There is one thing, though, one inarguable fact. For the first time in years – years of insomnia or fitful, disturbed sleep – he had a full night’s rest, and did not dream.
He learns that the Contessa has got the funding for her picture. Fede tells him it is some American industrialist, keen to cloak himself in culture perhaps. Filming has apparently already begun, somewhere on the coast, and in a studio near Rome. Not Cinecittà, though, but a tiny set-up owned by the Contessa herself. An interesting name: il Mondo Illuminato. The Illuminated World.
On a whim, he takes a detour one morning past the building that had housed the party. But the whole place is shut up, looking almost as though it has remained thus for the last five hundred years. Perhaps he should not be surprised. The whole night had felt hardly real.
3
March 1953
An early spring day, almost warm. He walks to work along the river, squinting against the light that flashes off the water. The city looks as glorious as he has ever seen it, wreathed in gold, and yet as ever he feels as if he is looking at it through a pane of glass; one step removed. Perhaps it is time to move again, he thinks. Perhaps he should have gone further afield in the first place: out of Europe. America. Australia. Money, though: that is a problem. North Africa could be more feasible. Somewhere out of the way, where he might live on very little and make a last attempt at the wretched writing. The war novel: the one meant to make some sense of it all. The problem, he thinks, is that one has to have made sense of something in one’s own mind before committing it to paper.
As soon as he enters the office, he is stopped by Arlo, the post boy.
‘A woman called, and asked for you.’
‘She did? What was her name?’
‘Um.’ Arlo checks the note. ‘No name.’ And then defensively, ‘She said she was a friend – I didn’t think to ask.’
‘Where is she?’
‘She’s staying at a hotel …’ Arlo searches for the name, raises his eyebrows when he finds it. ‘The Hassler.’
He wonders. It could be her, he thinks. He cannot think of anyone else he knows who could afford to stay at the Hassler, after all. He feels a thrill of something like anticipation.
‘This way, sir.’
Hal follows the man into the drawing room. His first thought is that it is precisely the sort of atmosphere his father, the Brigadier, would be drawn to. It reminds him powerfully, in fact, of the Cavalry and Guards club, where his father would stay while in London. From the windows the Spanish Steps are visible, thronged with life. The room is not crowded, but he searches in vain for a glimpse of blonde.
The waiter is leading him now toward a table in the opposite corner. When he sees its occupant, seated with her back to him, Hal is about to tell the man that he has made a mistake. This cannot be the person he is meeting. But then she turns.
‘Ah,’ she smiles, and raises one eyebrow. ‘You came, I’m so pleased. I did not know if you would be interested in keeping an appointment you were actually invited to.’
‘Contessa.’ He takes the seat opposite her.
‘I thought I would keep my invitation mysterious enough to intrigue you.’
‘It certainly did.’
‘You guessed that it came from me?’
‘Ah – no, I did not.’
She peers at him, and smiles. ‘You hoped that it was someone else?’
‘Not at all.’
‘Well,’ she says. ‘I have an offer of work for you.’
‘You do?’
Her smile broadens. ‘Ah, but you’re interested now!’
‘What is it, exactly?’ As if he is in a position to turn down anything. But he did not live with his father for so many years without learning something of how to conduct business.
Before she can speak the waiter has appeared to take their order.
‘Bring us some of that gnocchi,’ she tells him. ‘The one that Alessandro makes for me.’
The man nods, and disappears.
‘So,’ she says. ‘To business.’
‘Of course.’
‘My film, The Sea Captain, is being released this spring.’
‘Congratulations – I heard that you had funding for it. I didn’t realize it was finished.’
‘Thank you.’
The gnocchi arrives now. Hal has only eaten the dish alla Romana – doughy shapes submerged in sauce and baked. These are delicate morsels, scattered with oil and thin leaves of shaved truffle. They are delicious – and Hal notices that the Contessa, despite her extreme slenderness, is enjoying them with the same relish as he.
‘Who directed the film?’ Hal asks.
The Contessa smiles. ‘Giacomo Gaspari.’
‘Goodness.’ Hal is impressed. ‘It must be something.’
She nods and says, without preamble, ‘It is. Quite brilliant – which I can say, because I’m not the one responsible for that. It will be screening at the festival, at Cannes.’
‘That’s wonderful.’
‘I hoped that you might come with us.’