‘You’re like Rinaldo,’ Gino said. ‘He plays his cards close to his chest too.’

‘Don’t you dare say I’m like him!’ she cried in mock indignation. ‘He has no manners, and he acts like a juggernaut.’

‘He really got under your skin last night, didn’t he?’

‘So he told you that? And how much of this meeting will you tell him about?’

She was teasing and he answered in the same vein. ‘Not all of it.’

‘Make sure he knows that I can be a juggernaut too.’

‘I’ll bet you made it plain to him yourself.’

She laughed. ‘Come to think of it, yes I did.’

‘You’ve got a lot of power, and he doesn’t like other people having power, especially over him.’

‘Well, it’ll all be sorted out soon.’

‘But how? You want your money.’

‘Hey, there’s no need to make me sound mercenary-even if Rinaldo thinks I am.’

‘Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. But if we can’t raise the money soon there’ll be plenty who can, not just Montelli. Have any of the others approached you?’

Alex regarded him with her head on one side.

‘Gino,’ she teased, ‘why don’t you just tell Rinaldo not to treat me like a fool? Say you’ve had a wasted day.’

Gino’s eyes gleamed.

‘But the day isn’t over yet. And, though you may not believe it, the mortgage seems less important by the minute. There are so many other things about you that matter more.’

She gave him a smiling glance, but didn’t answer in words.

They rode quietly back to the stables in the setting sun. Gino said little as he drove her back to Florence, but as he drew up outside the hotel he said, ‘May I take you to dinner tonight?’

She couldn’t resist saying, ‘To make sure that nobody else does?’

He smiled and shook his head. ‘No,’ he said simply. ‘Not for that reason.’

She just stopped herself from saying, ‘And pigs fly!’ He was a nice lad, and she was going to enjoy flirting the evening away with him. It would be different if she were fooled by his caressing ways, but she wasn’t. Her heart was safe, and so, she was sure, was his.