Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,20

confirmed her impression that, as at the wedding, he had got her firmly in his sights. He wasn’t unpleasant by any means, but he just wasn’t her type. At the end, when she stood up to leave, he asked her if she would like to come out for dinner with him some time and she prevaricated, saying she would be very busy getting everything sorted out over the next couple of weeks. She hoped he would get the message without her having to spell it out for him.

* * *

The old house was on the edge of a pretty little village and, to her relief, it wasn’t completely isolated in the middle of nowhere. Castelnuovo Superiore even had a general store and a bar/restaurant. The village was situated partway up one of the hills to the west of Siena and all around were olive groves and vineyards, interspersed with clumps of trees and scrub. Bright yellow broom bushes – the ginestre that gave their name to her future place of work – were in flower, and the scent was all-pervading as the man from the agency drove her up the winding road with the car windows open. Tommy had been right about it being lovely. The views that stretched out before them were stunning.

The house was quite simply gorgeous and Lucy fell in love with it as soon as she set eyes on it. It wasn’t grand or ostentatious. It had apparently been built at the end of the eighteenth century and it had clearly once been the home of a farm worker and his family. It looked pleasingly modest but comfortable, and that suited her perfectly. Her parents had never been very well off, and funding her long years of medical studies had been a struggle for all of them, and she had always instinctively avoided ostentation – be it with regard to accommodation or, indeed, men. Thinking back on it, that was one of the things that had always bothered her about Charles, and after their split-up she had vowed to go for plain, simple men in future.

Like so many of the properties in this area, this cottage was built of old bricks and had arched doorways, while dusty louvred shutters hung at the windows. The roof was tiled with sun-scorched curved red pantiles and the top floor opened onto a covered loggia supported by brick pillars which would provide shade and allow the breeze to blow through, just like Daniela’s mum’s house.

Inside, it was immaculate. Whoever had been responsible for the restoration had done a wonderful job and hadn’t spared any expense. The floors had been retiled using antique – or at least antique-looking – terracotta, and the hefty timbers supporting the ceilings had been sandblasted to return them to their original appearance. The kitchen had granite worktops and a fabulous bank of built-in cupboards and appliances. A picture window in the far end wall looked out over the hills. It was superb and she thanked Federico, the man from the agency, warmly.

‘What a place! Are you sure you’ve got the price right?’

He grinned at her and nodded. ‘A bit cheaper than London maybe?’

She grinned back. ‘A bit? A house like this in or around London would cost three, four times as much. And the rent would be astronomical. It’s unbelievable.’

Upstairs there were two good-sized bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom, and a landing from where a door led out to the loggia. The views from outside on the covered terrace were spectacular. From here she was looking straight out over row upon row of gnarled old olive trees that clothed the curves of the hillside and disappeared down towards the valley below. She did a quick count and found she could only see five other buildings dotted among the trees and vines. Siena, she knew, was in the next valley, along with the autostrada. Here the only noise she could hear was the tweeting of little birds and the rumble of a distant tractor some way away in the fields. Best of all, she reckoned it was barely five or six kilometres in a straight line from here to work, although the winding roads to get there would probably add up to almost double that distance. Even so, it was going to be a very easy, and very scenic, commute.

The house was empty so she knew she would have to buy everything and furnish it herself, but this really appealed to her. After years of