The Healer's Secret

by Helen Pryke

  “I guess you need to go outside, Bella.” She looked at me in disdain, turned around and went back to her cosy spot on the rug. “Can’t say I blame you. But you’re going to need a pee sooner or later.” I turned to Agnese. “I’ll go and get us some towels to dry off, and some clothes.”

  “OK, I’ll make a hot drink to warm us up,” she replied.

  I ran upstairs and picked up a few things, then went back down again. The house seemed strangely silent, and there was no aroma of coffee in the air. I glanced in to the living room and noticed that Bella was gone.

  “Agnese?” I called.

  “In here,” came her voice from the kitchen, slightly muffled. Frowning, I walked down the hallway.

  Agnese was at the table, her head in her hands. She glanced up at me as I entered the room, and I saw she was crying. She was holding tightly on to Bella, who was growling, her hackles raised.

  “What’s…” I began, and then I saw him. Standing by the sink was Mark.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I exploded. He looked shocked. “Well?” I demanded.

  “I just popped round to see you,” he began.

  “And you let yourself in?” I could feel the anger building up inside me.

  “The back door was unlocked,” he muttered, glaring at me. “You weren’t home, so I thought I’d surprise you when you got back.”

  “Well, that’s an understatement. The last thing I expected was finding you in my kitchen. I told you I never wanted to see you again.”

  Bella started barking, straining against Agnese’s hand.

  “Bloody dog!” he shouted, and lunged forward. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, dragged her to the back door and swung it open. Bella snapped and snarled, managing to catch his arm with her teeth as he threw her outdoors. She landed on her feet and turned, leaping towards him, only to crash against the door as he slammed it in her face.

  “That’s better,” he muttered, looking at his arm. His jumper was ripped, I hoped she’d managed to break the skin underneath, too.

  “I just wanted to see if you’d changed your mind,” he said, seemingly oblivious to any injuries. “I didn’t expect to find this welcoming party. What’s she doing here?”

  I passed the towel to Agnese, realising that she was still dripping wet. She took it from me without speaking. The storm was directly overhead now, evidenced by the low rumble of thunder. Rain pattered against the windows, driven by the wind, and a flash of lightning lit up the sky briefly.

  “Agnese lives here with me. And I want you to leave. Now.”

  He smirked. “That’s not very hospitable of you, Jennifer. I thought we were friends.”

  “You thought wrong. Go. Now. Or I’ll call the police.” My mobile was in my handbag by the front door, but he didn’t know that.

  He stopped smirking. “Look, Jennifer, you threw me out of the house the last time I was here. I think I have a right to know why. You haven’t spoken to me since, or answered my messages.” He leaned against the kitchen counter, arms folded, watching me. I was amazed by his attitude; the bastard was calmly turning everything around, knowing full well he was the guilty party here. I noticed Agnese twisting the corner of the towel in her hands, almost snarling as her anger took over. A loud clash of thunder made us jump, and sent rattling vibrations throughout the house. Agnese threw the towel down on the table, and turned to face him.

  “Why?” she said.

  “What?” he replied defiantly.

  “Why did you betray me?”

  “Betray you?” He looked confused, then laughed. “Oh, you mean with Jennifer?”

  “Who else?” she snapped.

  “We were over, remember?”

  I could see Agnese shaking. “We were not over. The day Jennifer arrived, you called me and said you needed a break, time to think… a couple of weeks later you apologised, and we were together again.” She was breathing heavily with emotion. “I didn’t know you were seeing Jennifer as well, otherwise I’d have told you to go fuck yourself.”

  “We weren’t really together, though, were we?” he retorted. “You wouldn’t let me anywhere near you.” He was starting to get angry, and I frantically tried to think of some way to defuse the situation.

  “Because you were acting all weird,” she blurted, standing up and facing him. “You kept texting and phoning me, demanding to know where I was, what I was doing, who I was with… I couldn’t deal with it. First you dumped me, then you wanted to know my every movement. And then there was that evening…” She stopped, and moved next to me.

