The children are saved from the dreaded School Holiday Club in the nick of time!
They owe their escape to the elderly Miss Kents, who live in the basement of Paradise House. The Miss Kents have agreed to look after them. How can the children thank their rescuers enough?
They hatch a plan that they think will appeal to old ladies. But things don't go quite as planned. Will the surprise be spoilt?
In Venice, Frances Croy is working to leave the previous year behind: another novel published to little success, a scathing review she can't quite manage to forget, and, most of all, the real reason behind her self-imposed exile from London: the incident at the Savoy. Sequestered within an aging palazzo, Frankie finds comfort in the emptiness of Venice in winter, in the absence of others. And then Gilly appears.