“I’ll have to remember that.” He looked up from the cake. “So you did the portrait in my place as well. The monk?”

She grinned. “That’s Saint Francis of Assisi. But you can call him ‘the monk’ if you like.”

“Sorry. Do you often paint portraits?”

“Not many. I like doing them, I just don’t like working from magazine pictures. If I could work with models, I’d do more. It’s hard to capture the right mood painting from a picture.”

“When did you start painting?”

“When I was twelve. I used to paint desert landscapes in Vernal.”

“Do you sell them?”

“Not often.”

“Really, why not?”

“I’m afraid that if I started painting for money it would lose its value for me. So I just let them pile up. I give them away as presents. Who knows, if you’re a good tenant you might end up with one.”

“I could only hope.”

She smiled then took a bite of her cake. “You know, it’s nice to have company. Sometimes I get cabin fever. Or maybe I should say villa fever.”

“Don’t you have many friends here?”

“I have a few. But Rendola’s a bit off the beaten path. Not that that’s an excuse. I should make more of an effort. It’s just hard with Alessio. Anna’s my best friend. Ever since her husband left her.”

“Anna’s been really helpful.”

“I love Anna. She looks out for me. She’s very maternal.”

Ross asked, “So how did you end up at Rendola?”

“This is one of the homes Maurizio grew up in. His family owns another villa in Siena. That’s where his mother lives.”

“Where did the two of you meet?”

“We met in Florence, at a discotheque. Just about every American girl here has the same story. We come to study and end up with a husband. I came for only a two-month university extension program. I was studying art history at the University of Utah. My father had just died, when this opportunity came up. I was taking my father’s death pretty hard. I guess I needed to get away. I met Maurizio on my third night here. He was gorgeous. He swept me off my feet. He was also seven years older than me. I was still too young to get married and he was planning to come to America to get his MBA, so he arranged to attend the University of Utah to be near me. We dated a little more than three years and he finished schooling and was about to go back. I still felt too young to marry, but rather than lose him I said yes.”

“Where does he work?”

“You’re awfully interested in my husband.”

“Sorry. It’s a guy thing. If you’d rather not . . .”

“No, it’s fine. He runs the family’s wine business. He makes all the sales and business decisions. It takes him all around the world, meeting with importers and distributors, sometimes restaurateurs. America, Italy, Portugal, Bangkok, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, you name it. He speaks six languages. He’s very smart.”