dreamed of being a doctor but lack of money had forced him to abandon his studies. He was a competent chemist and might have done much good, but he had delusions of medical grandeur that had flowered unchecked during Dr Fortuno’s time. Patients with a well-founded distrust of the old doctor had turned to Sortone for advice. Over the years his business had flourished and so had his ego. Dr Wendham, bright, young and brilliantly qualified, put his nose severely out of joint.
Like any small community Montedoro had a good deal of intermarriage, and the Sortone family tentacles stretched far. There was soon a faction that didn’t bother to hide its disapproval of Angie, her foreign tongue, her trousers, her insistence on living alone, her ‘new-fangled’ ideas. But she fought back with medical care that even Sortone couldn’t fault, and some of his adherents wavered. When he learned that his own sister-in-law had brought her children to Angie for vaccination the result was a sulphurous family row that reverberated through the whole town. Thereafter Sortone was more careful, his attitude to her one of exaggerated respect, but she had no illusions about his true feelings.
She experienced practical difficulties too. Once, while she was out making visits on the mule, she got lost on the way home, wandered for hours in the darkness and was found by Antonio who’d called out a search party. By that time she was drenched from a thunderstorm and was laid low for three days with a heavy cold. But the incident helped to consolidate her growing reputation. Bernardo didn’t come to call, but Stella visited every day, bearing gifts.
‘He told me to bring you this,’ she said on the first day, producing a bottle of wine. ‘It’s the best in his cellar.’ In a voice that mingled awe and admiration she added, ‘He’s very, very angry with you.’
‘Tell him thank you,’ Angie snuffled miserably.
‘I will, when he telephones tonight.’
‘Isn’t he here?’
‘No, he’s spending a few days in Palermo, helping with preparations for Signora Martelli’s birthday. But he’ll call me to ask how you are.’
‘He probably won’t bother,’ Angie said gloomily.
‘He’ll bother,’ Stella said knowingly, and departed, leaving Angie to indulge in a coughing fit.
He could call
Even though he could.
And he didn’t.
There were other gifts, a cake from the nuns, freshly baked bread from Father Marco’s housekeeper, a ginger cake from Mayor Donati’s wife, and enough bottles of wine to stock a tavern, much of it home-made. By most of the region she had been accepted.
She’d known about Baptista’s birthday. Always a big event, this year it would mean more than ever, as Renato’s wife was now part of the family. Heather had visited Angie once, and they had talked several times on the telephone, but much of her time was now taken up working for the Martelli firm, a fruit and vegetable wholesaler. She made several working trips abroad, and Britain was now considered ‘her’ terrain.
‘Won’t that put Lorenzo’s nose out of joint?’ Angie asked as the two of them sat cosily in her front room. ‘It’s always been his territory.’
Heather chuckled wickedly. ‘Lorenzo doesn’t want to go back to London-not for a while, anyway. On his last trip he spent the night in a police cell.’
‘For heaven’s sake! Why?’
‘He was arrested for driving over the limit. Plus he took a swipe at a policeman. I had to make a “mercy dash” over there to get him out. He’s very happy to leave Britain to me in future.’
Thanks to Angie’s precautions Montedoro had only three flu cases, who all recovered, but as soon as she was back to work two children went down with measles. Luckily they were both in the town, making visiting easy. She soon had the relief of knowing that the worst was probably over for both of them, but she continued to call twice a day, and as the date of the big party drew near she knew her chances of being there were slim.
Down below, Palermo was enjoying a typical mild Sicilian winter, albeit a rainy one. But up here in the mountains the weather was fast getting worse. Once it had been merely cold. Now the sky threatened snow. Reluctantly she called Baptista and explained that she dared not leave.
‘Of course your patients come first, my dear,’ said the old woman immediately. ‘When the weather improves, you must come down and we’ll have a long lunch together.’
Bernardo had returned from Palermo and paid her a brief call to enquire after her health. He remained for only a short time, as if this was a duty he wanted to get over quickly, but he did offer to take her to Palermo for the party, ‘since I know you dislike driving over mountain roads.’
She’d accepted the offer, and enjoyed a few fantasies about the time they would spend together, the brilliantly lit Residenza, the music, the dancing, the journey home, warmed by the glow of the previous evening…
But on the morning of the party, when Bernardo called to collect her, he found her waiting for him despondently.
‘I can’t go,’ she said. ‘Can you take my gift to Baptista for me?’
‘But it’s her birthday. She’s only happy if she has everyone around her.’
‘I daren’t leave Montedoro. There have already been a few flakes of snow. Suppose the weather closes in and I can’t get back for days? What are the people here supposed to do for a doctor? I’ve talked to Baptista, and she agrees with me. But you should go quickly.’
‘This is madness. Dr Fortuno took a few days off whenever he wanted.’
‘Well, I doubt anyone noticed the difference,’ Angie said wryly. ‘He may have been a dear old man, but he was a rotten doctor. He left me all his books and medical journals, and I found nothing less than thirty years old. I’d love to know what sort of qualifications he had. A certificate in First Aid, probably. And I’ll bet the only reason he was here was that nobody else wanted the job.’
‘My father helped him get it,’ Bernardo said. ‘I recall him saying that Fortuno hadn’t exactly passed top of the class.’
‘So why didn’t you get your people a proper doctor?’
‘Because I didn’t know what you’ve just told me. Not passing well didn’t mean he was no good for a practice where not much happens.’
‘But why didn’t things happen? Because they gave up on him. My waiting room is full every day with people who never bothered to come before, because they knew there was no point.’
‘And how would I have got anyone else?’ he demanded. ‘You said yourself, people aren’t falling over themselves to work here.’
‘You should have gone out and found someone. There are loads of bright, starry-eyed young doctors who wouldn’t mind starting here if someone gave them financial help. You could have offered that. Anyway, they’ve got me now, and I’m going to be here when they need me.’
‘Does that mean you can never enjoy yourself?’
She shrugged. ‘You warned me that it would be tough.’
At the doorway he paused. ‘What happens when you get fed up and decide to leave for good? What do they do then?’
‘Maybe I won’t leave.’
‘You will-in the end. And how can anyone afford to buy this place with all the new equipment you’ve put in?’
‘They probably couldn’t. So I’ll have to stay. Now get going. And give my love to Baptista.’
That night it began to snow. Angie watched the white flakes through her bedroom window, and realised that by morning the road up here would be impassable. She had done the right thing in remaining. She tried to make herself feel better with that thought, but it was hard when the wind was howling around the little village in its exposed position.
And of course, her good intentions would all be wasted. Nobody would fall ill. Nothing would happen. She would spend several days snowed in alone, when she could have been in Palermo enjoying a convivial time at the Residenza.
If only the wind would die down, she thought, moving restlessly about the room. She ought to go to bed, but
