“Someday, dear boys, you two shall have to accept a mantle of responsibility as well,” my father said.
“Indeed,” Felix said, already moving away, walking backward. “But we intend to put it off as long as possible!” He saluted me. “We’ll play a ball in your honor, Cora.”
“See that it wins,” I said.
He returned my smile and walked down the hill with Hugh, and while a part of me wished I was going with them, I was also intent on seeing what it meant, working with my father and learning about this mine business. While I had thought my love of learning was leading me to teaching, couldn’t the Lord have simply been preparing me to be ready to apply my mind to other matters? Just because I hadn’t explored such things before didn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy it.
Two hours later, as the columns of numbers swam before my eyes, my father droned on about the ethics of management. Another thick manila folder before me was neatly labeled “Kensington-Diehl Mine.” There had to be over a hundred pages inside.
My father was silent at last, and I belatedly looked up at him. His lips gathered in a compassionate line. “I’ve overtaxed you. It’s a great deal to take in. Perhaps a bit of tea outside, so you can get some fresh air?”
“That would be most welcome,” I admitted, grateful for his kind attention.
“I’ll have a maid fetch it for you. I must see to other matters anyway. It was a good start today. We’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow.” He rang a bell to summon a servant.
I nodded eagerly, as if I couldn’t visualize anything more enticing, and then rose to leave. He and Mr. Morgan rose politely too, and when I left the room and entered the hallway, I took my first full breath in what felt like a long while. The house was very quiet—were the others still out playing croquet? Or had they all retired for afternoon naps?
It was just as well with me…I didn’t wish to see anyone at the moment. Except that maid with my tea. My mouth was terribly dry, and a bite of something sweet might settle my oddly upset belly. I took deep breaths of the air, redolent with the scents of lavender and rosemary, the hot smell of summer in Italy.
I’d no sooner sat down beneath a wide umbrella, protected from the full force of the sun—comfortably guarded by a wide umbrella from the full force of the sun—than Anna appeared, carrying a tray. “Your father said you were in need of some refreshments, Miss?”
“Indeed. That would be lovely.” I watched her as she poured me a cup and used silver tongs to move a roll from a basket to the edge of my saucer. “Do you care to join me, Anna?”
“Ah, no, Miss. I’m afraid that wouldn’t be entirely proper.”
“Frankly, I don’t care much for propriety,” I said. “Please, sit.”
She hesitated, but then looked down the long stone porch to where Mr. Grunthall stood, smoking. He lifted his chin in greeting, a slight smile on his face.
“I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t approve, Miss,” Anna said, wiping nervous hands on her apron.
“I’m fairly certain I don’t care what he would approve or not,” I said crossly. But when I saw her face gather in increased consternation, I relented. “It’s fine, Anna. Forgive me. Apparently I’m not fit for company anyway.”
“Perhaps you need a bit of a rest?”
“I am more than a little weary,” I said, sipping my tea and watching Simon Grunthall stamp out his cigarette and disappear inside. I’d glimpsed him working away at a desk earlier as I slipped through the hall to the restroom. Maybe he was off to continue his correspondence.
“Well, put your feet up,” Anna said, looking out at the view from the expansive patio. “It’s a lovely day. It’s good for you to get some fresh air.”
“Indeed.” She disappeared, and I sipped from my cup, thinking about the overwhelming events of the last few days. Life-changing events. Was all of that the reason my head now pounded? I wished Will was here, beside me, so that he might help me sort it out. Distinguish what I was feeling. But he’d left me to my business and was likely accompanying the others. Or perhaps taking a rest himself.
My eyelids felt heavy as I placed my cup on the saucer beside the crumbs left from my delicious pastry, then set it on the table beside me. I did as Anna suggested and lifted my legs to the end of the chaise and leaned back, hands folded over my aching belly, eyes closed. Just a few minutes of rest, I decided. That would be all I needed…
“Miss Cora,” said a low voice. “Miss Cora,” the voice repeated, gently touching my shoulder. I blinked awake and immediately felt the heat of the afternoon sun.
“I’m afraid you drifted off,” Mr. Grunthall said. He straightened and looked around as if seeking help, at a loss as to what to do.
