“What I’d really like to do is to lie here beside you all night and to wake up in the morning to see your sweet face and then kiss you gently like this.” And he did so.

“Leo, this was madness,” I said as the realization of what we had just done swept over me. “We can never let this happen again. Never, you understand.”

He nodded. “I know. But I’m glad it has happened, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m glad I know what it’s like now.”

“You were a virgin?”

“Of course.” I paused, then added, “I will remember it for the rest of my life.” Suddenly I shot upright. “The bath!” I shouted. We both rushed to the bathroom. The water was about half an inch from the top. Leo turned off the taps, and we looked at each other, enjoying a private joke for a moment.

“Now you can have that bath,” he said. “I fear I ought to go back. They’ll wonder what happened to me. They might worry that I, too, have drowned.”

I nodded.

“And I won’t see you for a while. My family goes to the villa in the Veneto for the month of August.” As he spoke, he was busy dressing again. His ran his fingers through his wet hair. “Take care of yourself, won’t you?”

“You too.”

He nodded. He went to say something else, half reached out to me, then turned and hurriedly walked away. I stood for a while, staring at that closed door, then I lowered myself into the hot bath. I no longer needed it. I wasn’t shivering—in fact my whole body was on fire—but the water was soothing. I’d probably get into trouble with my landlady for using so much water, but for once I didn’t care. I tried to think seriously about what had just happened. It was only the heat of the moment, I told myself. We were both shocked and exhausted. But then I wondered, what if he did come to see me again? Would I be able to resist him? Did I want to end up as a man’s mistress? And didn’t the bible tell us that adultery was wrong?

I lay in that bath until the water turned cold, then I got up and dressed in my nightclothes. A large explosion told me the fireworks had started. I opened my window and watched the night sky lighting up over St Mark’s Basin. Oohs and aaahs and cheers greeted each new firework. They were magical, and I stopped worrying about what might happen and let myself enjoy this one moment. I was still standing at the window when I heard the front door open and Signora Martinelli appeared, out of breath after carrying her basket up the stairs.