Billie was marrying her guy, Carrie was exercising Jeepers, and they’d had two offers for him. If Selena wasn’t coming back-

‘No,’ Selena said quickly. ‘If I’m not sending you enough money for him-’

‘You’re sending more than enough,’ Barton boomed, offended. ‘Think I grudge you a little horse feed?’

‘I know you don’t. You’ve all been such good friends to me, but I’m not going to take advantage of it-’

‘What else are friends for? You don’t want me to sell Jeepers? He’s a good racer and he’s going to waste right now.’

‘I know but-just hang onto him a little longer, please Barton. How’s Elliot?’

‘He’s fine. Carrie rides him, and she says he’s a real sweet old feller.’

‘Yes,’ Selena said. ‘I remember that.’

She hung up, and went into the kitchen to discuss the evening meal with Gina. Leo was due back from Venice and Gina was preparing sardine and potato bake for him. After that Selena went into the office and worked hard on paperwork for the horse farm.

Then she dropped her head on her hands and wept.

It was dark when Leo drove up, for the nights were drawing in. He ate his meal with gusto but when Selena asked about his trip he had strangely little to say.

She knew what that meant. Bit by bit he was being drawn into their world, and he didn’t know how to tell her.

After supper she headed back to the office, to ‘finish some stuff.’

‘Aren’t you coming to bed?’ he asked.

‘Well, I just thought I’d-’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Come to bed.’

Arms about each other they climbed the stairs. In his room he took her in his arms and kissed her deeply. The desire was always there, perhaps deeper now that it was almost the only way they could communicate. They undressed each other swiftly, eager for the union that was still perfect and in which there were no problems.

For a short, blissful time there was a hot urgency that swept everything before it. She called his name as if from a long distance, and tried to find comfort in his look of tender adoration. As passion faded into contentment she fell asleep with her head against him.

But as soon as she slept her surroundings changed. She was fighting her way through a thicket. She struggled but it was closing in on her, shutting out the air, suffocating her. She awoke, gasping for breath.

‘Carissima-’ Leo sat up and put on the bedside light. ‘Wake up, wake up!’

She held him until the shaking stopped and he drew her close, stroking her hair.

‘It’s all right,’ he murmured. ‘I’m here. Hold on to me, it was only a dream.’

‘I couldn’t breathe,’ she choked. ‘Everything’s closing in on me and I can’t find a way through.’

‘You’ve had that dream before, haven’t you?’ he said sadly. ‘I’ve see you toss and turn and I know you’re unhappy. And then the next night you’ve insisted on sleeping apart. But you never tell me. Why won’t you let me share it?’

As though he didn’t know the answer!

‘It’s nothing,’ she said quickly. ‘Just a dream. Hold me.’

They clung together until he asked quietly, ‘Are you going to leave me?’

In the long silence he felt the darkness fall over his heart.

‘No,’ she said at last, ‘I don’t think so-but-I need to go back for a while. Just for a while-’

‘Yes,’ he said heavily, ‘just for a while.’

He drove her to Pisa Airport next day. They were late arriving and the flight to Dallas had already been called.

‘I’d better hurry then,’ she said.

‘Have you got everything?’

She gave an edgy little laugh. ‘You keep asking me that. I guess I’ll find I’ve left something important behind.’

He nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Will passengers-?’

Suddenly he said, ‘Selena, don’t go.’

‘I have to.’

‘No, you don’t. If you go, you won’t come back. This is where we have to work it out. Don’t go.’

‘There’s my flight.’

‘Don’t go! You know as well as I do what’ll happen if you do.’

She faced him. ‘I’m sorry-I’m sorry.’ Tears were pouring down her face. ‘I did try, but I just can’t-Leo, I’m sorry-so sorry-’

He reached out but she slipped through his fingers. At the gate she turned back for a last look. She wasn’t crying now, but the misery on her face reflected his own. For one moment he thought she would run back to him. But then she was gone.

Winter was a busy time in the souvenir business. Guido had decided on his lines for the following year and was busy showing his product to customers. In a couple of weeks he had a show so big that the only place for it was the Palazzo Calvani. The count had grumbled at the ‘indignity’ but given his consent.

But in the midst of his preparations Guido found the time to take off for Rome, with Dulcie, to share their great news.

After two days in Rome, celebrating with Marco and Harriet, now in countdown to their wedding, and Lucia, who was in seventh heaven, they headed for Bella Podena.

‘So I’m going to be an uncle,’ Leo said, toasting them.

