Aged for Malice Read online

  She scrambled down the slope and did exactly what Danilo had done. She prowled around the strewn boulders, looking at their size and shape, touching the cold, rough rock.

  Behind the biggest pile, she met Danilo. He, too, was placing his hand on a large boulder, looking puzzled.

  “Olivia, I am wondering where these rocks came from,” he said, echoing the thoughts she’d just had.

  Excitement surged inside Olivia all over again. In a rush, her determination returned.

  “It’s not like they could have fallen from anywhere. There’s no mountain nearby to cause a landslide. And although my farm’s terrain is rocky, they’re scattered around. Not all stacked together in one place. There’s no reason for them to be here,” she agreed.

  “Someone went to a lot of trouble to pile them up. The biggest pile is on the exact place where the map triangulates.”

  Danilo pointed to Erba, standing proudly atop the rocky mound, and his face warmed as he stared at Olivia’s naughty goat.

  “At first, I thought that nothing could have been buried here because of the rocks. But if they’d been brought in afterwards, then it makes things different.” Olivia felt goosebumps prickle her arms, and not just because of the freshening wind.

  “Exactly. These rocks could have been laid down on purpose, to hide what was below and make it impossible to dig up,” Danilo said, sounding excited.

  “How easily could they be moved?” Olivia glanced doubtfully at the pile. The boulders must weigh tons.

  “You would need specialized machinery,” Danilo agreed.

  Olivia knew what that meant. Money!

  The farm swallowed money, there was no doubt about it. The vines planted now would take two years to start yielding. Olivia was trying not to think about the financial viability of the project and how she, as a single person on a sommelier’s salary, was going to take it where she wanted.

  “We’ll have to wait a while then,” she decided, frustrated that this captivating treasure hunt would have to be shelved until her savings had recovered.

  In any case, there was no guarantee of finding anything underneath. It could simply be that while clearing the land, the original owners had decided to place all the rocks in one location. Perhaps they’d wanted to build a wall or a special feature, and never gotten around to it.

  In despondent silence, they trailed to where Charlotte was waiting.

  “Well, now that we’ve all finished looking at big rocks, it’s time to think about what’s for dinner,” her ever-practical friend said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “I was wondering if we should try making that baked pasta dish tonight, with artichokes and spinach.”

  “Good idea,” Olivia said, feeling cheered by the promise of a tasty dinner.

  As they strolled back to the farmhouse, Danilo took Olivia’s hand.

  “Ever since I was young, I have heard the rumors about a valuable wine collection hidden away in the local area. We have all heard them,” he said thoughtfully.

  Shivers chased down Olivia’s spine and she was grateful for the warmth of Danilo’s hand in hers. It was spooky and mysterious to imagine that such an ancient stash, a local legend, might be hidden here!

  “At least, if they are here, they’re safely guarded,” she said, trying to see the positives in the situation.

  “The pasta dish requires cream. Do we have enough cream?” Charlotte asked, sounding suddenly anxious. “I can always take a trip to the village and buy some. It doesn’t sound as if you can skimp on the cream. The recipe was very strict about the quantities. And the butter, also,” she added cheerfully.

  “There should be enough. I had this dish in mind when I shopped yesterday,” Olivia reassured her.

  “Are we expecting anybody to join us for dinner?” Danilo asked curiously as they rounded the corner of the farmhouse.

  “No, why?” Olivia asked, confused.

  “Oh,” she said a moment later as she noticed what he’d seen. Headlights, bright in the now-dusky evening, were swinging into her driveway.

  Olivia’s first thought was that someone had gotten lost. People occasionally used her drive to turn around after realizing they’d taken the wrong road. But this time, the car headed briskly through her ramshackle gateway, and up the gravel-lined drive.

  “Is it one of the Vescovis?” Danilo asked.

  That had been Olivia’s first thought also. The Vescovis, who owned La Leggenda where she worked as sommelier, would occasionally pop in if they were passing by. Marcello and Antonio would usually call first, but Nadia would often arrive unannounced, laden down with tasty treats from the local bakeries. But this small Fiat didn’t belong to any of them.

