‘Come whenever you like,’ she said. ‘I’ll be here. And in the meantime, look after yourself. Stay out of riots.’

‘Just one thing,’ I said. ‘Don’t tell anyone where I am. And anyone really means anyone. It could be important.’

‘All right,’ she said, and rang off leaving me wondering what that was all about. I supposed she might even have been telling the truth.

Negrini did not sleep in the penthouse that night but went home to Marshalltown and connubial domesticity. Leotta and I had dinner served by a uniformed waiter direct from the restaurant below. The stars hung on the other side of the huge window like a theatrical backdrop and there was a gibbous moon to add to the romantic atmosphere.

We talked, but not about Campanilla or anything to do with why we were there. I learned a lot about Leotta and, I suppose, she learned a lot about me in those few hours. She told me something of her early life and why she had left Campanilla to go to New York. The reasons were economic, mainly – the islands of the Caribbean are generally not paradises for those who have to live there. She’d studied nursing and worked at it for a few years before she was discovered as a model. ‘Shortly after that I met David,’ she said, but was silent about it thereafter.

Over coffee and brandy I smoked one of Negrini’s Havana cigars and felt rich and contented. I told Leotta about England and everything I thought she’d need to know if she was going to live there. She was still interested in Devon and made me describe the land and its people. By the stars in her eyes, I judged she regarded it as some kind of heaven. Perhaps it would be to one such as Leotta.

‘But there’s not much call for modelling in Devon,’ I warned.

‘You have hospitals, don’t you? I can work.’

‘You might have to go to school again,’ I said.

She nodded contemplatively. ‘I was thinking of doing that, anyway. Do you think I could be a doctor?’

‘It would take hard work and a long time.’

She merely inclined her head in acceptance of that and said no more.

That evening was to prove the happiest and most relaxing time I had on Campanilla. We turned in early – about ten o’clock – and I considered making a pass at Leotta. But I didn’t because I was scared that she would turn it down, and even more scared that she would fall into bed with me. We didn’t know each other well enough for it to be anything other than a one-night stand, and suddenly I found that I wanted more than that.

I went to bed alone.

II

Negrini showed up for breakfast. ‘How are you kids going?’ He wore a broad grin.