Dreaming of Venice

by Dreaming of Venice (retail) (epub)

  ‘Hi, Caroline! Hi, Olivia.’ He looked delighted to see them, particularly Caroline. ‘How’s your hotel?’

  Penny just managed to stop herself as she was on the point of gushing enthusiastically about the fabulous hotel, the enormous room with the balcony overlooking the lagoon, the amazing bed with a choice of different types of pillow, the giant antique mirrors framed with Murano glass flowers, the mind-boggling selection of complimentary toiletries, the biggest television screen she had ever seen in her life, the vast and varied breakfast buffet and the views to die for. Just in time she remembered that she was now in her role of multi-millionaire, so she stayed silent and let Caroline do the gushing for her.

  Nick accompanied them into the auditorium and they sat down to listen to the welcome speeches. It was all very organised, with headsets available offering a translation service. In fact, as it turned out, almost all the speeches were in English, including the one from the Polish president. The aims for the conference were spelt out and then, as Caroline had said, the plenary session broke up and coffee was served. Penny, in her role as Olivia, was delighted to find that a number of the UK delegates she had first met in Brighton and who had been very hesitant to approach her were now looking and sounding much more relaxed with her. It looked as though her charm offensive was beginning to pay off. She redoubled her efforts.

  There was a break for an hour during which lunch was served, but Penny had determined she was going to limit herself to only one big Italian meal a day. Instead, she bought a sandwich, left Caroline with Nick and went down to the pier. She found a water taxi waiting and decided to spend some of the thousand euros given to her by Olivia taking a trip past the beautiful tree-covered island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni with its monastery built on the site of a medieval leper colony. They travelled on across to the big, long, island breakwater of the Lido, the main land barrier between Venice and the open sea. As the boat nosed in from the open waters of the lagoon into the canal that led towards the Lido casino, it felt strange to look up and see cars parked on either side of them. Clearly, the Lido was a much more modern development than Venice itself, with good links to the mainland. Penny didn’t have a lot of time, so she told the boatman to wait while she went for a quick walk. As she did so, she discovered a rather good-looking restaurant for the meal with Caroline and Nick that evening. She went in and made a reservation before completing her hasty circular tour of that part of the island. Finally she looked at her watch and headed back to the water taxi. As she approached the waterfront, her phone rang. She slowed, checked the caller ID, and saw that it was Jimmy.

  ‘Jimmy, hi, how are you?’

  ‘Hello sweetheart, I’m fine. Where are you?’

  She told him and he was sounded surprised. To make sure he didn’t go off on one of his prostitution romps again, she hastened to specify that this was her treat to herself for having been accepted for the Piccadilly exhibition. He accepted the story without hesitation and then he asked a question that stopped her in her tracks.

  ‘Penny, have you ever heard of bilocation?’

  ‘Bi – what?’

  Jimmy sounded smug. ‘I looked it up in the dictionary. Bilocation, you know, sort of like time travel, being in two places at once.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ve lost me, Jimmy. What about time travel? Have you just been to see some sci-fi movie at the cinema?’

  ‘No, I’ve just been to the National Gallery.’

  ‘The National Gallery?’ Penny hadn’t got a clue what that could have to do with time travel. What he said next made that abundantly clear.

  ‘Yes, and what I don’t understand is how you could be at the National Gallery and in Venice at the same time. See what I mean about time travel?’

  Olivia! The penny dropped. Today was the day she was going to the Botticelli exhibition. Oh bugger, Penny thought to herself, desperately searching for a convincing explanation. To buy herself some time she tried pleading ignorance. ‘I don’t follow. I’m here in Venice, not in London. Whoever it was you saw, it can’t have been me.’

  ‘That’s what I found out, sweetheart, when I went over and spoke to you, and discovered that you weren’t you after all.’

  ‘Oh, bugger.’

