Authors: J. P. Kennedy
There was no way Cassie would frivolously up and leave New Zealand after graduating any more than fly to the moon. She had her career path mapped out and that didn't include jaunts in swinging London, not at this stage anyway. Her father had been a lawyer and Cassie wanted to follow in his footsteps. So she had forgone the temptation of joining her friends, and was now steadily climbing the legal ladder for a medium sized conveyancing firm in Auckland. While she wasn't particularly enamored with the job, she knew it was giving her good, solid work experience which she needed before she could embark on her dream of hanging her shingle over the door of her own small firm.
‘You have been to Sicily before?’ said Marco.
‘Er, what?’ said Cassie dumbly. She had been so busy reminiscing she hadn't even heard him. Well, good she thought, at least he can see that I am able to enjoy the scenery and the drive without just staring at him.
‘ I asked if you had ever visited Sicily before.’ He said
‘Oh no, no, I haven't. Sorry I was daydreaming.’ She smiled at him ‘In fact I was just thinking how beautiful it all is and how different the landscape and the scenery is from New Zealand.’
‘Nuova Zelanda, there is a place I would like to visit one day. But it is so far away no? How many hours does it take to reach here?’
‘27 hours, give or a take a few.’
‘Mamma mia, 27 hours, you must be exhausted.’ He peered at her and she felt herself growing warm again under his gaze. Even through the dark lenses of his shades she could sense his intense scrutiny and it made her uncomfortable. She was used to being in control, not being put under a microscope and peered at like a bug.
‘Really, I feel okay’ she lied, her chin lifting and earning herself a wicked grin in response from Marco. Perhaps he is psychic, she thought. Who cares, I certainly don’t. She turned her face away and looked out the window at the passing scenery. Very soon she was lost again in her reminiscing.
Kat had flown to London and joined Liz and she had even got a job at the PR firm just as Liz had promised. As two bright and beautiful young women in London it had seemed that the world was their oyster and for several months the girls enjoyed a whirlwind of parties, weekends as guests in the country manors of their wealthy clients, racing at Ascot and entree into the world of upper crust London.
Then Liz met Doug Randall. It wasn't that Cassie disliked him, but for her there was still a question mark over her friend’s choice of marital partner and lifetime mate. Liz had fallen for Doug like a ton of bricks and within six months she had packed in her job at the PR firm and flown to San Francisco to be with him.
When Liz met Doug he had been completing his medical residency by doing a year in training at London's The Great Ormond Street Hospital. When they returned to San Francisco, he took up a position at UCSF Hospital and spent the next seven years honing his craft in plastic surgery, with specialist training in craniofacial abnormalities. His reputation grew and eventually he was asked to join a small group of San Francisco’s top plastic surgeons where he primarily worked on the crème of northern California’s women of a certain age primping and enhancing their visages with delicate and very realistic looking facelifts and other procedures. He didn't go below the neck, that area he left to his colleagues in the practice. Boobs and butt enhancement didn't interest him and he still spent at least half his time back at the hospital working on the people most in need of his services but the most unlikely to have any money to call upon him privately.
Liz had become pregnant shortly after they married and subsequently produced two bonny, bouncing twins, Sara and Lulu who were the apple of their parents eyes. She had since then dedicated herself to being a stay at home mom, delighting in her role of motherhood and all the joys and trials that brought with it. The twins were now seven and looked like mini versions of their mother and would no doubt break as many hearts when they were older.
‘If you look across the bay now you can see the town of Cefalu.’ said Marco.
Once again Cassie realized she had been day dreaming, half dozing as she jerked her head around from where it had been resting on the car window. I hope I haven't been dribbling she thought.
‘Oh it is so beautiful and look at the color of the sea. It’s gorgeous.’ she exclaimed enthusiastically. ’It looks so clear and clean, is it?’ she asked.
‘Si’ said Marco ‘it is possible to swim right out in front of the town and the water is very clear even at great depth.’
