‘Italy’s a lot warmer than Scotland.’ He smiled at her.

  She shrugged. ‘I know. But I can’t go away for twenty-four hours without a coat.’

  ‘In that case, definitely the red. The black one will be too warm for Italy right now.’

  She beamed. ‘Where’s a handy Italian when I need one?’ She hung the black coat back in her cupboard and put the red one over her arm. ‘Want to know what city I chose?’

  She hadn’t told him where they were going, and he didn’t want to break it to her that it wasn’t hard to work out when they were flying from Edinburgh Airport, but he played along.

  She held up the tickets. ‘Rome! It had to be the Colosseum. I’ve even bought us tickets.’ She waggled them at him. ‘I hope you slept well last night—the rules are no sleep for the next twenty-four hours.’

  ‘I think I can manage that.’ He smiled, wondering what on earth he’d got himself into. Through his family and his work, he had connections in Rome that he could pull at short notice. He could have got them into anywhere she might have wanted to go. But Darcy didn’t need to know that.

  They took one last look at the view and headed to the airport. Arturo’s normal domain was the first-class lounge, but Darcy had insisted that she was paying for things since it was her bucket list, so he contented himself with buying them some drinks from the bar.

  The three-hour flight was over quickly, and because they had no luggage they exited the airport swiftly.

  ‘Where to first?’

  She pulled a face. ‘I want to see the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and St Peter’s Square and the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. What will be the busiest?’

  He glanced at his watch and lifted his hand to hail a taxi. ‘We’ll go to the Trevi Fountain, then stop and grab some lunch. The Colosseum and Vatican always have queues—even when you have fast-track tickets. It is too hot to queue right now. So, let’s start the way we mean to continue.’

  The taxi ride was chaotic. Darcy sat with her face pressed up against the window and Arturo pointed out some of the other parts of Rome they might not have time to visit.

  The streets around the fountain were packed with tourists, just like Arturo knew they would be. As they exited the taxi, he slipped Darcy’s hand into his. ‘Stay close,’ he whispered as he threaded through the crowds.

  It was warm already and by the time they reached the junction where the fountain sat it was wall to wall people.

  ‘Is it always like this?’

  He nodded, keeping threading through the throng of people. ‘It can be like this at six in the morning, and in the middle of the night.’ Arturo scanned the surroundings and found a spot where they could stand that was a bit quieter.

  He pulled her in next to him and let her stand for a few moments taking in the giant display. ‘A large part of this was hidden for a few years while the renovations took place. People still came, but now they are gone, a lot of tourists are keen to come back.’

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ Darcy breathed, her eyes fixed on the white baroque fountain with its central figure.

  ‘It is,’ he agreed, watching the water flow through the fountain. ‘Do you want to know some facts about it?’

  She looked up at him, her blue eyes shining. ‘Go for it.’

  ‘So, trevi means three. It dates back to Roman times when there was an ancient aqueduct called the Aqua Virgo that provided water to the Roman baths and fountains of central Rome. It was built at the end point of an aqueduct at the junction of three roads. This construction finished in 1762.’

  ‘That long,’ she sighed. ‘And look how popular it still is.’ She leaned against him and he wondered if she was already hot in the Italian sun. For him the weather was mild, but the UK was always colder than Italy, and Scotland even more so.

  He held out a hand towards it. ‘Even though it’s white now, it’s been black and red before.’

  ‘No way!’ Darcy looked genuinely surprised.

  He gave an amused smile. ‘Not for any period of time. It was turned off and draped in black when an Italian actor died who starred in the most famous film made here. The red, unfortunately, was vandals, but it was cleaned up quickly enough.’

  ‘Vandals? Here?’ She shook her head. ‘It just seems so ridiculous.’

  He nodded. ‘The fountain uses a massive amount of water—and you wouldn’t want to drink from it. But thankfully, the water is recycled, so there’s minimum wastage.’

  ‘But what about the coins?’