  ‘Oh, bugger, indeed. And before you try to fob me off by telling me it was just a massive coincidence, how come the person I spoke to started blushing like a traffic light when I mentioned your name?’ He paused for dramatic effect before continuing. ‘So I think it might be time you told Uncle Jimmy just what the hell’s going on, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, Lord… Jimmy…’ Penny’s mind was racing as a vision of Mr Jenson the lawyer flashed through her head. The bald man was standing behind his desk with a stern expression on his face, holding the formal legal undertaking in his hands and repeating ‘Do I make myself clear?’ over and over again. She took a deep breath. ‘Jimmy, look, I promise I’ll explain everything, but just not now.’ To make matters worse, just at that moment a couple of people she recognised from the conference came walking towards her. She dropped her voice to little more than a whisper. ‘Listen, I can’t talk now. Are you working tonight? I’ll call you?’

  ‘Until midnight, but I’m sure I’ll be able to take your call. Is it something naughty? You and your evil twin up to something?’

  ‘No, not at all. Listen, I’ll tell you about it tonight, but in the meantime promise me you won’t mention it to a soul. I really mean that, Jimmy. I’d be in deep, deep trouble if it got out.’

  ‘How fascinating.’ His tone echoed his words. ‘All right, I promise, Scouts’ honour, lips sealed and all that. Now you go back to your spying or whatever it is you’re doing. Talk to you later.’

  Penny knew she had to speak to Olivia before calling Jimmy back that evening. Although she felt pretty confident he would keep his mouth shut, this was a complication she really hadn’t expected. She swiped the red button and dropped the phone back in her pocket just as the couple from the conference came up to her. She recognised them as representatives of a well-known British charity and she gave them a little wave.

  ‘Hello, you two. Have you been you bunking off as well?’

  The two people, a man and a woman a few years older than her, grinned back at her and the woman answered first. ‘Sort of. It’s such a wonderful day and neither of us has been to Venice before, so we thought we’d skip lunch and take the vaporetto across here.’

  The man was looking at his watch rather anxiously. ‘It’s just a bit complicated getting here. We had to take two different boats. Somehow, I think we’re going to be late back.’ Penny checked the time as well. It was almost two o'clock.

  ‘Can I give you a lift in the water taxi? That should get us back pretty quickly.’

  ‘That would be great, thanks.’ He sounded relieved and Penny led them to the boat. On the way back, they chatted, and Penny remembered meeting them for the first time at Brighton. On that occasion they had been reticent to talk to her and had clearly treated her with mistrust. Now, it appeared that her attempts to repair the public relations damage done by Olivia’s stepmother were beginning to pay off. By the time they arrived back at San Servolo, they were all smiles.

  When she returned to the conference, she only just squeezed into the afternoon session as the speaker took the stage, so it was the mid-afternoon break before she could tell Caroline about the phone call from Jimmy. Caroline listened carefully, but wasn’t too bothered.

  ‘I wouldn’t worry if I were you, Penny. First, you have no concerns on the legal front because it was Olivia who was unmasked, not you. Besides, now that you’re over here and she’s a thousand kilometres away, it isn’t going to matter. The people that count as far as this deception’s concerned are all here for the most part.’ She looked across at Penny. ‘It’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t go to the newspapers or anything.’

  Penny shook her head. ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything like that, besides, he doesn’t have anything though, has he? The thin
g is he only knows who I am, not who Olivia is.’ By this time she was beginning to recover from her shock. ‘I’ll talk to Olivia tonight and then I’ll give him a call and make sure he stays schtum.’ An idea occurred to her. ‘I’ll promise to bring him a present from Venice. That should do it.’

  ‘What sort of present were you thinking of, a gondola?’

  ‘More likely a gondolier, knowing Jimmy, but I’ll think of something.’