‘I could go and jump in it right now it looks so good’ she murmured, entranced by the way the light was dancing off the ripples in the bay, causing the water to shimmer in the sunlight.
‘I would like to see that,’ said Marco smiling over at her again and earning himself a scowl in return.
‘I wasn't being literal’ she said, ‘anyway my swimsuit is packed away in my bag and I'm too tired to go through everything and find it’ she added, unnecessarily complicating her first statement.
‘You don't need a swimsuit Cassandra, I know a little bay where it is very private,’ he said.
Oh, now I know he is teasing me she thought and decided to get the conversation onto more solid ground.
‘So, Marco, how long have you been working at Villa Tramonte’ she asked.
‘Only for this summer I am helping out my father, managing the property for him until he finds a new estate manager. The former manager, mio zio, my uncle, is having treatment for prostrate cancer at the moment and is unable to travel even short distances. So my father asked me if I would look after the farm until he finds another person to manage it. It is a large working farm you see, with several houses on it. What we call in Italy an Agriturisimo. Villa Tramonte is the furthest away from the main house, but the most beautiful of all the villas I think. I grew up in the main house, but then we moved to Palermo and my uncle Gaetano took over the day to day management of the estate.’
‘I am sorry to hear about your uncle,’ said Cassie. ‘The effects of chemotherapy can be so debilitating.’ she added, thinking about her dear friend Lucy and her battle with breast cancer. She had been dead for over a year and still a day didn't go by when Cassie didn't think of her and the fun and laughter they had shared first as girlhood friends and then as adults. Lucy had actually felt the pea sized lump in her breast one morning in the shower and had immediately made an appointment to see her doctor who in turn immediately referred her to a breast clinic. There they had performed a biopsy and within a week of discovering the lump, Lucy had a double mastectomy and all the lymph nodes removed from both arms. She began a rigorous course of chemo shortly afterwards and Cassie could vividly remember the times when she would to sit beside her friend at the cancer clinic and keep her company while the deadly cocktail of drugs slowly dripped down from a bag into her arm. She would vomit for days after each session, all her hair fell out, and she was as weak as a kitten. Peter, her husband was devastated and tried to take care of their little boy Edward as best he could in between his shifts as a traffic controller at the airport. Cassie often passed by their house on her way to and fro from work, bringing meals for Peter and Edward and little treats for Lucy who couldn't keep any food down and was eating less than a sparrow. But her spirits and her confidence never flagged and she somehow managed to keep a sense of humor in spite of the appalling atrocities that were being inflicted on her by the cancer and the drugs. Her oncologist called it a 'galloping' cancer and said that it often happened in younger patients. She didn't even make it into remission as the cancer had spread and began eating it's way into her stomach and her liver.
From diagnosis to death took fifteen months leaving a shattered husband and grieving little boy who was too young to understand that his mummy, the centre of his life and his love, was gone forever. Cassie could relate to the loneliness and the confusion because of her own experience and after Lucy died she had kept up the visits and had taken to calling Peter on odd weekends to see if she could take Edward out to a park or a zoo or a movie. Peter was very grateful as it gave him a little time to grieve by himself, to lose the strong face for a few hours and weep for the woman he had loved and lost.
‘Si, it is hard for him at the moment but he is a strong man and my aunt is a devoted nurse to him. He is lucky to have had such good care taken of him and to have his family living close by.’ he said in a wistful voice. Cassie glanced over at him.
‘You are obviously very close to your uncle,’ she said.
‘My uncle is like a father to me, more than my own father.’ His face tightened and became serious.
‘Oh’ said Cassie. She had obviously touched on a sore subject and wasn’t sure how to proceed. ‘Do you have brothers or sisters?’
‘No, I am the only child and my father has many expectations of me, including joining the family business. He is a hard man to get along with, but my mother is sweetness itself.’
I doubt it thought Cassie, thinking of her ex boyfriend and his dragon of a mother. The only bonus in the painful breakup with him had been she didn’t have to suffer the poisonous old witch and her caustic comments any more.
