talk, I am sick. Please go away …” His guttural, deep moans were no deterrent for Eugenia’s complaints and accusations.
During those visits, Eugenia and Matilda exchanged only half sentences and bitter words, always ending their encounters on heavily sarcastic notes. As for Antonio, he went out of his way to keep an eye on Ivano but lost track of him after only a day. He wasn’t at home or at the bakery or at any of his favorite hangouts, and his father had no idea where he was. Puzzled, Antonio wondered what Ivano’s sudden disappearance might mean. He informed Giuseppe of Ivano’s absence, which served to further agitate the lawyer. As for Doctor Sciaccaluga, he stopped by the palazzina as often as he could and went out of his way to make Giuseppe feel better, for he didn’t want to lose his precious ally—not until his entrance into the upper class was ratified with either a marriage or the establishment of steadfast relationships with other members of the Genoese society.
One day the doctor noticed in Giuseppe signs of an unclear mind. On a couple of occasions he heard him utter disconnected words and sentences without a meaning. And when he tried to make conversation with him, he realized that Giuseppe took longer than normal to understand what he was saying. Frightened at the thought that Giuseppe might become incapacitated or die, Damiano asked himself what he should do to prepare for the lawyer’s imminent passing. The Parenti document he had in his nightstand would not be as valuable with Giuseppe no longer alive, although he could perhaps still use it for blackmail, as he had originally thought. Giuseppe’s sons, even Matilda, would want to keep that document away from indiscrete eyes. Opportunity knocked when one least expected it, he knew all too well, so he resolved to keep the document in question in his pocket at all time in case he found himself in a situation that required the document to be put to use. Meanwhile, out of professional scruples, he warned Matilda that Giuseppe’s condition was not improving.
“His mind is fading,” he said sadly. “You should prepare for the worst. I’ll be back tomorrow, but call me if something happens overnight. I’ll bring a nurse with me in the morning, someone who can stay with Giuseppe all the time.”
That night Matilda sat at the foot of her bed, staring at her own shadow on the floor. She wondered about Giuseppe’s condition and hoped it would continue to deteriorate. She could soon be a widow and free to do as she pleased. The secret of her hymen would die with Giuseppe and nothing would prevent her from freeing Caterina. She moved to her dressing table and looked at herself in the mirror. She had aged visibly during the past year, and her face showed signs of the long hours spent at her husband’s bedside and of the emotions of the past days. Her skin was wrinkled in places that had been smooth, her eyes were torpid and sad. She stared at the unfamiliar image the mirror was sending back to her. Past her own reflection and the dancing light, deep into the glass, Matilda saw the ghost of Caterina. She saw the blond hair, the green eyes, and the joyful smiles. She heard her laughter, loud and sudden like fireworks in the dark of the night, and her tingling voice, and the sound of her steps in the corridors of the palazzina. Then she saw Caterina as she had seen her last, standing under the rain by the locked gate, begging for her and Giuseppe’s forgiveness, shouting Raimondo’s name to save herself from the punishment that had been set for her. Eyes fixed to the mirror, Matilda wondered if there was some truth in Caterina’s words, if Caterina knew secrets no one else knew. She wondered about Raimondo and the life of dissolution he led outside the firm, women and alcohol and tobacco a gogo’. It was then that Caterina’s words echoed in her mind.
“Do you want to know who? Do you? Raimondo did it! Do you understand, Father? Your son Raimondo did it! My brother!”
Brusquely, Matilda turned away from the mirror. She stood up, fluffed her dress, and calmly descended the staircase. Downstairs, she summoned Guglielmo and the rest of the staff to the blue parlor.
“I will be going on a trip that will keep me away from home for a few days,” she told everybody. “I’ll leave in