Page 77 of A Scottish Teashop in Napoli

‘Are you referring to what I think you’re referring to?’

‘Scusa?’

‘You know, like inThe Godfather,Goodfellas,Scarface…?’

Dario leaned back in his chair, drew his hand over his stubble, smiling in spite of himself. ‘Sì.’

Lucy gasped, a chill of alarm racing through her. ‘Nooo. That’s crazy. What would the…’ She hardly dared to say the word. She swallowed hard. ‘What would the – Mafia – want with a little teashop? I thought they were only interested in casinos and drug barons.’

Dario shook his head. ‘They target small businesses too. They demandil pizzo,protection money. But now many business owners, they refuse to pay.’

‘I see.’ Lucy rubbed her temple, trying to make sense of it all. ‘I guess they don’t take kindly to that?’

‘No. But we are all united. We will not live in fear.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Lucy said, sudden emotion edging into her voice.

‘Scusa?’

‘I feel this is all my fault.’

Dario frowned. ‘But why?’

‘I should have mentioned the visit before, but everyone was so happy and I didn’t want to spoil things by causing alarm unnecessarily, and then I convinced myself I was worrying about nothing. I thought he was just some random bloke trying his luck… If I’d known that… Mafia…’

‘You must not blame yourself.’ Dario looked deep into her glistening eyes. ‘You did nothing wrong.’

‘And if it wasn’t for me, there would be no teashop and this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘Essato.’Dario shrugged. ‘There would be no teashop without our Lucia. You have breathed life into the Moretti family. You have brought them together, given them hope, you are helping them to make new memories, to move forward…’

‘I know I didn’t mean to, but I’ve brought danger into their lives too.’

Dario laid a reassuring hand on hers. ‘No. This is not true.’

A big tear slid down Lucy’s cheek and landed on Dario’s wrist.

‘But how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again?’

Dario shrugged, eyes darkening. ‘This, I cannot answer.’ With a steely resolve he continued, ‘We must be cautious, yes, but we must live our lives, otherwise they win.’

They sat in silence for several moments, until the door burst open and Dario snatched his hand away.

‘Officer Bianchi, may I have a word?’

Lucy walked along the shore, the lapping of the waves triggering happy childhood memories and soothing her troubled mind.

Moonlight slashed through the gathering clouds, throwing a silvery beam onto the night fishing boats. The lights of Sorrento twinkled in the distance, ultra-romantic, ripped straight from the pages of an enchanting fairy tale.

But the situation Lucy now found herself in was far from the stuff of fairy tales.

It was all starting to make sense now; that embarrassing day when she had tossed mozzarella onto the factory floor and Valentina had come to her rescue.

‘This was no accident,’ she had said about the loss of her brother.

And Lucy had sensed something more than sadness in Matteo’s voice when she had encouraged him to share his feelings about what had happened to Giancarlo.

‘It is better for you not to know, Lucy,’ he’d said, then swiftly changed the subject.