‘This is our home,’ Leo said firmly. ‘It’s what Selena and I both wish.’

‘But-’

‘No, uncle,’ Leo said firmly.

He would have said more but the countess laid her hand on his arm and said something Selena didn’t understand, except that she caught her own name.

‘All right, all right,’ he said placatingly. ‘I won’t say any more.’

He patted his wife’s hand and responded in the same language she’d used.

You didn’t have to be a genius to know what they’d said, Selena reckoned. The countess couldn’t think what the fuss was about. St Mark’s was too good for Selena Gates. And the count had agreed with her.

Luckily everyone wanted an early night, to be ready for the pleasures of the following day. Normally Selena slept easily, but tonight she lay awake for hours, wondering what she was doing here.

They left early for Grosseto, the family to take up position in a hotel room Leo had booked for them, which overlooked the procession. Leo and Selena went straight to the meeting place from where the procession was to start.

Today they were both dressed to kill, in the finest available from Delia’s stall, cowboy shirts, buttoned to the neck, colourful cowboy boots and belts with large silver buckles. When Leo had rammed a stetson squarely on his head, and Selena had settled hers on at a rakish angle they were ready for the parade.

It was quite a parade. The town band had turned out in force, well rehearsed, and if it sounded a little too Italian to be authentic nobody cared for that. The horse-men, or butteri as they were known locally, had the rough splendour of men who lived hard lives and performed the difficult feats of roping and riding not only in performance but in their everyday lives.

After the parade everyone moved to a nearby field for the contests that would take up the afternoon. First off was the bucking-bronco contest. Leo had elected to enter this, and did creditably without winning. Then the barrels were set up, a voice from a loudspeaker told the crowd all about Selena and predicted that she would do the circuit in no more than fourteen seconds.

This gave her a real challenge as the barrels were set just too far apart for that, and Peri lacked experience. The two of them gave it all they had, taking fourteen and a half, which didn’t stop the announcer yelling, ‘Fourteen seconds,’ as she finished. And the cheerful crowd took his word for it.

If she thought the day was over she had a shock coming. Next came the calf roping, and some mischievous person had entered her in it. Guido always swore that it wasn’t him.

Like Leo she managed well enough not to lose face, and the afternoon ended in a riot of good fellowship. The Calvanis cheered her to the echo, all except the countess, who applauded, but quietly, and left Selena wondering what she was really thinking. ‘Brash and unladylike, I reckon,’ she thought. ‘Can’t be helped.’

There were a dozen food stalls selling local specialities, and they all consumed freely, even the countess, who tucked in with gusto.

‘She comes from these parts,’ Leo explained. ‘She doesn’t often get the chance of good Tuscan eats.’

But by the time they reached home everyone was hungry again, and Selena’s thoughts had flown back across the Atlantic.

‘I could just do with a hot dog,’ she sighed.

‘We could make some,’ Gina said. ‘What do we need?’

‘Sausages and rolls.’

‘Rolls we have. Sausages I must send for.’

‘But it’s late, the shops are shut.’

‘I will send Sara. The butcher is her uncle.’

In half an hour the little maid was back with her uncle’s finest. Selena made hot dogs, Tuscan style, and everybody pronounced them excellent.

Even the countess ate two, Selena noticed. And she smiled at her, and said, ‘Grazie, Selena.’

Afterwards, as they drank coffee and sipped wine, Dulcie said to her, ‘Do you know, you’re just the way I expected.’

Selena was startled. ‘You knew about me?’

‘When Leo came back from Texas he couldn’t talk about anything else but you, how he’d met you, and you were wonderful, and he didn’t have your number any more. He was going crazy. If you hadn’t come over here, I’m pretty sure he’d have taken off to find you.’

Selena looked up to find Leo’s eyes on them. He was grinning, embarrassed, but too good-natured to mind being laughed at.

‘So now you know,’ he told Selena.

‘Go on,’ she ribbed him, ‘I knew anyway. Always reckoned you couldn’t resist me.’

He slipped a friendly arm about her.

‘On the other hand,’ he mused, ‘It was you who came looking for me.’

‘In a pig’s eye I came looking for you. I came for the rodeo.’

‘Sure you did.’

‘Sure I did.’

‘Well, it’s over now,’ he said, ‘so you can go back.’ But his arm tightened as he spoke.

The others were watching them, smiling.