  * * *

  That evening Penny, Caroline and Nick took the vaporetto from right outside their hotel across to the Lido. The icy wind had picked up and they were glad to find seats inside the water-bus where it was relatively warm. If Nick was surprised to see them using public transport, he didn’t show it. Along with the wind had come waves, not big waves, but enough to cause both the boat and the pontoon moored to the quay to sway about uncomfortably. By the time they got across to the Lido, Penny, never a good sailor, was glad to get off. It occurred to her that one advantage of London over Venice was that you were unlikely to get seasick travelling from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square. However the views from the Lido back over the dark water to the sparkling lights of Venice were breathtaking and it took her a few moments to realise what made it so special. It came to her in the end – street lights. All big cities nowadays are bathed in a nighttime glow of street lights, car headlights and the bright windows of high rise blocks but here, with ancient palazzi instead of skyscrapers, water for roads and only small, low-mounted street lamps everything was far darker than London and, as a result, much more atmospheric.

  Penny stood on the quay with the other two for a few moments, admiring the scene, before heading inland and walking round to the restaurant she had found at lunchtime. The cars parked at the sides of the roads, the tarmac rather than flagstones, and the number of relatively modern apartment blocks and houses reinforced just how very special Venice itself really was. Any place in the twenty-first century without cars was a true rarity and to be cherished. Even so, as they walked along the road that ran parallel to the lagoon, the regular splashes as the waves were driven in on the wind made Penny realise just how precarious Venice’s hold on life really was. Every wave represented a few grains of soil or foundations being eroded. Nick was thinking along the same lines.

  ‘This is an unbelievable place, isn’t it? You know, they’re building a massive barrier to help protect Venice against the worst of the high tides, but it may be too little, too late.’

  ‘It’s a World Heritage Site. Doesn’t that count for something?’ Penny felt acutely concerned for the future of the city.

  ‘Yes, but you can’t fight the forces of nature indefinitely.’ Nick was walking between the two of them and he looked across at Penny. ‘It’s no coincidence they picked Venice for this conference on the environment. Sea levels are rising all round the globe. Enjoy Venice while you can. Our grandchildren might not get to see it at all.’

  The restaurant was very full, mostly with Italians. Unexpectedly, the house specialities included game, as well as fish, and Penny was reminded that Hemingway had come to Venice to shoot wildfowl. She chose a wonderful fritto misto of lightly fried little fish, prawns and octopus, while the other two opted for tuna steaks. They split a bottle of prosecco and then moved onto some excellent Bardolino Classico from the lands to the north of Venice. It was a glorious ruby red colour and Penny would happily have stayed and drunk more of it, but she knew she had to put Plan B into operation, or rather Plan N, as Nick was the target for tonight. After finishing her fish, she drained her glass and looked across the table apologetically.

  ‘I’m sorry, guys, but I think I’m going to have to go back to the hotel. I’ve got a screaming headache that I can’t seem to shift. You two enjoy the rest of the night.’

  She stood up as Nick protested that they would accompany her back to the hotel, but she was having none of it. ‘I’ll be fine. A breath of fresh air, a short ride on the vaporetto and I’ll be there. Now, you just enjoy yourselves.’ Just for a second her eyes met Caroline’s and the slightest hint of a smile passed between them.

  It was barely half past nine when she got off the water-bus outside their hotel. She was wearing her warm winter coat with a scarf, and tights under her jeans, so she wasn’t cold. She retrieved her gloves from her pockets and decided to take a walk around Venice in spite of the temperature that must have been very close to freezing. The squares, streets and alleys were virtually deserted at this time on a cold winter’s night, with few people choosing to venture out in the December chill. She walked along the waterfront and turned into St Mark’s Square. A huge Christmas tree had been erected at the far side of the front of the basilica and was covered with white lights. The arched galleries all round the square were festooned with more lights, giving it a Christmassy feel, although there were very few passers-by to admire the view. Penny took some photos and then headed off into the narrow side streets, following arrows indicating the way to the Rialto.

