His temper began to rise. If she wanted to play tough, OK. Fine!

‘Very well, signora, let me make my position plain. My tenants are paying about half the going rate for property in that area, which is perhaps why my predecessor got into financial difficulties.’

‘Trastevere isn’t the wealthy part of Rome-’

‘It’s coming up in the world. I’ve researched the area, and I know that Trastevere has been growing more popular over the last few years. People who couldn’t afford the high prices in the rest of Rome started moving in and doing the place up. So then Trastevere prices started to rise. It’s actually becoming fashionable to live there.’

‘I see where this is leading. You’ve had an offer from a developer and you’re planning to sell us out. Forget it. Your predecessor tried that, but I stopped him by proving that the tenants are protected. They can’t be got out for at least ten years. That scares the developers off, except that some try bullying tactics. But even they can be made to wish they hadn’t started anything, as you’ll find out if you tangle with me.’

‘Can I get a word in edgeways?’ Luke snapped. ‘Whatever needs to be done at the Residenza I want to do it myself, and I want the rest of you to help me. As for bullying tactics-if that’s what you think of me, I don’t know why we’re even bothering to talk. To hell with you for thinking such things!’

He threw down his papers and strode across to the window, staring at the view without seeing it. All he could see was the turmoil in his own mind, where she had the power to cause such havoc. Her opinion of him shouldn’t matter, yet her contempt seemed to shrivel him.

‘I apologise,’ she said, behind him. ‘I shouldn’t have spoken so strongly. I don’t like being taken by surprise, and you surprise me all the time. So I-I go on to the attack.’

‘I really am sorry about the other day,’ he risked saying. ‘I didn’t mean to spy. It was an accident.’

‘I know. It’s just that there are times when I don’t like to be looked at.’

‘I think that’s most of the time,’ he suggested gently.

‘Well-never mind that.’

‘But I-damn!’

The telephone had rung. She snatched it up and spoke to her secretary, finishing with, ‘All right, put him through.’

She made a placating signal to Luke and spoke into the phone for ten minutes.

When she’d finished he asked, ‘Could you block your calls until we’ve finished?’

‘Not really. I have some important stuff coming through this morning-’

‘And it gives you a convenient escape from me, right?’

Before she could answer, the phone rang again. Moving fast, Luke lifted the receiver and slammed it back down. Then he grasped Minnie’s hand and began to walk out of the room, forcing her to go with him.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she seethed, trying to pull free.

‘Taking you to where there’s no escape,’ he said, not loosening his grip.

On the way through the outer office they passed the secretary, whose curious gaze forced Minnie to look cheerful.

‘Just take messages until I’m back,’ she called.

‘But when will that be?’

‘I have no idea,’ she managed to say before the door closed behind her.

‘What kind of man are you?’ she demanded as they went down in the lift.

‘A man with a short fuse, a man who doesn’t like being messed about, a man who believes in direct action.’

‘So your answer is to take me prisoner? Where are you going to put me? In a dungeon?’

‘Wait and see.’

But he grinned as he said it and there was something in the sight that sent a sudden frisson through her. It was confusing not to know what he had in mind, but also strangely intriguing. His unpredictability should be maddening-it was maddening, she hastily corrected herself. But right now she was intensely curious.

After all, it might actually turn out to be a dungeon.

The ride to the ‘dungeon’ was by one of the horse-drawn carriages that travelled the streets of Rome.

‘Borghese Gardens, the lake,’ Luke called to the driver as they got in and seated themselves.

‘You’re going to throw me in?’ she asked.

‘Don’t tempt me,’ he growled.

She decided to wait and see before taking any hasty action. Not that there was much action she could have taken with her hand firmly clasped in his.

New York had Central Park, London had Hyde Park, Rome had the glorious Borghese Gardens, known as the ‘green lung’ of the city, a hundred and fifty acres of trees, lawns, shaded wandering paths and cool water.

At the top of the Via Veneto the driver turned his horse into the gardens, and soon they were trotting beneath trees through which the sun slanted, until the lake burst on them, its water glistening, the artificial temple on the other side white and gleaming in the glow of summer.

Leaving the carriage, Luke led her to the place where boats could be hired, but suddenly a tremor shook her and she tried to pull away from him.

‘Not here, Luke.’

