Christmas in Venice

She’d had to brace herself for the sight of the Grand Canal on leaving the station. The railway station had a broad flight of steps leading down to the water and, on the far side, the magnificent Church of San Simeone. It had made her catch her breath when she first saw it three years ago, and again when she had arrived there in a gondola to be married, a few short weeks later. Now she tried not to look, but to concentrate as Tomaso handed her carefully down into one of the taxi boats in this city where the streets were water.

The chugging of the motor boat made her a little queasy, so she didn’t have to look at the palaces and hotels gliding past. But she was aware of them anyway, she knew them so well, and every tiny rio as each little side canal was called: Rio della Pergola, Rio della due Torri, Rio di Noale, taking her closer to the Cornucopia, until at last it came in sight.

The Cornucopia had once been the palace of a great Venetian nobleman, and the company that had turned it into an hotel had restored its glory. Beneath the mediaeval magnificence was a good deal of modern comfort, but discreet, so that the atmosphere might be undisturbed.

She was booked into a comfortable suite on the second floor.

‘You look tired,’ Tomaso told her. ‘You need a rest after that journey. I’ll leave you now, and call back in a few hours to take you to see Giovanna.’

He kissed her cheek and departed. It was a relief to be alone, to wash the journey off, and ease her heavy body onto the bed.

At least she wasn’t in the same room as before. Then the city had been full for the Venice Glass Fair, with not a room to be had. Sonia, booking at the last minute, had been forced to accept a place nobody else wanted, at the top of the building.

It had been little more than an attic, she recalled, but she’d had her own bathroom, and she’d hurried into the shower to wash off the journey. When she’d finished she’d taken a whirl around the tiny room, thrilled by her first foreign trip for her employers, and her first visit to Venice. At this height there were only the birds to see her, and she finished by tossing aside her towel and standing, arms ecstatically upstretched in a shaft of sunlight from the window.

The door opened and a young man came in.

She was totally naked, her position emphasising her perfect body, long legs, tiny waist and full breasts. And he was barely six feet away with a grandstand view.

For what seemed like forever they stared at each other, neither able to move.

Then he blushed. Even now it could make her smile to think that he had been the one to blush.

‘Scusi, signorina, scusi, scusi…’ He backed out hastily and shut the door.

She stared at the panels, but all she saw was his face, mobile, vivid, fascinating, blotting out everything else in the world. Only then did she remember to be indignant.

‘Oi!’ she yelled, snatching up her towel and dashing for the door. In the corridor outside she found a pile of large boxes, two hefty workmen and the young man. ‘What’s the idea of barging into my room like that?’

‘But it’s my room,’ the young man protested. ‘At least, it was supposed to be—nobody told me you were here. If they had—’ his eyes flickered over her and he seemed to be having difficulty breathing ‘—if they had, I—I would have been here twice as fast—’

Her lips twitched. Mad as she was, she wasn’t immune to the flattery in those last words, or something in his look that went deeper than flattery.

The towel, inadequate at the best of times, was slipping badly. The two workmen watched her until the young man snapped something out and they vanished hurriedly.

‘Let me put something on,’ she said, retreating into her room, and grabbing a robe. The young man followed as if in a trance. She would have gone into the bathroom but she’d backed herself onto the wrong side of the bed.

‘I don’t look,’ he said, understanding.

He turned away and covered his eyes in a theatrical fashion that made her laugh despite her agitation.

‘No peeking,’ he promised over his shoulder. ‘I am a gentleman.’

‘You shouldn’t have followed me in here. That’s not the act of a gentleman.’

‘It’s the act of a man,’ he said with meaning.

She tied the belt firmly in place. ‘OK, I’m decent now.’

He looked around. ‘Yes, you are,’ he agreed sadly.

‘Will you please tell me what you’re doing in my room?’

‘Tomorrow the Venice Glass Fair starts, and one of the biggest exhibitions is in this hotel. The manager is a friend of mine. He said nobody ever wants this room, so I could use it to store some of my glass.’

‘I booked at the last minute. I think it was the only room left in the city.’

‘Forgive me, I should have checked.’ He gave a rueful, winning smile. ‘But then we would never have met. And that would have been a tragedy.’

There was a note in his voice that made her clutch the edges of the robe together lest he detect that her whole body was singing. Just a few words, and the glow in his eyes, and she felt as though he was touching her all over.

He had a slim, lithe figure and wonderful dark eyes, set in a lean, tanned face, still boyish as it probably always would be. Sonia was a tall woman but she had to look up to see his black hair with its touch of curl.

‘You—you’re exhibiting in the glass fair, then?’ she said.

‘That’s right. I own a small factory, and I’m here to set up my stall.’

‘I’m here for the fair. I’m a glass buyer for a store in England.’

His face lit up. ‘Then you must let me take you on a tour of my factory. It’s here.’ He took a card from his pocket. ‘Only a few tours for specially privileged visitors—’

‘Would you mind if I got dressed first?’

‘Of course. Forgive me. Besides I have to find somewhere for my glass.’

‘But won’t you have it downstairs on the stall?’

‘Some yes, but some will be sold, or given away, or broken. So I must have spares nearby.’

‘Doesn’t the hotel provide you with storage space?’

‘Of course, but—I’ve brought rather more than I should. I thought I could make it all right.’

Later she was to discover that this was his way: bend the rules and worry about the practical problems afterwards. And it usually did work out, because he had such charm and confidence. Even then, ten minutes after their meeting, Sonia found herself saying, ‘Look, I don’t mind—if there isn’t too much.’

‘There is nothing—almost nothing—you’ll never notice it.’

In fact there were ten large boxes, but she didn’t see the danger until they were all crowded into her room so that she could barely move. And then she lacked the heart to tell him to take them away. She’d even helped him carry them in. She’d actually offered. He was like that.

‘Never mind,’ she said brightly. ‘There won’t be so much when you’ve set up your stall.’

‘It’s up,’ he explained. ‘This is just the extras. You really are a bit cramped, aren’t you?’

She gave him a baleful look.

‘There’s nothing for it,’ he said with a sigh. ‘I shall have to take you out to dinner.’

‘That will be impossible,’ she said crossly.