A few minutes later she understood. The fire, nestled in a neat grate, was small but delightful, throwing darting lights over the room. While it offered little heat, it created an atmosphere of warmth and comfort that no central heating could match.

‘My mother always lit a fire in the evenings,’ Drago said. ‘When I looked this place over the agent said it could all be renovated and the fireplace taken out. I told him to forget it. I wanted everything left just as it was.’

‘Is this the place you told me about, where you and Carlotta came when you married?’

‘Yes, it is. After she died I wanted to sell it, but Tina loves it, so I couldn’t. Perhaps I shouldn’t have brought you up here, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else where we’d have some privacy.’

‘It’s all right. Is there anything more I can do?’

‘You could lay the table. You’ll find everything over there, including wine glasses.’

He indicated an old-fashioned dresser and she got to work, finding a table cloth and cutlery. In a few minutes Drago emerged from the kitchen to serve the first course and open a bottle of white wine.

She suddenly realised that she was ravenous. She’d left the hotel too quickly to eat very much, and had managed only a sandwich at the airport. The pappa al pomadoro had a delicious smell that drove everything else out of her head, and the taste was every bit as good.

‘I needed this,’ she said with a sigh.

‘After the day I’ve given you, you mean?’

‘Well, I admit you’re making up for it.’

‘One thing I’ve been wanting to ask you-when you agreed to come with me, you said, “the new tactic worked”. What did you mean by that?’

‘You know very well what I meant by that,’ she said indignantly. ‘When giving me orders didn’t work, you backed off and played the reasonable card.’

‘Is that what I did?’

‘Didn’t you?’

He hesitated. ‘It wasn’t all calculated. I could see I was doing everything wrong, driving you away. I tend to approach things with hobnailed boots, I know that. And when it doesn’t work…’He made a helpless gesture. ‘I sometimes don’t know what to do next. And just then-I felt like such a loser. I didn’t have the heart to fight any more.’

‘You?’ she asked with a hint of teasing. ‘Stop fighting?’

He gave her a wry look. ‘I guess I deserved that. It’s almost funny that you accused me of playing the “reasonable card”. I’m not good at being reasonable. Ask anyone who knows me.’

‘I don’t need to. I’m beginning to know you myself.’

‘That’s an unnerving thought.’

‘Why? You don’t try to hide it. Everything’s upfront. Can I have some more of this?’

‘Just a little. You’ve got to leave room for the steak.’

The steak was delicious, followed by a loaf made of flour, sugar, eggs and butter. With each course he changed the wine.

‘I won’t ask why you vanished so suddenly yesterday,’ Drago said. ‘I guess I asked for it. But I tried to call you for the rest of the day, and you’d switched your phone off. I wondered if you’d gone back to the waterfall so that you could see it without a crowd.’

‘No, I just went walking around Florence.’

The constraint in her voice made him look at her quickly and ask, ‘Did you go back to their apartment?’

‘No, why should you think that?’

‘Because something happened yesterday that hurt you more than you have been already.’

‘Well, yes.’

‘Can’t you tell me?’ he asked when she fell silent.

‘You remember I said that when James came back from Florence in September he was a bit strange?’ Drago nodded. ‘But I didn’t mention the padlock I found in his things. Yesterday I found out about Benvenuto Cellini.’

‘You mean the statue at the end of the Ponte Vecchio?’

‘And the padlocks.’

‘Did he and Carlotta exchange them?’

‘They must have done. He said the one I found was for me. But after we broke up I came home one day and he’d been there while I was out, fetching some personal stuff he’d left behind. The padlock was missing too. He must have gone through my things. He didn’t leave a note or anything, just his key on the table.’

‘I’m beginning to get a picture of this man,’ Drago said slowly. ‘He liked to do things in a way that was easiest on himself-going to your home when you weren’t there.’ His mouth twisted in contempt. ‘And this is the man my Carlotta preferred.’

‘I guess she hadn’t discovered that side of him yet,’ Alysa reflected. ‘He just didn’t like confrontation.’

‘I wonder how he and Carlotta would have managed after a while,’ Drago mused, looking into his wine glass.

‘Did she like confrontation?’

‘She was never backward about telling people what she thought.’

‘Just like you. The two of you must have had some terrific fights.’

‘Spectacular,’ he confirmed. ‘She once said-she once said she loved me because I was the only man she knew who could stand up to her. She’d have got bored with James in time.’

‘And you’d have taken her back for Tina’s sake?’

‘Yes. What about you?’

‘No,’ she said slowly. ‘I didn’t know before, but I know now. I would never have taken James back in a million years.’

‘Let’s drink our coffee and brandy by the fire,’ Drago said.

They cleared the plates into the kitchen, but he rejected her offer to wash up, steering her firmly back into the living room and towards an armchair close to the fire on one side. Another one stood on the other side, and he threw himself into this.

‘That was the best meal I’ve ever tasted,’ Alysa said sincerely.

‘Thank you. I guess I owed you a decent meal.’

‘I think you needed it too. You look more relaxed.’

‘Cooking does that for me,’ he admitted. ‘Going to the cemetery with the whole family was very tough, having to watch every word in case they guessed. You can’t imagine how I longed for the one person I can be honest with.’ He raised his brandy glass to her.

‘Yes, I can,’ she murmured. ‘Me too.’

He was about to answer when his mobile phone sounded. He answered and immediately his face became exasperated and horrified.

‘I told Pietro to send them up here,’ he barked. ‘What does he think he-? How soon can you get them here? Why not tonight? All right, but first thing tomorrow.’

