(20/20)A Peaceful Retirement Read Online Free PDF

fact that he was a broken and misunderstood man.
    I waved cheerfully as he unlocked his car, and then closed my door with great relief.
    Come with me indeed! It would be good to be free of him for a blessed week.

    Prompt as ever, James arrived in the car the next morning, and carried my case down the path while I locked up.
    I bade farewell to Tibby who was too busy washing an elegantly outstretched leg to respond, and followed James to the car.
    It was a blissfully sunny morning. The early mist had cleared, and the sun shone from a pale blue sky. All three of us were in great spirits.
    We had no difficulty in getting to the airport and, having left the car in the long-term car park, James coped with all the necessary formalities, while we two pampered women went to see what the bookstall had to offer.
    The magazine section displayed rows of journals most of them with covers showing bosoms and bottoms in highly uncomfortable attitudes. Some of the ladies were embellished with chains and whips, and the males adopted aggressive attitudes, unless they were entwined in passionate embraces with nubile females.
    Amy studied the display with distaste.
    'I really cannot fathom today's hysterical obsession with sex,' she remarked. 'One would think it was an entirely new activity.'
    She selected Homes and Gardens, and I contented myself with the Daily Telegraph so that I could tackle the crosswords.
    James joined us and surveyed the matter on offer.
    'Good grief!' was his comment. 'I thought people grew out of that by fifteen. Where's the Financial Times? '
    'Is the plane going to be on time?' asked Amy as we turned away.
    'Only forty-five minutes late,' said James.
    'Not bad at all,' replied Amy indulgently. "What about a cup of coffee?'

    My first impression of Florence was of all-pervading golden warmth. The buildings, the walls, the pavements, and the already changing colour of the trees from green to gold, gave the lovely city an ambience which enfolded one immediately.
    Our hotel was in the oldest part of the city, not far from the Duomo, Florence's cathedral called so prettily Santa Maria del Fiore. The magnificent dome could be glimpsed, it seemed, from every quarter of Florence.
    The hotel had once been the property of a wealthy Florentine family. The taxi driver whirled round the innumerable corners into ever more narrowing streets and at last pulled up with a flourish at an imposing doorway.
    'I'm thankful I shan't have to do much driving in this place,' remarked James, as we alighted.
    The taxi driver grinned.
    'One way! Always one way!' He held up a nicotine-stained finger to add point, and then went to help James unload.
    It was cool inside the building in contrast to the heat of the streets. The thick walls and small windows had been built to keep out the weather and had done so now for three centuries.
    James and Amy were escorted into their room first, and I was ushered down a corridor to an attractive single room which overlooked the little garden.
    It was an unremarkable patch, consisting mainly of some rough grass and shrubs, but my eye was immediately caught by the happenings in an adjoining garden.
    A long clothes-line was almost filled with flapping white sheets, and two nuns were engrossed in unpegging them and folding them very tidily and exactly. They held the corners with their arms spread wide and then advanced towards each other, as if treading some stately dance, to fold the sheets in halves, then into quarters until there was a snowy oblong which they put on a mounting pile on the grass.
    In contrast to their measured ritual of folding, and their solemn black habits and veils, their faces were animated. They smiled and gossiped as they worked. It was a happy harmony of mind and body, and a joy to watch.
    We were more than ready for our evening meal when the time came, and the food was delicious, a precursor of all those we enjoyed at the hotel.

    Later, we took a walk round the nearest streets, mainly for