She wondered whether he would want them to be married quickly, or whether marrying a Viscount took a lot of fuss and arranging. The idea amused her again. She knew Darcy so well, and she was certain that he would insist on the simplest, quietest wedding possible. For a moment the word wedding jolted her a little, and then she collected herself with the thought that it couldn’t happen for a time yet.

There were Schools to do first, only two months away. Until yesterday the exams had loomed as the most important hurdle in the world. Now they had diminished a little, but they still mattered. Helen wanted her First.

When she looked around her she saw that she had reached the shabby quarter of the city surrounding the railway station. The houses were patched with peeling paint and plaster here and blanketed with lines of grey washing. At the corner of the street she stood in two painfully thin dogs were tussling over some scraps of food. But in the ripening glow of light Venice still seemed achingly beautiful. Helen stood for a moment drinking it in and then thought I’ll come here with Darcy. It was hard to imagine what effect the peculiar, melancholy spell of the sinking city would have on his solid Englishness, but she would make sure that he came.

Helen realised that she was hungry and thirsty. In the faded café opposite she ordered coffee and a square of meltingly sweet pastry, then sat down at a little blue tin table in the sun to eat it. A workman in stained overalls came by and smiled suggestively at her.

‘Hello, beautiful,’ he said in Italian. ‘Why are you all alone?’

Happiness suffused her. ‘Oh, but I’m not,’ she beamed at him. ‘I’m not alone.’

The workman went away looking faintly puzzled, and Helen laughed out loud.

Her step was light as she made her way back to the Palazzo Croce.

Everyone was sitting round the table in the dining room, evidently waiting for her. The day was going to be hot, and already the doors stood open on the well of coolness within the inner court.

‘Couldn’t you sleep?’ Kim called out to her. ‘I know when Masefield proposed to me I didn’t get a wink for three nights, I was so happy. Wasn’t I, darling?’

Masefield looked up briefly from the financial pages, clearly deaf to Kim’s talk.

‘You bet,’ he agreed. ‘What have you girls got planned for today? Wish I could join you, but I’m waiting to call London. I should be in London. If it weren’t for this Lido development hitch …’ He gathered up his papers and made for the door, kissing the air above Pansy’s head as he passed.

‘Masefield,’ Kim said plaintively. ‘Just for once, couldn’t you take the day off?’