“No!” Caroline had to laugh. “She was the ultimate spinster. Never married. Very prim and proper. And the clothing would fit a girl of maybe eleven or twelve. There was nobody in my family like that.”

“And the other strange thing,” Luca said. “The document was from 1939. England was already at war. Why did she not go home? Italy had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany and would join the war the next summer. She must have realized she’d be in danger if she stayed.”

“Perhaps that’s the explanation,” Caroline said. “She had to leave in a hurry when the authorities came after her. That would be when she fled to Switzerland. My grandmother told me my great-aunt sat out the war in Switzerland and helped refugee children.”

“Ah, then maybe that’s another mystery answered,” he replied. “This girl was a refugee child she was helping.”

“I’m hoping your grandmother will remember.”

“Ah yes. I came to tell you we can visit my grandmother today, but I cannot guarantee she will be clear-headed. Some days it is good, and some days she is off in another world.”

“We can try,” Caroline said. “If you have the time, that is.”

He shrugged. “Those lazy bums downstairs are taking longer than I would like to refinish the rooms, so my day is my own. You want to go now, or do you want to explore this place more first?”

“No, I’d like to go now,” she said. “I am planning to move in here, as soon as I get some new bedding. The mice seem to have enjoyed the warm bed.”

He was looking around. “It’s amazing there is not more damage, given the years between. How many? Sixty? Why are there not more spiderwebs? More dust? It’s almost as if she went away last week—apart from your mice.” And he laughed.

“Sleeping Beauty’s castle,” Caroline muttered.

“Your aunt—was she a great beauty?”

Caroline smiled. “I only knew her as an old woman. Like I said, always prim and proper. No fuss. No frills. But my grandmother said she was striking as a girl—lovely auburn hair.”

“Auburn?”

“You know—copper. Dark red.” I paused, looking at him. “Like yours.”

“Ah yes. I am afraid I inherited my mother’s red hair. I got teased for it at school. And I gather my father also had a little red in his before he went grey. A very attractive man, my father.”

So are you, Caroline thought but didn’t say. They set off down the stairs. The weather was clouding up fast. “Does your grandmother live far away?” she asked.

“She is in a nursing home, out on the Lido.”

“So we’ll have to catch a vaporetto?” Caroline glanced up nervously. It was threatening to rain again.

“No, not necessary.” He waved a hand. “I have my launch. Much faster.”