following day, as it had been recommended as a must by her art mistress. She was well aware that Mama had already made other plans.
'I'm so sorry, darling,' she said, 'but your father and I are going to lunch with the Hendersons in Arezzo tomorrow. You're most welcome to join us.'
'There's nothing to stop Giles taking you into Rome,' interjected his father from the other end of the table.
'Do I have to?' said Giles, who had just been about to make the same suggestion.
'Yes, you do,' replied his father firmly.
'But what's the point, Pa? By the time we get there, we'll have to turn round and come back. It's hardly worth it.'
'Not if you were to spend the night at the Plaza Hotel. I'll call them first thing in the morning, and book a couple of rooms.'
'Are you sure they're grown up enough for that?' asked Mrs Barrington, sounding a little anxious.
'Giles will be eighteen in a few weeks. It's time he grew up and took some responsibility.' Giles bowed his head as if he had given in meekly.
The following morning, a taxi drove him and Emma to the local station just in time to catch the early morning train to Rome.
'Be sure to take care of your sister,' were his father's last words before they left the villa.
'I will,' promised Giles as the car drove off.
Several men rose to offer Emma their seat as she entered the carriage, while Giles was left standing for the entire journey. On arrival in Rome, they took a taxi to the Via del Corso, and once they'd booked into their hotel they continued on to the Villa Borghese. Giles was struck by how many young men not much older than himself were in uniform, while almost every pillar and lamp-post they passed displayed a poster of Mussolini.
Once the taxi had dropped them off, they made their way up through the gardens, passing more men in uniform and even more posters of 'Il Duce' before they finally reached the palatial Villa Borghese.
Harry had written to tell Giles they would be setting out on their official tour at ten o'clock. He checked his watch - a few minutes past eleven, with luck the tour would be nearly over. He bought two tickets, handed one to Emma, bounded up the steps to the galleria and went in search of the school party. Emma took her time admiring the Bernini statues that dominated the first four rooms, but then she wasn't in a hurry. Giles went from gallery to gallery until he spotted a group of young men dressed in dark claret jackets and black flannel trousers, who were crowded around a small portrait of an elderly man dressed in a cream silk cassock with a white mitre on his head.
'There they are,' he said, but Emma was nowhere to be seen. Not giving his sister another thought, he headed over to the attentive group. The moment he saw her, he quite forgot the reason he had come to Rome.
'Caravaggio was commissioned to paint this portrait of Pope Paul V in 1605,' she said, with a slight accent. 'You will notice that it was not finished, and that is because the artist had to flee from Rome.'
'Why, miss?' demanded a young boy in the front row, who was clearly determined to take Deakins's place at some time in the future.
'Because he became involved in a drunken brawl, during which he ended up killing a man.'
'Did they arrest him?' asked the same boy.
'No,' said the tour guide, 'Caravaggio always managed to move on to the next city before the forces of justice could catch up with him, but in the end the Holy Father decided to grant him a pardon.'
'Why?' demanded the same boy.
'Because he wanted Caravaggio to carry out several more commissions for him. Some of them are among the seventeen works that can still be seen in Rome today.'
At that moment, Harry spotted Giles gazing in awe in the direction of the painting. He left the group and walked across to join him. 'How long have you been standing there?' he asked.
'Long enough to fall in love,' said Giles, his eyes still fixed on the tour guide.
Harry laughed when he realized it wasn't the painting Giles was staring at, but the elegant, self-assured young woman who was addressing the boys. 'I think she's a bit out of your age group,' said Harry, 'and I suspect even your price range.'
'I'm willing to take that risk,' said Giles