‘You’re both very welcome,’ Tom smiled to Ellis. ‘Come on,’ and as they followed behind, Grace could hear Tom telling Ellis about an old school pal who had gone to work at Sackville and Bush auctioneers years ago and wondered if Ellis might know him, and soon they were chatting away as if they were old friends too.

*

Later, having swapped numbers, Grace was sitting on the edge of a magnificent infinity pool sipping delicious ice-cold lemonade as she dipped her toes in the refreshingly cool water. It turned out that Georgie and Tom and some of their friends were staying in the annexe in the grounds of the main powder pink villa, which was why the shutters were still closed up at the front. Apparently, Tom’s Nonna Maria was reluctant to let them have free run of the pink villa as a pool party some years ago had got out of hand, with someone spilling red wine all over an exquisite oriental rug in the library that had come with the villa when they had purchased it.

Grace wondered if Connie had originally chosen the rug. She also felt disappointed that they weren’t going to see inside the home that Connie and Giovanni had lived in, but it was wonderful to be in the garden, admiring the lush palm trees that were so tall they must have been just the same when Connie lived here.

Grace could imagine Connie pottering around the garden with a basket looped over her arm in which to gather sun-ripened figs from a huge tree situated in the sunniest spot. Or sitting on one of the many verandas, enjoying a cocktail as she gazed down at the blissful view and inhaled the delicious scent of oranges and lemons from the array of fruit trees. The scent of frangipani too lingered in the warm breeze. Grace glanced towards the far edge of the pool that – with its infinity effect giving on to the ocean beyond – made her feel as though she was on the top of the world.

Closing her eyes, she drifted the tips of her fingers in the cool water and imagined she was back in the 1950s with a handsome truelove mixing her a martini, just as Connie would have been. She then imagined Connie, Giovanni and little Lara here all together, blissfully happy away from the critical eye of Connie’s controlling mother.