  “What evening?” I asked.

  “Yeah, what evening?” he repeated, taking a step forward.

  “Agnese, what happened?” I put my arm around her shoulders.

  “He-he wanted to see me, go out for a drink together,” she said, gulping as she tried not to cry. “B-but he stopped the car in the middle of nowhere, and he-he…”

  “Did he rape you, Agnese?” I asked, shocked. She nodded miserably.

  “You lying bitch.”

  She turned to me, a desperate expression on her face. “That’s when it happened, we were always careful except for that one time. He forced me to, Jennifer, I didn’t want to… I was going to break up with him that evening, but he jumped on me and held me down… God, he hurt me so much, I was bleeding afterwards. I had to hide it from my family, they would have killed him. A-and then I found out…”

  I held her in my arms as she sobbed furiously.

  “You found what out?” he asked coldly. I jumped, I’d almost forgotten he was there.

  “Nothing,” I replied.

  “She said we were always careful… then she found out… oh my God, is she pregnant?” His face drained of all colour as the realisation hit him.

  “Yes, she is,” I snapped. “And she doesn’t want you involved at all. Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage?”

  He clenched his fists and strode across the kitchen. He shoved me with all his might, and I fell sprawling to the floor. I hit my head hard on a cupboard and saw stars for a moment. Struggling to sit up, I saw him grab Agnese by the hair and drag her across the room to the hallway.

  “You bitch, I’ll teach you to spread rumours about me,” he snarled. Agnese screamed in pain as she tried to pull away from him. He slapped her face. “Shut up, or I’ll thump you in the stomach,” he said, his face centimetres from hers. I saw her recoil in disgust as flecks of spit hit her. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t obey. My head was thumping, and the room started to swim in and out of focus.

  “Agnese,” I called, scared for her now. I could hear thumps coming from the hallway, and Agnese whimpering either from pain or fear, or probably both. I struggled to haul myself up, and grabbed a bread knife from a drawer. Staggering into the hallway, I could see that they were almost at the front door. The thunder was almost constant now, booming and crashing all around the house, the mountain storm frighteningly powerful in its fury. I could hear the rain bouncing off the ground, the roof, the walls, adding to the cacophony of noise all around us.

  “Let her go, Mark,” I shouted. He turned, and raised his eyebrows in surprise at the sight of me leaning against the wall, panting, a long knife in my hand.

  “You’re not going to use that,” he sneered. “You haven’t got the guts.”

  “Try me,” I replied, but my head started spinning again and my legs turned to jelly. I bit down hard on my lip, trying to stay conscious.

  “First I’ll sort her out, and then I’ll come back for you,” he said, reaching for the door handle. Agnese kicked and screamed, twisting her body in her desperation to escape, not caring whether he pulled all her hair out or not. He punched her in the nose, shouting at her, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying, everything was going black around me and my ears were buzzing. He pulled open the front door, with Agnese still yelling, and as I sank once more to the floor I saw a black figure silhouetted against
the night sky, rain bouncing off the umbrella it held above its head.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Mum exclaimed in her so very British accent. The world exploded around me as everything went dark.

  I drifted in and out of consciousness, the sounds of shouting and screaming mingling with the storm raging outdoors and within my head. I had no idea how long I was out, but I eventually opened my eyes to the sight of Agnese, Mum and Bella hovering over me, identical worried expressions on their faces.

  I tried to move and groaned in pain, pinpricks of light flashing in my vision. Bella shoved her cold nose against my face, making me wince.

  “Just lie still, Jen,” Mum said, pushing Bella away. “You’ve had a nasty bump, it should pass.”

  “M-Mum? Wh-what are you doing here?” I asked, confused.

  “I took an earlier flight. I was supposed to get here a couple of hours ago, but my plane was delayed,” she replied. “Good job too, by the looks of it.”

  “Agnese…?” I mumbled.

  “I’m OK, Jennifer,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “More shocked than anything.”

