Chapter 13: Maid of Honor

I watched the video three times before Corrado reached over and turned the phone face down on my knee.

"Don't," he said.

"Half of Palermo has seen it."

"Then they don't need you to see it too."

The car came over a rise, and the house was there.

It was long and low, built of yellow stone, with a tiled roof and a row of cypress trees along the drive.

Behind it the hills climbed toward Etna.

There was snow on the very top, pink in the first light.

A gray-haired woman in a cardigan opened the door before we reached it.

She looked at my maid's uniform under the coat.

She looked at my feet.

"Bath first," she said to Corrado. "Then food. Then you can talk."

He didn't argue with her.

Nobody had told me what to do kindly in a long time.

I almost cried at that, and not at anything else.

The housekeeper ran the bath herself.

She took my bandages off, cleaned my heels with something that stung, and picked the bougainvillea thorns out of my palms with tweezers.

She didn't ask a single question.

When she left, she took the maid's uniform with her.

I heard the kitchen stove door open and close.

I sat in the hot water until it went cold.

Then I put on the clothes she'd left on the bed.

Linen trousers, a man's white shirt, a cardigan that smelled of lavender.

Corrado was at the kitchen table when I came down.

He'd taken off his jacket and rolled his sleeves.

There was bread on the table, and tomatoes, and cheese, and a pot of coffee.

He pushed a new phone across the wood toward me, still in its box.

"Your number," he said. "Nobody else has it."

"Thank you."

"Eat something, Avvocato."

I sat down and ate.

He drank his coffee and let me.

When I'd finished the bread, I put my hands flat on the table.

"I asked you a question last night."

"You asked what I wanted for the coat."

"I'm asking again."

He set his cup down.

He didn't look away from me while he answered.

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