  They were watching as lots of people stood in front of the fountain and tossed coins over their shoulders.

  ‘Collected every night,’ he answered promptly, ‘and they all go to charity. It’s a crime to steal coins from the fountain.’

  ‘Has anyone tried?’

  ‘Oh, yes, and been caught. The most famous by a hidden camera.’

  He gave her a nudge. ‘Want to be a tourist and throw a coin in?’

  ‘Of course.’ She smiled and they edged their way through the crowd. Thankfully, most people posed for a photo, threw their coin and moved on. As she readied herself in front of the fountain, she smiled up at him.

  For a second, his heart stopped. He hadn’t doubted his attraction to Darcy had been growing, even though part of him told him she was wrong for him. Arturo moved around the world. Darcy seemed very settled in Edinburgh. He had a large, opinionated Italian family. Darcy seemed quieter. He wasn’t quite sure how she would fare against his headstrong sister or occasionally outspoken mother. He wasn’t sure they would ever be a good fit, particularly with the type of job he did.

  And all these thoughts made him a little uneasy. Where had they come from? He still didn’t know that much about Darcy—nor she about him. She’d told him her bucket list, and he’d told her about his father. But he knew that wasn’t all he should tell her. Not if he liked her, and not if he thought this could go somewhere.

  His phone pinged and he looked at the text. It was an Italian antique dealer who always had his ear to the ground. He wanted Arturo to get in touch. He was based in Rome, his shop near the Colosseum. Arturo contemplated for a few moments. He’d promised these twenty-four hours to Darcy. Would it be fair to go along?

  He switched to his camera and held up his phone. ‘Know that the legend says if you throw a coin in the fountain, it guarantees a return trip to Rome.’

  ‘I think I can live with that.’ She grinned, holding up her coin before tossing it over her shoulder and closing her eyes for a few seconds, her lips moving silently.

  ‘What was that?’ he asked.

  ‘A secret,’ she replied with a smile.

  He grabbed her hand again and led her down one of the long nearby streets. Tables from a variety of restaurants lined the length of the street, and Arturo picked one that he knew did particularly good pizza.

  ‘Can I order for you?’ he asked.

  She nodded as she sagged into the chair opposite and let her hair down for a few moments. At least here they were in the shade and the waiter brought them water, before taking Arturo’s order.

  Forty-five minutes later, Darcy was clearly revived after pizza, wine and some water. Her hair was back in a ponytail and she launched into her plan of attack for the Colosseum. The fast-track tickets meant they wouldn’t need to queue in the sun and could start on one of the audio tours as soon as they got in there. It would still be warm. Unless Rome was surprised by showers, she wouldn’t be wearing her jacket at all today. He waved his hand and settled the bill before she could argue, then took her to a nearby street to find a taxi again.

  He heard it. The moment that she caught sight of the Colosseum and sucked in her breath at the marvel of it.

  People could look at pictures online, but no one really understood the scale, size and beauty of the structure until they could actually see it.

  Something about her reaction struck him deep inside. He was proud of his nation and its history. There was a real sense of delight that she thought the Colosseum just as fascinating as he did. What he would give to wave a magic wand and go back in time to see it in a past life. Once an archaeologist, always an archaeologist.

  She tapped his arm. ‘What are you smiling about?’

  ‘Just wishing I had powers and we could go back and see this in gladiator times.’

  ‘We can watch the movie,’ she said with a face so straight he wasn’t entirely sure she was joking. But then she threw back her head and laughed. ‘I should have taken a photo. Your face was an absolute picture then.’

  She started to climb out of the taxi. ‘Please tell me you’re not going to give me a list of all the historical inaccuracies in the film, and all the archaeological facts they got wrong.’

  ‘Only if you really annoy me,’ he quipped good-humouredly as he paid the driver and climbed out of the taxi too.

  They joined the fast queue, waiting around fifteen minutes for entry, the supply of their audio tour and a book with the history of the Colosseum. Arrows showed where they should start, but Darcy was distracted.