“Oh!” I lifted a hand to my cheeks, hot with potential burn, and abruptly shifted my feet to the ground, embarrassment adding to the heat. “Thank you for awakening me,” I said, rising and passing by him. I scurried inside, miffed that Anna had not come to fetch me. Then I laughed at myself and how I’d become accustomed to such coddling. I shook my head and walked down the cool hallway to my room, wondering where my traveling companions had gone to. Viv, Felix, and Lil. Even the Morgans. Mostly Hugh and Nell. Not Andrew. He could stay hidden. It was startling, the odd pang of separation I felt. I thought I was hungry for a little distance, the chance to breathe and move unencumbered by the group’s needs or desires. But now even a couple of hours’ separation struck me as…empty.
I entered my room, refusing to give in to a sigh. I’d been sighing far too often of late. I needed to concentrate on the bounty of gifts I’d been given, rather than on my trivial frustrations.
Anna was dozing in a chair in the corner, her small feet perched on the ottoman. I hid a smile as I opened an innovation trunk wider to find a suitable evening gown. She started as the heavy hinges creaked, rising so swiftly that I wondered if she had truly been asleep. “Oh, my goodness me! Forgive me, Miss, dozing off like that in your very own quarters.” She straightened and looked me full in the face. “Oh!” she cried, her eyes rounding with her lips. “Miss! Did you go for a walk without a parasol?”
“No, no,” I said ruefully. “I simply managed to doze off. In the shade at first, where you left me, but when I woke, in the sun.” As I spoke, I moved to look at my image in the mirror, patting my hot cheeks. “Is it truly as terrible as all—” My words faded as I realized what Mr. Grunthall had seen. “Oh.”
It was rather terrible. I didn’t have the honest, sun-kissed glow or ruddy color I was used to from an afternoon in the fields. It was more of a one-sided burn, one that had singed my left ear lobe, most of my left cheek, and an odd portion of my nose. “Oh,” I said again, turning back and forth as I examined my face.
“Oh,” Anna said, peeking at my reflection from over my shoulder.
“Oh,” I repeated, but this time, I started to giggle, and Anna giggled too, and soon we were in hysterics, laughing at the silly predicament I’d gotten myself into.
“Perhaps,” she said, trying to gather herself, wiping a tear of laughter from one eye with the back of a knuckle, “a bit of powder will help?”
“Yes,” I said, blowing my nose in a handkerchief and wincing at the pain I felt on the left side of my nose. “Though I fear there will be no way to truly hide this.” I shook my head at my own folly. Why had I not taken my nap in here, as Anna had done? Although it had been so lovely…the gentle breeze, the heat of the sun on my lap, easing the pain in my head and belly…
Anna lifted a yellow gown from a trunk and smoothed it before her as if modeling it. “This one tonight, Miss?”
“I don’t know,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Might not that bright, light color make my face appear all the more burnt?”
“Hmm,” she said, “perhaps. Let me see what else I might suggest…” She set to poking through the other trunks, as if she didn’t know every stitch of my clothing as well as I.
I reached for a small brush and a jar of powder and opened it. I dipped the bristles in and tapped it twic
e on the edge so the excess would fall off, then began to cover my face. While it covered some of my burn, it was hardly concealed. I sighed, thinking about how merciless Hugh’s teasing would be, and the patronizing smile that Viv was certain to send my way. I could almost hear their thoughts now. The poor little country bumpkin, falling asleep in the sun. You can dress her as a lady, but you can’t force her to act like one. Imagine that, dozing off in the sun, with so little care for her complexion! And she is supposed to help Father run a mine?
Anna helped me out of my tan traveling suit and into the light periwinkle gown. But when I turned back to the mirror, I gasped. The burn extended down to my neck, in a slight v marking where my traveling suit ended.
As if it mattered at all. Such foolishness! How many times had my fair skin become pink from an afternoon of work in the fields, even with a hat on? How often had my hands and face and neck become brown over the summer, evidence of my place as a farmer’s daughter? At one point I’d liked the color, until I’d gone off to Normal School and everyone seemed so intent on evading any brief kiss of the sun. Though their concern over it was nothing compared to the women in the circles I now moved…
That evening, Antonio took us to a lovely trattoria not far from the villa. It was on the very edge of Turin, and had only five tables. Our group filled all but one of them. I was seated beside the window, which gave me a glorious view of the remains of the sunset, now a line of deep rose and orange along the horizon.