‘Cousins?’
‘Si, I have one cousin, Luca, he is like a brother to me. He is an architect and lives in Palermo with his wife, Christina and their two children, Daniele and Lucia.’
His mood seemed lighter again and so she pried a little more. ‘And what do you do Marco, when you are not managing the estate?’
‘Oh a bit of this and a bit of that’, he said, smiling and winking at her. She blushed and felt stupid all over again.
‘No seriously, do you have a real job, something you do other than work for your family.’
Maybe this came out a little abruptly because he frowned and said, ‘Yes, Cassandra, I have my own business. I am not a ‘free loader’ I think is the expression and I work very hard.’
Oops, done it again thought Cassie. He is very touchy.
‘So tell me about your business, I’m very interested.’ That always does it with men thought Cassie. They love to talk about themselves and have the undivided attention of an interested female.
‘No, I don’t feel like it.’ He said, stunning Cassie. She gaped at him until she saw he trying to hide another smile and then she started to become a little tetchy.
‘Are you always this evasive?’ she asked him sharply.
They had been steadily ascending the steep hills behind Cefalu and the road was windy and narrow in places. Suddenly he braked and stopped on what seemed like a hairpin bend, swinging the wheels to the right at the last moment. Cassie screeched certain that this was her ‘Thelma and Louise’ moment, and that they would be plunging right over the cliff and into the most jaw dropping beautiful views of coast and sea. Instead he turned toward her in swept her into his arms. Cassie screeched again, but not so loudly.
‘Cassandra do you always ask so many personal questions of someone you have just met’ he said in a husky voice, his face now very close to hers. ‘This is how I respond to those provocative questions’ and he kissed her lightly on the lips. Cassie’s surprise couldn’t have been greater but her body was a traitor to her mind and her lips softened instantly and her eyes closed automatically. Seeing this reaction, Marco kissed her again with slightly more pressure and a soft sigh escaped her lips. His hand worked its way behind her neck and gently cradled her head as he kept kissing her and time seemed to stand still for both of them. Finally he lifted his head and looked into her eyes, open now and full of lust she was sure. ‘Do you like the way I answer your questions Cassandra?’ he asked teasingly. ‘Would you like to ask me something else?’ ‘We can continue the Q&A here or go somewhere a little more private.’ Suddenly Cassie’s common sense returned from its holiday and she snapped upright and away from him.
‘No more questions your Honor’ she said tartly then added ‘is this how you answer perfectly normal questions from total strangers?
‘Only the pretty ones and only ever female,’ he chuckled.
‘It’s good to hear that you confine yourself to the fairer sex’ annoyed with herself for rising to the bait.
‘Cassandra you are very pretty and very amusing. What do you do when you are not on holiday?’
‘I’m a lawyer.’ she replied, sternly.
‘Si, I can see that you would be a very good lawyer. Do you wear short skirts to court?’
‘Only when I want the Judges attention,’ quipped Cassie. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake of course not. Don’t you have women lawyers in Sicily?’
He just laughed again and pulled out of the lay by onto the road and they continued up the windy hill.
Much as she wanted to be offended Cassie couldn’t. It had felt too nice and so different and very exciting. Besides the view was breath taking and she couldn’t drag her eyes away from it. Scarlet bougainvillea grew in wild clumps and great bushes against fence posts and houses and giant cacti grew wild on the side of the road. The landscape was dry, vivid and hot and Cassie had never felt so alive in her life. This place is heaven she thought to herself.
All too soon they reached the entrance to the estate. Impressive granite pillars bracketed the driveway, standing like enormous sentries on either side of the white gravel driveway. A brass plaque mounted to one of the pillars said ‘Boschieri’ in bold script. The intricately turned black wrought iron gates stood open and Cassie’s excitement mounted as Marco turned onto the driveway and followed the road, which curved around a bend and out of sight. As they rounded it, she had her first glimpse of the main villa. It seemed to shimmer in the heat.