AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elise: If his happiness matters so much to you then keep this information to yourself!
It’s then that we both look up from our phones at nearly the same time and see my brother staring at us from the front seat. “You guys are awfully quiet back there. Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” Dan and I both say at the same time.
“We were just looking some stuff up about Villa Lysis,” I add, trying to distract my brother. “It seems to have a ton of history attached to it, right?”
My plot works, and Andries immediately launches into a brief history of Villa Lysis. “Yes, it has an enormous amount of history, actually. The poet Jacques Fersen had it built to be his main home once he exiled himself to Capri. There were… rumors that Fersen had predilections towards minors back in France, and when everything started to come to a head, he fled to Capri and had Villa Lysis built for him. It’s an eccentric building, to say the least, but the gardens and views are unmatched by any other place on the island…” Andries sounds wistful about the Villa, and I wonder if Roxanne was right about this not being a healthy place for my brooding brother to visit.
“What about the… suicide thing you mentioned earlier?” Dan asks uneasily.
“Fersen killed himself at Villa Lysis. In fact, he committed the act by overdosing oncocaine.” I don’t know if I’m imagining things, but it seems like Andries puts a lot of emphasis on that last word. “But don’t worry about any of that. Of course, I don’t endorse what Fersen did, but the guy died nearly a century ago. The villa is now owned by the municipality of Capri.”
“Er… that’s good, I guess,” I say, not sure how to respond to this new deluge of information. “So it’s just a tour we’re going on, then?”
“No, we can explore on our own.” Andries sounds dreamy and sad. “I think it will be good for me. You guys too, I guess.”
When Andries turns back around in his seat, Dan and I share a look that silently speaks volumes. If by some miracle Andries doesn’t know about Bar Rouge yet, then there is certainly something else wrong with him, because he is not acting like himself at all.
Even though the history of Villa Lysis is odd, to say the least, I can’t deny that the place is heartbreakingly stunning. Once a property that had fallen into disrepair, Villa Lysis has gone through an incredible transformation to preserve it for future generations. Though the stone has been cleaned, the white stone is still discolored in places, giving it an old sense about it. Combined with the tall, pale columns and shimmering gold tile work, those signs of aging mellow the entire place out, taking it from outlandish to charmingly vintage.
The architecture is only one half of the allure of Lysis, though. For all of Fersen’s many faults, picking an impeccable place to build his sanctuary hideaway was not one of them. Lysis is built perched on the top of a tall hill, overlooking the Mediterranean sea. We can see the busy marina and boats bobbing on the water, but up here in the villa it’s quiet. It sort of feels like observing a movie from somewhere far above.
The grounds are dotted with twisting Italian stone pines, their trunks turned and curved, all topped with a flourish of green and scenting the air with the smell of sap and evergreen.
Like my brother said, there is no tour guide, and we are left to wander the oddly built villa on our own. I’m not sure if he called ahead and paid extra to have it be only us on the premises, or if, like Roxanne, people tended to avoid Villa Lysis because of the complicated history connected to its first owner. Either way, it’s peaceful in a way that even the beaches aren’t, with soft birdsong complimenting the far-away sound of the sea hitting the rocks so far down below.
Andries stays with Dan and me for a short time, and we climb the wide stone staircase into the main grounds together, but once we’re near the gardens my brother goes quiet and when I turn around to ask him a question, he’s gone. I look at Dan, confused, and he just shrugs.
“Should we go and find him?” I ask, and Dan shakes his head.
“No, I think he needs some time alone. Walk with me a little while.”
I do as he asks, looping my arm through his and slowly perusing the gardens as I let my mind wander. I’m barely touching Dan, and if Andries didn’t already know what was going on between the two of us it would be easy to see our interactions as nothing but platonic, but since my brother knows some of the things Dan and I have been up to, I make sure to keep everything casual so as to not upset him. Even still, being in this lovely place with the man I have such strong feelings for is nice, and with Andries somewhere else sorting through his feelings, it almost feels like Dan and I are a normal couple on a date.
A lot of the villa is chaotic in nature––bright, reflective tile-work, mixing of different types of architecture, and winding staircases––but the gardens themselves are tidy and well maintained. There are a number of different statues and art pieces made to withstand the weather out here, and the flowers bloom in shades of reds, oranges, and pinks offering the perfect backdrop.
For a few moments, I’m able to forget all the drama and nonsense going on with not only my brother and Roxanne, but with Dan, Johan, and me too. The two of us take pictures of each other, and a handful of selfies with incomparable views in the background. We laugh and joke, and I feel lighter than I have in days, but eventually, I know it’s time for us to track down my brother.
He’s on the marble terrace, arms folded on the wrought iron balustrade and looking out into the ocean when we find him. It takes some cajoling but he joins us in touring the rest of the villa and even agrees to take some photos with us. Andries is particularly interested in the inside of Villa Lysis and although he doesn’t say it, I know he’s also somewhat fascinated by the story of Jacques Fersen.
I try to go look at things on my own, but every time I leave the trio I see Dan moving closer to Andries and talking quietly to him, and it sets alarm bells off in my head. The last thing I want to do is have Dan break the news to Andries here and then have to deal with the fallout during our little expedition. Andries isnotgoing to take the news about Roxanne and Bar Rouge well, and if we can avoid an awkward ride home with my devastated brother, I think that will be better for all of us.
Dan doesn’t say that he’s trying to get Andries alone to spill all the details to him, but I know both of these men well enough to read them and what they’re thinking without words. I can tell that Andries is melancholic and distracted, and Dan is being eaten alive by the weight of holding onto all these secrets. I make a silent promise to all of us that this will get handled today… tomorrow at the absolute latest. Roxanne’s stalling is making this unbearably difficult for all of us.
Andries and I pull away from Dan while he’s observing a piece of art. I don’t know where we are going through the building, but Andries seems to have a destination in mind, walking with purpose with his hands shoved into his pockets.
We end up in a room painted in a pale buttery yellow, peeling with age in some places. There are ornate, filigreed columns and the floor is done in a pattern of blue and dark orange tile-work. It isn’t a totally unique room when compared to the rest of the house, but there is something strange in the air here. It feels empty and haunting in a way none of the other rooms do. It makes me shiver, and I wrap my arms around myself.
“What is this place?” I ask, and Andries sighs in response.
“The Opiarium,” he tells me finally. “It’s where Fersen used to smoke opium and consume cocaine while he worked on his poetry.”
“It feels off in here, so that makes sense.”
“I assume it’s also here Fersen died of a cocaine overdose.” My brother drops the info like a bomb, sounding sad and distant. “Do you know why he did it?”
I shiver again, hugging myself tighter. “No, I don’t. I wonder why, though. As far as exiles go, this is a pretty nice place to be secluded.”