“I don’t know if I’d venture so close to the window,” Felix teased me as he passed by. “Haven’t you had more than your fair share of the sun today?”
“Enough, Felix,” Father said, taking a chair at the next table behind me. “You all have had your fun. Leave the girl alone.”
Will squeezed my hand. “It isn’t all that bad.”
“Isn’t it?” I asked, lifting a brow.
“Well, at least it won’t be so bad tomorrow,” he amended.
After conferring with Antonio, Will ordered food for us all. Antipasti of salami and cheese and bread. A tomato soup thick with basil. A full bass fish for each of us, with its head attached, which put off Vivian and Nell.
Will smiled at the girls as he finished the last of his own bass. “They believe you wish to see the fish’s head,” he said. “It allows you to confirm that the fish is truly fresh.”
Vivian stuck her fork in the white flesh and looked rather sick. “I’d take their word for it.”
He laughed under his breath and then sat back in his chair, chewing. “You look lovely this evening, Cora. Your color simply appears high. But how did you manage to get so much sun? I thought you were inside with your father.”
“I was with him for a couple hours. Then I was feeling poorly, honestly. With the shade and welcome breeze, I fell asleep as soon as I thought about nodding off, I think. Then awoke under the heat of the full sun.”
His eyebrows shot up and then knit together as he gave me a sorry smile. “Forgive me for not rescuing you in time.”
“It was my own fault,” I said. “But after our busy day, I was so weary, it felt impossible to fight it.”
“Do you feel well now?”
I considered his question. “Mostly,” I said, nodding when a waiter gestured to my plate. “I seem to be suffering a rather constant state of indigestion,” I whispered. Even now my belly ached, and I felt light-headed. It was with some relief I saw the fish go, especially when the next dish was a wide plate filled with a scoop of risotto, which appeared appealingly bland. Perhaps I could manage some of that.
“Do you think we should summon a doctor?” Will asked quietly. His face was rife with concern.
“No, no,” I said, waving him off. “I’m certain it’s only the dramatic events that have sent my system in disarray. I’ll be well soon enough.” I took a bite of the surprisingly delicious steamy rice. “Tell us what you have in store for us tomorrow.”
“Yes, do,” Lillian said. She’d attempted to tame her curls into a knot tonight, and done a reasonably good job, but coiled tendrils still escaped all around her hairline. I thought it adorable, as bouncy and vivacious as her personality.
Will and Antonio shared a long look and then nodded at me. “We went to town this afternoon,” Antonio said. “To confirm some options.”
“We can go one of two directions,” Will put in, loudly enough for all to hear. “Either to Cinque Terre, which Antonio mentioned to you. There is not much to see there in terms of history or art. Most tourists favor Pisa or Naples if you want to spend time by the sea. Antonio said that he thought that the group seems anxious for rest by the sea. Or would you all prefer Tuscany? Toscana boasts its own sort of rest, with her rolling hills and idyllic farms. And there are plenty of churches and monuments to explore, as well as loads of art.”
I nodded. “I would love time in Tuscany,” I said, suddenly longing for Dunnigan, for the smell of just-turned soil and water, fresh from the well, sloshing about a metal bucket. Idyllic, rolling hills, covered in crops of wheat or grapes, might be just what I needed.
“But to see the sea again,” Lillian said dreamily. “Can we not go there first?”
Vivian nodded beside her, even as Andrew rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, as if this was all foolishness. He’d been exceedingly grumpy ever since Venice, and they’d taken a new track.
“Oh yes,” I said, nodding encouragement to my sisters. The last thing I wanted was for Andrew to squash Vivian’s desires. He could move on to Rome, as far as I was concerned, and wait for us to arrive, if it was all so tiresome. “I want to put on one simple day dress and stay in it all day long. To eat where the locals eat. To dip my toes in the sand.”
