Chapter 14: Too Late

"Get up," Cecilia said.

Adamo stayed on his knees on the wet step.

"The nurse gave it back to me," he said. "I've carried it for eighteen days."

"I didn't ask for it."

"I haven't slept. I went to every room in that house and you weren't in any of them."

Behind him a small line had begun to form on the sidewalk.

The tailor's wife from the corner stood first, in her slippers, with a cloth bag.

Two men from the pharmacy stood behind her.

They had smelled the bread from half a block away, and they had known whose shop it was.

"Cecilia, listen to me. Simona lied to me. She told me she'd lose the boy if I left her."

"She told you."

"I was weak. I know that. I'll sign the Delancey house over to you today. I'll give back the docks."

"The docks aren't yours to give. Ask your brother."

"I'll do anything." His voice cracked. "I lost you. I've lost you forever, haven't I?"

She looked down at him.

He was handsome still, in the soft, well-fed way of a man who had never been made to carry anything heavy.

"I called you six times," she said.

The tailor's wife went very still.

"I was on the bridge with glass in my face. I called you six times, and the sixth time your mistress answered and told me you were coming."

"Cecilia, not here."

"You said that at the hospital too. You say it every time someone can hear."

"I had a fever to deal with, Santi was sick..."

"Santi was fine. You were in her bed. You told me so yourself, in front of a nurse."

A woman in the line said, quite audibly, "Madonna."

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