T Williams - What Happens In Tuscany...

‘Linus?’ The name sounded familiar to Katie. ‘Wasn’t Linus one of Snoopy’s friends?’

‘Snoopy?’ Victoria looked up. ‘Who’s Snoopy?’

Katie stared back at her blankly. ‘You haven’t heard of Snoopy? But what books did you read as a kid?’

‘Oh, you know, the usual; Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland , that sort of thing.’

‘And Harry Potter ?’

‘Now I have heard of him. I’ve often seen him mentioned in the newspaper, but I’ve never read any of the books. And you still haven’t told me who Snoopy was.’

Katie came to a decision. ‘Victoria, we need to go shopping. We need to get you some books, and not just about jet propulsion.’

‘Shopping?’ There was a different note in Victoria’s voice now. Maybe excitement. ‘You mean we go to Exeter or somewhere to buy things?’

‘Exeter’ll be good for starters. We’ve got to get you some books. Anything else you want?’ There was a pause before Victoria replied, and there was no disguising the timidity in her voice. ‘Erm, I was wondering if maybe I should buy some clothes.’

Katie beamed. This was saving her a potentially difficult conversation. She had been dreading having The Clothes Talk. In the days since getting to Iddlescombe, she had only ever seen Victoria in riding clothes, formal clothes or cotton frocks. And the sort of cotton frocks she wore looked like something out of Goldilocks’ wardrobe. And as for shoes…

‘Listen, why don’t we start with a trip to Exeter? It’s only about an hour away. We could head off one morning and make a day of it. Maybe have lunch in a pub somewhere?’ And , she thought to herself, find somewhere with mobile reception .

‘We could do that?’ There was wonder in Victoria’s voice. There was a pause before she repeated her words, this time in stronger tones. ‘We could do that. We can do that.’ She caught Katie’s eye. ‘I’m twenty-five years old and I can do what I want. I keep forgetting that. Yes, we can and we must go shopping. Thank you, Katie.’

Katie was composing a shopping list in her head. ‘Books, clothes, shoes. One thing I haven’t seen here is a computer. I didn’t think there were many households left these days without one. Have I been looking in the wrong places?’

Victoria shook her head. ‘No, you’re right, no computer here.’ She hesitated, uncertain how to explain. Katie thought she knew the answer and offered a suggestion.

‘Your father wasn’t a fan of technology?’

‘I think that’s understating the situation.’ Victoria smiled weakly. ‘He hated, loathed and detested what he described as the insanity of modernity. Have you seen his collection of cars? Ask Mackintosh to show them to you some time. There isn’t one under fifty years old.’ Victoria lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘Mackintosh is a marvel, managing to look after them as he does, but sometimes, particularly in winter, the tractor’s about the only vehicle that’ll start.’

‘So no modern things at all?’ Katie realised there was another item, apart from a computer, that she hadn’t spotted yet. ‘What about a television?’

Victoria shook her head again. ‘They bought one in 1953 so they could all watch the coronation. We’ve still got it somewhere. Of course it doesn’t work now.’

‘No TV? So if I said Eastenders or Coronation Street to you…?’

‘I’d say, what?’

Katie slowly turned over in her head the ramifications of not having a television. It was unthinkable. Still, that, at least, was easy to resolve. ‘Would you like a TV? It isn’t just rubbish on there, you know.’ She paused and reflected, before adding, ‘Although a good bit of it really is crap.’ She saw the expression on Victoria’s face. ‘Crap? You don’t know what that means?’

Victoria shook her head. ‘Oh, I know what it means and I’ve heard it before, but I assumed it was very rude. But you’re not a rude person, and you use it.’ Katie reflected that Jenny would probably have used much stronger language. Victoria carried on. ‘Listen, Katie.’ She was looking down at her feet, clearly embarrassed and sounding bitterly frustrated. ‘Do you see now why I need you? In so many ways I have been so very privileged for the last twenty-five years. I’ve been waited on hand and foot, I’ve lived here in beautiful surroundings, I’ve had the best possible tuition and a free run of a whole library of classic books. But it’s been an artificial existence.’ The frustration was spilling over into anger once more. ‘He kept me here, cut off from the world, because he thought he was doing me a favour. A favour?’

She stopped for a few minutes to compose herself. Katie sat in silence, reflecting upon what she had heard. Immense wealth, it appeared, could have equally immense disadvantages. She remembered Jenny’s comment about money not buying happiness. Here in front of her was the living proof of that. She felt a wave of pity and affection for this twenty-five-year-old who was only now taking her first, hesitant steps into the modern world. It couldn’t be easy.

After a while, Victoria felt able to carry on. ‘Being stuck here in limbo has left me with so much still to learn about what you would think of as normal life. To me, it’s a daunting prospect. My problem now is to somehow jump several decades into the present day. If you like, think of me as one of my father’s classic cars; very expensive, meticulously looked after, envied by many, but a relic of a bygone age that only appears in public very infrequently. I need you to help me, Katie. I need your help so badly.’

For a moment, tears welled up in her eyes once more and Katie saw another glimpse of the desperation beneath. She hunted for the right words of reassurance, but Victoria hadn’t finished. ‘I’m not stupid, you know. I’m well aware of the real world. We get the Daily Telegraph twice a week and I read it from cover to cover. I know it’s a different world out there on the other side of the glass curtain and I know that the time’s come for me to go out into it. Help me, please.’

She rubbed the back of her hand across her face and Katie made a mental note to add make-up to their shopping list. She waited until Victoria had recovered her composure and then did her best to be supportive and positive.

‘Don’t let it get you down too much, Victoria. Your father wasn’t all wrong, you know. I drove around for years in my little car and, believe me, it was crap. It was forty, fifty, sixty years younger than your dad’s cars, but it wouldn’t go up hills, it leaked like a sieve and, in winter, it never wanted to start. And, in fact, it’s died now, completely. So it’s not all good out there in the twenty-first century. But we’ll soon get you up to speed. It won’t take you long, I promise. You’ll see.’ She gave Victoria a bright smile and was gratified to see the beginnings of a smile on her young employer’s face.

‘Anyway, if you’ll let me, I think we should be able to get a TV and a computer installed up here in a very short space of time. And then, I’ll take you on a trip through the modern world that’ll blow your mind.’ Seeing Victoria’s expression, she translated. ‘That’ll amaze and astound you.’ As she was talking, she was thinking: music and cinema. An iPod and a stereo system would have to appear on their shopping list, plus some must-see DVDs. Maybe a Kindle would come in handy. She was beginning to realise that she was going to have her work cut out.

‘Katie…’ Victoria’s face had cleared. She looked up, straight into Katie’s eyes. ‘Whatever it takes, Katie.’ She was smiling now. ‘One thing we aren’t short of is money, so, like I say, whatever it takes.’