Chapter 10: Mrs. Greco Orders Dessert

The woman in the white fur coat was standing in the middle of the corridor with a handbag over one arm.

She was fifty, straight-backed, and utterly out of place.

Three students had stopped to stare at her.

She ignored all of them.

"Dante, darling," she said, in a voice Dante had never heard her use. "There you are. You look thin."

"Mama," Dante said, and bit down on the rest.

"Mother," she corrected sweetly. "Mrs. Greco. I was passing, and I thought, why shouldn't I see where my son sleeps?"

She turned to Javier, who had stopped dead beside him, and smiled with every one of her teeth.

"And you must be the roommate. Rank one. The warden says you are a marvel."

"Ma'am," Javier said, a little stunned.

"You will all come to lunch. I have booked a table. I will not hear a word."

"I have a clinical skills class at one," Javier said.

"It was cancelled." Maria patted her handbag. "I rang the dean."

Daniel made a small, joyful sound.

"Mrs. Greco," he said, "I would like to be adopted."

The restaurant was on the harbor front, with white tablecloths, and a waiter who bowed too low.

Dante recognized the owner.

The owner recognized Maria.

Neither of them said a word.

A table by the window had been set for four.

Through the glass they could see the green water and the mine road above the town.

Maria ordered for the table without opening the menu.

Soup first. Then fish. Then a roast. Then four desserts, to be brought in no particular order.

"Mrs. Greco," Daniel whispered, "are you rich?"

"Very," Maria said. "My late husband was in shipping."

"I thought so. The coat."

"The coat is a decoy. The pearl is real."

Under the table, her heel came down hard on the toe of Dante's shoe.

He understood.

Smile.

He smiled.

Javier, across the cloth, was eating soup with careful good manners and watching Maria like a patient he was assessing.

"Dante tells me nothing about himself," Maria said, buttering bread. "Nothing at all."

She glanced at Javier.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Died for His Lover, Then Returned to Win His Trust from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.