Love Falls by Esther Freud Read Free Book Online

horse race! It’s much more than a horse race!’ Caroline broke in. ‘It’s a way of life! It’s the most important event in this area; people prepare for it for the whole year. There is probably never a time when the local people aren’t thinking about it. Aren’t stewing over who won it last year, hoping to be the winners this time round.’
    ‘It’s been a tradition in this town since the thirteenth century,’ Lambert said knowledgeably. ‘It’s a race between the different districts of the city. The contrade . There are seventeen of them and each contrada has a symbol, the Panther or the Snail, the Tower, the Shell, each with their own colours, and whoever wins the Palio is the King of Siena for that year.’
    ‘The jockeys all come from Sardinia.’ Caroline was flushed. ‘They ride bareback round the square at the most incredible speed. Three times they go. Some fall, horses are destroyed, the people go wild. It’s the most intense ninety seconds – there’s nothing like it – and when it’s over, you need a stiff drink.’
    ‘Isn’t it a bit . . .’ Lara shivered. ‘A bit cruel?’
    Caroline looked fierce. ‘No more so,’ she said, ‘than the Grand National. And the horse that wins, well, that horse is a hero. It’s taken into the cathedral, blessed, and revered for all time.’
    ‘The riders are hurt too,’ Lambert said.
    Lara couldn’t resist, she told him what he knew. ‘But no one makes the riders do it!’ She looked down at her salad then, but not quickly enough to miss the amused look that passed between Caroline and Lambert, eyeing each other as if to say, ‘She’ll grow out of it! She’s young.’
    I won’t, she seethed, remembering a book of photographs she’d once seen of a bullfight, the crowd jeering and bloodthirsty, the toreador taunting the poor bleeding animal with his spear. I’m so glad, she’d thought, that I’m a vegetarian, and she remembered the steak and felt a stab of guilt.
    ‘When is the Palio anyway?’ Lambert was asking, and Caroline told him it was a few weeks away, on August the 16th.
    ‘Lara.’ He leant towards her. ‘You’re saved. Our tickets are booked for the day before.’
    ‘Oh, but change them.’ Caroline gripped his hand. ‘You have to change them. You can’t miss the Palio. I’ll look into it for you. Or we could ask Ginny. Ginny might even be driving into Pisa later this week. She won’t mind stopping off at the train station and changing the tickets for you.’
    Lambert smiled. ‘I’ll see,’ he said, but Lara couldn’t imagine he’d stay a moment longer than he’d planned.
    Caroline turned to her. ‘Try and persuade him.’
    ‘Really?’ Lara was too flattered to object. ‘I’ll try,’ and she raised her eyebrows enquiringly at Lambert, who looked down at his plate.
     
     
    That afternoon she and Lambert attempted a walk. They wandered out of the drive and up the lane, and then, unsure which way to go when it forked, turned left, and found themselves stumbling along beside a field, dust from the earth whitening the ends of their shoes. Each time they stopped, squinting into the distance, checking to see if they were moving towards anything of interest, they heard the rustling of salamanders, not expecting to be disturbed at this siesta hour. It was nice having Lambert to herself again, falling into their accustomed silence, broken occasionally by Lara’s questions and his thoughtful replies.
    The fields around were planted with olive groves, their lines, as they sloped uphill, straight as the teeth of a comb, and then as they passed them, looking back from another angle, seeming to fall into ragged disarray. With each step the sun beat down more fiercely until sweat was standing out on Lara’s forehead.
    ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen,’ Lambert muttered, ‘go out in the midday sun,’ and when Lara opened her mouth to join in she found the air was scorching the back of her throat.
    ‘What do you think?’ Lambert