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They headed towards the river and walked to the Ponte Vecchio along the now familiar route. The air was still warm, the night sky a beautiful deep inky blue sprinkled generously with stars. Halfway across the bridge, now almost empty of people, they stopped and stood underneath the huge stone arches, looking east along the river towards the Ponte alle Grazie, rolling Tuscan hills in the distance. Below them, the water moved slowly, small ripples making the light on the surface dance to an invisible tune.
They stood side by side, each lost in their own thoughts for a few moments. Much as Stella tried to not think about him, she couldn’t help but wonder, as she so often did, where Simon was, what he might be doing, who he might be with. Emily Parker’s name hung in her mind. Despite the wonderful evening they’d had, the thought of Simon left her feeling hollow once more.
She felt Lucy’s arm around her shoulders. ‘Thank you,’ Stella whispered. ‘I’m all right, I promise. I just can’t help but think about him. Where he is, you know?’
‘Of course you do, it would be weird if you didn’t.’ Bridget put her arm around Stella too, squeezing her shoulder.
‘It’s just… I’m tired of trying to figure out what happened. He left me with nothing to go on.’ Stella sighed. ‘I didn’t want to talk about it tonight. I’m sick of talking about him, sick of thinking about him, to be honest. But it’s so unfinished. I’ve tried everything, but until he gets in touch – if he gets in touch…’
‘He will, I’m sure.’ Sarah spoke softly.
Bridget nodded. ‘He’ll be back. But leaving without trace like that is…’ She stopped short of saying the word unforgivable out loud.
Stella took a deep breath. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous, but I found a name written on a piece of paper in an old wallet of his. It might be nothing, but it did make me wonder… I know so little of Simon’s past. He has no family but us, none of our friends have heard from him. It’s the only name I have that might be able to tell me something.’
‘What’s the name?’ Lucy asked, her mind already putting two and two together and realising that’s who Stella was searching for on her phone earlier.
‘Emily Parker.’
‘And that doesn’t ring any bells?’ asked Sarah.
Stella shook her head, watching the gentle movement of the river below them. ‘None.’
The name hung in the air for a moment.
Stella moved back from the wall and stood upright. ‘Right, enough. I need to dance.’
‘Seriously?’ Sarah’s eyes lit up.
‘Absolutely. It’s our last night and I’m not going to bed until I’ve danced.’ Stella grinned at them all. ‘There was a bar that looked like people were dancing, we passed it as we left the square.’
‘Then what are we waiting for?’ Bridget clapped, delighted at the idea.
They walked back across the bridge towards the square, promising themselves they’d still be first in the queue to climb the 414 steps of Giotto’s Bell Tower in the morning. As the bar came into view, people spilling out onto the square, the four of them picked up their pace and headed into the throng. Soon, all thoughts of Simon left Stella’s mind as, for the next couple of hours, she swayed to the rhythm and moved to the beat with her arms in the air. Nothing else mattered but the music.
17
By the time Lucy stretched and opened her eyes on Sunday morning, Stella was already out of bed. Lucy looked across the room to see Stella sitting in the small armchair by the open window of their hotel room, the cerulean sky beyond. Bells rang in the distance, floating across the landscape through the open window.
‘Hey, how are you feeling?’ Lucy’s voice was croaky. She lifted her eye mask and rubbed at her eyes. ‘Ow.’ She reached for her head. ‘Did you sleep well?’
‘I slept, like properly slept. Better than I have for ages.’ Stretching her arms above her head, Stella uncurled her feet from underneath her. ‘It’s been lovely, sitting here. When I spoke to Caroline yesterday, the girls seemed so happy. And Max is having a great time, apparently. And, actually, that’s all I really care about, them being OK in all of this.’
‘They will be, Stella. With you, they will be.’
‘I hope so.’ Stella sighed and looked back out of the window. Birds pecked at the grass on the lawns below. ‘You need to get up.’ She glanced at her phone to see the time. ‘For some reason, we thought it was a good idea to meet early this morning.’
‘Excuse me, for some reason, you thought it was a good idea to dance until two in the morning. I haven’t done that for bloody years.’ Lucy winced as she sat up.
‘I know, sorry.’ Stella laughed. ‘I’ll have a quick shower.’
‘Perfect, go for it. I might just close my eyes for another ten minutes.’ And with that, Lucy deployed her eye mask once more.
Stella quickly showered and dressed, throwing a green linen dress over her head and pulling her hair into a loose ponytail. She woke Lucy, telling her not to fall back to sleep, then grabbed her bag, placed her sunglasses on top of her head, slipped on her plimsolls and headed downstairs.
Bridget was already at the table on the terrace with a pot of coffee, an untouched glass of orange juice and basket of pastries in front of her. She spoke as Stella approached the table without looking up. ‘Parker, did you say?’
For a moment, Stella didn’t know what Bridget was talking about. Then she remembered and nodded her head slowly. ‘Yes. Why?’
