‘You’ve unleashed a monster now,’ Sophie said, but she was laughing, too.
* * *
Mariana noticed how patient Angelo was as they read the story, helping Olly when he stumbled over an unfamiliar word, and then not minding kneeling on the floor in his expensive suit to build the train set. He didn’t mind Lily, their rescue Jack Russell, washing his face and then curling up on his lap, either.
He was still every inch the clever, formal lawyer; but it was overlaid by a softer side, one she really liked. Even if they didn’t manage to adopt or foster children, she thought, he was going to be a brilliant uncle. Olly already adored him.
‘So you got together because of your grandfather’s painting?’ Carol, Mariana’s mother, asked over dinner.
‘It’s a very special painting,’ Angelo said. ‘And Mariana was the only person who could find out the truth behind it.’
‘My assistant was quite helpful, though,’ she said, nudging him and smiling.
He slid his arm round her shoulders. ‘I’ve learned more than I ever knew was possible about art, over the last few weeks. My grandfather says there’s hope for me yet and Mariana will reform me from being a philistine and I’ll learn to appreciate paintings.’
‘So what’s the story behind the painting, and are you using it in the next series?’ Philip, Mariana’s father, asked.
Between them, Mariana and Angelo told the story behind The Girl in the Window.
‘We’re meeting the previous owners of Barrington Manor tomorrow, and we’re really hoping there’s a bit more behind the story,’ Angelo said. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked at Mariana. ‘I want a happy ending.’
‘Absolutely,’ Mariana agreed.
When they cleared the table, Carol gave Mariana a hug. ‘I like him,’ she said softly. ‘I like the way he looks at you. He sees you for who you are, appreciates you properly.’
‘He makes me feel I’m worth something,’ Mariana said. ‘He’s the opposite of Eric. We’re a team.’ She smiled at her mother. ‘We both want the same thing—an equal partnership.’
‘Just the way it should be,’ Carol declared. ‘But you said he didn’t want children. The way he was with Olly—that’s not a man who doesn’t like kids.’
‘I got the wrong end of the stick,’ Mariana said quietly. ‘He wants kids, but he had mumps when he was young.’
‘Ah. Poor man.’
‘But even if our options don’t work out,’ she said, ‘we’ll have each other. And that’s enough.’
* * *
‘I like your family. A lot,’ Angelo said to Mariana when he drove her back to her house.
‘They liked you, too,’ she said. ‘Mum noticed the way you look at me.’
‘Is that a good thing?’ he asked.
‘A very good thing,’ she confirmed. ‘You were good with Lily, too.’
‘I’d like a dog,’ he said.
She laughed. ‘And a neat freak like you would cope with all the hair a dog sheds, and mud all over the kitchen floor?’
‘There’s a little thing called a vacuum cleaner. Rumour has it you can use it even if you have a Y chromosome,’ he said. ‘So, to answer your question, yes.’
She grinned. ‘I’ll hold you to that. Even though I know you have a cleaner.’
‘A house can still be a home if it’s tidy,’ he said. ‘The important thing is that it’s filled with love. And respect.’
‘And paintings. Absolutely.’ She kissed him. ‘I hope you weren’t planning on going home until after breakfast.’
‘I hope,’ he said, ‘that was an invitation.’
‘It is,’ she confirmed, and led him inside.
* * *
The next morning, they stopped at Angelo’s house so he could change his clothes, then he drove them to Chigwell to meet the Fishers.
‘The last piece of the puzzle,’ Angelo said as he parked the car. ‘I hope.’
Mariana rang the doorbell, and a slender woman with white hair opened the door.
‘You must be Angelo and Miss Thackeray,’ she said.