‘If I had a fiancé, what would I be doing here alone?’ she demanded.

This made him pause, but only for a moment.

‘He betrayed you,’ he said dramatically. ‘You are teaching him a lesson. When you return, he will be jealous, especially when he sees the compromising pictures of us together.’

‘Oh, will he indeed? And where will these pictures come from?’

‘It can be arranged. I know some good photographers.’

‘I’ll bet you don’t know anyone better than me,’ she riposted.

‘You’re a photographer?’ Hope asked. ‘A journalist?’

‘No, I do theatrical work.’ Some inexplicable instinct made her say to Dante, ‘And he wasn’t sedate. Anything but.’

He didn’t reply in words, but his expression was wry and curious. So was the way he nodded.

‘Let the poor girl eat in peace,’ Hope admonished him.

She watched Ferne like a mother hen, finally declaring that it was time for bed. The four of them made their way back along the corridor and said goodnight. Ferne and Hope went into one sleeping car, Toni and Dante went on to the next.

As Ferne hung up the trousers she’d been wearing, a few coins fell out onto the floor.

‘I’d forgotten I had some money in my pocket,’ she said, holding them out.

‘Three euros,’ Hope observed. ‘You wouldn’t have got far with that.’

They sat down on the bed, contentedly sipping the tea they had brought with them.

‘You said you were English,’ Ferne recalled. ‘And yet you speak as though you’ve been here for some time.’

‘Over thirty years,’ Hope told her.

‘Do you have any children?’

‘Six. All sons.’

She said it with an air of exasperated irony that made Ferne smile and say, ‘Do you ever wish you had daughters?’

Hope chuckled. ‘When you have six sons, you have no time to think of anything else. Besides, I have six daughters-in-law and seven grandchildren.

‘When our last son married, a few months ago, Toni and I decided to go on our travels. Recently we’ve been in Milan to see some of his relatives. Toni was very close to his other brother, Taddeo, until he died a few years ago. Dante is Taddeo’s elder son, and he’s coming back to Naples with us for a visit. He’s a bit of a madman, as you’ll discover while you’re staying with us.’