Liz Fielding: Flirting with Italian

‘You need a sign,’ she advised him. ‘“Trespassers will be Prosecuted” is usual. Not that I’d have understood it. Maybe a “No Entry” symbol, the kind they use on roads would be better, or a picture of a slavering dog.’ She should stop babbling right now. ‘Give it to me. I’ll delete them.’

‘No need. I’ll do it for you.’ Beep, beep, beep. He still didn’t return the phone. ‘We don’t get many visitors to Isola del Serrone. Especially not from England.’

‘No? I can’t say I’m surprised.’ It was quite possible that she was the first English person to visit the village since her great-grandfather left. ‘Maybe you’d do better if you were a little more welcoming.’

His eyes were now safely hidden behind those dark lenses, but the corner of his mouth tucked up in what might, at a stretch, have been a smile.

‘How much more friendly do you want?’

And she discovered that, classroom hardened as she was, she could still, given sufficient provocation, blush.

‘I’m good, thanks.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s your call.’ Then, clearly unconvinced by her ‘walk in the country’ story, ‘We’re not on the tourist map.’

‘That’s okay. I’m not a tourist.’

‘No?’ He didn’t sound entirely surprised. Which was surprising. Italy was, after all, chock-full of tourists and some of them must occasionally wander off the beaten track. Take photographs of views that hadn’t made it into the guidebooks. ‘So what are you really doing here?’ he asked.

Until now he’d been in the shadows, a voice, a pair of dark eyes, a mouth so tender that his kiss could bring a tear to her eyes …

Now that she was back on the path, out of the sun’s dazzle, she could see his face. It was hard to judge his age but his jet-black hair curled tightly in a thick mat against his scalp, his skin was golden, his cheekbones chiselled and his nose was so damn Roman that it should have been on a statue.

He was good to look at, but there was something about his manner, the arrogant way he’d kissed her, had gone through her emails, making quite unnecessary comments that—the blush notwithstanding—brought out what her mother would, in her teenage years, have described as ‘a touch of the awkwards’.

It would have been easy enough to tell him exactly what she was doing but Lucia’s secret was not hers to share. And, anyway, it was none of his business.

‘You have me at a disadvantage,’ she said.

That raised the shadow of a smile. ‘Undoubtedly.’

She was right about his mouth. Definitely made for it …

‘Having read my messages,’ she said, making an effort to concentrate on reality, ‘you know my name. I don’t know yours.’

‘No?’ He responded with a slight bow. ‘ Mi spiace , Signora Sarah Gratton. Io sono Matteo di Serrone.’

‘Di Serrone?’ About to say, Like the racingdriver? , she realised that would betray a deeper interest in the area than mere sightseeing and, back-pedalling madly, she said, ‘You’re a local boy, then.’

‘I was born in the north of Italy, but my family are from this village.’

Turin was in the north. Was he the young son, orphaned when his father was killed on the racetrack? He had to be about the right age.

‘You have my name. Perhaps you will be good enough to answer my question?’ he said.

‘Of course. Someone I know visited the village a while ago and he was so full of it, the hospitality of the people,’ she added, heavily stressing ‘hospitality’, ‘that I wanted to see it for myself.’ It was as much as she was prepared to tell a perfect stranger. Almost a stranger. Not perfect … ‘Has anyone ever told you that your English is amazing?’

‘He must have been impressed,’ he said. Then, the smile deepening to something that could very easily make a woman’s heart beat faster, with or without the added kiss, ‘Has anyone ever told you that you can change the subject faster than the English weather?’

‘No, really,’ she assured him, doing her best to focus on the view instead of the way her heart was in sync with the pulse beating in his neck. It was a little fast, suggesting that he was not as calm as he would have her believe. ‘It’s not only the idiomatic speech. You’ve got both irony and sarcasm nailed and that’s tough.’

‘I had an English nanny until I was six. She was strong on all three.’

‘That would explain it. What happened when you were six?’ she asked, but rather afraid she knew.

‘She left, and I came home.’

‘Oh.’ Not what she’d expected.

He raised his eyebrows a fraction, inviting her to elaborate on that ‘Oh’, but, while his voice had been even, his lack of expression suggested that his nanny’s departure had not been a happy one. No doubt it had left a painful gap in the life of a small boy. Better not to go there …

She shook her head. ‘Nothing. She did a good job of teaching you English, that’s all. Considering how young you were.’

‘She was well rewarded for her dedication.’

Definitely something—and his ‘I came home’ was now suggesting, to her overactive imagination, that daddy had an affair with the nanny and mummy packed her bag. She really had to stop reading rubbish gossip magazines in the hairdressers.

‘I took a post-graduate degree at Cambridge,’ he offered, as if he, too, would rather change the subject. ‘That was a useful refresher course.’

‘I imagine it would be.’ She’d bet there were any number of girls queueing up to give him English lessons. She sighed. ‘I envy your ability to speak two languages so fluently. I’m doing my best to learn Italian, but without much success. I’m still struggling to order a sandwich.’

‘Then allow me to save you the bother,’ he said.

‘Of ordering a sandwich?’

‘I’d recommend something more substantial. You almost fainted, I think, and I’m not vain enough to believe it had anything to do with the fact that I kissed you.’

She’d almost done something, what or why she couldn’t have said, but he was definitely underestimating himself.

‘I skimped on breakfast,’ she admitted.

‘Always a mistake.’

‘Absolutely.’

‘And my rudeness could not have helped.’ He looked down at the phone he was still holding. ‘My cousin is an actress and we have problems with the press. Photographers.’

‘I’m sorry. I had no idea.’

‘No?’ He shrugged. ‘Well, Bella hasn’t yet made the leap to Hollywood so your ignorance is forgivable. Perhaps you’ll allow me to restore your faith in our hospitality by joining me for lunch.’

As he spoke, a woman appeared on the terrace below them and began to lay the table beneath the pergola. Without waiting for her answer, Matteo called down to her in Italian so rapid that she didn’t manage to catch a single word.

The woman waved to show that she’d heard and he said, ‘Graziella is expecting you. You cannot disappoint her.’

She could. She should.

Every atom of sense was telling her that if this was a movie she’d have been yelling at the stupid woman, dithering between going and staying, to beat it.

But she’d come to see the house and she’d never get another chance like this. It wasn’t as if she’d be alone with him.

‘I would hate to disappoint Graziella,’ she said.

‘And if you want to take another photograph,’ he said, ‘please go ahead.’

‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’ A gesture assured her that he said nothing that he didn’t mean. ‘Well, to be honest, I was wishing that there was someone to take a photograph of me when you turned up.’

‘Were you? To prove to your friend that you were here?’