Sunday was another day with Mariana listening to Leo telling her about the paintings; and on Monday morning she made a start on the more formal photography.
On Tuesday, Angelo headed to Rome. While on the train, he organised their return journey to London and emailed the details to Mariana, adding:
Send me a list of any stationery you need for London and I’ll get it delivered.
Then he concentrated on catching up with emails from work and reassuring a couple of his clients before he arrived in Rome.
It didn’t take long to reach the townhouse where his sister lived.
Eduardo, his brother-in-law, was at work—though, as it wasn’t the end of the financial year, Angelo rather thought Ed might be trying to get some peace and quiet and using the excuse of being snowed under at the office. But his mother and sister greeted him warmly.
‘Your favourites from London, Mamma,’ he said, giving his mother a distinctive duck-egg-blue bag. She peered inside to discover a large box of her favourite tea and a jar of honey.
‘Grazie.’ She hugged him. ‘You do spoil me.’
‘And something for a new mother,’ he said, handing Camilla a beautifully wrapped parcel. She opened it and beamed as she discovered luxury bubble bath, a scented candle and a box of chocolates.
‘And I have something for my beautiful niece, too,’ he said.
‘She’s asleep right now,’ Camilla said, ‘but I promise I’ll wake her in an hour, when she’s due a feed.’
‘OK.’ Giving him another hour to make sure his bravest face was in place, so his sister wouldn’t be able to guess how much his heart ached. Because he absolutely wasn’t going to let his personal pain spill over and hurt his family. ‘I bought Ed some single malt to toast the baby, too.’
‘You are so lovely.’ Camilla hugged him. ‘How’s Nonno?’
‘Very bright. Right now he’s very happy, talking art all day to someone who actually appreciates it,’ Angelo said.
‘This art expert—she really knows her stuff?’ Lucrezia demanded.
‘Yes. She’s currently taking professional photographs of all the paintings, and then she’s going to work on Nonno’s papers in London and sort them out properly.’
‘He’s letting you put them in order? But you and Cammie couldn’t talk him into even touching them before, let alone taking them out of the palazzo.’ Lucrezia looked surprised.
‘He said no at first. But he realises that Mariana can’t move to Florence for however long it takes to sort everything out, and the fact that she really loves his paintings means that he’ll do it for her,’ Angelo said. His grandfather was definitely falling under Mariana’s spell—and Angelo had a nasty feeling that it would be very easy for him to do the same. ‘We’re driving them back to London on Friday.’
‘Driving? Are you insane?’ Camilla asked.
‘We worked it out. It’s the simplest way,’ Angelo said.
‘And she’s nice?’ Camilla asked.
Nice didn’t even begin to cover it. But he didn’t want to go there. Nothing could happen between them. He’d already learned the hard way that he wasn’t husband material, and he was pretty sure that Mariana’s own experiences had made her want to give relationships a wide berth, too. ‘She knows a lot about art. And she loves her subject.’ She glowed when she talked about the Macchiaioli painters, but how could he tell his mother and sister that without them getting the wrong idea? He knew they worried about him and wanted him to move on from Stephanie, but he just hadn’t been able to. He couldn’t face that kind of rejection again.
Mariana Thackeray wasn’t the one to make him move on, either. He was sticking firmly with his career. Where his heart was safe. ‘I think she’ll do a good job,’ he said. Best to keep it businesslike. And he really wanted to change the subject before his mother or his sister started asking awkward questions. ‘Any chance of some coffee?’ he asked plaintively.
Lucrezia made coffee, fussing over Camilla and insisting that she should put her feet up. And finally they heard a low cry.
The baby.