* * *
Abby got up early next morning to pack before her breakfast arrived. Just before ten she went down to the foyer to find Max waiting for her, elegant in linen trousers and a formal shirt with a tie tucked in the pocket.
‘Good morning,’ he said, smiling. ‘Did you sleep well?’
‘Very well—after two nights on a sofa it was a treat to sleep in a bed. I just need to pay my bill.’
‘No rush, I’m early. I’ll take your gear out to the car.’
When Abby went out to join him, Max was leaning against the Range Rover looking into the distance, the sun gleaming on his sleek dark hair. On impulse she slipped her phone from her bag and took a surreptitious photograph of him. A souvenir of her trip to Todi, she told herself, then put the phone away quickly as he turned to smile at her.
‘You’re more relaxed today,’ he commented later, as the car ate up the kilometres on the road to Perugia.
‘Not so much in the way of hairpin bends on this route,’ she pointed out. ‘Besides, we met in stressful circumstances yesterday.’
‘True.’ He grinned. ‘Right, then, Miss Green, fill me in on some background. You’ve heard a lot about my mother; tell me more about yours.’
Abby smiled affectionately. ‘She’s in her early fifties, but looks ten years younger. She’s head teacher at the local primary school, blonde like my sister Laura, and a very attractive lady.’
‘But she’s never presented you with a stepfather. Would you have minded if she had?’
Abby thought about it. ‘I don’t honestly know. The three of us were a pretty tight unit for years, and the cottage is small. Adding a stepfather to the mix could have caused problems, I suppose. But as far as I know the question never arose. Did you resent your stepfather?’ she added.
He shook his head. ‘I never thought of Enzo in that way because I lived with my own father in London. I just stayed at the Villa Falcone for the obligatory holiday every summer.’
‘Is that the most your father would allow?’
‘It was the most I would agree to at first.’
‘You didn’t like it there?’
‘It wasn’t the house. My feelings towards my mother were the problem.’ He paused, his eyes on the road, then glanced at her briefly and went on. ‘Luisa took a trip home alone to Todi just after my tenth birthday, met up with Enzo, childhood sweetheart transformed into wealthy businessman, and never came back.’
‘And you never forgave her?’
His mouth tightened. ‘I turned against her completely. I kicked up a terrible fuss when I eventually saw her again, because by then she had a new husband and a new baby.’
Abby kept quiet for a while, but curiosity eventually got the better of her. ‘If you don’t get on with your mother why did you build your retreat in Italy?’
‘I didn’t build it, exactly. I just designed the plans to put it back together. It had once been the home of Enzo Falcone’s great-grandparents, and during those long summer holidays he used to take us up there for picnics. I loved the place so much he made me a present of the property when I was eighteen.’ Max smiled crookedly. ‘He liked me. Against all odds I liked him, too. And, stranger still, so did my father. Whenever Enzo came on business to London, as he did quite frequently, he’d take us both out to dinner. And because I was studying architecture Enzo trusted me to transform his old ruin into something beautiful one day.’
‘You certainly did that. It’s a magical place.’
‘I’m glad you see it that way. Aldo the builder was all for knocking it down and starting from scratch, but to retain its character I wanted to incorporate as much of the original building as possible into my plans.’
‘Was your stepfather pleased with the result?’
‘Unfortunately, he died before it was finished. I miss him.’ Max’s face shadowed for an instant. ‘Next time you come I’ll show you the rest of it. I’ve converted the old threshing ground into a long, narrow pool, and the covered terrace outside the master bedroom looks out on the best view in the house.’
‘Which is saying something,’ said Abby, liking the sound of ‘next time’.
Visited by a sudden, vivid picture of Abigail Green in the master bedroom, sharing it with him, Max slanted a glance at her. ‘How did your sister come to marry an Italian?’
‘Laura went to Venice on holiday. Domenico was asked to meet her at the airport and they are now living happily ever after.’
‘Will that last?’
Abby nodded firmly. ‘In spite of gloomy statistics, I’m certain it will.’
‘Would you like something similar yourself?’
‘Maybe. One day.’
‘So there’s no man in your life right now?’
‘No.’ Abby shrugged. ‘Relationships tend to fall by the wayside because of my job. The most recent came to an end partly because the man wanted a woman he could see on Saturday nights without the drag of sitting through an easy-listening type of concert beforehand. Silas thought there was no other god but Mozart.’
Fool, thought Max with scorn. ‘My tastes are a shade wider than that. I never tire of listening to Gianni, but I own up to a taste for the odd spot of jazz—even a burst of heavy metal on wilder days.’
‘Do you have those often?’
He shot a glance at her. ‘You’d be surprised.’
She laughed. ‘I pictured you as another Mozart man.’
‘Only when Gianni’s performing it.’
They reached the colonnaded portico of Fontivegge station with an hour to spare before the train was due. Max went inside with Abby to confirm the change en route to Pisa, punched the ticket Domenico had bought for her into one of the yellow machines near the entrance to validate it, and then took her to the café to eat ham paninis with their espressos.
‘Right,’ said Max briskly, when it was time to make a move. ‘At this point we exchange phone numbers, addresses, and any other pertinent information, Abigail Green.’ He entered her number into his phone, then waited while she did the same with his, handed her a card with his address and home number, scrawled hers on the back of another and tucked it into his wallet.
‘You’ve been such an enormous help,’ said Abby, smiling at him gratefully. ‘I’ve run out of ways to thank you.’
Max could think of several that would suit him down to the ground. ‘Here’s one. I’ll be back in the UK at the weekend, so have lunch with me on Sunday. Say yes. Your train leaves soon.’
‘Then, yes. I’d like that very much. Thank you—’ She broke off with a laugh. ‘There I go again!’
He smiled. ‘Thank me again by reporting in tonight.’
‘I will,’ she promised, and looked at her watch. ‘I’d better be on my way.’
‘And I’d better get into my jacket and put