The Housekeeper’s Invitation to Italy by Cathy Williams

Author:Cathy Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-27T18:20:10+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

ALESSIO’S PRIVATE JET landed four days later at a small airport near Milan. During those four days, Sophie’s life had accelerated at supersonic speed.

Alessio had moved three of his top people into Leonard’s offices in Harrogate, and taken himself back to London so that he could co-ordinate a crew to—as he had told both Sophie and Leonard before he disappeared—‘throw everything at the estate with no expense spared’.

He had also arranged for a team of highly experienced house-movers to transfer whatever needed taking from one part of the house to another.

‘Leave all the big items,’ he had instructed. ‘They’ll be covered over and protected and it’ll be a waste of time to shift them. Just move what you deem necessary.’

Predictably, Leonard had grumbled.

‘One minute the boy’s barely speaking to me,’ he had complained on the evening before the movers had been due to arrive, ‘and the next he’s giving orders as though he’s the master of the house!’

‘You’ve been talking together,’ Sophie had pointed out. ‘He took you out for lunch before he left for London and you seemed to have a good time.’

‘Of course I’m going to be suitably polite when someone invites me somewhere,’ he had huffed. ‘Such a thing as good manners, my girl! Not that you’d think they still existed when you look around you nowadays!’

She had done a rapid tour of the house, pushing Leonard in the wheelchair to spare him walking from one room to another, and in the end only very personal possessions had been moved. His computer, his memoirs, and the entire collection of newspaper clippings he had collected over the years, along with photo albums and other mementoes.

She had managed to persuade him that large-scale breakages weren’t going to happen. ‘These people are experienced,’ she had told him, gently but firmly, ‘and they’ll have Alessio to answer to if they make any mistakes.’

‘I suppose the boy does have his head screwed on when it comes to taking charge,’ Leonard had said with grudging admiration. ‘Gets that from me—not that you’d know it, seeing me in this state now. Isabella, his mother...well, that was a different matter. Depended on me for just about every decision! Could never lose patience with her, though—not with that smile of hers. Could move mountains, that smile.’

Sarah had been asked to check at the end of each day to see what had been done and to make sure that Alessio’s rules of tidiness were being strictly obeyed.

Alessio had summoned her before he left, and Sophie had felt sorry for the poor kid, who was so clearly in awe of Alessio that she could barely string a sentence together.

But he had been kind, and patient, and had politely overlooked her beetroot-red face and her self-conscious stammering and gently told her to get in touch with his PA. Her pay would be reviewed and increased accordingly, because of the extra responsibility of keeping an eye on the builders.

‘Are they trustworthy? Will they need supervision?’ Sophie had asked in alarm, when Sarah had left the room.

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