Free Autumn in Catalonia by Jane MacKenzie

mother about it. Or anyone at all, come to that, and don’t even mention that you’ve seen me, all right?’
    She fixed her eyes on Toni’s face, his hands held in hers. Toni’s bachelor life had been sheltered so far from complications such as hers, and the troubled look lingered on his face, but eventually he nodded, and she gave him another hug.
    She turned towards the young man who had stepped from the car. ‘Is this a friend of yours, Toni? Tell me why you are both here. I’m completely at a loss.’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Toni’s shrug was dismissive. ‘He’s been up seeing your mother, and she told me to bring him here. She said he was some kind of relative who wanted to see your grandmother.’
    ‘A relative?’ Carla was startled. She had no relatives of her own age, unless he was so distant as to be irrelevant. She looked a question at the stranger.
    ‘Your second cousin,’ he nodded. ‘My father was Luis Garriga, your grandmother’s brother.’
    ‘Indeed?’ she said, keeping her voice neutral while her mind flew back to what Josep had told her about his Uncle Luis, the journalist who’d gone off to exile in France. This young man was French, his funny way of speaking Catalan gave him away straight away. But Toni seemed to mistrust him, and he’d been with Joana. What had he been doing up there?
    ‘Have you come with some kind of mission from my mother?’ she shot at him.
    ‘Not at all,’ was his quick reply. ‘I only met your mother yesterday because I asked for Luis’s family in Sant Galdric, and no one there knew where my Aunt Maria and Uncle Victor were living, so they sent me up to your mother for directions. I’ve come from France. I have nothing to do with your mother.’ He seemed to sense it was important to make this understood.
    And the answer was reasonable, as far as it went. Carla bit her lip and made a decision. ‘You don’t need to tell me you’re from France – it’s pretty obvious that you don’t come from around here! And if that’s so, then I guess it’s unlikely you’re in cahoots with them. You’d better come upstairs, anyway, and meet Grandma.’
    She turned to Toni. ‘Come and see Grandma too. Come up and have coffee. She’d love to see you.’
    Toni refused. ‘She gave me errands in Girona,’ heexplained. ‘I have to buy some provisions before her favourite shop closes at one o’clock, and it’s nearly twelve now. I daren’t stay.’
    Carla nodded. It wouldn’t do for him to fail in an errand for her mother. She released Toni’s hand reluctantly, and stepped back to let him go.
    ‘Give your grandmother a hug for me,’ he asked her, before he got back into the car.
    ‘For sure. She will be sorry not to see you. And give our love to your mother. How is she?’
    ‘Not too good these days, but she’ll be glad you were asking for her.’
    ‘Give her a kiss from us all. And Toni?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘No word to anyone about me, promise!’
    ‘I promise, Carla. And take care of yourself.’ He gestured awkwardly at the bump.
    She grimaced. ‘I’ll try, Toni. I’ll try.’
    Carla waited until the Mercedes had pulled away before turning again to the young man.
    ‘Come then,’ was all she said. He picked up her shopping bag from behind her, and followed her meekly up the two flights of stairs. They entered the second-floor apartment, and Carla led the way down the narrow corridor to the living room.
    From inside the kitchen Grandma’s voice called, ‘Is that you, Carla? Did you get the bread?’
    ‘I did. I also picked up a young man, Avia ! Come out and meet him. He has come to see you.’
    Maria emerged from the open door, a faded apronprotecting her old black frock, and with her flowered headscarf covering her hair. She held a kitchen cloth in one hand and there was a little bead of sweat on her forehead.
    ‘A young man? What young man?’ she asked, puzzled.
    Carla pointed to him and heaved a tired sigh as she sat down on a wooden chair.