It was the fifth time he’d done so. Everyone in the household had toasted them the first time, and the proud parents-to-be were sitting in a glow of happiness.

But Dulcie was a little uncomfortable with her own joy. She’d sensed something forced about Leo’s celebrating. When they were taking plates out into the kitchen, Gina having gone to bed, she touched his arm and asked gently, ‘Is there any news?’

He shook his head. There was a heaviness about him that hurt her, because it was so unlike the cheerful, take-life-as-it-comes Leo that they all knew.

‘She’ll come back,’ she said gently. ‘It’s not long-’

‘One month, one week and three days,’ he said simply.

‘Do you know where she is?’

‘Yes, I’ve started tracking her through the internet again. She’s doing well.’

‘You haven’t spoken to her?’

‘I called her once. She was very nice.’ There was a heaviness in his voice that told Dulcie all she needed to know about that call.

‘Call her again and tell her to come home,’ Dulcie said firmly.

But Leo shook his head. ‘It has to be how she wants. I can’t take her freedom away from her.’

‘But we all lose our freedom for the one we love. Some of it, anyway.’

‘Yes, and that’s fine, if it’s given up gladly. But if it’s coerced it can’t work. If she doesn’t come back to me of her own free will, she won’t stay.’

‘And if she doesn’t come back because she doesn’t know how badly you want her?’

Leo gave a painful smile. ‘She knows that.’

‘Oh, Leo!’

She put her arms around him, hugging tightly. He hugged her back, dropping his shaggy head to rest on her shoulder, where she stroked it tenderly.

Guido, coming into the kitchen with plates, stopped on the threshold.

‘My wife in my brother’s arms!’ he announced. ‘Should I be jealous, creep away, shoot myself?’

‘Oh, stop your nonsense!’ his wife ordered him.

‘Yes, dear!’

Dulcie gave Leo a little shake. ‘It’s going to be all right.’

‘Of course it is,’ he replied.

‘He didn’t mean a word of it,’ Dulcie told her husband as they prepared for bed. ‘It’s not all right for him at all. He’s living in a half-world. Gina told me today that sometimes he stands at the window looking down the road where he first saw her. It’s as though he expected her to appear again, as if by magic. Just like last time.’

‘Drat the woman!’ Guido said, getting into bed and curving his arm for her. ‘What does she mean by doing this to him?’

‘Don’t let Leo hear you say a word against her,’ Dulcie advised, snuggling up to her husband. ‘He understands her. He says she must find her own way home. If she doesn’t, it means it’s not really her home.’

‘That’s very profound for Leo,’ Guido said, much struck. ‘His mind never used to rise above the very basic-horses, crops and willing ladies, not necessarily in that order.’

‘But he’s changed. Even I’ve seen that, and I didn’t really know the old Leo. I’ll tell you this, Leo reckons her feelings are more important than his own.’

‘I wish I did.’ Guido sighed. ‘The truth is, I suppose I’m feeling guilty. If I’d left well alone-?’

‘What else could you do? The records were there. They have to work their own salvation out.’

‘And if they fail-? What’s that noise?’ He rose and went to the window, looking out at a high barn, from which came the sound of a voice, coaxing and pleading. A faint light shone from one of the windows.

‘It sounds like Leo,’ he said, pulling on a dressing gown. ‘What’s he playing at? He’s supposed to be in bed.’

Dulcie paused long enough to put on her own dressing gown, then followed her husband down to the yard and across to the barn. The door stood open.

Inside, the hay was piled up to the high ceiling just below which there was a ledge. A ladder stood propped against one of the supports, with Leo climbing unsteadily to the top, which fell several feet short of the ledge.

‘Leo, whatever’s the matter up there?’ Guido yelled.

‘It’s a barn owl. She’s trapped. I think she’s hurt her wing.’

‘Isn’t she safe up there?’

Leo’s voice reached him faintly. ‘She can’t fly for food, and she has young. I’m trying to bring them all down to safety.’

‘Careful,’ Guido called his alarm. ‘It’s dangerous. Haven’t you got a longer ladder?’

‘It’s being mended. I’m all right. Just a little further.’

Leo had reached the top now, so that he was on a level with the birds. Guido, watching below, could see a white owl face in the gloom.

‘Is he all right?’ Dulcie asked, coming to stand beside her husband.

‘Well, he’s got rocks in his head, but that’s nothing new,’ Guido said with a shrug that was pure Venetian in its mixture of humour, resignation, affection and wryness.

‘He’s risking a terrible fall,’ Dulcie said worriedly. ‘For an owl?’