  She left the headphones dangling around her neck in her haste to climb some floors and get the full feel of the structure.

  It was busy but, because of its size, there was plenty of space to find a spot of their own. Arturo couldn’t help but watch those around him. He pointed over at a tour group of schoolchildren.

  ‘I was brought here with my school friends when I was seven. All of us just wanted to pretend to be gladiators and be down in the central arena.’

  ‘Were you allowed?’ asked Darcy as she stared down, then she frowned at him. ‘But there’s no central floor, it’s all the dungeons underneath.’

  ‘I know that...’ He sighed. ‘But we had overactive imaginations and wanted to pretend that the central floor was still there.’

  Darcy just stood admiring the structure around her. ‘How on earth did they build this more than two thousand years ago? The perfect arches. The symmetry? The details.’ She kept glancing around as the tourists milled about, stopping to take pictures and admire different viewpoints.

  ‘Want to go down to where the gladiators were held?’

  She gave him a strange look, then shuddered. ‘No. I can feel it.’ She held out her hands. ‘There’s an atmosphere here. A...something. As soon as you walk through, it’s as if a thousand souls are speaking to you.’ She touched the stone. ‘Every part of this has been here all this time. Even the colour. The grey, the pink, the flecks of white. What kind of stone did you say this was?’

  ‘Travertine limestone, along with tuff—volcanic rock—and brick-faced concrete.’

  ‘Even that feels of something,’ she breathed as she continued to look around in wonder. ‘Can you imagine the noise if sixty-five thousand people were in here? I really wish you had that magic wand.’

  He nodded and they stood for a few more moments in silence. There really was no need to fill in the space. The Colosseum told its own story, and he could see how much Darcy appreciated. There were other people in here, videoing themselves and taking a photo of every step. But apart from a snap outside, Darcy hadn’t got her phone out yet. She was just ‘feeling’ the place, and he liked that about her.

  It was something that he’d always done at archaeological sites. Some people just couldn’t wait to start digging or exploring in their enthusiasm to find something mind-blowing. But Arturo, and Faye, had liked to get the feel of a place. To sense the history, and the people who had gone before.

  He had a flash of guilt for thinking of Faye when he was with Darcy. The truth was, Faye had faded from his thoughts with time. She would always be there. Particularly if he was doing something work-related that might remind him of past digs or conversations. But she’d moved from being a central figure to a pleasant memory. Was this why he’d started to feel the spark with Darcy? Was he ready to move on and think about someone else?

  Darcy turned around, pulling his attention back to the moment, leaning back and looking upwards. ‘Imagine being in the cheap seats,’ she said with a smile.

  Arturo looked up too. ‘What? You don’t imagine you would have been in the special boxes with the Emperor and Vestal Virgins?’ He liked that she was so enthralled by the place she was imagining it back in the day.

  She laughed out loud. ‘And where would you have been? Would you have been a senator?’

  ‘I hope so,’ he said, then screwed up his face. ‘But maybe not. If I’d been a former gladiator, I would have been banned.’

  ‘So you would,’ she agreed as she flicked through the pages of her book. ‘You, and the gravediggers.’

  They both laughed out loud, then she sighed at the raincoat over her arm. ‘Give me that,’ he said, smiling. It was hot, and her skin was turning a little pink. ‘I think you need some more sunscreen.’

  ‘Really?’ She rummaged in her bag. ‘I’m wearing factor fifty. I just burn at the drop of a hat.’ She rubbed some more sunscreen into her face, neck and arms, then handed it to him. ‘You too,’ she ordered, not giving him a chance to argue.

  When he handed it back, she finally pulled out her camera. But before she even took a photograph she turned to him, her eyes squinting in the sun. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For agreeing to come. For being able to speak Italian and keep control of the taxis.’ She took a deep breath. ‘For saying you would do this with me. I know I kind of pushed you into it. I know this likely wasn’t your first choice—a mad twenty-four hours in Rome.’