‘Yes, here,’ he said firmly, keeping tight hold on her hand. ‘We’re going to take a boat and relax and talk and forget everything except that it’s a beautiful day.’

‘But-’

‘Hush,’ he said, raising the hand that was holding hers so that she could see the tight clasp as well as feel it. ‘I told you there was no escape and I meant it. Today, Signora Avvocato, you’re going to do as you’re told-for once.’

Not releasing her, he took a small rowing boat, and indicated with his head for her to get in. She did so, and he silently congratulated himself. Evidently the odd display of ‘male authority’ could be risked, even in this day and age.

She settled in the stern, watching him as he took the oars and headed out into the middle of the lake.

‘You were right,’ she mused. ‘There’s no escape.’

He had a mysterious feeling that she meant something else, but she fell silent.

‘Do you mind?’ he asked cautiously. ‘I’m sorry I got pushy.’

So much for male authority, he thought.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, and again he had the sensation that she wasn’t really talking to him. ‘It had to happen. I suppose I was being silly.’

‘I seem to see a new you all the time,’ he observed. ‘In party mood, mother hen, the stern lawyer today-’

‘You’ve seen me as a lawyer before,’ she reminded him. ‘Think of our first meeting.’

‘That was different. That court was your stage. You commanded it. But I haven’t seen you before like you are today, holding yourself in and fighting the world. Or is it only me?’

‘No,’ she said after a moment. ‘As you say-the world.’

‘You do a lot of fighting inside yourself, that nobody knows about, don’t you?’

She nodded.

‘Or perhaps Gianni knows?’

He knew it was a risk but, instead of trying to jump out of the boat, she shook her head.

‘Did he ever know?’

‘When he was alive there was nothing to fight,’ she said simply.

He pulled on the oars, drawing them nearer the centre of the lake, sensing that the further they went the more she relaxed, as though a spring inside her was visibly uncoiling.

‘Signora-’ he began.

‘Minnie.’

‘Then could you please take your hair down? It’s scaring me.’

She laughed and pulled her hair free, letting it fall around her face, as close to dishevelled as he had ever seen it.

‘Is that better?’ she asked.

‘Much better,’ he agreed. ‘Now you look like the real Minnie.’

‘You know nothing about Minnie,’ she assured him.

‘True, because she keeps changing and confusing me.’

‘I could say the same about you. You’ve had a few different guises yourself-convict, party animal, ruthless tycoon. I merely adapt to keep up with you.’

‘And what am I now?’

‘Caveman! Hauling me off like that to a place where there’s no escape.’

‘Well, there is no escape, unless you want to jump into the water. I don’t know if it’s deep but it’s certainly dirty.’

For answer she gave the most delightful chuckle he’d ever heard from her. It subsided into a sweet, wistful smile.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘How strange that you should have said that to me. It’s exactly what he said.’

‘He?’ Luke asked, but he had an uneasy feeling that he already knew the answer.

‘Gianni. This is where he proposed to me. He hired a boat just like this one, rowed me out into the middle of the lake, and said, “Marry me!”’

She fell silent, looking into the water, reliving the moment.

Luke stared, shocked as the implications dawned on him. Then he groaned and clutched his head with one hand, so agitated that he forgot the oar, which swung away from him in the rowlock. Minnie leaned forward to take hold of it.

‘Don’t panic,’ she said, sliding it back to him.

He didn’t seem to see it. He was staring at her, aghast.

‘That was why you didn’t want to come on the lake?’

‘Yes.’

‘This place is special, and I forced you… Oh, Lord, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. What a mess!’

‘Stop being so hard on yourself.’

‘Have I ruined it for you?’

‘Of course not,’ she said gently. ‘Nothing could ruin it for me. It doesn’t depend on other people. I’m even glad that you made me come here. I’ve never been back since he died, and it’s been like a wall rearing up in front of me. Now you’ve helped me get over it.’

Her air of strain had fallen away, leaving her calm and content. She had said, ‘It doesn’t depend on other people’, and he saw that it was true. She had her own world where she lived with Gianni, and nobody could touch it.

Luke cursed the ill luck that had made him bring her here. He’d meant to draw her away from Gianni’s ghost, but it was himself from whom she’d withdrawn, back into her private place, leaving him outside.