The Girl from Portofino

Siobhan Daiko

Description

From award-winning author Siobhan Daiko, comes a hauntingly epic read that will sweep you away to the beauty of the Italian Riviera. A story of heart-wrenching loss, uplifting courage, and secrets untold.

When Gina Bianchi returns to the beautiful Italian resort of Portofino to attend her father’s funeral, she is beset by vivid memories of World War 2, when she joined the Resistance, alongside her identical twin sister, Adele.

In her childhood bedroom, Gina reads Adele’s diary, left behind during the war. As Gina learns the shocking truth about her sister, she’s compelled to face the harsh realities of her own past.

For readers of Rhys Bowen, Fiona Valpy, and Victoria Hislop.

What real readers are saying about The Girl from Portofino:

”I was totally blown away.” Netgalley reviewer

”If you are after quality historical fiction, this author is someone whose books you should be reading.” Goodreads reviewer

”The writing was really good with well developed characters and a great storyline.” Netgalley reviewer

Sujets

• Sea Stories
• Multiple Timelines
• Cultural Heritage
• Historical Fiction
• Siblings
• World Literature
• Historical
• Women
• Coming of Age
• Friendship
• Historical romance
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Sibling
• General officer
• Woman
• Italy
• My Last Duchess
• The Women
• General
• Family Life
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 07 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781837519033
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GIRL FROM PORTOFINO


SIOBHAN DAIKO
For Clodagh, my sister
But the love of sisters needs no words…

It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever-present as a pulse.
LISA WINGATE
CONTENTS



Main locations in this book


Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Epilogue


More from Siobhan Daiko

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Siobhan Daiko

Letters from the past

About Boldwood Books
MAIN LOCATIONS IN THIS BOOK
1
1970

Gina brushes past an errant wisp of the wisteria arching over the pub door. In Portofino, she thinks, a riot of purple flowers will already be perfuming the warm spring air. Here in England, though, wisteria doesn’t usually bloom until May, and the weather is decidedly un-spring-like. For a fleeting moment, homesickness overwhelms her; it has been nearly twenty-five years since she was last in Italy.
The wisteria tendril touches the side of her cheek; she’ll need to get it pruned or the customers might complain. She pushes through the door and makes her way across the red carpeted floor of the high-ceilinged bar area, where her husband, Vincent, or Vinnie as he prefers to be called, is wiping down the surfaces. Before he can greet her, the telephone rings, and he picks up the receiver. ‘George and Dragon. How can I help you?’
Gina heads towards their private quarters. Vinnie gives her a wave and carries on talking to the brewery about a delivery of beer. Silver streaks highlight his hair, giving him a distinguished look, but the boyish charm of the man she married still lurks beneath his ageing exterior.
‘Is that you, Mum?’ Hope calls out from her bedroom. ‘Did you collect my prescription?’
Gina sighs. Hope has been on antidepressants since she came home from the hippy commune in Dorset, where she went to live after dropping out of studying architecture at UCL last summer. Such a pity; she would have had a brilliant future, but during the gap year she spent at Chelsea Art School before starting her degree course, she became involved with a group of druggies, and hasn’t been the same since.
‘Yes, dear. I fetched your prescription.’ Gina would rather flush the pills down the toilet. Hope is too dependent on Valium but following her breakdown after she finished with the latest in a string of boyfriends two months ago, she’s become a huge worry to Gina. A butterfly child , like the song customers keep selecting from the pub’s jukebox, but Hope is twenty-four and no longer a child.
In the kitchenette, Gina shrugs off her coat, smooths down her tweed skirt, fills the kettle and puts it on the stove. She strikes a match and lights the gas; she picked up the British habit of a cup of tea at five o’clock in the afternoon shortly after arriving in the UK, although her Italian side still clings to a morning coffee. She’ll go and give Vinnie a hand behind the bar shortly. Just as soon as she’s drunk her tea and checked on Hope.
The door to the kitchenette swings open, and Hope drifts in. Dressed in bell-bottomed, faded denim jeans and a white cotton floaty top, her long dark-blonde hair cascading in ripples around her oval face, Hope pouts her lips in a beguiling smile that lights her chocolate-brown eyes. She looks so much like she herself once did, Gina thinks, and her identical twin sister, Adele, in those halcyon days before the Germans occupied Portofino and changed everything.
Gina returns Hope’s smile. ‘Would you like a cuppa, darlin’?’ She rolls the letter ‘r’ like a true Italian but leaves off the ‘g’ like a true Londoner. It occurs to her she’s become something of a hybrid.
‘Thanks.’ Hope grabs a mug from the cupboard, then pulls out a chair. She yawns, covering her mouth with a hand. ‘I’m so tired.’ Hope’s accent is far posher than her parents’; they’d scrimped and saved to educate her privately. Fat lot of good that did, Gina can’t help thinking.
‘It’s the pills.’ She doesn’t mention the dope she found under Hope’s mattress while changing the bed linen yesterday. ‘Maybe you should try and manage without them?’ And without pot.
‘Maybe…’ Hope sips her tea. ‘But if I don’t take them, I can’t sleep at all.’
Gina is about to suggest a gradual reduction in dosage and stopping smoking weed altogether, but the door crashes open and Vinnie appears. Wide-eyed, he holds out a telegram letter. ‘This came in the second post. It’s addressed to you, love.’
Gina’s hand trembles as she gets to her feet and takes the envelope from him. With shaking fingers, she extracts a piece of paper.

