‘Like a baby,’ she lied.
‘Then let us begin.’
During breakfast, which she enjoyed all the more for sitting down to eat it, Laura told Domenico what she had in mind.
‘I’ve been reading up about shopping in my guidebook, so I’ve made a list. First priority is a pair of the velvet slippers worn here for Carnival for my mother.’
‘And for your father?’
Her eyes fell. ‘My father’s dead.’
‘Mi dispiace!’ said Domenico swiftly, and laid his hand on hers.
‘You didn’t know. Now,’ she added briskly, ‘where do we start?’
Shopping with Domenico Chiesa was a very pleasant experience. He took Laura to places she would have had no hope of finding on her own, and seemed to enjoy it all as much as she did. He hunted down an authentic gold carnival mask, helped Laura choose pretty, inexpensive Venetian glass earrings and T-shirts in vivid colours printed with the Venezia logo, and at last took her to the stalls at the foot of the Ponte delle Guglie on Strada Nuova for crimson velvet slippers for her mother.
‘And now,’ said Domenico firmly, just when Laura felt ready to drop rather than shop any more, ‘we must eat.’
She gave him a pleading look. ‘Domenico, please let me pay for lunch.’
He smiled and shook his head. ‘It is already arranged. And you are tired so we shall go by water taxi.’
A journey in a sleek white motorboat was such a different experience from one by vaporetto the journey was over far too soon for Laura.
‘Thank you, that was fun,’ she said as Domenico helped her off the boat. ‘But I know it was also expensive so I hope we’re eating in a cheaper place than Harry’s Bar.’
‘I can assure you that we are. With your permission I shall give you lunch in my private retreat.’
Domenico’s retreat was an apartment in a converted palazzo, with a view of the Grand Canal and the Santa Maria della Salute church. When he ushered her into a compact sitting room with tall windows and apricot walls Laura felt a stab of envy as she took in the gleaming wood floors and white-covered sofas, the shelves with books and the mirrors everywhere.
‘This is just lovely.’
‘I am glad you like it.’ He laid her shopping bags on one of the sofas. ‘I thought you might prefer a quiet meal here in peace after your shopping.’
Domenico’s dining room was small, but opened onto a balcony with a view of the Grand Canal. He set a meal on the table with speed and efficiency, which impressed Laura as she sat down to Fontina cheese and San Daniele ham served with ripe red tomatoes and salad leaves.
‘This is perfect. Exactly what I need. Shopping is tiring, even here in Venice.’ She smiled at him gratefully as she buttered a roll. ‘I’m so grateful for your help, Domenico. You took me to places I wouldn’t have found on my own.’ And because of it she had spent far less money than expected.
‘I was happy to help,’ he assured her. ‘Would you like wine?’
‘Water, please. If I drink wine at this hour I’ll need another sleep, and it’s a sin to waste too much time in Venice in bed!’
‘Alone, certainly,’ he agreed, and laughed at her look. ‘Laura, per favore! Is that one small, sweet kiss to blame for such dark suspicion? I intend you no harm, I swear.’
‘Oh, I know that!’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘If you did the boss wouldn’t like it.’
He looked blank. ‘The boss?’
‘Lorenzo Forli!’
‘Ah, yes.’ He got up to take her plate. ‘Now, then, Miss Laura Green, I shall make coffee while you rest in the salotto.’
‘I could help wash the dishes,’ she offered, but he shook his head.
‘My machine will do that. I shall not be long.’
Laura was standing at one of the tall windows, looking down on the busy waterway, when Domenico came in with a tray. She turned to him with a smile. ‘What a priceless view!’
‘I am often told I would make much money if I rented my apartment to visitors.’
‘You don’t like the idea?’
He shook his head as he poured coffee. ‘I am constantly surrounded by people at the hotel, therefore I have much need of my private retreat when time allows. Which is not often enough, alas.’
Laura sat down and took the cup he offered her. ‘Domenico?’
‘Sì?’
‘Tell me to mind my own business, if you like, but I can’t help feeling curious. When we were discussing my love life—or lack of it—you kept pretty quiet about your own.’
‘Because it is embarrassing.’ He shrugged, and sat down beside her. ‘It is no secret. I was engaged to be married while still young, but my fidanzata changed her mind.’
‘How did you feel about that?’
‘Angry.’
Laura looked at him curiously. ‘Only angry?’
His face hardened. ‘A week before our wedding day Alessa ran away with my oldest friend.’
‘Oh, bad luck,’ she said with sympathy, and to her relief Domenico let out a crow of laughter.
‘That is so British!’ He shook his head. ‘My fidanzata deserts me for another man and all you can say is bad luck?’
‘What would you like me to say?’
‘You say, ‘‘Domenico, my heart bleeds for you’’,’ he said promptly. ‘Then you comfort me with many kisses.’
‘Oh, right—that’s going to happen!’
He smiled at her soulfully. ‘I wish so much that it would!’
‘When was this, by the way?’
‘Ten years ago.’
‘Then your heart can’t still be bleeding! Have you seen the lady since?’
‘Many times. Since her marriage Alessa has gained three children and several kilos in weight.’ Domenico gave her a wicked grin. ‘And I have received a little comfort from other ladies over the years to assuage my sorrow.’
‘I bet! Anyway, I thought you were angry, not sorrowful.’
He was suddenly serious. ‘Mario was my friend. He should have faced me with the truth instead of running away with Alessa like a criminal.’
‘Probably they both felt like criminals for hurting you.’
He shrugged. ‘Those hurt most were Alessa’s parents. They wanted the marriage very much.’
‘Because you were a good catch for their daughter?’
‘They know my family,’ he said simply, as though that explained it. ‘Alessa comes from a long line of aristocrats with very little money, and she has two younger sisters. As soon as Alessa left school she was pushed into marriage with someone suitable able to provide for her.’
‘Did you know she was being pushed?’
His mouth twisted. ‘Of course not. In my arrogance I believed she was madly in love with me. She was very sweet, very pretty. Not long after our first meeting we became engaged, and her parents arranged the wedding.’
‘Couldn’t they have gone through with it with a different bridegroom?’ asked Laura.
Domenico