  “Perhaps someone needs directions,” Olivia said, letting go Danilo’s hand and waving at the car, which had stopped behind Danilo’s pickup.

  The driver got out and, to Olivia’s confusion, he opened the trunk. From it, he lifted a large, new-looking travel bag and a smaller, matching valise.

  “I think you may have taken a wrong turn,” Olivia called as she hurried over, hoping that her warning would prevent him from needlessly unloading any more luggage. Hopefully, Danilo could help with the map reading to set this poor man onto the right path.

  But, to her confusion, the driver marched around to the passenger side and opened the door with a flourish.

  “Signora,” he invited.

  Olivia skidded to a stop and stared in astonishment at the tall, slim, well-coiffed woman climbing confidently out of the small car. She blinked rapidly, wondering if she was perhaps hallucinating. This couldn’t be happening. It simply couldn’t! Could it?

  “Hello angel! Surprise! My goodness, I never dreamed you had bought a place so far away from civilization!”

  Olivia felt as if her entire reality had warped as her mother, wearing a smart pant suit and a pair of stylish, new-looking boots, paced triumphantly toward her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Staring quizzically at Olivia, Mrs. Glass let out a bell-like laugh as she approached.

  “Your face is a picture. I wish I could send a photo back to your father. He’s holding the fort back home in New York.”

  “I had no idea you were coming,” Olivia whispered as her mother embraced her, enveloping her in a cloud of ChanelNo5. Like the new boots, Olivia suspected this was an airport purchase. Her hair was exactly the same as always, immaculately groomed in its neat blond bob, and her blue eyes looked very bright behind gold-framed spectacles.

  “I did mention to you that I would book a ticket as soon as my passport was issued,” Mrs. Glass chided her. “It was ready much faster than I expected, and Andrew found an excellent special offer, so lo and behold, I was on a plane the very next day. I thought it would be fun to surprise you.”

  She smiled at Olivia, who noted the expression had a hint of steel.

  As her shocked brain tried to process the sudden arrival of her mother, Olivia began to suspect that it hadn’t just been a need for surprise that had prompted this unannounced visit. She wondered if her mother had wanted to catch her off guard.

  If so, there was a bigger motive for the trip than an impulse vacation and Olivia was sure she knew what it was. Mrs. Glass had made an in-person visit to persuade her only daughter to move back home to the States.

  Mrs. Glass turned to see Charlotte and Danilo approaching.

  “Charlotte, how wonderful to see you,” Mrs. Glass enthused. “Are you also visiting Olivia? And who’s this young man?”

  Removing her spectacles, Mrs. Glass eyeballed Danilo.

  Watching her mother’s face, Olivia knew with absolute certainty that she was here on a mission. This was not a friendly visit but more like a carefully planned military operation. That meant if she introduced Danilo as her boyfriend, she’d be landing her poor beau in a world of trouble.

  Finding a serious boyfriend in her daughter’s life wouldn’t be well-received. She would take against Danilo, seeing him as a threat, and Olivia didn’t want thei
r relationship getting off to a rocky start from which it might never recover. She’d mentioned Danilo in previous emails but Olivia knew only too well how her mother could read selectively and only take in what she wanted to hear.

  As the thoughts flashed through her mind, Olivia decided, instinctively, to protect herself and her relationship for the time being.

  “This is my friend Danilo, who lives nearby,” she said.

  “Hello, Daniel,” Mrs. Glass said, extending a regal hand.

  Olivia cringed, feeling mortified as she saw the shocked hurt appear on Danilo’s face. She wished she could whisper in his ear why she’d done what she did. She was realizing now it had been a terrible decision. Her efforts to keep him below her mother’s radar had deeply wounded him. Feeling suddenly sick, Olivia feared that he might be rethinking their entire relationship based on her dismissive introduction.

