The door slammed shut. Lucy stood rooted to the spot for a few moments, wondering if she had imagined the last few minutes. Who was that man?
She was sure she had locked the door when she’d arrived. Did he have a key? Or had she been careless and left the door open?
Her phone sprang into life, making her jump.
‘Signorina Anderson?’
‘Sì?’
‘Taxi.’
‘Grazie.I’m coming. I mean…arrivo.’
The moment she stepped through the door that evening, she was met by an excited Stefano with Harry bounding at his heels, and her worries of earlier immediately evaporated.
Tonight was the night of the Christmas Surprise, in celebration of the start of Advent.
A lot of undercover planning had gone into the execution of ‘Operation Potter’, as Stefano had named it.
Lucy and Stefano had invented a school football award ceremony, to which Elena and Dario were invited. Devious Lucy had even copied and pasted the school letterhead onto a typewritten note.
Apart from her guilt at encouraging Stefano to tell a lie, she had to then insist on accompanying him to and from school every day in the run-up to the event, as she knew Elena would mention the ‘award ceremony’ to the other mums, who wouldn’t have a clue what she was talking about.
Lucy was on her way to collect Stefano one afternoon when she saw something unexpected from the bus window. It was the blue flashing light of the stationary police car outside the hospital that first drew her attention. Standing next to it on the pavement, was a uniformed officer with his arms wrapped around a woman with long, shampoo-ad hair, her head buried in his shoulder. Meanwhile, a scooter whizzed by on the pavement, narrowly avoiding them. Neither the driver nor thetwopillion passengers were wearing helmets.
Lucy had given a wry smile.Pah! Typical,she thought.Forget law and order. If there’s abelladonnain the vicinity, it is the primary duty of the Italian male species to woo her with his charm, virility and wit.
As the bus had started to pull away, she suddenly realised that the police officer was in fact Dario. Her heart constricted. Elena hadn’t mentioned Dario acquiring a girlfriend. Maybe it was Francesca, the woman in the Herculaneum photo. What business was this of hers anyway?
At the end of dinner that evening, during a dessert of ice-cream-stuffed panettone, Lucy checked her watch and gave Stefano the secret sign. He rose to his feet, face covered in strawberry and chocolate gelato, and banged his spoon on the empty dish.
‘Signore e signori!Attenzione, prego!’
Elena and Dario froze mid-panettone, and turned towards him. Putting on a serious face, Stefano distributed the concert tickets and the letters he had written to each of them (with a little help from Lucy), thanking them for his dog, promising to practise good behaviour, and wishing them a happy Christmas season.
As they opened them, he could no longer contain his excitement, and began jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box.
‘Mamma, Dario, you must read your letters out loud.’
Dario groaned. ‘But it’s in English.’
Stefano shrugged, a glint in his eye. ‘You first.’
Poor Dario. Everyone tried to keep a straight face at his pronunciation, but it was no good. After he’d finished, he shrugged his shoulders and gave a ‘what did you expect?’ grimace. Stefano gave him a good-try pat on the back. ‘Now you, Mamma.’
‘Hang on a minute, young man.’ Elena waved her ticket in the air. ‘Concert? What concert? I thought we were going to an award ceremony at the school.’
Stefano and Lucy exchanged a gleeful look. ‘There is no award ceremony, Mamma. We made it up. You and Dario are going to a Christmas concert.’
Elena’s jaw stuck on open. ‘Excuse me?’
Dario shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I will have to arrest you, young man, and take you down to the station. Lying to your mother and to a policeman is a very serious offence.’
Stefano’s face fell momentarily, then morphed into a large grin, as he ran away calling, ‘You’ll have to catch me first!’
Dario leapt up in hot pursuit. ‘Nee-naw, nee-naw…’
Elena tutted, topping up their wine glasses. ‘You and Stefano are as thick as thieves, aren’t you?’