‘Then I’ll go,’ she said defiantly.

‘Fine. Go.’ The arm tightened.

‘I’m going.’

‘Good.’

‘Good.’

‘Oh, get on with it and kiss each other,’ Guido said in exasperation. ‘I need a drink. Ouch!’ He rubbed his ribs which had collided with a wifely elbow.

After that everybody sat up much too late, unwilling to let a happy occasion end. Toast followed toast until they all trooped off to bed.

Next morning they parted with many promises to see each other soon, when Leo and Selena tied the knot. Even the countess smiled and kissed Selena’s cheek, so that she began to feel she’d been worrying about nothing.

She and Leo stood, arms entwined, until the last car had vanished from sight. Then they hurried back to work.

Now they were in the season of harvests. Leo had grapes and olives to bring safely in, and there would be no time to marry until that was done. Selena became fascinated by this side of their lives, and spent long hours in the saddle, riding his acres with him.

They would return every evening, worn out but content, and satisfied with what they were bringing to fruition. Gradually her restlessness abated. There was nothing to worry about, and this happy life would go on forever.

The phone call came out of the blue one morning. Selena emerged from the shower to find Leo looking harassed.

‘Uncle Francesco has been on the telephone. He wants us to drop everything and go to Venice now, this minute.’

‘Is he crazy. We’re about to start bringing in the grapes.’

‘That’s what I told him. He just said it was urgent.’

‘You don’t think he wants to have another go at you about the wedding.’

‘I hope it’s not that. I’ve told him time and again we’re going to marry in Morenza and that’s final. If he’s dragged us all the way to Venice to have the argument again, I’ll-’ he searched for something that his amiable temper could rise to ‘-I’ll tell him he shouldn’t have done it.’

‘So you’re going?’

‘We’re going. I must have a talk to Renzo and then I’ll get the car out.’ He groaned. ‘Why couldn’t he at least tell me what’s happened? Ah well, the sooner we’re there the sooner we’ll know, and the sooner we can get home.’

As they neared the city Selena asked, ‘If the streets of Venice are water, where do we park the car?’

‘There’s a causeway that stretches from the mainland, over the lagoon, to Venice. At the Venice end is a terminus called Piazzale Roma where we leave the car and take the boat the rest of the way.’

‘A gondola?’

‘No, they don’t work like taxis. They just do round trips for tourists. Uncle will have sent his boat for us.’

But when they got there they were greeted by a surprise. It was Guido who greeted them, and the boat he’d brought with him was a gondola.

‘I’d forgotten that you fancied yourself as a gondolier,’ Leo said with a grin. To Selena he added, ‘Guido has some gondolier friends, and he borrows their boat whenever the mood takes him. It’s his idea of honest toil.’

‘Ignore him,’ Guido said, kissing Selena and assisting her into the gondola.

He put their bags in, then turned to usher Leo into the boat with a theatrical flourish. ‘Signore!’

‘You’re up to something, little brother,’ Leo said with a grin.

‘Who, me?’

‘Don’t give me that innocent look. You always looked innocent when you’d done something that made everyone groan. What do you know that I don’t?’

‘The things I know that you don’t would fill a book,’ Guido ribbed him. ‘Don’t blame me. It’s life. Fate. Kismet.’

He cast off, and for a while Selena was distracted by her first gondola ride and her first visit to Venice. It seemed like no time before they had glided out of a side canal into the Grand Canal, the great highway through the centre of town.

‘That’s where Uncle lives,’ Leo said, indicating a building on the right.

The Palazzo Calvani was a monumental building, whose front was decorated with stone decorations of a lacy appearance that almost disguised its size. Selena could understand why it was called a palace. It exuded confidence and beauty in equal measure. It had been the home of great lords for centuries, and its spirit bowed to no man.

She could appreciate the beauty and the confidence, while being profoundly glad that nobody was asking her to live in it.

The impression was heightened as they drew up to the landing stage and there were servants, reaching forward to help them. Then the big, glamorous house seemed to reach out too, enveloping them.

‘I know,’ Leo murmured in her ear. ‘Sometimes I don’t think I’m going to escape alive either.’

She chuckled and felt better. If they were together in this, it wasn’t so bad.

Her eyes widened when she saw her room. Even the Four-Ten hadn’t been as outrageous as this.

‘It’s as big as a tennis court,’ she muttered to Leo. ‘We’ll get lost in it.’