The Savage Garden. Mark Mills

from Florence to be with his family for yet another awkward handover to yet another occupying force. At nightfall, though, San Casciano was still firmly under German control. That’s why the family was surprised when, just as they were finishing dinner, they heard the sound of gunfire coming from up at the villa.

      It was Emilio who insisted on going to investigate, more out of curiosity than anything, because the gunfire was accompanied by the unmistakable sounds of music and laughter. Maurizio agreed to go with him, along with a third man, Gaetano the gardener, who had also heard the ruckus.

      Approaching the villa from the rear, they saw furniture being tossed from the top-floor windows, splintering on the terrace below Incensed, Emilio stormed inside and upstairs, Maurizio and Gaetano hot on his heels. Most of the Germans were gone. Only two remained, left behind to burn documents and destroy equipment so that it wouldn’t fall into Allied hands. Fuelled by drink, they had overstepped their orders, using the frescoes for target practice and hurling furniture out of the windows – pathetic acts of destruction that enraged Emilio.

      A fierce argument ensued. If Emilio hadn’t pulled out his pistol and fired a warning shot, it might have ended there, with heated words. But it didn’t. The Germans opened fire, killing Emilio before fleeing.

      ‘That’s terrible.’

      ‘Yes, it was. Just a few more hours and we would have come through the war untouched.’

      There were questions Adam wanted to ask, but Signora Docci steered the conversation back to Professor Leonard, saying that he had shown himself to be a very good friend in the aftermath of the tragedy.

      ‘How did you meet him?’

      ‘Through my father. They worked together on an archaeological excavation. Well, not together exactly. It was an Etruscan site near Siena. My father was in charge; Crispin was one of the young people who did all the work – a student, like you, in Italy for the summer. It was the year your Queen Victoria died. 1901. We were very aware of it here. She often came to Florence. Papa even had the honour of meeting her once.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, he brought Crispin home one day, out of pity, I think, as you would a stray dog. He was so poor and so thin and so very intelligent. He stayed with us for a month that first summer.’

      She smiled, remembering.

      ‘My sisters were very excited about him being here. Not me, though. I was very distant with him, very…haughty. And he completely ignored me. As you can imagine, this was very annoying. I thought he was just like my father, lost in his books and his artefacts, blind to the living world. Later I discovered he knew exactly what he was doing.’

      ‘What was he doing?’

      ‘Playing. The dance, he called it.’

      ‘The dance?’

      ‘Courting, of course.’

      ‘Really? I always thought –’ He broke off.

      ‘What?’

      He hesitated. ‘I don’t know, that he was, you know…’

      ‘Yes…?’

      ‘Well, a homosexual.’

      An incredulous expulsion of air gave way to helpless laughter. The application of the flannel to her mouth muffled the sound.

      When she eventually collected herself, Adam said, ‘I’ll take that as a “no ”.’

      ‘No,’ she said emphatically. ‘No.’

      ‘He was never married, though, was he?’

      ‘There were lots of opportunities. He was very handsome.’

      Adam couldn’t picture it, but that didn’t mean anything.

      ‘He has high praise for you,’ said Signora Docci.

      ‘Me?’

      ‘You sound surprised.’

      ‘I am.’

      ‘You’re here, aren’t you? Doesn’t that tell you something?’

      ‘Should it?’

      ‘It’s many years since I first suggested the garden to Crispin – as a subject for one of his students, I mean. He said he would wait for the right person.’

      This didn’t fit with what the professor had told him: that the offer of the garden had only recently come from her. He wondered which of them was lying. And why?

      ‘Apparently, you have a good mind, an enquiring mind.’ She must have seen him squirm. ‘You’re not comfortable with flattery?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘He also said you were extremely lazy’

      ‘That’s more like it.’

      This brought a laugh from Signora Docci.

      He was able to put in a couple more productive hours in the library, despite the distraction.

      Why had Professor Leonard not even hinted at the true nature of his relationship with Signora Docci? Unless he had completely misunderstood her, everything pointed to some kind of love affair between the couple. Maybe love affair was overstating it. In 1901 that probably meant little more than an unchaperoned stroll through the gardens, or a charged look across a crowded room, although somehow he doubted it. Signora Docci’s few words on the subject had shown the strain of many more left unspoken. And she had almost choked herself laughing when he’d cast aspersions on Professor Leonard’s sexuality.

      He found himself speculating on what had happened to keep them apart. It was probably doomed from the start – a penniless student and a young heiress. Much would have been expected of any potential spouse of Signora Docci. He would have been well vetted, the future of the villa and the estate a prime consideration. And a young foreigner with an interest in Etruscan archaeology would hardly have offered much comfort in that department.

      These were, of course, wild imaginings, but he let his mind roam the possibilities until it was time to leave.

      Foscolo the rock-ribbed handyman insisted on being present when Adam took possession of the bicycle. He had a big square head planted on a small square body, and his iron-grey hair was clipped to a brush. There wasn’t much to say on the subject – it was an old black bicycle with a wicker basket – so Adam shook Foscolo’s knuckled hand and thanked him. This wasn’t good enough for Foscolo, who wanted confirmation that all was in working order. Adam dutifully cycled around the courtyard a few times for his audience of one and declared the brakes to be ‘eccellente’. Foscolo grunted sceptically and raised the saddle an inch or two.

      Pedalling back to San Casciano, Adam deviated from the main track, exploring. The dusty trail petered out in an olive grove. It wasn’t a totally wasted detour. He found himself presented with an impressive view of Villa Docci. From afar, the shuttered, silent rooms of the top floor seemed even more striking, more ominous.

      His thoughts turned to Signora Docci’s account of her eldest son’s death at the hands of the Germans. They also turned to Fausto’s curious, half-mumbled comment on the same subject just the evening before: ‘Cosí dicono.’

      So the story goes.

      8

      Either he was so distracted that he didn’t hear her footfalls, or she deliberately set out to creep up on him. Probably a bit of both.

      He was standing at the head of the valley, on the brow above the amphitheatre, staring up at the triumphal arch. A warm light from the lowering sun was bleeding through the trees, flushing the garden amber. Even the dense wood of dark ilex beyond the arch seemed somehow less forbidding.

      It was here, just inside the tree-line, that the spring was located – a low artificial grotto housing a