A second later, the room was filled with the sound of chairs scraping back. Claire turned to the door, feeling like a giddy schoolgirl. She led them out to the grassy area near the football pitch and sat on the wooden table there. The class settled on the turf, facing her.
"What better way to start the new school year than talk about the Renaissance. It began in Italy in the fourteenth century and lasted until the seventeenth." She paused. "Renaissance. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that word?"
"Art," a girl at the front laughed, just as a sandy-haired boy said, "Da Vinci."
Claire nodded and looked around.
"Florence," someone else said.
"The Uffizi Gallery." This came from a bespectacled brunette near the back, her voice slow and timid.
Claire gave her a bright smile. "The Uffizi Gallery," she concurred. "Have you ever been, Louise?"
"My parents have, when they went to Italy a few years back," the girl answered. "They took a lot of pictures."
"It's hard to resist," Claire agreed before turning her attention to everyone. "The Uffizi Gallery is a Renaissance-lover's paradise, and one of my favorite museums. And I'm not saying that because I went to college in Florence."
Grins followed the statement, but she went on without a beat. "The building of the Uffizi was commissioned by the second Duke of Florence, Cosimo I de Medici. It began in 1560 and was completed twenty-one years later. Uffizi in Italian means offices. Does anyone know why the museum is called that?"
There was a momentary silence, and then the brunette girl spoke: "It was meant to be offices, apparently, butâ" She paused. "It's big."
Claire opened her mouth.
"It was built to accommodate the Florentine administration."The art teacher turned abruptly to look behind her. The voice belonged to a dark-haired young man about her age, lounging against a tree. Blue eyes were fixed on the group, and a smug grin tugged at one corner of his mouth. He had handsome features. Claire didn't recognize him.
She blinked. "That's right," she said slowly, vaguely wondering how long he had been watching them. He held her gaze for an instant before she turned to address her class again, tearing their attention from the stranger.