  And her mother had gotten his name wrong. That wasn’t intentional. Olivia knew her mother was terrible with names, and suspected her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be. Hence the reason she, herself, spoke in such piercing tones. She should have corrected it immediately but in the stress of the moment, she’d missed her chance.

  Her mother had been on Tuscan soil only a couple of minutes, and already Olivia felt as if her life was crumbling around her.

  With his face set and grim, Danilo picked up the larger valise and marched toward the farmhouse. Grabbing the smaller case, Olivia hurried after him.

  As she reached the front door, Charlotte whispered, “I’ll make up the spare bedroom quick with fresh linen, and move my things into the downstairs study.”

  That was an additional complication, Olivia realized with another unpleasant jolt. Her farmhouse only had two proper bedrooms and Charlotte had been occupying one! Thank goodness she’d purchased a sleeper couch when she furnished the small study. At least Charlotte would have a comfortable place to rest her head.

  “We’ll take the luggage upstairs in a minute,” Olivia said to her mother, buying time for the bed making to be done. “In the meantime, would you like to see the closest vine plantation? And I can show you the barn that I’ve renovated into a winemaking room.”

  “Let’s do that,” Mrs. Glass replied graciously.

  Feeling a sense of unreality, Olivia headed out of the house and into the deepening twilight, leading the way up the curved path to her barn. She was proud of the large doors she’d painted and installed, and the rows of lanterns along the wall which she thought added a medieval charm to the spacious interior.

  Opening the doors, Olivia snapped on the lights and felt a thrill of excitement as the warm light flooded her barn. She’d made one successful batch of ice wine in this place so far. She could do more!

  Mrs. Glass, however, seemed less impressed.

  “You don’t need specialized equipment?” she asked curiously. “This building seems rather empty.”

  Olivia bit her lip. Her mother was absolutely right. She did need specialized equipment! She needed more fermentation vats and more barrels, just for a start. They were expensive, and if she saved up, she hoped she might be able to afford them before her new vines produced their first grapes.

  “It’s still in the planning stages,” she stated bravely.

  Turning, her mother spied Erba, standing in the doorway. Even though her goat knew there was no wine currently fermenting in the barn, she was still remaining quietly hopeful about the possibility.

  “What a pretty goat,” her mother said, and Olivia smiled with relief. Erba, with her customary flair, had managed to redeem the situation.

  As her mother approached Erba, she scrutinized her closely.

  “She’s pregnant, is she?” Mrs. Glass asked, as Erba pushed her orange and white head against her thigh in a friendly way. “I don’t know much about goats, but she looks to be quite far along. When is she due to have her kid?” Her mother gave a tinkling laugh. “Kid! Isn’t that funny? Or do they usually have more than one?”

  Olivia goggled in horror, her gaze swiveling from her goat to her mother and back again.

  She’d never considered this possibility! Surely Erba was still too young? But maybe she wasn’t. Time had flown since she had adopted her, Olivia realized, panic surging inside her at the thought of this unwanted event. Of course kids were in Erba’s future; she was part of a dairy herd! But if she was pregnant, she’d soon have to stay with her herd. Milking happened very early in the mornings. That meant she would have to stop being Olivia’s adopted goat. She would no longer have Erba’s cute, playful presence in her life.

  Olivia hadn’t even wanted to think about this happening in the future. But now, already? Her mother was right. Erba’s belly did look rather round.

  “Let’s take a walk to my closest vine plantation,” she said in a strangled voice, desperate to change the subject. Her probably-pregnant goat was an extra stress she simply couldn’t deal with right now. “I’m sure you’re keen to see the first grapevines I personally planted on this land? They’ll hopefully be mature enough to produce grapes at the end of this coming summer season. I’ll also pick grapes from all the wild vines that grow around this property. That’s how I made my first batch last season. I made an ice wine,” Olivia said proudly.

  She followed the paved pathway down the hill, with her mother’s heels clip-clopping along the cobbles behind her.

  Pregnant? Erba?

