bank draft! She scooped it from the bed. Her eyes grew wide when she read the amount.
May walked into the maelstrom unprepared. Angelina whirled about the room packing bags and stuffing clothes into suitcases with such fury and determination that for a brief moment the usually boisterous May was taken aback and left speechless. "You taking a trip, Angelina?"
Angelina jumped and put a hand to her heart. "Oh, goodness, May! You scared me."
"I've been standing here a minute, but you were so involved with your task that you didn't notice. When did all this come about?" She nodded toward Angelina's packing.
"This afternoon. I went to see Tonio and tried to help get him out of jail. I gave a statement to the captain. Tonio was with me when the concentrator exploded.
"But Tonio wasn't happy that I had done it. He wants me to leave the Valley. Because of the guards, he couldn't explain. But I think it is because he loves me. He has a plan. I must trust him in this, even though it goes against everything logical." Her voice cracked.
"Where are you going?"
"Where Tonio told me to go—as far away as possible. New York." She held up her bank draft. "My money came. I can do as I please.
"I don't understand all this. Why am I always the one on the outside? Everyone knows something I don't and I'm left guessing." Angelina folded a skirt and stuffed it in her bag.
"If you thought about what's going on, you'd know, too."
"I'm tired of trying. I'm going to visit Nonna Gia. I can't stay here and see him hang if his plan goes awry."
"He's not going to hang." May looked exasperated, but Angelina ignored it. "He's going to stay in jail until he tells the feds everything he knows about Baker's operation, including who set the charge. That's all they want from him.
"In the meantime the union boys are afraid that he does know something. We're all being watched. We're all under suspicion. Tonio wants you out of the fray. He hasn't forgotten that Clell's still on the loose and as long as he is, you're in danger."
"I hope you are right, both of you." Angelina snapped her bag closed.
"Give me this Nonna's address. As soon as things are safe here, Tonio will want you to come back."
Several days later, Angelina sat in Nonna Gia's small apartment, restless and worried though she had just arrived.
"Thank you for letting me stay with you, Nonna Gia. Cousin Mario was upset about me not going back under his roof, but I think Lucia was relieved. They are crowded enough as it is." Angelina mindlessly toyed with Nonna's small sugar bowl as she sat at the table with a cold cup of coffee in front of her.
"But what of you, Angelina?"
"What do you mean, Nonna?" She let the sugar bowl go.
"When are you going to come back?"
"I am back."
"In body, perhaps. I mean, where is the old Angelina? Someone seems to have replaced her with a shell. I expected you to come back full of life, not beaten."
"And I'm by no means beaten. Just worried. They still have not released Tonio."
"Angelina, I must confess something to you. I didn't just happen to pick Tonio as an escort for you. I was playing matchmaker. Tonio is like a son to me, always has been. I know you both well. Tonio and you belong together. I knew that before you even met.
"I was disappointed when I heard you intended to go through with your marriage to that old man and had turned down the young handsome one I had offered. Yet, I see now that I was not wrong. There is something between you. You must tell me, every detail."
It was a relief to confess to a sympathetic ear. When she was finished Nonna Gia spoke. "He loves you, Angelina. And he is smart. Tonio will not hang. Let me ask you this, do you want Tonio?"
"Yes, of course I do!"
"Then stop acting like a frightened little Italian girl. Act like the American woman you've become. It is time to stop moping around and prepare for when Tonio sends for you."
It was the last thing Angelina expected Nonna Gia to say. She sounded more like May Hall. "What?"
"In Italy," Nonna Gia said, "The woman must let her parents arrange a marriage. The good Italian girl bows to her parents' wishes, as you have done once, and marries the man of their choice. Here in the Italian