Easy, Peg. Be kind.
I know. I will. （The sound of Peg inhaling on the cigarette.） Well, I never, she said. That’s a first for our family.
Where’s Ted? said Ulysses.
Out for the count. He had a late one. I’m getting a drink. You stay on the line?
Course I will.
The sound of her footsteps moving away. Fridge door opening and shutting. The chatter of ice. Peg moving back towards the phone.
You still there? she said.
I’m here, he said.
A girl, eh?
Yep.
He tapped his cigarette onto the ashtray.
Happy new year, Peg.
You think it will be?
You’re due one, right?
Can’t complain.
How’s Essex?
We’ve got a big garden.
I never knew you wanted one.
I didn’t.
Peg laughed. （It was the best thing, hearing her laugh.）
Aye aye, said Ulysses. Here he is. Our best fella’s just walked in.
Pete came into the room, trailed by Claude. Ulysses covered the mouthpiece. You OK, Pete?
Much better thanks, Temps.
It’s Peg, said Ulysses, holding up the phone.
Hello Peg! Pete called out.
Pete went over to the piano and began to play. Tell her this one’s for her, he said.
Pete says this one’s for you, and Ulysses held the receiver low to the keys. Peg started to sing on the other end of the line, ‘I’m a Fool to Want You’。
Pete shouted out, You’ve always been a star, heavenly lady.
Peg stayed on the line the whole song. Would have cost her a fortune but worth every penny just for Peg to be Peg again. Song ended with a Pete flourish. And the chink chink of ice in an upended glass. Ulysses brought the receiver back up to his ear. His breath and her breath, that smoky catch.
No one like you, Peg.
Gotta go, she said, and they hung up.
Pete’s last night at the palazzo rolled round soon enough. It was late and they were stuffed full of Cressy’s gnocchi, which he’d served with sage and butter and cheese with a snowdrift of parmesan on top. Alys was over at Romy’s and Pete was at the piano playing his thoughts to music. Dozens of candles added an introspective dimension to the evening, which had begun with a Johnny Mathis singalong.
Pete said, You ever feel like you’ve been here before, Temps?
Ulysses raised his head off the sofa and said, When you say ‘here’， Pete, d’you mean life or— This city. Florence.
I’ve been here before, said Cress, who was sprawled on the floor like roadkill. I was a friar.
A friar?
Pretty sure of it, boy.
You never told me that before, Cress.
Never been sure of it till the other day. Over at San Marco, I had a strong sense of déjà vu. In one of the cells where Fra Angelico painted his Annunciation. It was as if I was watching him do it.
You help him, Cress?
No, I didn’t, Pete. I just watched him. Light streaming in. The holiness of his heart. It was quite transcendent.
That’s a nice word, Cress.
Beyond the dimension of physical human experience. Inexplicable, yet serene.
Ulysses poured out more wine.
You ever done that thing with a mirror, Temps?
What thing with a mirror, Pete?
You just stare and stare into your own eyes till nothing makes sense and your mind lets go of reality – or what little hold you had on it in the first place – and what’s revealed is you in a previous life.
Ulysses stared at him. He said, No. I haven’t done that, Pete.
I did once.
And? said Cress.
I was a woman.
How lovely, said Cress.
Like one of them portraits in the Uffizi. Pearls around my neck. Pale make-up. High forehead. Very dignified. An ornate red dress slipping from my shoulders. I had nice shoulders. Hair parted like this – and Pete demonstrated.
Sounds like you were wealthy, said Cress.
Makes a change.
Only the wealthy had portraits painted of themselves. The pearls would probably have been given to you by your bloke after you had a kid. They symbolise fertility, said Cress. You probably had loads of kids, Pete.
Felt like it, he said.
But you had to, said Cress. On account of the high infant mortality rate. And those you did have were whipped away and given over to a wet nurse.
That don’t seem right, said Pete.
Of course it wasn’t. But menstruation came back quicker if you took the kid off the breast.
How d’you know all this, Cress? said Ulysses.
Read it. The pressure to procreate was immense. Especially after the Black Death in 1348. Wiped out half of the population.
I did look a bit stressed, to be honest, said Pete. I don’t think it was a good life.