  I grimaced. “And M-Mark?”

  “I’ve given him an hour’s head start, then I’m calling the police,” Mum said grimly. “I couldn’t believe it when I arrived… I could hear all the screaming and yelling, and I was about to break the door down! And when that… that piece of shit opened it, dragging poor Agnese by the hair, I saw red.”

  Mum very rarely swore in front of me and I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “I hit him with my umbrella and demanded to know who the hell he was and what he was doing,” Mum told me. “I had no idea what was going on, I didn’t even know who Agnese was.”

  I smiled. “Poor Mum. What a welcome.”

  “He ran out of the house pretty quick, I can tell you. I shouted that he had an hour to get out of town, but I don’t know if he heard me over the rain.”

  “Just like a sheriff from the Wild West,” I laughed, then clutched at my head. “D’you think I could get an aspirin or something? My head’s killing me.”

  “Let’s get you into the kitchen and we’ll make a nice cup of tea,” she said. The two of them helped me up, and we walked to the kitchen with Bella quietly padding down the hall after us. I sat down, grateful that the room seemed to have stopped spinning. Agnese busied herself putting a saucepan of water on to boil and prepared the tea cups. Mum glanced at the clock.

  “I guess it’s time to call the police,” she said.

  “Is that really nec-” I began, but Agnese interrupted me.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t mind doing it,” Mum said.

  “It’ll be my pleasure,” she stated.

  “My mobile’s out in the hallway, in my bag,” I told her. She nodded and left the kitchen.

  “So…” Mum said, breaking the silence. “Want to tell me who that slime ball is?”

  I lowered my gaze, embarrassed. “He’s… we… had a thing… then I found out he’s the father of Agnese’s baby.”

  “She’s pregnant?”

  I bit my lip. “He found out as well tonight, and didn’t take it too well when Agnese started shouting at him.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “I guess you didn’t expect to find all this when you arrived.”

  “You can say that again,” she replied. “When I saw you lying there in the hallway, I wanted to kill him, but then he ran off.”

  “I-I’m sorry, Mum.”

  “What are you sorry for? It wasn’t your fault, was it?” I shook my head. “Well then. I’m just glad I arrived when I did.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Agnese seems nice, she was as worried about you as I was.”

  “I can’t believe that,” I said, knowing what a worrier Mum was. “Yes, she’s great. We get on really well. Mum…” I paused, not knowing how to tell her. We could hear Agnese talking in the hallway, a soft murmur interspersed with pauses as she listened to the voice on the other end.

  “Go on,” Mum urged.

  “I-I’ve decided to stay,” I blurted out. “Take over from Great-grandma Luisa and become a healer. I feel like I’ve found my calling.” I waited for the explosion. But it didn’t come.

  “I am so proud of you,” she said instead, brushing a tear away from her eye. “You’ve changed so much since I last saw you. You’ve become the woman I knew was always there, hidden beneath the alcohol and problems. I told you there was magic in this cottage, didn’t I?”

  I started to cry too. “Being here has given me time to think, to get rid of all the baggage I had in England. The family has helped a lot too, especially Uncle Mario and Bella.” I glanced down at the mongrel, head on my feet as always, ready to protect me with her life. “And yes, there is magic here, you’ve no idea how much.” She looked quizzically at me. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise. I am different, and I’ve found my calling. I want to be a healer. I found the recipe book,” I added.

  “The book?” Mum gasped. I nodded. “Liliana told me about it when I came over… it was all very hush hush and mysterious. Really, you’ve got it?”

  Agnese came back into the room before I could reply. “The police are on their way over to take statements,” she said. “And they’ve sent a patrol to go and find Mark. I hope they arrest him and throw away the key. Now, what about that cup of tea?”

  It was obvious we weren’t going to get much sleep that night. Two carabinieri arrived twenty minutes later and questioned each of us in turn, telling us to go to the station the next morning and make a formal statement. They said they’d been to Mark’s house but there was no sign of him. We were glad when they left, but as exhausted as I was, I couldn’t face going to bed. I knew I’d stay awake going over the whole evening in my head until it drove me crazy. Agnese yawned.

