FOR those working on the dig, only one thing now mattered. How soon could they work their way through the bricks concealing the secret chamber? Brick after brick was eased out, dusted off carefully, and handed up to Lily, who inspected it minutely before passing it on to Danny, who X-rayed it. Sonya then put it through a battery of other tests, including scan and radar.

Joanna’s conviction grew. This was the earlier part of the old lost palazzo, which meant it was at least fifth century, and perhaps earlier. When the brick that should have been in the last layer was removed, revealing just one more ‘last layer’, Joanna led the cries of agonised exasperation.

‘I can’t bear any more,’ Hal moaned.

‘Oh, shut up, you cry-baby!’ she told him, calming down and managing to laugh. ‘Let’s get on with it.’

It took another half-day to work through the last brick into the gap.

‘We’re through,’ she said. ‘Let’s have the flashlight.’

In another moment she was shining the light through into the darkness. What she saw made her sit down suddenly, breathing hard.

‘What is it?’ Lily and Danny demanded in one voice.

‘Take this,’ she said, holding out the flashlight, ‘and tell me what you see in there.’

One by one they looked, but nobody spoke a word. They were all too dumbfounded.

‘I think,’ Joanna said slowly, ‘that I should fetch Gustavo.’

The light was fading as she reached the house and went straight to the library, where she found Gustavo at his desk with Renata, poring over an atlas, heads together.

‘There’s something I think you should come and see,’ she said as calmly as she could manage.

She was pleased to see that he instinctively glanced at his daughter, including her in the expedition.

‘I thought you’d all be coming in to supper about now,’ he said.

‘This is much better than supper,’ she said.

A mysterious, suppressed glee in her manner made him look at her, puzzled.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Come and see,’ she told him.

Renata took her father’s hand. ‘Let’s go, Papa.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You lead the way.’

They went back in Joanna’s car and found the excavation full of brilliant lights that had been hauled out from the trucks.

‘We’ve got out another brick,’ Hal confided in a tone of excitement.

‘What have you discovered?’ Gustavo wanted to know.

‘Take this,’ she said, giving him the flashlight, ‘and look through there.’

He crouched down to follow the beam and she heard him draw in his breath.

‘Is that-what I think it is?’ he asked.

‘It’s gold,’ Joanna said. ‘I’m almost sure of it.’

‘The lost treasure of Montegiano,’ he murmured.

‘It’ll take us some days to get right in there and remove what we find,’ Joanna said cautiously. ‘But it’s looking good.’

‘Thank you for bringing me to see it,’ he said. ‘If only-’

‘Yes,’ Joanna said, nodding in understanding. ‘If only-’

‘We’ll have to be patient, Papa,’ Renata said, speaking like a nanny. Protecting her father was something she now took very seriously.


Joanna awoke suddenly, instantly alert. It was still dark but instinct told her that there was somebody in her room.

‘Who’s there?’ she demanded.

‘It’s only me,’ came Gustavo’s voice. ‘Forgive me for coming in like this but I couldn’t knock in case anyone heard. No, don’t put the light on.’

She pulled herself up in bed. He was sitting on the bed and in the near-darkness she could just make out the glint in his eyes and the excitement that radiated from him.

Her pulses were racing, making it hard for her to speak. Why had he come to her room like this in the darkness?

‘Gustavo, why have you come here?’ she managed to whisper at last.

‘I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been lying awake thinking about everything-we’re on the brink of so many things; don’t you feel that?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

If only he would kiss her. Since their night together a shadow had seemed to fall between them, but now he was here, seeking her out as though that shadow had never been. But why didn’t he touch her?

‘I can’t stand the waiting any longer,’ he said. ‘Let’s do it now.’

‘Let’s-?’

‘Go out to the dig and find out what’s there.’

‘Go to the dig?’ she echoed in a daze.

‘I know it’s still dark but the dawn will break soon. There’ll be enough light to find something, surely?’

She stared at his face that had grown a little clearer as the light increased.

‘Is this why you came creeping into my room?’ she asked, incensed.

‘I know I shouldn’t have done it like this, but you understand, don’t you?’

‘I’m beginning to.’

He didn’t seem to notice a slightly grim edge to her voice. He was possessed by his own excitement over whatever might be found. Clearly this was the only thing he could focus on.

‘I’ll join you downstairs in a minute,’ she said.