  Olivia couldn’t get the thought out of her mind.

  Determinedly trying to banish it, she gestured to the rectangular plantation of vines that she’d planted last fall, feeling proud of how tall and healthy the young plants looked. They were going into summer as ready as they could be.

  “It’s rather small, isn’t it? Compared to the vineyards in California,” Mrs. Glass said, sounding confused as she gazed at the modest plantation.

  “This was my very first one, and I didn’t have many seeds,” Olivia explained apologetically. “The land’s so hilly that most of the new plantations are fairly small too, but at least there are more of them now. They’re dotted around all over the place,” she explained.

  Except where the boulders were, Olivia thought.

  “The plantations in California are enormous. I mean, they use golf carts or actual tractors to get from one side to the other. Perhaps now that you have some experience, one of those California farms might consider taking you on. On the marketing side, of course,” her mother mused thoughtfully.

  “Shall we go inside? It’s getting chilly,” Olivia suggested.

  She needed a glass of wine. Badly. She felt deflated by how unimpressed her mother was over her new venture. And, come to that, over Italy! But she had known deep down this would happen. Her mother was not yet convinced and perhaps never would be, of Olivia’s commitment to her new life. Until she was, she would be unable to see anything good in any of it.

  Her mother was very strong minded. Or stubborn, as others preferred to phrase it.

  Hopefully, over a good dinner, her stance would thaw and she would be able to start appreciating the glorious country where her first-ever international visit had landed her. Then Olivia could explain that Danilo was in fact her serious boyfriend.

  She pushed open the front door and gave a last, anxious look back at Erba, who was trotting around the side of the farmhouse, heading for her dinner.

  Was she pregnant?

  Her flanks did look round!

  Had it taken her mother’s fresh eyes to notice this catastrophe in the making?

  Olivia closed the door and followed her to the kitchen, feeling completely discombobulated.

  “Red or white wine, Mrs. G.?” Charlotte asked, taking a glass from out of the kitchen cupboard.

  “White, please. Oh, that reminds me, Olivia, I brought you a gift,” her mother said. She rummaged in her purse and handed over a small parcel.

  “Wineglass charms! Thank you, Mom.” Olivia tried her best to drum up genuine enthusiasm for the silver, beaded, New-York-them
ed charms in the small box. She couldn’t help feeling they were yet another hint that she didn’t belong here.

  “White wine coming up. Shall we decorate the glasses with these cute charms now?” Charlotte said, clearly hell-bent on keeping things cheerful.

  As Charlotte handed Olivia her glass, she hissed in her ear, “Bed’s made!”

  Danilo was making a start on dinner. His back was turned as he focused on the pans, where the delicious fragrance of garlic was starting to permeate the kitchen. Olivia knew from his silence that he was badly upset. If only she could explain why she’d done what she did. But in this small kitchen, with all of them crowded so close, there was going to be no chance to have a private chat.

  Without giving Danilo some background, those wounding words would continue to fester. Olivia was starting to panic that by the time she did explain, it would already be too late. When, and how, would she get a chance to repair the damage she’d done?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  To Olivia’s relief, dinner was ready in record time. The baked pasta dish smelled divine. She wished she felt hungrier, but somewhere in between her mother climbing out of the car and introducing Danilo as her friend, her appetite had vanished completely.

  “I’m sure you must be looking forward to seeing lots of local sights while you’re here,” Charlotte said, valiantly attempting to keep the conversation flowing.

  “If Olivia’s not too busy, I am sure we’ll be able to do some sightseeing,” Mrs. Glass replied.

  Seething inwardly, Olivia had to bite back the comment that if her mother had given her a day or two’s warning, she would have had more of a chance of booking time off work. Marcello was away this week, and Olivia had no idea if it would be possible for her to take leave. She’d have to find out tomorrow.

  She dished up the food, wishing that this delicious creation could have been eaten under less tense circumstances.

  “I cannot stay long,” Danilo said as he dug his fork into the steaming, cheesy layers.