Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,35

time, Lucy. I’m delighted to see you looking so relaxed. Sleeping well?’

‘Sleeping just fine, thanks to you.’

In fact, with Charles so close-by, she wasn’t feeling as relaxed as she might have been, but she managed to smile anyway and transferred her attention to her surroundings – deliberately turning her back on Charles. It really was a charming flat, perched on the rooftops of Siena, with a wonderful big terrace outside where she could see more people mingling. No doubt the view from out there would be lovely. Inside, it had been decorated with exquisite taste and when Franz explained that Antonio was an interior designer, it all fell into place.

She took a big mouthful of wine and reluctantly turned back towards Charles, noticing for the first time a diminutive, but very attractive, dark-haired girl hanging onto his arm. As her eyes landed on the girl’s face, Lucy was unsurprised to see she was one of the junior nurses at the clinic and was probably at least ten years younger than Charles. Lucy nodded sagely to herself; the leopard was following its usual modus operandi. She steeled herself and gave them both a sweet, but totally insincere smile.

‘Good evening.’ She kept her tone studiously neutral.

He made no attempt to kiss her, which was just as well seeing as her glass was still almost full and this little scene had filled her head with a host of unpleasant memories. Something in her expression must have made him realise he was on thin ice as he took an uncertain step back and pointed vaguely across the room.

‘Good evening, Lucy. Do excuse me. I have to…’ And he disappeared into the crowd with his latest conquest in tow, much to Lucy’s relief.

She took another sip of wine and wandered round the room, stopping to chat to a number of familiar faces from the hospital. After a bit she made her way over to the French window leading out onto the terrace. The view out there was as delightful as she had expected. The temperature was still high, but there was a hint of a breeze up here and she breathed deeply. The flat was situated just outside the centro storico and she found herself looking out over the roofs of the old heart of the town towards the unmistakable arrow shape of the Torre del Mangia, rising up vertically into the night sky. As she was standing there, taking it all in, she heard her name.

‘Ciao, Lucy, fancy seeing you here. You’re looking wonderful.’

She turned and discovered, to her surprise, that it was Tommy. She summoned half a smile and deliberately held out her hand instead of kissing him on the cheeks. She hadn’t heard any more from him since they had bumped into each other and had coffee together well over a month ago, and she had been coming round to believing that he had got the message that she wasn’t interested in him as anything but a friend. She was wrong.

‘Ciao, Tommy. It’s good to see you again. How do you know Franz?’

‘I’ve only met him for the first time tonight, to be honest, but I’ve known Antonio for years. He and I were at school together and his company did the interior design for my sister’s apartment and he’s very good. Are you going to use them for your house?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I’m fine with it as it is.’ She held out her glass and clinked it against his. ‘I love the place.’

‘I thought of you last week.’

‘Oh?’ She braced herself for something romantic.

‘It was the Palio di Provenzano and it occurred to me that you might enjoy watching the next one with me. The paper I work for is organising a party in an apartment right on Piazza del Campo on Palio day in August. If you’d like to come to that one, I could fix it.’

The two Palio races were the highlights of Siena’s year. Horses representing the different contrade, the wards or districts of the city of Siena, were raced bareback around the main square by jockeys dressed in traditional bright team colours. These races were some of the oldest and most famous historic events in Tuscany and they always took place twice a year on the second of July and the sixteenth of August. Although she had been in the crowd at one Palio many years ago, at the time she had hardly been able to see anything and her lasting memories were of deafening