinking: music and cinema. An iPod and a stereo system would have to appear on their shopping list, plus some must-see DVDs. Maybe a Kindle would come in handy. She was beginning to realise that she was going to have her work cut out.

‘Katie…’ Victoria’s face had cleared. She looked up, straight into Katie’s eyes. ‘Whatever it takes, Katie.’ She was smiling now. ‘One thing we aren’t short of is money, so, like I say, whatever it takes.’

Chapter Four

The trip to Exeter was a great success. By the end of the afternoon, they had bought a lot more than Katie had written on her list. It was fortunate that Mackintosh had chosen to take a Rolls-Royce this time. It was an enormous vehicle with a cavernous boot. Even so, they filled it to bursting. Apart from a mass of clothes, books and films, there were two laptops, two tablet computers, a large flat screen television and numerous other electronic devices.

To Katie’s surprise, all the purchases were paid for by Mackintosh, who followed them round patiently, settling up shop by shop as they moved on from one to another. Katie was relieved to see that he used a debit card. For a while she had been wondering if he would appear with a bag of gold sovereigns, but clearly, some aspects of modernity had, of necessity, had to intrude upon the isolation of Iddlescombe Manor. However, as far as Katie could see, Victoria didn’t even carry a purse.

Although Katie had had a pretty privileged upbringing, without any real money worries, she had never experienced anything like this before. She had started to keep tab of just how much was being spent, but she gave up after the figures became a blur. Victoria was spending thousands of pounds without batting an eyelid. And yet, somehow, Katie didn’t feel jealous. However much money Victoria might have, it still couldn’t compensate for the loss of so many years of her life. She knew Jen would have a fit when, or rather if, she told her, but she didn’t know the full story. What was that thing about money not buying happiness again?

They had lunch in a restaurant near the fine old cathedral. The two girls sat by the window, while Mackintosh disappeared for a short while. Victoria demonstrated that she wasn’t quite as green as she looked by informing Katie of his likely destination.

‘I’m pretty sure he’s gone to the bookmakers. He’s always been one for a flutter on the horses. When he and my father used to go to the local point-to-point, they would always place a few bets.’

‘Didn’t they take you? You love horses after all.’ Victoria caught her eye and gave the now familiar shake of the head.

‘Never. Remember, I was his precious little girl to be sheltered from any possible harm.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Anyway, that’s over now.’

Katie decided she could now ask something that had been bothering her for some days. ‘Victoria, you’re twenty-five, aren’t you? Surely, when you were eighteen, or at the least when you were twenty-one, you would have been able to do as you wished. You could have chosen to fly the nest. Your father couldn’t keep on holding you in the house against your will, surely?’

‘I’m not sure it was really against my will, Katie.’ Victoria set the menu down and transferred her gaze out onto the cathedral. ‘I did escape one day, you know.’ She lowered her voice and still avoided meeting Katie’s eye. ‘When I was fourteen, fifteen, I forget exactly, I ran off. I’d been getting more and more bitter about being cut off from the real world. I must have been really hard work for Mrs Milliner and my tutors. I hated everybody and everything and I behaved very badly. I was rude to everybody, I threw tantrums and I screamed and shouted all the time. I even threw things around.’ She took a deep breath and caught Katie’s eye. ‘I behaved like a real… What’s the expression I should use?’

‘Teenager?’ Katie smiled at her. ‘I’ve spent the best part of a decade teaching teenagers. There’s nothing particularly unusual in a teenager throwing tantrums and rebelling against authority.’

Victoria nodded. ‘Well, I got to the stage when I decided I had to get out. I couldn’t take it any more. One autumn afternoon I climbed the wall over by the far woods and set off down the valley, hoping to find a train to take me away.’ She managed a small smile. ‘It didn’t occur to me to take money with me. Even if I’d found the station, I wouldn’t have been able to buy a ticket.’

‘So what happened?’

‘It got dark while I was still in the woods. I got hopelessly lost and started to panic. It was freezing cold and I began to shiver. I blundered on until I came to a road.’ She shook her head and sighed as the memories resurfaced. ‘I didn’t know which way to turn, so I headed back uphill, hoping it would lead me home to the manor. Then, about three o’clock in the morning I saw the lights of a car coming towards me. It was Mackintosh. I’ve never been so pleased to see anybody in my life.’

Katie reached over and squeezed her hand. ‘He’s a good, kind man, isn’t he? I felt that the very first time I met him.’

‘He’s a very good man. I hold him in high esteem.’ Victoria looked back and caught Katie’s eye. ‘That’s wrong, isn’t it? Nobody says that any more, do they?’

Katie gave her a smile. ‘Well spotted. I think we just respect people these days or think a lot of them.’

Victoria nodded. ‘Well, I certainly think a lot of him. He wrapped me in a blanket and drove me home. When we got back to the manor, there were cars all over the place, blue lights flashing, even men in frogman suits down by the lake. My father was standing at the front door as we pulled up. I can still see his face now.’ She blinked a few times at the memory. ‘He came running down the steps when he saw me and took me in his arms. He was sobbing his heart out and he just stood there, holding me to him, touching my head, my face, my shoulders, as if he were assuring himself it really was me. He kept repeating over and over again how much he loved me. I’d never seen him cry before. In fact, I’d never really seen anything much in the way of emotion from him before.’