  “I reckon we’re all going to have trouble sleeping,” Mum said, as if reading my mind. “I think we should stay together tonight. How about we use Luisa’s room?”

  As I lay down between Mum and Agnese, I thought how lucky I was to have them there with me. Our breathing slowed to a deep, regular rhythm, finally relaxing as we took comfort in each other’s presence. I heard nails clicking on the tiled floor and Bella nudged the door open with her nose. I patted the bed and felt it sag slightly as she jumped up. Agnese groaned and moved a little, then everything was still once more. I let myself fall into unconsciousness as Bella lay across our legs, as much in need of us as we were of her.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  We went to Aunt Liliana’s after going to the police station to deposit our statements. We agreed beforehand not to say anything about Agnese’s pregnancy, but tell them that Mark had been unable to accept that I didn’t want to see him any more and had gone crazy, threatening the two of us. The police reassured us that they’d do everything in their power to find him. They said he’d probably never show his face again, but we knew we’d find the strength to deal with it, if or when necessary.

  Aunt Liliana burst into tears when she saw Mum and hugged her as if she’d never let go. Then she took one look at our bruised faces and ushered us into the house, demanding to know what had happened.

  “Get the family here and we’ll tell you,” Agnese said with a sigh.

  She pursed her lips but made a tremendous effort not to question us right away. She phoned everyone and ordered them over for lunch, accepting no excuses.

  “I haven’t told them you’re here,” she said to Mum, beaming through her tears. “They’ll love the surprise.” She glanced at us, frowning. “You’ll explain everything when they get here.” We nodded.

  She took Mum by the arm and led her away, babbling nineteen to the dozen, and I smiled at the bemused look on Mum’s face.

  “I bet she’d forgotten how overwhelming Italians can be,” I remarked.

  “Especially Mamma,” Agnese said, and we burst out laughing.

  Lunch was a riotous affair, with the whole family arou
nd the large dining table. Mum, Agnese and I told them what had happened the previous evening, using the same story we’d told the police earlier. After their initial shock, they accepted the facts once we told them the carabinieri had everything in hand.

  I knew that I would never reveal what I had found out about Great-grandma Luisa, either. As open and loving as my Italian relatives were, there were some things they would never be able to comprehend, and I instinctively knew that it was better to keep the healer’s secrets to myself.

  We left the house in good spirits after dinner that evening, and slowly made our way back through the village to the cottage. Bella greeted us with raucous barking as we opened the front door, throwing herself on us and covering us in doggy kisses.

  “Yeah, we missed you too, Bella,” I laughed, burying my hands and face in her fur. “Come on, I bet you want some food, don’t you? And probably a run around the garden, too.”

  “I’m going to bed, Jennifer,” Agnese said. “I’m done in, it’s been a long day. My family can be very… tiring.” She winked, and Mum laughed.

  “Yes, it’s been lovely seeing them again after all this time, but it’s like they don’t have an off button,” she giggled.

  “Tell me about it,” Agnese replied dryly. “Well, goodnight, both of you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “’Night,” we both called.

  “Cup of tea?” Mum said, raising her eyebrows.

  “I’ve got something even better,” I replied. I grabbed a bottle from the cupboard in the hallway and went into the kitchen.

  “Jennifer…” came Mum’s voice in a warning tone.

  I turned around. “It’s not wine, Mum,” I said. She gave me the look. “Honestly. I thought it was…” I paused, embarrassed as I remembered how I’d turned the house upside-down looking for anything alcoholic when I first arrived. “I only drank one glass and had the most peculiar experience, but I didn’t have the usual hangover the day after. I thought it was really strong, home-made wine, then Agnese told me she’d helped make it, and that it was just juice, Luisa hadn’t let it steep enough time to ferment and become alcoholic.”