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But this ti different about it This time it was directed at himself

With an abrupt ot to his feet

‘Come’

Magda’s eyes snapped away from where Benji and the Calvis had just disappeared Rafaello was standing there, looking tall and co breadcrumbs fro them disdainfully

Yes, she thought silently, they are cheap, and unflattering, and hopelessly unfashionable I do not wear them from choice, but necessity If I had your money I would not wear them—but I don’t, so I do Poverty is not a crime And it is not a cause for sharace for my lack of wealth Nor will I bow it because I do not knoho my parents were!

‘Today,’ announced Rafaello in a tight voice, ‘we are driving to Lucca’

Magda’s eyes widened She had not in the slightest expected this Then she realised that it ht, when the professor had talked about Lucca and his wife had urged her nephew to take his bride touring

‘It is quite unnecessary,’ she said Her voice was low and blank

‘You will,’ replied Rafaello, ‘allow e of that’

She sensed anger in him beneath the clipped words She could not be surprised His aunt had chivvied hi, and it was obvious he would not be too thrilled at the prospect of not only wasting a good day but wasting it in the co the lowest of the low…

‘I can’t leave Benji,’ she said She couldn’tso column of his throat rose out of the open-necked top of his polo shirt She found that was not a good place to focus and shifted her gaze a little lower But thatthe broad expanse of his pectoralat the knitted fabric of the polo shirt, descending to the narrow leanness of his abdomen

She flicked her gaze so that it was staring harmlessly over his shoulder instead, at a distant cypress tree edging the gardens

‘Benji will be fine,’ Rafaello said, with the dismissiveness of a childless man for the neurotic anxieties of a mother ‘Between Maria and my aunt he will do very well, be assured—they are both very taken with hi circlet of gold on his strong wrist ‘I should like to set off in half an hour Please be ready’

He nodded at her and was gone, striding off indoors

She sighed What should she do? Dig her heels in and refuse to go with hi to spend any ti dutifully carted around sightseeing by athis for? Surely he could have co matters of work to distract his aunt froether? And it didn’t matter what he said—she did not like to leave Benji She’d never spent any time away from him at all—ever

Yet when she went off in search of hi her at all Maria and Rafaello’s aunt weretrike to ride The housekeeper hurried over to her

‘Go,’ she instructed her ‘The little one will be very happy He does not notice you are not here If he sees you he ant you So go now Yes, yes, if he is unhappy without you I shall phone Signor Rafaello on his mobile phone, and he will return you at once He has promised me But we shall take care of the boy as if he were ours And I have cared for da away and returned eagerly to Benji, volubly ad his prowess on his vehicle

Reluctantly she turned and left She knew that it was sensible for Benji to start being happy away froht a proper place of her own to live it would be tiroups and nursery school

But it still pulled at her terribly as she went up to her roohtly less shabby She had a cotton skirt with her, khaki-coloured, which although it hung on her hips was at least a skirt She put on a white cotton short-sleeved blouse with it, slipped an olive-green juely empty without its usual coain She ached to go and check on Benji again, but kneould be counterproductive