Then the door closed. The music was snuffed out like a candle. The moment was gone.
She turned her attention back to him. “You were about to say?”
But he had no idea what he would have said; in fact, he didn’t have a single useful thought in his head. So he shrugged and fell back on what he knew. “Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt—”
“Stop it!” she said. “Honestly, Giacomo, do you ever just say what you mean, without quoting all the time?”
“Fine,” he said, his own voice rising to match hers. “You are the most maddening girl I have ever known. No”—he corrected himself—“you are the most maddening person. I’m including everyone, male and female, that I have ever met in my entire life! You’re irritating and argumentative. And so, of course,” he finished with irritation, “you’re the one I had to fall in love with.”
“You . . . what did you say?”
He glared at her. “I said I love you.”
An uncertain look flashed across her face and was gone. She curled her lip. “Right. I’m sure you’ve never said that before.”
“Well.” He considered this. “Well, I’ve never meant it.”
For a long moment, Kate stood frozen.
Then she picked up her skirts and spun around, running away from him. He went after her, slipping on the grass and cursing under his breath as he imagined her slipping into the maze, lost to him forever. . . .
At the last moment, he caught her arm and pulled her back.
“Let me go.” She used the momentum to whirl around and push him, and he stumbled backward. He was still holding on to Kate, though, so she lost her balance and they both fell hard to the ground.
All the breath left his body. She had landed on top of him, her elbow slamming into his stomach.
Giacomo felt the cool grass beneath his head as he gasped for air.
“Are you all right?” Kate’s face hovered over his, silhouetted against the starry sky. She pushed herself off him, her hands on the ground on either side of his head. “Giacomo?”
He shook his head. He couldn’t speak.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He closed his eyes with relief as air finally rushed into his lungs.
“Giacomo?”
He didn’t say anything. He was enjoying the novelty of breathing too much to talk.
She watched him for a moment. Then she asked softly, “Do you mean it now?”
He reached for her hand and put it on his heart.
She could feel it, thudding beneath her fingers.
Giacomo smiled up at her with the same question in his eyes. So Kate answered it with a kiss.
Epilogue
Kate and Giacomo stood hand in hand on the terrace in front of the ballroom windows, which glowed with light and color in the darkness. The music spilled out into the hushed night, a lively tune that had Kate’s toes tapping under her silk gown.
Then she caught sight of herself in the window, her short curls shining in the moonlight, her face lit with happiness. She blinked in surprise. She looked so different that she almost didn’t recognize herself, and she seemed to hear the echo of Annie’s voice, saying, “You will be transformed!”
In the reflection, Giacomo’s eyes met hers.
“We should go inside,” he said, “if we want to dance.”
“I know,” she said, but still she lingered, watching as the musicians started another song and a new dance began.
First, Tom and Silvia spun by, and Kate raised her eyebrows in surprise. Tom was leading Silvia with the confidence of a prince, while Silvia looked stunned, caught somewhere between delight and disbelief.
Then Lucy and Benno whirled past. Kate smiled to see Lucy shining with happiness and Benno dancing with a grace that seemed to amaze everyone, especially him.
And finally, Giacomo’s mother and Kate’s father swept grandly into view. Kate gasped at the sight of them, beaming at each other as if there was no one else in the room.
For one long, astonished moment, she simply stared at the scene in front of her. Then she burst out laughing.
“What is the joke?” Giacomo asked.
“I was just remembering something I was once told.”
He gave her a questioning look, so she quoted, “Given enough time, even the impossible becomes possible.” She nodded toward the dancers, who were circling the room once more. “It’s a law of nature, apparently.”
“Ah, yes?” Puzzled, he turned to gaze through the windows. Then comprehension dawned on his face, and he smiled down at her.
“Ah,” he said, “Yes.”
Sarah enjoyed wearing her new black suede boots with the silver buckles. She enjoyed it very much indeed.
Author’s Note
The Juliet Club (or Il Club di Giulietta, as it’s known in Italy) was founded in Verona in 1972. Since then, the club has received thousands of letters every year from people of all ages around the world. The letters, which are all answered by volunteers, usually ask for love advice. Sometimes, however, they simply tell the letter writer’s own love story.
To learn more about the Juliet Club, visit the Web site at www.julietclub.com.
If you’d like to write to Juliet, send your letter to:
Club di Giulietta
Via Galilei, 3
1-37133 Verona
Italy
About the Author
SUZANNE HARPER researched for The Juliet Club by studying Shakespeare, stage sword fighting, Elizabethan dance, and Italian. She also visited Juliet’s House in Verona, Italy, and spoke to volunteers at the real-life Juliet Club. She is the author of The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney and has also written four nonfiction books, numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and several plays. She earned degrees in English and journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in writing from the University of Southern California. Suzanne Harper lives in New York City.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Credits
Cover art © 2010 by Fancy Photography/Veer
Cover design by Paul Zakris
Copyright
I would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank Giulio Tamassia, who was delegated president of Il Club di Giulietta (the Juliet Club) by the mayor of Verona, and Juliet’s secretaries (especially Elena Marchi). They welcomed me to Verona, answered dozens of questions, shared letters from their files, and in many other ways gave generously of their time as I was researching this book. I would also like to thank Lois Adams, Deborah Barnes, Bill Boedeker, Laaren Brown, Chris Ceraso, Sarah Cloots, Virginia Duncan, Steve Geck, Bretta Lundell, Martha Mihalick, Anneclaire Nelson, Dan Renkin, Barbara Trueson, Mitchell Waters, and Paul Zakris for their support and help.
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
The Juliet Club
Copyright © 2008 by Suzanne Harper
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harper, Suzanne.
The Juliet club / by Suzanne Harper.
p. cm. “Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: Whe
n high school junior Kate wins an essay contest that sends her to Verona, Italy, to study Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” over the summer, she meets both American and Italian students and learns not just about Shakespeare, but also about star-crossed lovers—and herself.
ISBN 978-0-06-136691-8 (trade bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-06-136692-5 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-06-136693-2 (pbk.)
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 Romeo and Juliet—Fiction. 3. Letters—Fiction. 4. Verona (Italy)—Fiction. 5. Italy—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H23197Ju 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2007041315
10 11 12 13 14 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
EPub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062215260
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