Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,60

maybe appeal to him to stay quiet?’

‘He’s not my boyfriend.’ Lucy realised that this had come out a bit too loud and a bit too dogmatic, so she lowered her voice once more and explained. ‘He’s a friend of a friend and I only agreed to have dinner with him as his aunt and uncle own the restaurant and he said he could tell me all about the village. One thing’s for sure – after this, he’s definitely no longer even a casual friend. I’ve tried phoning him, but he’s not picking up. I’ve left him a series of messages, but I fear in my bones that he isn’t going to change his mind. As far as he’s concerned, this is a major scoop and it’ll be good for his career.’

‘Right… I see…’ She heard a long escape of breath. ‘Listen, Lucy, don’t beat yourself up. It wasn’t your fault. It was bound to happen sooner or later. My lawyer knows who I am and where I live, as do the guys at the bank, lots of people at the clinic, and any number of others. It’s been a long time coming but sooner or later it had to be revealed. I’ve been living on borrowed time.’ She heard him take a deep breath. ‘It was inevitable. I’ve been very lucky up till now, but it’s time for me to face the music.’

‘So you aren’t going to run off somewhere else?’

‘Absolutely not.’ She couldn’t repress a sensation of relief that he would be staying around. ‘There are too many things, too many people, keeping me here.’ She found herself desperately curious to know if she might be one of these people, but he hadn’t finished. ‘No, bring it on. Listen, I was going to call you to say thank you for last night. I had a really good evening and it reminded me what I’ve been missing in my self-imposed isolation. I was wondering, do you have any free time this week or at the weekend?’

‘I’m actually off work tomorrow, before starting nights on Saturday.’

‘Well, look, how about this as an idea? Would you feel like coming to Florence with me some time? I thought we could check out the memorial to John Hawkwood. It’s something I’ve been dying to do for ages, but I’ve been so scared of being recognised. Now the cat’s going to be out of the bag, so what the hell? What do you say?’

Lucy stood there for a few moments, lost in thought. It was going to be pretty well impossible for him to keep his identity a secret in the midst of the crowds of tourists who would be packed into the centre of Florence. School holidays had started all over Europe and further afield, and she had no doubt there would be thousands upon thousands of people there. The second thing going through her head was whether she wanted to spend a day in the company of somebody who was reputed to have cheated on his wife.

It didn’t take her long to make a decision. When all was said and done, this was an innocent enough invitation and she couldn’t deny a large part of her wanted to spend more time with this man. It wasn’t as if he was inviting her to go off on a dirty weekend with him, or even go out for dinner. If she could say yes to dinner with a proven womaniser like Tommy, then there was no reason to reject David’s offer, and there was always that thing about being innocent until proved guilty. And, apart from anything else, she really wanted to check out Hawkwood’s memorial fresco as well.

‘That sounds great. I’d love to go to Florence. I’m free tomorrow if that suits you.’

‘Tomorrow’s good for me. Okay if I pick you up fairly early? That way we might miss the worst of the crowds if we aim to hit the Duomo as it opens at ten. What time works for you?’

‘As early as you like. I’m used to being at work by seven thirty so I’m not afraid of an early start.’

‘We don’t need to leave quite that early. Shall we say eight thirty?’

Chapter 18

She was ready for him well before eight thirty next morning, feeling surprisingly nervous as she heard his car pull up outside. To her horror, this turned out to be the very smart, but incredibly conspicuous, bright red Ferrari she had seen on Google Earth and her heart sank. She