One week, though, and she would have had the conversation she had to have, then she would be back, and at least she would have seen somewhere different, breathed in different air, looked at a different landscape.
She would have to keep her fingers crossed that she could handle everything that came in between.
‘There’s someone here asking for you.’
Luca looked up from where he had been scrolling through his emails on his computer to the elderly man who had ambled into his office without knocking and was now in the process of straightening everything on his desk, clucking disapprovingly under his breath.
‘Roberto...’ Luca controlled a sigh because the man had been a loyal retainer since the dawn of time and if he was now in his early eighties, with a meandering mind and prone to forgetting that there was an army of stalwart help paid to do what might once have been part of his job, then so be it. ‘There’s no need to tidy the desk. I know where everything is. At any rate, I’m busy so anyone wanting to see me will have to make an appointment through the usual channels.’ He had two PAs. One handled matters of a more confidential nature, the other handled anything that required interfacing with non-Italian clients, of which there were very many.
PAs...hired help...three-course meals that appeared as if by magic...a social life that left very little free time, especially now that the presumption of nuptials with Isabella lay thick in the air, even though nothing had been formally announced. Recently he’d felt as though he had to make time in his packed diary to breathe.
He frowned and restlessly pushed himself away from his desk and waited until Roberto had straightened everything to his satisfaction.
‘Never used to be that way,’ Roberto responded, shaking his head sadly. ‘There was always time for a face-to-face meeting. A chat. Everybody knew everybody. It was a family.’
‘Times change.’ Luca had heard all this before. Naturally, he couldn’t interface with everyone who worked for him! His winery employed very many people, kept two villages in employment, practically! There wasn’t a human being who could keep track of every single person who might show up unannounced on the doorstep. ‘I haven’t got time to see anyone at the moment. Now, is that all?’
‘So I’ll show her in, shall I?’
Luca flung both hands in the air and gave up. He had zero curiosity as to the identity of his visitor. Theoretically his door was always open to any of his employees. In practice, the door was largely shut and, when ajar, was ferociously guarded by PA number one, who made sure that his time was uninterrupted by anything of a remotely trivial nature. If it could be sorted outside the hallowed walls of his office, which sprawled across one of the wings of his grand house, then it was. Rosa saw to that. Sadly, Rosa was on a one week vacation and, for some reason, Luca had not wanted the annoyance of a temp because there was no way Sonya, his tri-lingual PA, could be spared to waste time for a week doing bits of grunt work.
Unfortunately, without Rosa around, Luca could see that irritating interruptions were not going to be headed off at the pass. At least, not if Roberto happened to be unofficial gatekeeper.
‘Five minutes,’ he huffed, all but tapping his watch to make sure Roberto got the message loud and clear. ‘And then you’re to come and remove whoever I happen to be with.’
‘Very rude, sir, when someone is kind enough to call by for a chat.’
‘But essential. Five minutes, Roberto!’
Luca had doubts as to whether these instructions would be obeyed. He would have to control the urge to snap were they to be ignored. His temper, always ruthlessly controlled, had been far too much in evidence ever since he had returned from that brief sojourn on the Cornish coast and he had no idea why.
What he did know was that the lack of control infuriated him.
He waited until Roberto had shuffled off and then he swivelled his chair to face the massive bay window, frowning and staring out towards a vista that was impressive by anyone’s standards.
He barely noticed the mansion in which he lived. It was there. Ancient, beautiful, vast, handed down through the generations. Huge tracts of it were unused simply because there were so many rooms. Walls were adorned with exquisite paintings that were seldom seen. There were priceless rugs upon which no feet ever trod and windows were flung open in rooms simply to let in a bit of fresh air before they were shut again and those very rooms remained silent and empty until they were aired again.
His own quarters, done to the highest of standards, were far more modern, as was the four-bedroomed annexe in which his father lived when he wasn’t travelling, as he was now, hopefully not on the lookout for another unsuitable wife. Personally, Luca couldn’t abide the heaviness of all that traditional décor that characterised most of his estate but he didn’t care enough to do anything about it.
It was his ancestry and that was the end of it.
He barely noticed any of it, but through this window...that was what he noticed.
The rolling acres of carefully cultivated grapevines, marching in lines towards a distant horizon, punctuated by tall, elegant cypress trees...the backdrop of hazy purple mountains rising so high in the distance that the peaks were blurred by cloud...the villages clinging to the sides of the hills, white squares against lush green.
He was staring out at the scenery when the door was pushed open and, with a sigh of resignation, he slowly spun round to address whatever needed addressing.
For a few seconds, Luca only registered Roberto, who was hovering, eyeing up the desk with intent, resisting the urge to do a bit more tidying, then he