He had the car’s engine already running when she got in, and in ten minutes they were there. She got out some lighting and they descended into the foundations.

‘We managed to get another couple of bricks out,’ she said. ‘You can see better now.’

She flooded the chamber with light, while he gazed through, drawing in a slow breath.

‘It’s almost close enough to touch,’ he said, trying to reach in. ‘No, I can’t get through that hole.’

‘Here, take the light. I’m thinner.’

She reached forward, easing herself through the hole until she could just touch something. It came off in her hand and she had to grab it.

‘Pull me back,’ she said quickly.

He hauled her towards him so fast that she had to hook her arm about his neck to steady herself. He held on, not letting her go, but breathing fast.

‘I’m not sure that I dare to look at it,’ he said. ‘It matters too much.’

‘Does it?’ she said, and she couldn’t keep a certain sadness out of her voice. This wasn’t what she had hoped mattered to him.

‘More than anything you could know,’ he said fervently.

‘In that case,’ she said calmly, ‘let’s look at it.’

He lowered her to the ground and they sat down on a low wall while she held up the object she had found.

It was a large brooch, made of some yellowish metal, with stones embedded in it that looked like bits of cheap old coloured glass.

‘Oh,’ he said in a deflated voice.

‘What do you mean, “oh”?’ she asked through her rising excitement.

‘Cheap and nasty,’ he said heavily. ‘Why did they bother to preserve it?’

‘Cheap and nasty?’ she asked indignantly. ‘Do you think jewels looked the same fifteen hundred years ago as they do now? They didn’t shine and glitter like modern stones.’

‘Yes, but these…’ He stopped as her excitement began to get through to him. ‘Do you mean that those bits of glass are-?’

‘The last time I found something with “bits of glass” it sold for five million dollars,’ she said. ‘I’m sticking my neck out, but I think it’s real-real gold, real rubies, real emeralds-’

She got no further. His arms were about her, hugging her so tightly that she was breathless. The brooch fell, unnoticed, to the ground as he kissed her again and again.

‘Gustavo,’ she said, laughing and kissing him back.

‘We won,’ he cried exultantly. ‘We won. It’s all right; everything’s wonderful.’

‘Is it?’ she asked, her head reeling. ‘Well, I know you’re going to be very rich-’

‘But that’s what’s wonderful, don’t you see? I can ask you to marry me now.’

She placed her hands on his shoulders, frowning a little.

‘Now? You can only ask now?’

‘Of course. I’m independent now. I won’t look like a fortune-hunter to you now.’

Her frown deepened. ‘You never did look like a fortune-hunter to me. Put me down.’

He did so, while still keeping hold of her.

‘If you only knew how hopeless it looked to me-how could I approach you when I needed your money so badly?’

‘Why shouldn’t you? You did it once before. I didn’t blame you then. Why should you think I’d blame you now?’

‘But can’t you see that this is different? When we met the first time-it was a bargain on both sides. We knew the terms before we even met. In its way it was an honest transaction. But now-’

‘But now we’ve made love,’ she said slowly. ‘And that makes a difference. You’ll be saying next that I compromised your honour.’ She gave a mirthless laugh.

‘If anyone compromised it, I did. I tried to tell you that there were things I should have said first-’

‘But I already knew you were short of money. You needed to raise cash to repay Crystal. I think you told me that the first day. What were you doing? Warning me off?’

‘Of course not. You were just an old friend I felt I could trust. It was only later that it mattered so much-after London… Hell!’

He ran his hands through his hair. He wasn’t good at this. He preferred things to be straightforward.

‘After London-’ he tried again ‘-I thought we were closer-’

‘So did I-’

‘If Freddy hadn’t appeared-well, he did, and I had to be patient. I knew our time would come-it had to.’

‘The night of the party, the night Crystal appeared.’

‘Yes, she put all sorts of ugly ideas into my head.’

‘Trust her to do that! You shouldn’t have listened.’

‘She wants the rest of her money at once. Try not listening to that.’

‘I know. Freddy told me. The two of them are rapidly becoming as thick as thieves, but so what? How can they affect us?’

‘She suggested that I marry you to repay her. Did Freddy tell you that?’

‘No, but he thought of it for himself.’

‘I’ll bet he did. I’ll bet he’s slavering at the prospect.’

‘What does he matter?’ she cried. ‘Why must you tie yourself in knots about this?’