‘Shall I guess?’ Alysa asked as he hung up. ‘My bags?’

‘Pietro took them to the villa. I thought I made myself plain, but evidently I didn’t. I’m sorry. That was my steward wanting to know what he should do. You find it funny?’

Alysa had given a little laugh. Now she said lightly, ‘It does have its funny side. You were so determined to avoid the curious eyes of your employees.’

‘I apologise for all this,’ he growled. ‘They can’t get out here tonight, not in the dark on that mountain road. Your things will be here tomorrow, but until then-’

‘I’ll cope.’

‘Alysa, I swear I didn’t plan this.’

‘It’s all right, I believe you,’ she said through laughter. ‘With another man I’d be suspicious, but you and I aren’t about that.’

‘Thank you.’

She had set her brandy glass down on a small fender before the fire. Now she reached forward to get it, and kept on sliding down until she was sitting on the floor, finding it surprisingly comfortable because of the thick rug that seemed to be made of fake fur. She leaned back against the chair, sipping contentedly.

She was enveloped by a sense of well-being. It had something to do with the fire and the fine brandy, but more to do with Drago. He’d said, ‘the one person I can be honest with’, and it was true for her too.

She thought of the journey home that she’d nearly taken: landing at the airport with nobody to meet her, queuing for a taxi, reaching her home to find it cold, dark and empty, as it had been for the past endless year. The lonely evening with only her bleak thoughts for company.

Here she was effectively a prisoner, but a well-fed prisoner, basking in the glow of a friendly fire, relaxed and almost happy. If she could have escaped she would not have done so. She sighed pleasurably, feeling her cares fade away.

Drago, happening to glance across at her, saw the brandy glass about to slip out of her hand and hastened to remove it. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing coming steadily.

He studied her, feeling guilty but unable to stop. It was unforgivable to watch her while she was unaware, but something about her face held him against his will. Now that her defences were abandoned, she’d changed in a way that made him grow still.

If asked to describe her mouth he would have said that it was too firm and precise to be attractive, but exactly right for the slightly grim female she’d been at their first meeting. No man, he thought, considering the matter impartially, would ever be tempted to kiss that mouth.

But now it was softened, her lips slightly apart, the breath whispering through them. Nature had shaped her more generously than she wanted the world to know, and sleep had revealed what she had tried to hide.

Her whole face was one that a man might contemplate with curiosity, even while he blamed himself for his impertinence.

She stirred and he backed off, rising to his feet and going to a chest of drawers where he’d deposited a canvas bag when he’d first come in. Having retrieved it he returned to his seat. For a while he remained still, until at last, with evident reluctance, he reached inside, drew out an envelope and sat turning it over between his fingers. He did this for some time, making no attempt to open it, and putting it aside quickly when Alysa stirred and yawned.

‘Have I been asleep?’ she demanded.

‘Just dozing for a minute.’

‘How rude of me. I’m sorry.’ She pulled herself up and rubbed her eyes, gazing into the fire which cast a glow over her face.

‘Well?’ she said at last, turning to look at him.

‘Well?’

‘Well, why are we here? Drago, when are you going to stop putting things off? You wanted to show me something so important that you dragooned me into coming here, but then you seemed to forget all about it.’

‘I’ve been trying not to think of it,’ he admitted. ‘It’s something that was found in their apartment and only delivered to my house yesterday.’

‘But didn’t you go through the place?’

‘Yes, and I thought I’d been pretty thorough, but it seems there was a secret place-a small cupboard in the wall that you’d never find unless you knew it was there. The people who rent the place now discovered it by accident and found a box inside, containing a cache of letters. From them they learned enough to get in touch with me.’

‘You mean…?’

‘Letters between James and Carlotta, dating from September, as soon as he went back to England after their first meeting. When he came to live here he brought her letters with him. His were sent to her work, and I suppose that’s where she kept them, because I had no idea.’

She had to force herself to ask, ‘What do they say?’

‘I haven’t read them.’

‘How could you bear not to?’

He smiled faintly. ‘Because you weren’t there. I’ve always thought of myself as a brave man, but I found I can’t do this alone.’ His smile became self-mocking. ‘I need you to hold my hand.’

‘If you haven’t read them, how can you be sure they’re real? James wasn’t a man for writing letters. He did it all by phone and email, like most people these days.’

He showed her the envelope. ‘There are some things that you can’t trust to email. Is this his handwriting?’

‘Yes,’ she said slowly, taking it from him. ‘That’s James.’

She pulled out the letter and looked at the date.

‘September,’ she murmured. ‘He must have written this as soon as he came back.’

The words seemed to leap off the page.

I’m sitting here at midnight, trying to imagine that I’m still there with you. It’s only a few hours since you kissed me goodbye at the airport, yet already it seems like a lifetime. All I can do is try to tell you what our meeting has meant to me, how you’ve transformed my life in only a few days.

She laid down the letter. ‘I can’t read any more.’

But even as she said it she began reading again. James had written these words on the night he’d returned from Florence in September. She’d met him at the airport, gone home with him, tried to make love to him and been rejected.

‘Because he’d come from her bed only a few hours before,’ she whispered. ‘He sent me away, then sat down to write to her.’

Drago was reaching into the bag, pulling out more letters, searching through them feverishly.

‘What does she say to him?’ Alysa asked.

‘She says here that her marriage is a sham,’ Drago replied in a dazed voice. ‘And she can endure it no longer. Mio dio!’