The waitress was hovering, but Katie waved her away. Somehow she knew that the more Victoria talked about her troubled past, the better it would be for her. She sat back and listened, enthralled, as Victoria picked up the story once more.

‘You see, deep down, I’d always known he wasn’t quite right in the head ever since the accident. But up till then, I’d only seen the hard, unbending side of him; the blind refusal to compromise, even when I begged and begged. But seeing him totally distraught like that was a real eye-opener. I think that got through to me more than anything. Anyway, from that time onwards, I knew I had to look after him.’ She caught Katie’s eye. ‘I know it sounds strange, but somehow I realised that it was my duty to look after him in the same way he thought he was looking after me. From then on, I decided to toe the line, for his sake. And, anyway, after the scare I’d given myself in that big, dark, cold wood, maybe I wasn’t ready for the big wide world after all.’

‘It can be a scary place out here.’ Katie found herself thinking about her experiences over the past few months. Life had a way of being both scary and unkind. ‘If I told you all about the year I’ve had, it would make your hair curl.’

Victoria nodded. ‘So I just accepted that things were going to be that way. I suppose part of me liked the idea of being so important to my father and to being protected from all the terrible things you hear about on the radio. And, at the same time, knowing that I was somehow caring for him, gave my life a sense of purpose it had been lacking up till then.’ She paused and caught her breath. ‘And then, a few years later, around the time of my twenty-first birthday, he was diagnosed with cancer.’ She ran the back of her hand across her eyes and looked up at Katie. ‘I couldn’t abandon him then, could I?’

Katie could imagine the conflicting emotions that must have been running through her head. She nodded in agreement. ‘I see the problem. No, of course you couldn’t.’ Determined to cheer the atmosphere up, she gave a broad smile. ‘But think of your life up till now as like being in a cocoon. Now, at last, it’s as if the cocoon’s split open and the butterfly can finally come out. Your butterfly wings are beating, Victoria, can you feel them? Come on, let’s order some food and then hit the shops again. You’ve got a lot of lost shopping time to make up for. Let me show you how retail therapy can be a very real form of therapy. You’ll be amazed at how it cheers you up.’

As they ate their lunch, they chatted, mainly about the people they could see through the window. Katie realised that the experience of observing complete strangers was something new and exciting for Victoria. Women’s fashions, in particular, never ceased to amaze. ‘But that girl there is almost naked.’ Victoria’s tone was incredulous. ‘Her breasts are just hidden by the material, but you can still see everything through it.’ She looked up at Katie, as an idea crossed her mind. ‘Do you think she’s a prostitute?’

‘Ssh, Victoria, keep your voice down. No, she’s definitely not a prostitute. It’s the fashion these days. Look, there are more of them over there.’ Katie indicated a group of holidaymakers wearing tank tops and short shorts. She heard Victoria’s intake of breath.

‘Good lord above. That girl’s trousers are so tight they could have been painted on. I can see her knickers underneath.’

There then ensued a conversation about underwear. In fact, it was more of a monologue by Katie, interspersed by disbelieving oohs and aahs from her employer. Several times Katie had to stop and swear on everything she held dear that she wasn’t making things up. Yes, panties really were that small. Yes, underwear came in other colours apart from white. Yes, that girl’s prominent bust was achieved by the type of bra she was wearing, rather than some freak of nature. Finally, a passing teenager reduced Victoria to incoherent stammering.

‘That boy’s trousers are positively falling down. Look, they’re almost down round his knees. You can see his underpants.’

Katie did her best to explain and clarify where necessary. She found herself doing a lot of explaining.

As the meal progressed, the conversation moved on from clothes to tattoos. The discovery that their waitress had a dolphin tattooed on her bare shoulder sparked off a series of sightings of other tattoos, many far less attractive than the dolphin. ‘That man’s arm is all the colours of the rainbow. It must have hurt awfully, having that done.’

Katie now felt thankful that her mother had steadfastly refused her permission to get any of the tattoos or piercings she had so desired in her teens. And luckily by the time she had got to university she hadn’t been interested any more. As a Goth girl clumped past in black leather boots with a stud in her nose attached to a chain, Victoria was dumbfounded. ‘But, Katie, that must be so unhygienic. Imagine what happens when she gets a cold.’ There was a pause, during which Katie felt relieved to have finished her ice cream. ‘What if she sneezes?’

As they relaxed over a cappuccino after lunch, Victoria remembered what Katie had said earlier. ‘Has this year really been awful for you?’

Katie looked up and nodded. ‘To be honest, it’s been pretty crap the last couple of years, but it all came to a head this spring.’

‘You mean, with your husband…boyfriend?’

‘Him and work. With Dean it was a series of things, mainly drink-related, leading up to a full-blooded shoot-out when he missed his birthday dinner.’ She went on to give Victoria a somewhat sanitised version of the events in the pub with the stripper. Victoria was suitably shocked.

