‘Listen to you!’ Harriet riposted. ‘You’ve just been mooning over a man who’s been dead for two thousand years. Anyway, dead ones are better. They don’t tell lies, get legless or chat up your friends. And you can talk to them without being interrupted.’

‘So cynical. Mind you, Marco’s pretty cynical, too. Otherwise he’d have married long ago.’

‘Aha! He’s a grey-beard!’

‘Marco Calvani is thirty-five, loaded, and extremely good-looking,’ Olympia said emphatically.

‘So why aren’t you marrying him? You said he asked you first.’

‘Only because his mother’s an old friend of Pappa’s mother, and she’s got this sentimental idea of uniting the two families.’

‘And he does what she tells him? He’s a wimp!’

‘Far from it,’ Olympia said with a little chuckle. ‘Marco is a man who likes his own way all the time. He’s doing this for his own reasons.’

‘He’s a nutter!’

‘He’s a banker who devotes his life to serious business. He reckons it’s time to make a serious marriage and he isn’t into courting.’

‘He’s gay!’

‘Not according to my friends. In fact, his reputation is of a ladykiller, with the emphasis on killer. You might say he “loves ’em and leaves ’em” except that he doesn’t love ’em. No emotional involvement just a quick fling and goodbye before things get too intense.’

‘You make him sound irresistible, you know that?’

‘It’s only fair to tell you the downs as well as the ups. Marco doesn’t go for moonlight and roses, so you can see why he’d be doing this. It would be more of a merger than a marriage, and I thought that since you were serious, too-’

‘I’d be happy to take on one of your rejects. Gosh, thanks Olympia.’

‘Will you stop being so prickly? I took all this trouble to warn you that he might turn up here next week-’

‘And I’m grateful. I’ve been planning a vacation on the other side of the world. Next week will suit me just fine.’