After a moment, Marta gives a stiff nod.
Nina picks up the envelope and inserts it into the back of the framed Nativity and clips the backing into place. ‘If anything should happen to me, will you guard this? Please. It’s for the baby. Don’t let them take it. Someone will come for it in the end. You will know if he is the right person. You are to give it to him.’
Marta Livardo takes the painting. ‘You must be careful.’
‘I’ll go by the Ponte Sisto. There’s a taxi rank on the other side.’
Snatching up her coat, Nina picks up her bag and runs downstairs.
Lottie sighed and turned over. She would never know the exact details of Nina’s last hours. Yet she was certain she knew her way into Nina’s heart and of what she was thinking.
At the doorway, Nina hovers for a moment. She knows it’s possible that she is poised between life and death, but she also knows that her non-negotiable, overwhelming love means she must run into the darkness that was – that is – Rome to be with her son.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many wonderful and absorbing books on Italy and Rome and it was difficult to choose on which to concentrate. However, the following proved to be goldmines. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy by Michael Baxandall (Oxford Paperbacks), The Vatican’s Women by Paul Hofman (St Martin’s Griffin), The Best Gardens in Italy by Kirsty McLeod (Frances Lincoln), A Traveller in Rome by H. V. Morton (Methuen), Notes from a Roman Terrace by Joan Marble (Transworld), NATO’s Secret Armies by Daniele Ganser (Frank Cass), Italian Neighbours by Tim Parks (Vintage) and The Moro Affair by Leonardo Sciascia (Granta Publications).
In addition, A Masterpiece Reconstructed: the Hours of Louis XII (The J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library) offered invaluable essays by the late Janet Backhouse and a reflection by Thomas Kren on the provocations of Bathsheba in illuminated manuscripts. Last, but not least, a huge thank to Henry Hemming for giving me permission to use his list of agent must-haves, which I have taken from his superb M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster (Arrow Books).
I have taken details and scenarios from all of them and hereby acknowledge my debt. Any mistakes are mine.
Those who know Rome will realise that I have invented the Archivio Espatriati and its location. I hope the Via Giulia will forgive me. Nor does Cardinal Dino’s retirement home exist in the Trastevere and nor does the church where Rex and Nina rendezvous.
A huge thank-you to Sarah Hodgson for her needle-sharp and tactful editing, to Hanna Kenne for her patience and professionalism and to the star team at Corvus. Homage is owed also to Alison Tulett, who pulled together the manuscript so skilfully, with additional thanks to Fabiano Fabiani for his excellent fine tuning. Also to my agent, Judith Murray, and all at Greene and Heaton.
As always, my friends were on standby and were rocks. With especial thanks to writers Fanny Blake, Marika Cobbold, Isabelle Grey. They know what they do to keep the process going.
To my family: Benjie, Adam and Lucinda, Eleanor and Henry and Alexia, Flora and Finn. You put up with everything but you make it all possible.
Two Women in Rome Page 29
