Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,92

the pigeons for miles around and made most of the people in the room jump. They later learnt that the Hollywood starlet had been so startled by the noise, she had emptied her glass of champagne down her front – luckily there wasn’t much dress there to stain. The cannon announced the arrival of the horses and riders, and all necks craned for the first sight of them as they paraded around the square. Before long, the track was cleared and the jockeys lined up behind a hefty rope. An expectant hush fell across the tens of thousands of spectators. After a brief delay while the horses were all mustered into position, the rope was dropped and the race was on.

The noise levels rose to a crescendo as the competitors circled the square three times at the gallop, skidding around the bends. At one of the early corners, the rider for the contrada Selva, dressed in orange and green, was thrown off his horse into the barrier but, amazingly, the horse kept on going, making its way up the order until it even overtook the leader right at the very end and won by a whisker, in spite of being without its rider.

‘How about that? They say it’s the horse, not the rider, that counts.’ David had to put his mouth close to her ear in order to make himself heard. He then took the opportunity to kiss her neck and she was smiling as she replied to him.

‘I’m not sure it would work that way in many other horse races. I’m just glad no horses or riders were injured too badly.’

As the fans mobbed the victorious horse, and the unhorsed Selva rider found himself a hero – admittedly a seriously bruised hero – David’s phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID and she saw his face become more serious.

‘Sorry, Lucy, I need to take this.’

He gave her an apologetic shrug and headed back towards the door and then through it, presumably to get as far away from all the noise as possible. Lucy stayed by the window, still clutching her untouched glass of champagne, feeling like a fish out of water in the midst of all this opulence. Glimpses of Rahel, hard at work, didn’t make her feel any better. She wondered if Nicole and Geneviève back home in France were having similar crises of conscience. She had spoken to Nicole recently to confirm that she would be coming with her plus one and had been very pleased to hear her sounding untroubled – apart from wedding planning. She was still thinking of her two nurse friends a few minutes later when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

‘Hi, are you here alone?’

She turned to find herself looking up into a familiar face. It took her a few seconds to remember his name. It was this year’s biggest Hollywood heartthrob, no less, and she felt sure millions of women around the world would have been prepared to sell their souls to the devil – or worse – just to be able to get this close to him. But movie star or not, she was very happy with the man she already had.

‘Hello. No, I’m here with a friend.’

‘A boyfriend?’ There was something predatory in his eye, not dissimilar to the looks she had caught from Tommy for time to time. She shivered, but did her best to remain civil.

‘Yes, my boyfriend. He’s just gone out to take a call.’

‘Pity. You’re so beautiful.’ The look he gave her was no doubt designed to charm the proverbial – and actual – pants off the women in his sights and she felt sure it probably worked more often than not. Just not with her tonight. Resisting the temptation to tell him what she really thought, she just murmured a less than genuine, ‘You’re very kind.’

To her surprise, he reached into the top pocket of his linen jacket, produced a card, and pressed it into her hand. ‘If you get tired of him, do give me a call. I’m filming in Rome for a month. Could be fun… Ciao.’ With that he turned and walked off into the crowd, leaving her with an unpleasant taste in her mouth.

David didn’t come back for quite some time. In fact, the winning contrada had already shouldered the silk banner of the Virgin Mary and set off in triumph with it towards the cathedral before she saw him again.