Chapter 8
September 1928 - Montalcino, Italy
Blazing with shame, Ava lifted her apricot silk organza, ankle-length dress and hurried across the crowded patio. It was a balmy Montalcino night with a million shimmering stars vying for brilliance, but the romance of the evening stopped there. All around her, the men were reliving the last war, speaking about atrocities she couldn’t bear to hear again.
When she’d married Luca and moved here earlier in the year, she’d fallen in love with the sheer beauty of Tuscany. But now, the charm of Montalcino had dimmed for her, and she found it growing more oppressive by the day. Her husband, Luca, was to blame, but what could she do?
She glanced behind her. The young Italian girls huddled at the far end of the stone-walled terrace were still laughin
