They stopped into a café for more coffee and pastries before setting off back to his villa. While she asked him about his work teaching and some research he was doing on a few lesser-known seventeenth century Italian painters, he took her hand and held it through most of the journey back. The easy intimacy of it sent shivers of both longing and fear through her.
At home, he introduced her to Signora Lazarini, his cook and housekeeper who came in daily to do light cleaning and sometimes prepare the midday and evening meals when he was in residence. “I’ve already told her no dinner today,” he said to Julie. “This evening I want to take you to a favorite restaurant of mine not far from here. But right now, let’s go out to the garden. It was a favorite place of yours when you were last here,