  He gave a little bow of his head. He knew her words were sincere. ‘It’s my pleasure.’ And he meant it. Because it had been a long time since he hadn’t focused entirely on work or family matters. Arturo couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a holiday. And even though this was officially only twenty-four hours, he was grateful for even that. He raised his eyebrows just a touch. ‘You don’t know yet how you’re going to repay me.’

  ‘Nothing dubious, I hope,’ she replied quickly.

  ‘Not at all,’ he responded. ‘Just know that I will likely need at least twenty-four hours of your time too.’

  She frowned then smiled. ‘Oh, go on then. Don’t be all mysterious about it. Spill.’

  He threw back his head and laughed. ‘I will, on the way home.’

  She shot him a mock angry face as she started to snap some pictures.

  He hadn’t realised how much he’d needed this until he was actually here. He took her phone and took some photos for her. ‘Let’s go for a coffee, and do you mind if we get out of the sun for a bit?’

  ‘Not at all.’ She finished smiling for the photos, then took her camera back and turned it to face them both. ‘Smile,’ she ordered, snapping them with the inside of the Colosseum behind them.

  Without pausing, Arturo took his phone out too, taking an identical photo. He did it without thinking, knowing that he wanted to capture them both too. It suddenly seemed important to him.

  ‘Can I pick the place for dinner tonight too?’

  ‘Okay,’ she said without a moment’s hesitation.

  They left the Colosseum, taking a few more pictures, then moving on to a café and sitting for a while drinking coffee, water, and eating cake.

  ‘What time is the visit for the Sistine Chapel?’

  She checked her phone. ‘Five-thirty.’

  ‘We have plenty of time. Do you mind if I visit a nearby antique store?’

  Darcy looked momentarily surprised. ‘Not at all. I’d love to look in an antique store.’

  They finished at the coffee shop and Arturo took her hand again and led her down the streets until they reached a narrow alley with uneven stones. There was a variety of shops on the street, and Darcy looked in a few windows as they made their way down towards the green-canopied antique store.

  Part of him wished he hadn’t even mentioned this. It could be that Matteo only wanted a two-minute chat, but something in the pit of his stomach told him that it was so much more.

  He pushed open the door and the bell sounded. Both of them blinked. The shop was much darker than the natural light outside and it took their sight a few seconds to adjust. A deep breath would let anyone know they’d just come into an antique shop. There was an odour of mustiness about the place but it wasn’t unpleasant.

  Darcy immediately made her way over to a glass cabinet to look at some jewellery.

  A slightly rotund figure with spectacles perched on his nose emerged from the back of the shop. ‘Arturo!’ He couldn’t hide the shock in his husky voice, and even Darcy started.

  Arturo started speaking in rapid Italian in a low voice. ‘You said you needed to talk.’

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t mean in person. I didn’t think you were in Italy, let alone Rome.’

  ‘Well, by coincidence I am. What is it you need to talk about?’

  Matteo glanced over at Darcy. ‘Who is she?’

  ‘A friend. And don’t worry, she can’t speak Italian.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Matteo’s glance was suspicious.

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ snapped Arturo. He didn’t even want Matteo to look in Darcy’s direction.

  ‘Come with me.’ There was a flick of his head and a few moments later Matteo was showing him pictures he’d received of an artefact that Arturo, and his father before him, had been seeking for many years. It had been stolen from an old Italian count in New York eighty years before.

  The beautiful painted sculpture was only the size of his hand, but the coloured paint on it looked as if it had only been done yesterday, even though it was apparently four hundred years old. Much of the artist’s other work had been lost throughout the ages.

  ‘Is it genuine?’

  Matteo stared at him through his horn-rimmed spectacles. ‘That’s for you to say, not me.’

  Arturo stayed silent, focusing on the pictures. ‘Arrange a meeting,’ he said, before glancing behind him to the shop. ‘Let me know when. I have other business today.’