In the House on the Hill

The house stands on top of a hill. From its front balcony, a magnificent view of Florence extends before you. Behind it lies an old garden, sparsely flowered but with beautiful trees, surrounded by hedges made of broken boxes. Grassy paths run through it, and within it stands an artificial cave, into which water cascades, emitting a melodious silver sound from a horn-shaped architectural ornament. The house was built by a Florentine nobleman in the sixteenth century, and his impoverished descendants sold it to an English family, who loaned it to Maerie Panton for a period. Although the rooms were spacious and high, the house itself was not large, and Maerie managed it very well with the help of three servants left by the English family to serve them. After her husband’s tragic death a year earlier, and after months of anxiety when she had to be constantly on call in case the lawyers collecting her husband’s squandered fortune wanted to see her, she was pleased to see the Leonard family’s offer of this ancient house so she could calm her nerves and consider what to do with her life. After eight years of extravagance and an unhappy marriage, she found herself in her thirties with only a few beautiful pearls and a sufficient income, albeit strictly limited, to support herself… until Rowley, a playboy Englishman, offered to help her get out of a case that had landed her in prison. Will she fall for this deceitful, untrustworthy man?