‘That’s awful. I don’t blame you for breaking it off.’

‘The technical term for what happened is that I dumped him, big time.’

Victoria giggled. ‘I like that. You dumped him, just like the dustbin. And what was wrong at work?’

‘I’ve been trying to analyse it. I actually like teaching, but I think it was maybe the cyclical nature of it that got me down.’ In answer to Victoria’s expression she explained. ‘The kids come to you at the beginning of the year. You teach them and then they move on at the end of the year. But you stay there. I started feeling I was just marking time. And then there was all the bureaucracy and red tape. No, I knew I needed a change. Who knows? Maybe if I’d been in a settled relationship with a good man, I might have seen things differently.’

‘So is anybody courting you at the moment?’

Katie laughed. ‘No, Victoria, people stopped courting about a hundred years ago. I think you want to ask if I’m seeing anybody at the moment. Or if there’s somebody after me.’

Victoria acknowledged the correction with a nod of the head. ‘So, are you seeing somebody at the moment? Is anybody after you?’ Katie realised that the question was not as simple as it sounded. So far in her life, Victoria had neither been courted nor had anybody after her. This was all a whole new world waiting for her. Katie knew that she would have her work cut out helping her to navigate her way through these treacherous waters. She wasn’t looking forward to the challenge. She limited herself to short answers to the questions.

‘No to the first and maybe to the second.’ She saw Victoria’s expression. ‘There’s a man called Martin. I hardly know him, though. I’ll tell you about him some time.’

Victoria thought it best to change the subject. ‘I’ve been thinking. You were talking about your car last night, weren’t you?’ Katie nodded. ‘So, you can drive?’

‘Ever since I was 17. What about you? I’ve seen you drive the tractor. I was very impressed at the way you backed that huge trailer into the yard.’

Victoria snorted. ‘Tractors are easy. But, no, I can’t go out on the road. I haven’t got a licence.’ She gave Katie a wry smile. ‘By now, you can probably imagine why I never learnt.’

‘Your dad.’ She smiled back at her. ‘Well, that’s easy. We’ll get you an application for a provisional licence at the post office this afternoon and we’ll fix you up with a course of lessons. We’ll have you out on the open road by the end of the month.’

‘Oh, Katie, that’s amazing!’ Victoria was beaming, then a thought struck her. ‘We’d better get another car, then. Somehow I don’t think the Rolls is quite the vehicle to learn on. Or any of the cars from my father’s collection really. And, if we get a car now, you can drive it as much as you like. Didn’t you say you wanted to come down to Exeter to see somebody next weekend?’ She caught Katie’s eye. Katie had finally been able to speak to Jenny that morning from the toilet in John Lewis and they had provisionally arranged to meet up next Saturday. If Katie had the use of a car, that would make things much easier. ‘I’m sure it would be expedient if you had a car.’

‘That would be fantastic.’ Katie couldn’t believe her luck. ‘By the way, I would say that expedient is probably not really common parlance nowadays. You could maybe try suitable or handy. Anyway that would be really handy as I’m afraid my old car failed its MOT last month and I sold it to a scrap merchant for fifty pounds.’ It was now becoming automatic for her to explain acronyms and “modern” words. ‘That’s the test all cars need to have every year to prove they’re safe to drive. Anyway, that’s a great idea if you’re sure.’ At that moment they both spotted Mackintosh loitering on the pavement opposite the restaurant.

‘Finished? Anything else you want to eat?’ Katie shook her head and Victoria stood up. ‘I’ll just go to the lavato…the loo.’ This was another recent addition to Victoria’s vocabulary and she was still getting used to it. She gave Katie a proud smile. ‘You see, I’m learning! I won’t be a minute. Maybe you might like to ask Mackintosh to pay the bill for us.’

Katie beckoned Mackintosh in and he paid the bill, adding a scrupulously calculated tip. Victoria reappeared and they went out into Cathedral Close. Katie looked across at Victoria.

‘What’s next on the agenda?’

Victoria had no doubts. ‘Mackintosh, we need to buy a car.’

He didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘Certainly, Miss Victoria. What sort of car did you have in mind?’

‘Well, Katie needs a car for getting about and I’m going to learn to drive, so maybe something a little smaller than the Rolls.’ She caught the Scotsman’s eye. ‘And something modern, I think.’

Mackintosh allowed himself a smile. ‘A capital idea, Miss Victoria. A nice new car sounds very sensible. Did you have anything in mind?’ Seeing the blank look on Victoria’s face, he transferred his attention to Katie. ‘Any preference…Katie?’

Katie gave him a broad smile. She had been working hard on all the staff at the great house to get them to call her just plain, Katie, rather than, Miss Katie. ‘No preference. To be honest, I don’t know the first thing about cars. As long as it starts, that’ll be fine.’

Mackintosh nodded to himself and checked a few details. ‘Two seats or four?’

The two girls looked at each other for a moment. After a pause for reflection, Victoria suggested, ‘Two? Oh, I don’t know, maybe four is more sensible.’