Flirting with Italian

Flirting with Italian
Liz Fielding

Could stepping into the past make your future perfect? Sarah’s been dumped. Unceremoniously. Painfully. A romantic at heart and a historian by profession, Sarah has always wondered about her grandfather’s wartime romance in Italy. Who was that brave woman who cared for him during the war? Clearly this is the time to heal her wounds with the trip of a lifetime to Rome.Armed only with a photo of the house her grandfather stayed in, the village, and the name Lucia, Sarah sets out to find her…and meets the beautiful Italian count Matteo di Serrone there. Now here’s a man who could move Sarah on from her broken heart! It’s a fairy-tale romance, until Sarah realises she’s made the most rookie mistake of all: falling in love with her holiday fling…

Praise for Liz Fielding

‘Alongside the humour, this story contains a large sprinkling of emotion, synonymous with every Liz Fielding story, that will have the reader reaching for the tissues while swallowing the lump in her throat. This is one story you don’t want to miss!’

—romancereviewed.blogspot.com on

The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella

‘Fielding’s deft handling is a triumph. The characters are fabulous, the relationship between them complex and nuanced … and keep a tissue handy at the end!’

RT Book Reviews on SOS: Convenient Husband Required

‘… a magnificent setting, a feisty heroine, and a sexy hero—a definite page-turner. Who could ask for anything more?’

—Still Moments eZine on

A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge

About the Author

LIZ FIELDING was born with itchy feet. She made it to Zambia before her twenty-first birthday and, gathering her own special hero and a couple of children on the way, lived in Botswana, Kenya and Bahrain—with pauses for sightseeing pretty much everywhere in between. She finally came to a full stop in a tiny Welsh village cradled by misty hills, and these days mostly leaves her pen to do the travelling.

When she’s not sorting out the lives and loves of her characters, she potters in the garden, reads her favourite authors, and spends a lot of time wondering ‘What if …?’

For news of upcoming books—and to sign up for her occasional newsletter—visit Liz’s website at www.lizfielding.com

Also by Liz Fielding

The Last Woman He’d Ever Date

Mistletoe and the Lost Stiletto

SOS: Convenient Husband Required

A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge

Her Desert Dream

Secret Baby, Surprise Parents

Wedded in a Whirlwind

Did you know these are also available as eBooks?Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

Flirting with Italian

Liz Fielding

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

I dedicate this book to my wonderful editor, Bryony Green,

who has held my hand, uncomplainingly, through more

than twenty books. She has saved a book gone wrong

with ‘Perhaps if you …’ We have agonised over titles,

dined in New York, celebrated an award at the Ritz and

danced the night away in Washington. It’s been great.

CHAPTER ONE

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS

My bag is packed, my flight booked. While my students are all flapping about in a last minute panic about coursework that needs to be handed to their new teacher in the first week of term, I’ll be getting to grips with the rush hour in Rome, first day nerves and life in a foreign language.

If they think that because I’ll be surrounded by art, culture, high fashion and endless sunshine, I’ve got the best deal, well, they may be right. At the moment I’m only concerned about where I’m going to live, how different this new school will be from Maybridge and whether my new students like me.

Watch this space …

‘I’VE got a new job, Lex. In Rome.’

‘You’re leaving Maybridge High? The “world’s most perfect job”?’

Sarah Gratton had been doing a fine job of convincing her colleagues that she couldn’t wait to get on that plane. Actually, that part was true, but it was more escape than adventure and she should have known that her great-grandfather would see right through a smile that was making her face ache.

He might be rising ninety but he walked into town each morning to pick up his newspaper, and his brain was still sharp enough to do The Times crossword in ten minutes flat.

‘Tom was so popular, the kids loved him.’ Her thumb automatically moved to fiddle with the ring that was no longer there. ‘I feel as if everyone blames me for him leaving.’

‘He’s the one who cheated, Sarah. If you give up the job you love, you lose twice.’

‘He didn’t cheat.’

Didn’t cheat. Didn’t lie. Didn’t pretend. He was incapable of that. He’d told her that he still loved her, but that he’d fallen in love with someone else.

He’d told her at the beginning of the half term holiday, giving her a whole week before she had to walk into the staff room. Face everyone.

What he hadn’t told her was that he’d resigned, taken a job she knew he’d hate at the sports centre in Melchester.

Until then it hadn’t been real.

She’d heard the words but hadn’t been able to take them in. Had convinced herself that when she turned up in the staffroom on Monday morning everything would be as it should be. Back to normal.