Babbo è mancato. Chiamami subito. Tommaso.
‘My dad has passed away.’ Gina’s voice falters. ‘My brother wants me to call him.’ Tears trickle from her eyes, and she gives a sob.
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Vinnie’s arms wrap around her. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Yeah, me too.’ Hope has joined in with the hugging. ‘How did it happen?’
‘Tommaso doesn’t say.’ Gina sighs. ‘I’ll have to phone him and ask.’



* * *
Later, after Gina has got through on a crackly line to Portofino, and Tommaso has told her that their father suffered a sudden fatal heart attack yesterday while having dinner, Gina manages to enquire, her throat scratchy with tears, ‘How is Mamma coping?’
Gina has spoken to him in Italian, her tongue relishing wrapping itself around the familiar words.
‘She’s devastated, of course,’ Tommaso says. ‘How soon can you get here?’
‘You want me to come?’ Gina’s mouth has turned dry.
‘Not only do I want you to come, I expect you to come. Mamma needs you. The whole family needs you. It’s time you faced up to your responsibilities, sorella mia .’
He called her his sister, as if she’d forgotten. And, truth be told, she hasn’t been much of a sister to him. She hasn’t even met his two daughters. ‘When’s the funeral?’
‘In three days’ time.’
‘So soon?’
‘You can fly out tomorrow. With Vincent and Hope.’
‘We have a pub to run, don’t forget.’
‘Leave Vincent in London, then. I’m sure he’ll manage without you for a week or so. Bring Hope. We all want to meet her.’
‘She’s not very well, I’m afraid… ’
‘Is it serious?’ Tommaso sounds concerned.
How to go into the whole sorry saga? Gina has only exchanged Christmas and birthday greetings with Tommaso over the years.
‘Hope is just a bit run-down,’ Gina says, and leaves it at that.
‘The sea air will do her good. Her cousins are longing to meet her.’
‘I’ll call Mamma tomorrow,’ Gina says. ‘I need to discuss this with Vincent. Give everyone my love.’
‘Will do. Despite the sad circumstances, we’re all looking forward to seeing you again soon.’
Gina hangs up the phone and goes through to the bar, where Vinnie is pulling a pint. He lifts a brow as she approaches.
‘I’ll tell you everything after closing time,’ she whispers, breathing in the fug of beer, cigarettes and salt and vinegar crisps.
Tying an apron around her waist, she smiles at a waiting customer. ‘What can I get you, darlin’?’



* * *
It’s a busy evening and Gina is rushed off her feet. Although she and Vinnie have staff: Sandra, and Kathleen, East End girls through and through, who are popular with the patrons and hard-working, there’s an endless stream of bottles and glasses, impatient customers and, finally, a group of locals who dawdle past closing time.
‘You go to bed, love,’ Vinnie suggests eventually. ‘I’ll lock up as soon as this lot have left.’
Gina brushes a quick kiss to his stubbled jaw. She listens out for sounds from Hope’s room as she passes, but all is quiet. In her and Vinnie’s room, she kicks off her court shoes, unzips her skirt, unbuttons her silk blouse, and goes through to the en-suite bathroom.
Every night it’s the same routine; she showers and washes her bobbed hair to get rid of the smell of cigarettes and beer. After drying herself, she slips on a nightie, pulls back the bedding and snuggles down to wait for Vinnie. She exhales a long, slow breath. How can she leave him to manage the pub on his own? And, more to the point, how will she cope without him in Portofino? Vinnie has been her rock for so long, she knows she’ll be bereft.
There must be some way of getting out of this.
The bedroom door opens and Vinnie treads across the floor to the bathroom. Gina is about to drop off to sleep when she feels the mattress dip and his muscular body wrap itself around hers. ‘You still awake, love?’ he murmurs.
She turns to face him, tells him about the phone conversation with Tommaso. ‘I really don’t want to go.’
Vinnie fixes her with a firm gaze. ‘You must, sweetheart. Your mum needs you. Imagine how you would feel if Hope lived far away and you’d suddenly lost me. You’d want her to be with you.’
‘She has Tommaso.’
‘Your mum is grieving. She needs all her family around her.’
Gina nods. ‘How will you manage in the pub?’
‘The brewery has a locum service. I’ll get us a married couple from them.’ He kisses her on the nose. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘What about Hope?’
‘You should take her with you.’
‘She’s a handful. I don’t know if I’ll be able to deal with her. Especially let loose in Italy.’
Vinnie holds Gina close, rubs her shoulders. ‘We can’t carry on mollycoddling Hope. She’s got to grow up sometime. Maybe she’ll find her path in Portofino. At least it will get her away from London and her druggie friends.’
Gina chews her lip. ‘I suppose you’re right.’
‘I know I’m right. And, if the locums work out, I might be able to get away and join you both.’
He kisses her again, deeper this time. Need sparks between them and she moans with pleasure at his touch.
Their lovemaking is arden