What Happens In Tuscany...

‘Grazie tanto!’ Victoria allowed herself a wry smile. ‘I’ve had a succession of really good tutors all my life. The Italian was from Signorina Belluno and the French came from Mademoiselle Lemarchand. I’ve had history teachers, literature teachers, you name it. Of course, what I haven’t had is much in the way of scientific tuition.’ She could see the surprise on Katie’s face. ‘I’m a girl, you see. My father was very, very old-fashioned. As far as he was concerned, girls shouldn’t involve themselves with science. I’ve got all sorts of useless knowledge. I can recite the names of all the popes from St Linus to the present day if I concentrate hard, but I couldn’t tell you how jet propulsion works.’

‘Linus?’ The name sounded familiar to Katie. ‘Wasn’t Linus one of Snoopy’s friends?’

‘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 (#ulink_296d4c1d-c44f-59b8-ba14-7c62578f89d5)

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.’