‘You’re out of your mind,’ she called.

‘Can we talk about that later?’

Aghast, she retreated into her room, just peering out far enough to see the moment when he launched himself into space, clearing the gap with ease and only just having to cling on to the railings as he landed, muttering, ‘Grazie dio!’ just loud enough for her to hear. Italian, then.

But she’d called to him in English and she had to admire the aplomb with which he switched back to her language.

‘Let’s go,’ he said hastily, hustling her inside and closing the window firmly.

‘What the-’

‘Hush,’ he said urgently. ‘Don’t make a sound.’

‘Who are you giving orders to?’ she demanded, drawing the edges of her robe together. ‘Just who are you?’

‘A man who’s throwing himself on your mercy,’ he said quickly. ‘Don’t be alarmed; I’m not going to hurt you. I just need a place to hide until he gives up the hunt.’

‘He? Who’s he?’

‘The husband, of course,’ he said, in a tone that implied inevitable consequences. ‘I didn’t know there was one. She swore she was divorced, and how’s a man to know?’

‘She being the woman you had dinner with downstairs, I suppose?’

‘Oh, you saw her? Can you blame me for losing my head?’

‘You didn’t lose your head,’ she said, standing back and regarding him cynically. ‘You knew exactly what you were doing at every moment. All that passionate gazing-’ She made a gormless face to indicate what she was saying and he flinched.

‘That’s a wicked slander! I never look like that.’

‘Look? Present tense? Meaning not with her or any of the others?’

‘How do you know there are others?’

‘Guess! You looked like a lovesick duck!’

‘A duck? May you be forgiven!’

‘But there was nothing lovesick about you. You were in control all the time.’