Trace Elements (Commissario Guido Brunetti, #29)

by Donna Leon

‘But you love the English,’ he said, suddenly wanting this conversation never to end, to stand and talk about books with the woman he loved and to know he had the good sense to see this moment as one of the great gifts life had given him.

‘My mother always rewarded us with food.’ She laughed again. ‘Is that how I reward you?’ she asked, joking. ‘Dearest heart,’ Brunetti said, ‘you reward me by sitting and watching me sleep.’