‘You too, mia principessa.’
‘Don’t fall asleep!’
‘I won’t,’ Marco laughed.
He listened to the familiar sounds as Daniela got ready to leave, scrambling to find her shoes and her coat as Rosina gently chided her along. Then the front door slammed and everything went quiet, the silence ringing throughout the apartment. Marco sat for a few moments longer then, with a tangle of thoughts running through his mind, he headed for the shower.
‘Olivia!’
Olivia Booth swept into the grand lobby of the hotel in a cloud of Chanel No. 5, dressed head to toe in a cream suit, a set of diamond studs glistening in her ears and a vintage Tiffany & Co. watch on her wrist.
‘Gina, darling I’m delighted to see you. My goodness, you get more beautiful every day!’ she gushed. Olivia’s voice retained a hint of the Yorkshire village where she’d been born, the daughter of a miner. To anyone passing she looked like a wealthy, attractive woman of middle age, and the only thing that hinted at a different backstory was a stick, one with an engraved silver swallow handle, which she held discreetly to her side as the porter took her mountain of luggage through the lobby on a trolley.
‘You look wonderful too, blooming!’ Gina smiled, hugging Olivia tightly.
‘I feel wonderful, darling, it is sooo good to be back in Venice, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed the old place.’
‘Where is Max?’ Gina asked.
‘He’s just paying the water taxi … Ah, here he is now.’
Max Hillman-Clark was a Queen’s Counsel in London, one of the country’s top barristers, but outside his day job he was also a renowned collector and expert in Venetian art. As if that wasn’t enough, he was the son of a baronet and came from one of the wealthiest families in England.
‘I can’t wait to see the suite, darling, is it just as I remember it?’ Olivia enquired, her eyes dancing with excitement.
‘We haven’t changed a thing,’ Gina reassured her. ‘Well, not so as you would notice anyway,’ Gina winked.
‘I don’t doubt that you have had it completely refurbished, repainted and refurnished, just so it can look exactly as it always has done,’ Olivia said.
‘You know us so well!’
‘Darling, it is the only place in Venice that Max and I would choose to get married, isn’t it?’
Max leaned in and gave Gina a warm embrace. ‘Are there any other hotels in Venice?’ he teased.
‘I promise you both, everything is just as you wanted it. You really are my favourite guests, and possibly my favourite people on the planet. I’m organizing everything myself, and you are going to have a day that you will never forget – one that Venice won’t forget, in fact.’
Gina made a discreet nod towards one of the concierges standing close by, who hurried over. Gina took two room keys from him. ‘Carlo will be looking after you today, and he is under strict instructions to give you anything you need.’
Max kissed her cheek, ‘Gina, where would we be without you?’
‘You’re our guardian angel, Gina,’ Olivia agreed.
‘Carlo is going to take you up to your suite now. We can catch up on all of your news when you’ve settled in.’
‘Oh I insist on that!’ Olivia said, ‘I want to hear all about that singer, Lucia de Santis. I’ve heard she’s quite the diva!’
You have no idea …
As Gina watched Olivia and Max head towards the opulent old-fashioned lift, she felt an inner warmth. She had first met Olivia five years previously, when she was still quite new to the hotel herself, and Olivia’s circumstances had been very different indeed.
Olivia really did deserve the very best that the White Palace could offer, and Gina was going to make sure she got it.
After a busy afternoon, Gina looked at her watch and realized she was running late for the most important date in the Venetian calendar. She had been so busy she hadn’t even had time for her usual one hundred laps in the White Palace pool, which helped her to de-stress and clear her mind of her intense schedule. Now she had to rush; she needed to get back to her apartment and prepare for Carnevale.
She lived in a beautiful old building in the Dorsoduro area of Venice, only a short boat ride away from the hotel, but a world away in terms of style and attitude. Where the White Palace was grand and prestigious, Dorsoduro was the university district. It had a laid-back, unpretentious feel, and was famed for its museums and galleries.
Gina’s apartment was plain and tidy; she worked such long hours that she rarely spent any time there. The flat was rented, and she shared the two-bedroomed place with her colleague, Vittoria, who was the head receptionist at the hotel.
Outside of work, Vittoria was brash, funny and outrageous, and she never failed to make Gina laugh, always able to draw out the fun side from her natural coolness. Though Gina could easily have afforded her own apartment, something grander in a more exclusive area, she adored living with Vittoria. Gina had made few friends in Venice, and rarely socialized with her colleagues, but she enjoyed Vittoria’s company, and the two of them had lived together for the past few years. Every week Vittoria tried to set Gina up with a different man, and Gina was always trying to get out of Vittoria’s matchmaking, insisting that she was married to her job and there was no time for love.
‘How was La Leonessa’s arrival?’ Vittoria asked with an expectant grin, as Gina walked into their apartment.
Gina raised an eyebrow. ‘As you’d expect, her arrival was a circus,’ she said, making Vittoria laugh wickedly. In truth, Gina didn’t want to talk about Lucia de Santis; she was hoping to avoid her as much as possible, and had designated Lucia her own personal attendant, one who would report directly to Gina. But given Lucia’s reputation as a demanding diva, it seemed unlikely her visit would pass without Gina being called upon to fulfil some outrageous demand herself.
‘What time is Leo picking us up?’ Vittoria asked.
‘He’ll meet us at the jetty in an hour.’
Leo was the hotel’s head boatman, and tonight he would take a group of White Palace guests out along the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco, which was at the heart of the Carnival festivities. Gina, Vittoria, and a dozen other staff members would accompany the guests, stay with them if required, and escort them home shortly after midnight. The more adventurous could wander at liberty, free to get lost in the labyrinthine streets around the piazza and experience the thrill of the crowd. Although it was one of the busiest times of the year for Gina, she got to have some fun too.
‘How many guests are we expecting?’ Vittoria asked.
‘Thirty.’ Gina had recognized many of the names on the list she’d received earlier that day, repeat customers who she’d come to know well over the years. Olivia and Max would be there, and the Martins from Paris, who stayed whenever they were in the city, while Philippa Russo, of the famous wine dynasty, was bringing her teenage daughter, Carina, to experience her first Carnival. For the Japanese Abe family, it was their first visit to Italy, but they’d stayed many times at White Palaces across the world, and Gina had liaised with her counterparts overseas to learn their preferences and ensure their vacation went without a hitch.
‘The boat will be almost full,’ Vittoria commented.
‘And the hotel almost empty,’ Gina laughed.
