I saw the excitement brimming in Floriano’s eyes. I understood he was seeing this through an historian’s eyes, whereas I was merely trying to work out how my father had come across it in the first place. ‘I’m sorry, Maia, I’m getting carried away,’ Floriano apologised, ‘and I’m sure you’ll want to keep it anyway. Would anyone mind if we took it with us into your Pavilion just for tonight? I’d like the privilege of staring at it for at least a while longer.’

‘Of course we can. Everything in this house belongs to us sisters now, and I doubt the others would mind.’

‘Then let’s go to bed,’ he whispered, reaching out to stroke one of my cheeks gently with his fingers.

I slept badly that night, a pall falling over me at the thought of Floriano leaving tomorrow. Even though I’d told myself firmly to take our relationship one moment at a time, as the hours ticked past towards morning, I found I could not. I turned over and watched Floriano sleeping peacefully next to me. And then thought of how, when he left Atlantis, my life here would revert to exactly how it had been before I left for Rio.

Floriano and I had barely talked of the future, and certainly not in terms of concrete plans. Even though I knew he did feel something for me, as he’d told me so many times when he’d made love to me, it was very early days in our relationship. And given we lived on opposite sides of the world, I had to accept that the chances were that it would simply peter out and become no more than a fond memory.

I thanked God when the alarm went off and the long night was finally over. I jumped out of bed immediately and went to shower as Floriano dozed on, frightened of any postmortem or meaningless conciliatory words he might speak to me on the imminent parting of our ways. Dressing quickly, I announced to him that I was off to the kitchen to make breakfast, as Christian would be waiting at the launch in twenty minutes. Then, as he appeared in the kitchen a few minutes later, I left the room hurriedly, telling him I had to go up to the main house and that I’d see him down by the pier in ten minutes.

‘Maia, please . . .’ I heard him call, but I was already out of the front door and walking fast along the path towards the house. When I got there, unable to face Marina or Claudia, I locked myself in the downstairs cloakroom, willing the minutes on my watch to pass so that the moment he left would be over soon. With only a few seconds to spare until the launch left, I emerged, opened the front door and walked down across the lawns, seeing Floriano was already there talking to Marina.