[Milu]

Hemingway?

No, but an excellent guess. Similar theme and quite similar writing style.

Master and apprentice perhaps?

Have another scanned snippet in case you want another go.....

"Simona drove into town, she parked outside the doctor's house, sat in the car for a few moments and then walked across the piazza to the bar. She drank a coffee corrected with grappa; this unladylike beverage earned her some looks from the old cardplayers and layabouts. Simona was wearing a pale grey coat with a fur collar, her hair pinned up and a soft, wide brimmed hat, tilted to keep part of her face in shadow, not fashionable but she felt better hidden behind its shadow.

She finished her coffee, took a deep breath, left money with her empty cup and walked back across the square. No one in the bar commented. Usually when a woman came from outside the town, the town men would make comments to embarrass her or speak about her behind her back, with Simona they did not. She was not the typical peasant girl they could embarrass; with her smart city clothes and manner she reminded them of a world they didn't know but fantasised about. Despite her scarred face most of the men would have found space for her in their beds, but she was also the American's companion and if it came to his ears that she had been embarrassed there was the real risk of a lesson in manners, or perhaps worse. It did not take much imagination to visualise the American waiting for one on a dark night, or even worse waiting with Ernesto. No one spoke about the partisans or what was done during the war, the American was respected, but no one who had been there forgot what Ernesto was capable of, and, that the American could always call on him. In the Remegian Mountains the unspoken warnings and veiled hints from ex-partisans were more than enough to make local men wary of Ernesto.

The doctor's house was an imposing villa standing in a small garden off a corner in the main square. He shared it with his second wife and his daughter and son-in-law, the Maresciallo. His daughter and son-in-law lived in a small apartment on their own. His daughter had never forgiven her stepmother for stepping into her mother's shoes. There was often a lot of tension in his household between the two women. The doctor thought his daughter was married to a good man who loved her, he often wished she had married younger and set up her own establishment so he could have some peace in his home. He heartily cursed the fates that didn't allow the Maresciallo enough money to build his own house. Preferably close enough that the doctor could visit often and without his wife, but far enough away that they didn't visit him. Women!

The doctor's consulting rooms were in the front part of the house, usually his wife or his daughter acted as receptionist and secretary and in an emergency as a nurse, giving basic first aid if he was away on a case. Today however, he was alone.

Simona was the only patient and the Doctor saw her immediately. The doctor was shocked at the extent of her scarring but was much too experienced in his bedside manner to show it and too discreet to ask about it. It was obvious to him that it was not the result of any kind of accident. The doctor noticed her gold toothed smile for the first time, most of the teeth on one side of her mouth were gold but those still hers were perfect, her dental work was almost certainly a consequence of the same incident as her scarring. The doctor finished his examination, allowed Simona to dress and then spoke to her,

- "You have a weak chest, smoke much less or even better, give up altogether. Take care how you dress, try not to get yourself wet. I'll give you something to take for the cough. Come back in a week or so and we'll see how you get on"

The doctor saw her out and sighed. Poor little thing, first they butcher her and then she comes to hide from the world in these godforsaken mountains where the climate would make her sicken and die. He lit a cigarette and thought about what it was like for a beautiful woman like her to suddenly find herself a figure of horror. The doctor thought of how he would react if it had been his wife or his daughter, he'd seen much worse wounding and scarring times without number, this however had been done intentionally. The doctor took off the white coat he affected in his surgery, shrugged himself into his jacket, found his hat and waited a moment for Simona to get away. He felt the need for a drink and the company of his cynical and disillusioned son-in-law."