Chapter 7: Tullio's Reason

I went down to the fish market at seven the next morning to buy anchovies.

The widow on the third floor had said my caponata needed them.

The stalls were open and the cobbles were wet with ice water.

I had a basket on my arm and Gaspare's niece beside me, a girl of fifteen who knew the price of everything.

"Not that one," she said. "He's cheating you with the thumb on the scale."

"I saw."

"So why didn't you say?"

"I'm saving it for someone who deserves it."

She grinned.

Then the crowd in front of me parted.

Tullio stood at the end of the row in a pressed shirt, alone, with his watch on his wrist.

"Viola," he said. "Please. Five minutes."

The girl stepped in front of me with her chin up, and I put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's all right," I said. "Go and find Gaspare."

She did not go far.

"How did you find me?" I asked him.

"Everyone knows where you live. They've made a shrine of it."

He glanced at the fishmongers, who had gone back to their ice and were listening to every word.

"Can we walk?"

"Say it here."

"Viola." His voice dropped. "You wanted to know why."

"I did."

"I knew you'd want an explanation." Tullio swallowed.

"The honest one is that I couldn't breathe, Viola. Eight years."

"Everyone looked at me as the man who was going to marry the Don's sister. I was never me."

"With Nerina I'm the one who matters."

"And the seat at the Table?"