“You might get a bit more burned,” Will said, a teasing smile tipping up the corners of his lips.
“Well then, if it takes that to do as I’ve said, I hope so,” I said, smiling back at him. “A little burn never hurt a body.” I heard some defense in my own tone. “My papa said the Lord favored the echo of the sun on a man’s face after a day of toil.”
“Or a woman’s?” he asked.
“Or a woman’s.”
We smiled at each other. I let my gaze linger overly long, but I couldn’t resist him. It was so good to be openly with Will, without fear of others discovering our love. It felt good. Right. And I took that as God’s encouragement that this was the path He wanted us on. Right here. Right now. And that was enough. Thank You, I breathed, sliding in the very last bite of risotto I could manage.
After declining dessert, my father settled our bill with the proprietor, and we rose to go. As we left, a woman at the other table caught my eye, and I immediately recognized her as the woman I’d seen at the church, the one who’d overheard my generosity with the old beggar. She had a long, straight nose and wide eyes lined with dark lashes. We exchanged a polite smile as Will and I exited, but when I glanced back, I saw that she had caught Antonio and the two were chatting.
We waited outside for a moment as the others filed out, and Will glanced back in confusion, wondering what might be keeping Antonio. He arrived at last and pulled on his gloves. “That was Signora Eleonora Masoni,” Antonio said, inclining his head back toward the door. “She saw what you did in the church in Turin, Miss Cora, and she was moved by your act of kindness.”
“What’s this?” Father said, overhearing our conversation. “What transpired in the church?”
“I only gave a poor woman in need a bit of money,” I said.
“A great deal of money,” Felix corrected.
Antonio’s smile grew even as my father’s diminished. “She’s traveling too and hoped to host you tomorrow for dinner. But I informed her that we were likely off tomorrow to the coast. She gave me her card,” he said, handing me an elegant calling card on thick cream paper. “She said that when we reach Toscana, we must stay at her villa near Montepulciano, at least for a few nights. She was most insistent.”
Signora Eleonora Masoni, I read on the card, along
with her address. “That was kind of her,” I said. I smiled and then accepted Will’s arm, walking—with a very full stomach—to our motorcar.
“One kindness begets another,” he said.
William
Days later, Will alternately felt gloriously victorious, as if Cora was a prize he’d won after doing battle on multiple fronts—and riddled with guilt for exactly the same reason. But as they dug their toes into the sand beside the turquoise waters between Monterosso and Vernazza, two of the five cities that clung to the cliffs high above and made up the Cinque Terre, and she smiled at him from beneath the brim of her wide hat, he gave in to the luxury of joy.
Lord, Lord, how is it that You have given me such a gift as she? Over and over, the idea of it stunned him. That she had chosen him over Pierre. The shadow of Pierre’s threat to meet them in Rome passed over him, but he ignored it like a potential cloud threatening the future sun in the light of today’s bright orb. And then there was her fortune. He shook the thought off, not wanting to think of the complications that brought into their lives.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, pouring a handful of coarse sand on his knee. “Why so distracted?”
“Hey.” He smiled, brushing off the sand, then picking up a handful of his own and letting it drop on her hand, sprinkling each finger. “Nothing’s the matter. I’m sitting on one of the prettiest coastlines in the world, with one of the prettiest women in the world. What could be wrong?”
She smiled, but he could tell by her expression that she knew he held something back. But what could he say? Why bring up his concerns?
Cora looked out to the water, and Will studied her profile. Long lashes, blonde at the tips, a perfect nose, an adorable chin. His eyes slipped lower, along her slender neck and over her bathing costume. She was small but strong. As strong outwardly as when he’d met her. But inwardly, now even stronger. And she was growing in strength, expanding in capacity.
Over the last days, she’d negotiated long meetings with Andrew and the family patriarchs, as well as a long interview with the bothersome Mr. Grunthall. It was clearly difficult for her, but she seemed to settle within, more and more, as each day passed. If only I could do the same, Lord. Where do I belong in all of this? Where are You? Why do You hide Your face from me? Show me, Lord. Show me how I am to navigate these roads. How I am to protect her and yet be my own man in the midst—
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