‘Donato,’ Grace prompted. ‘Mrs Constance di Donato. Although, from what I can gather in her diaries, she liked to be called Connie.’

‘Then Connie it is! I like that too … brings her alive and makes it more personal.’ He beamed, his eyes dancing with curiosity. ‘And Uncle Larry says you’ve already found out lots about her from some old diaries?’

‘That’s right. I have.’ Grace nodded, the panic subsiding slightly now. But she still had to go to the café. With Ellis. A stranger.

‘Well, I’m intrigued to know more.’ And Ellis headed towards the door. So without any time to deliberate further, Grace grabbed her bag and caught up with him. ‘After you …’ He pulled open the door and held it ajar for her.

*

Twenty minutes later, and Grace had shared everything she knew so far about Connie with Ellis. They were sitting in a booth in the café and, having finished his macchiwotsit, as he had now renamed it in honour of Betty, he’d asked for a glass of orange juice, and persuaded Grace to go for a hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows. Insisting it was absolutely necessary, even though she had initially chosen just a plain hot chocolate to have after her glass of water as, ‘Hot chocolate isn’t hot chocolate without all the pizazz!’ he’d said. And so she had decided to go for it. And now Grace was inwardly marvelling at herself for actually feeling fairly relaxed in his company. Although Ellis had made it very easy. There had been no time for her to feel anxious over the number of steps to the café as he had walked fast and chatted nonstop all the way. He was so upbeat and cheery and it was rubbing off on her, making the millstone from earlier seem so much lighter.

She leant forward to see Ellis’s phone – he had found the email that Larry had sent to him and was scrolling through the images.

‘See this one here …’ He pointed to the screen.

‘Yes, it’s beautiful, my favourite of all the paintings,’ she said to him, then thanked the waitress when she placed the hot chocolate with an enormous tower of swirly cream on to the table.

‘Wow, that looks good,’ Ellis looked up from his phone.’

‘Sure does, don’t know what I was thinking going for the plain one at first,’ she grinned. Ellis grinned back before he turning his attention to the waitress. ‘Can I get another coffee please? The strongest you have, to help stave off this jetlag.’

‘Sure, you can get whatever you like.’ The waitress beamed at him, fiddling with her hair coquettishly, then added, ‘Are you American?’ in a coy little girl voice.