He shook his head. ‘Like you I’ve heard about it and it sounds like the sort of place you’re looking for, and it was certainly there in 1914. I look forward to seeing it.’
‘And then, if there’s time, I thought we could drop into the Hanbury Gardens in the afternoon.’ Marina was checking details on her phone. ‘It’s the same kind of distance from here as well.’
‘Hanbury? That doesn’t sound like an Italian name.’
Emma was pleasantly surprised to hear Rich speaking up and sounding interested. Although gradually loosening up, he still had a tendency to be quiet and reserved and it was good to see him getting involved.
Marina gave him a smile. ‘It isn’t. He was another Englishman. He built a villa right on the coast along to the west of here and he laid out some lovely subtropical gardens. They’re open to the public.’ She stopped. ‘Assuming they were there in 1914, of course.’
Mark was quick to confirm this. ‘I think I’m right in saying that Sir Thomas Hanbury built the gardens in the last half of the nineteenth century, so they would indeed have been in existence in time for the events of your movie. Not necessarily open to the public back then, but a bit of poetic licence would get your Emily and Robert in there, I’m sure.’
Emma sat back contentedly. ‘Great. That’s tomorrow planned.’ She glanced at her watch. It was almost six o’clock. ‘I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m going down to the beach for a swim.’
Whether the idea of seeing Mark with his shirt off was in any way responsible for her opening up the idea to the group was something she was not prepared to debate at this point.
As it turned out, she did not, after all, have that experience. She and Rich went swimming by themselves and she couldn’t help a feeling of disappointment as she floated about, checking the beach in vain for any sign of Mark. After a while, she deliberately ducked her head into the cold water and shook it. She had only just met this man, so why was she letting him mess with her head? Besides, as she had told herself many times, she had no interest in finding herself a man. For now, work had to come first. Hadn’t it?
Chapter 6
That evening they went out to a fish restaurant in the centre of town and afterwards Emma and Mark went for a stroll along the promenade in the fading light. Rich and Marina disappeared back to the hotel and Emma found herself wondering whether they might end up together, but she decided to ignore that relationship for now while she tried to work out what was happening inside her own head.
The railway line that Mark had mentioned ran along parallel with the coast directly behind the promenade, and from time to time they heard trains coming past. It was a warm evening without a breath of wind, and the tiny waves barely sighed as they brushed against the shore. The beach itself was made up of pebbles rather than sand, but the water that afternoon had been crystal clear and just about an acceptable temperature; certainly a lot cooler than the temperature of the average California pool, but all the more refreshing as a result. Presumably the water temperature in the Mediterranean would rise as the summer wore on.
As they walked along, they chatted about inconsequential matters like the meal, the weather and the sea temperature, while at the back of her mind, Emma found herself wondering what was happening to her. Finding herself so struck by a man was so unusual and unexpected to be almost worrying. What on earth was going on? And the other thought running through her head was whether Mark felt the same spark. For his part, he showed no sign of developing anything but a working relationship with her and the others, and there certainly hadn’t been anything remotely flirtatious in his behaviour over dinner. Doing her best – at least for now – to banish any further conjecture, she asked how he had come to live in Italy.
He told her his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was still just a little boy and he had been brought up partly in Umbria and partly in the UK by the two sets of grandparents. As a result, he was effectively bilingual. He was clearly intelligent as he had won a bursary to Oxford University and, from there, he had moved on to working for the British government. Now, after the recent death of his Italian grandfather, he had given up his job in Britain and had returned to Italy where he was currently living in the house he had inherited from him.
‘So you aren’t working at the moment?’
‘I’ve been pretty busy supervising the renovations and alterations at my grandfather’s place but, apart from this interlude with you guys, I’m not doing anything else of a historical nature.’
‘Can I ask why you left the old job?’
‘I was invalided out.’ He gave her a slightly odd smile. ‘Repetitive Strain Injury – from typing in too many thousands when doing the MP’s expenses.’
She didn’t comment. He was clearly joking, but it did make her wonder just what might have happened; however, that was his business. ‘So what would you like to do? You’re a bit young for retirement.’
‘I’m thirty-eight, which makes me about ten years older than you.’ Emma liked the sound of that and didn’t disabuse him for now. ‘As for work, I don’t know, really. As I say, I’ve been fairly busy tying up granddad’s affairs and sorting out his old house, but I’ve been thinking about maybe going back to university in a couple of years to do a doctorate. Something’ll come up. I’m in no hurry.’ He glanced across at her as they walked along the promenade. ‘And what about you? Gianluca said you’re a high flier.’
‘People keep telling me that, but I’m not sure. What I do know is that there’s a lot riding on the success or failure of this trip. If we can find the right locations, it’ll do wonders for the movie’s chances. If I screw up, there could be serious consequences.’
‘For you or for the company?’
‘For everybody.’
‘Are you telling me your job’s on the line?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think anybody would fire me, but let’s just say it wouldn’t do a lot for my chances of promotion.’
‘And that’s what you want – promotion?’
‘I love my job, Mark, and I’m good at it. At least, that’s what people keep telling me. I’ve been working really hard for the company and it would be good to rise up the food chain – not least as the movie business is still very much a man’s world.’
‘Sounds like a situation the heroine of Dreaming of Italy would have recognised. That’s what the suffragettes were all about, after all.’
‘Things have moved on a lot since 1900, but there’s still some way to go.’
‘Do you think you’d have been a suffragette if you’d been around way back then?’
‘I’m not sure I’d have been brave enough. They got themselves beaten up and arrested, you know, but I’d like to think that even back then I would have felt as I do now – women are equal to men. That’s why I work hard and want to do my best. Don’t get me wrong, Mark, I do it because I love it. In spite of what some people might think, I’m not really a workaholic. Yes, I do work hard, but it’s because I enjoy my job. You’ve got to understand that I was dreaming about Hollywood when I was still in my teens. To find myself part of it now is awesome.’