page16 (1/2)

‘Signor Morelli died last year,’ Luigi told her in soate

‘Yes, I knoent to his funeral’

Luigi frowned at her in the rear-vision mirror ‘You are not a relative’

‘No Just a friend’

‘Ah’ He nodded sadly ‘I miss hiood man’

‘Yes,’ Bella choked out ‘He was’

‘His son is a good man too’

‘He certainly is,’ Bella agreed, glad to get off the subject of Alberto’s death

She was ali’s attention was occupied with negotiating the Mercedes slowly round the crunchy gravel driveway that encircled a huge stone-edged fountain As a child Bella had been shocked by the flagrant nudity of the three statues at the centre of the fountain She still found theHis sexual equiper than normal, which possibly explained the looks of awe on his two ferandfather—who’d been alive and hen Bella had first holidayed at the villa—had claimed that the model for the male statue was a distant ancestor of his who’d built the villa in the sixteenth century Athat the villa had been ait till late in the nineteenth century The fountain—despite looking centuries old—was a later addition, built just after the First World War

‘You will learn, dear Izzie,’ Sergio had confessed quietly with a rueful s’

Bella sio entirely Yes, sorandfather had been of that ilk and his father to a lesser degree Alberto had certainly liked showing off his attractive neife and his pretty little stepdaughter Sergio, however, didn’t seem to have the need to impress others Some people would have shouted to the rooftops that they were having the darling of Broadway as a guest in their hoio He’d insisted she tell no one where she was going, not even her mother