  The narrow lane was lined with shops, many of them gift shops selling the carnival masks for which Venice was famous, as well as everything from wallets to T-shirts and, this time of year, woolly hats. Some were still open even at this late hour, but most were closed up, their heavy metal shutters pulled down and padlocked. Penny didn’t hurry, enjoying the chance to loiter at her leisure without being pushed along by a crowd of other people. Although she was alone, she felt very safe here in Venice. After a while she turned off this main thoroughfare and began to make her way through the maze of little lanes and alleys, some barely wider than her shoulders, leading her deeper into the old town. From time to time she came upon narrow canals, crossed by ancient bridges that left just enough height for gondoliers and their boats to squeeze through underneath. Occasionally the alleys would emerge onto little squares, many boasting amazing baroque or even medieval churches. She lost track of time and direction, just loving being able to wander through the darkened streets, breathing in Venice in all its crumbling glory.

  It was while she was walking alongside a silent, motionless canal, the wind unable to penetrate among the houses to even ripple the surface, that she got a surprise, a major surprise. In fact, she couldn’t believe her eyes at first. On the other side of the canal, a man emerged from an archway and started walking in the same direction as her, probably only thirty or forty feet ahead, separated from her by the water. He was a tall man, wearing a leather jacket. He had a wild mass of dark hair down to his collar and, in the light of a wrought-iron street lamp, she saw that he had a beard. Because he was walking slightly ahead of her, she couldn’t see his face clearly so she found herself speeding up, the sound of her shoes on the flagstones the only noise to be heard. Then, as he reached another light, he glanced across, not directly at her, but far enough for her to see his whole face illuminated by the light, and she stopped dead.

  It was him.

  She couldn’t miss his piratical beard, now a bit shorter than she remembered, his broad shoulders and his handsome face. It really was him. And in case there might have been any doubt about his identity, her knees confirmed it without any possibility of mistake. She felt that now familiar surge of emotion that the sight of him aroused in her. She wobbled and almost fell over, catching hold of a railing to steady herself. This time, however, she had no intention of letting him out of her sight. She summoned all her strength and set off once more, hurrying to catch him up. Then, just as she started to draw level, the path she was following along the waterside abruptly finished, turning ninety degrees to the right into a narrow alley. This led away from the canal and disappeared down between two tall palazzi.

  Cursing under her breath, she started to run down the alley, her footsteps echoing up the tall, blank sides of the buildings. At the end, the alley turned back left again and she hurried along it. Here, the street lighting wasn’t nearly as good as elsewhere and she wasn’t able to go very fast on the uneven stones, for fear of falling over. At last she spotted a gap between two buildings to her
left and ran back in the direction of what she hoped would prove to be the canal. As she emerged at the end of the high walls on either side of her, she realised she was right. This path did indeed lead to the canal, but, alas, there was no bridge. The path just stopped dead at the water’s edge. Less than fifty metres further on, away to her right, she saw a bridge, but it might as well have been five hundred metres away. There was no way of getting to it, short of jumping in and swimming. As she watched, she briefly spotted her man, just as he reached the bridge, turned away from the canal and disappeared into another little lane. As he disappeared from view, she found herself on the point of screaming with frustration. This was the third time she had seen him and, yet again, it looked like she had missed him.

  By the time she had fought her way back into the alleys and along until she finally reached the bridge over the canal, he was long gone. She stopped on the little bridge and sat on the cold stone balustrade, growling to herself and shaking her head in annoyance. The thing she couldn’t grasp was just how it was he could be here in Venice at the same time and in the exact same place as her. Surely home for him was London, seeing as she had glimpsed him there twice. The chances of him choosing to come on holiday to Venice at the precise time she was here was mind-boggling. For a moment she wondered if it might be more than a coincidence. She wondered whether he might be following her, maybe mistaking her for Olivia. Did he intend to kidnap her, or worse?

  She glanced around into the shadows. Everywhere was dark apart from a little light filtering down from a top-floor apartment in one of the palazzi by the canal side and an antique street lamp just ahead of her. For a moment she felt a shiver of fear, but no sooner had it come than she dismissed it. He hadn’t even seen her, he had been walking ahead of her, not behind her, and there was no way he could have known where she was going to be. In fact, even she had no idea where she was.