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Locating and acquiring the entire Agosti collection had been the singular most difficult element of his self-imposed task and one that many doubted was achievable.
Officially tonight was all about the Agosti collection, the largest number of ancient Roman and Greek statues in private hands in the world, now housed in the newly restored Villa Agosti, and to finally be shared with the world.
The fact that there were only half a dozen missing pieces was considered a miracle by many, but for Samuele, who did not cut himself any slack, it had constituted a failure.
‘The thing is I have to go right now, because there’s a Russian collector after them too...’
She pulled in a tense breath and brought her lashes down in a self-protective sweep. ‘Now? But...couldn’t you send Diego? Why do you have to go in person?’
Impatient to be gone, Samuele shook his head. ‘I’ll be back in plenty of time before it starts tonight,’ he soothed. ‘It’s an hour there and an hour back tops. The vendor is a pretty eccentric character, who doesn’t seem so much interested in an advantageous offer as she does my star sign. She insists on meeting me in person, something to do with aplanet alignment...?’
Maya swallowed, struggling to inject a suitably amused note into her response and failing miserably.
‘She sounds prettyinteresting. Obviously you must... It’s fine, I understand. Obviously you must go,’ she said. But as she spoke she was aware that her response implied he was asking her permission; the fact was he was going whether she liked it or not.
‘So you’re fine with this?’
She could see from the look in his eyes that he was already not here—shewasn’t here. She clamped her teeth over the words he wanted to hear and flung out a cold and resentful response instead. ‘And if I’m not would it make any difference to you?’
His lips tightened with annoyance and he sighed. ‘You’re making this into a big thing and it really isn’t. I’ll be back before you know it, certainly in time for the speech-giving later on. Diego will look after you. I’m sure I’ll even make it back for the photoshoot. They want some footage of us in the gallery. Look, here’s Diego now.’
The young man punched the air in triumph when Samuele outlined the developments.
‘Sure...sure...’ he said when Samuele told him the plan. ‘Anything,’ he said, turning to Maya. ‘And I’m your man.’
No,she wanted to say,you’re not my man...and my man isn’t really my man.Letting herself believe otherwise was the road to madness. She was probably going to have a lot of moments like this one, so she’d better get used to it.
Moments filled with suppressed resentment. Moments when she felt very alone.
‘So it’s all good, then?’ Samuele said distractedly.
Without replying she turned with a brilliantly insincere smile to Diego so that she wouldn’t have to watch Samuele turn and walk away from her. Which of course he did.
After a prompt from her Diego was only too happy to launch into an explanation of what a feat the restoration of the villa had been.
‘Restoration is a delicate balancing act, too much and you lose the authenticity. I can never get over the fact that standing here you’re literally yards from the most famous historic sights of Florence.’
Maya walked alongside him as he displayed his knowledge, only hearing one word in three. She knew that the restoration of the collection was important to Samuele so she had hidden the extent of her nerves about tonight.
They kicked in hard now.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THEREWASNOusinvolved in the gallery photoshoot. Just Maya, dwarfed, despite the high heels, by the pale statues around her, a flash of colour in a monochrome backdrop in the cerise silk shirt dress that was one of the new additions to her wardrobe, as were the dramatic thirties-style drop earrings.
To complete her transformation into a sophisticated stranger her hair had been tamed, with the help of Rosa, into a smooth ponytail. Perhaps sensing the importance of the occasion every curl stayed in dutiful submission during the mercifully short photoshoot.
Back in their private suite on the top floor of the villa, Maya reviewed her performance. While she had not said anything witty or wildly interesting, settling instead for polite, she had not said anything too stupid either, and she had neatly sidestepped the couple of questions that were invitations into controversial subjects.
Diego had said that Samuele would be proud of her.
She had wanted to retort that she didn’t want his pride, she required his presence.
He had promised her he’d be there, and he had let her down. She didn’t even rate a call or text to say he was running late.
‘Any luck?’ Maya stood up, the tulle layers of the dress she’d changed into for the speech-giving flaring around her as Rosa returned to the room.
The girl shook her head. ‘No, I’m sorry, Diego can’t get through to him either...it keeps going to voicemail.’
