Dante was losing his patience.
“I can’t let you in to see her. It is after hours.” Mother Maria Annunciata spoke to Dante through the front gate. It was eleven o’clock in the evening and the Convent of the Holy Sisters of Rectitude had long since closed for the night.
“I must see her,” Dante insisted.
“Come back tomorrow,” the abbess suggested. “I’m sure she’ll see you then.”
“No, she won’t, Mother Maria…” He paused to catch her eye. “Mother. I’ve been trying all day. She won’t ever see me willingly. But do you remember telling me she is troubled? Now I know why. And I believe I can help her.”
The abbess stood momentarily stunned at Dante’s use of the word mother. He knew they would have a conversation at some point about the liberty he had taken, but not tonight. Tonight he had to see Agnese, to make her understand, before it tore both of them apart forever.
His mother stared at him for a moment longer and then unlocked the gate. “She is working in her laboratory,” she said quietly. “Do not make me come after you, and for heaven’s sake, do not raise your voices.”
Dante found Agnese bent over her microscope, so focused on her work that she didn’t hear him come in. He didn’t want to scare her, so he called her name softly from the door. She looked up at him and froze.
“How…how did you get in here?” she stuttered.
“The Mother Superior let me in. I have to speak with you, Agnese, but you refused to take my calls or answer my notes.”
“I told you, we have nothing to talk about,” she said dismissively, bending over her instrument again.
“Oh yes we do, and I’m not leaving until you face it…and face me.”
She looked at him then, a weary expression on her face, as if she’d been traveling a long while and had come to a dead end. “How much do you know?” she asked.
“I know enough to ask you to speak to me about…about everything. And to do so from the heart.” His own heart was breaking for her as he envisioned the mental anguish she must be going through.
He watched as she pulled herself together and faced him. “You really want to know the truth, Dante? Are you sure? Even though it will change completely the way you feel about me?”
“That’s not going to happen. But yes, I want to know. Everything.”
“All right then.” She took a deep breath before releasing the toxins inside her. “Santo took me as his mistress when I was sixteen.” Her voice was flat, without inflection. “I serviced him for two years, almost daily, and during that time I became pregnant and had an abortion. When I was eighteen I was able to leave for university, and minimized my visits home. Still, he had me on occasion for another year until I finally gathered the courage to tell him no more. So you see, the woman you think is so virtuous is not real. She is a fraud.”
Agnese stopped speaking and looked down at her hands. They were trembling. Dante was silent. She nodded her head slightly, as if to affirm the fact that she had destroyed something of great value. But in reality she had taken the first step toward what he hoped would be their future. Her bravery humbled him.
“Agnese, look at me.”
She didn’t respond.
“Agnese, please,” he repeated softly.
She finally looked at him, with beautiful dark eyes that begged him not to judge her too harshly, that said This is me. Try to look past my ugliness. He took her hands in his. They felt cold and he rubbed them gently to warm them.
“I have only one question, and although I already know the answer to it, I want you to tell it to me in your own words, because you need to, for your sake, not mine.”
“What is it?” she asked in a small voice.
“Did you seek my uncle out? Did you want to be his mistress?”
The question shocked her. “No!” she cried. “Of course not. He was…it was…” She couldn’t go on.
“Arranged?”
She nodded, the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. “My mother said…my mother said we needed to pay for my Aunt Eliana’s care, even though she had passed away by then, and for my college education…that it was the only way. She said it was a good thing because one day Ornella would die and Santo would marry me and that would make it all right.”
Dante stepped closer and held her face, taking care to gently wipe her tears with his thumbs. “And you were a good, obedient daughter,” he said.
She closed her eyes. “I didn’t like doing it,” she whispered. “I was glad when I got strong enough to say no.” She sighed, as if remembering the end of a long, tiring race. “So glad.” She looked up at Dante again. “There has never been anybody else.”
Dante enfolded her in his arms. “Do you know,” he said after several moments, “you have had only one lover, but I have had many. And some of the choices I’ve made in that regard weren’t smart. But at least I could make the choice. You weren’t able to. So I hope you will forgive me my past stupidity and be able to love me in spite of my many imperfections. Please tell me you love me, Agnese. Because I am crazy about you—totally, madly crazy about you.”
“After what I just told you? How is that possible?”
“I remember someone telling me once that we couldn’t be together because of who we are. Well, something awful happened to you, but that’s not who you are, Agnese. Not by a long shot. The person you are is intelligent, creative, loving, kind, and beautiful inside and out.”
Agnese searched his eyes, looking, he supposed, for proof of his declaration. She shook her head. “But how can you be sure?”
He smiled. “I just am, as sure as I am standing here holding you at last in my arms.”
He felt a stillness and a sigh ripple through her, and imagined a blossom in her garden unfurling to the sun. Her voice trembled when she spoke. “I have loved you forever,” she whispered.
“Then I have one more question for you.” He paused, leaned back to look into her eyes. “Agnese Maria Josefina Lombardi, I love you with all my heart and mind and body and soul. Will you be my wife?”
“Oh!” she cried, the tears beginning to fall again in earnest. “Dante…”
“Wait,” he interrupted, suddenly afraid of her answer. “I want you to know something first. I desire you as a man desires a woman. You are the loveliest creature I have ever seen. I want to see all of you and touch you in places that will bring you incredible pleasure. I want to be inside you. I want to make bambinos with you. But I can wait. If you have…issues…about making love, then we can take it slow. We can work through them. I will never force you, never hurt you—”
Agnese put two fingers against his lips to stop his nervous recitation. “I know you would never hurt me, and I…well, in truth I have never really made love before.”
She gave him a quirky half smile and his heart broke a little more for her. But she had a point. “When you put it that way, I suppose I haven’t either. You would be my first…and my last. If you say yes.”
“Are you absolutely certain? Because…because if you are, I say yes.” Agnese reached up and clasped her hands around his neck. “Oh Dante, I say yes!”
Dante, laughing with tears streaming down his face, gathered Agnese by the waist, and kissed her as Odysseus might have kissed Penelope upon his return: forcefully, powerfully staking his claim to his beloved. Agnese responded shyly at first, but quickly began to match his passion with her own. After several minutes they reluctantly broke apart. He could tell she was as dazed and thrilled by what had just happened as he was.
“Do you know,” she said with wonder, “that was my very first kiss.”
Dante held her by the shoulders. “Darling, I am honored to give you your first one. And I will give you many, many more, I promise.” He kissed her again, exuberantly. “But I’ve got to go now. Mother Superior said she would kick me out if I didn’t. Besides, there are things I have to do.”
Agnese searched his face again. “Tell me you aren’t going to confront Santo about all this. It is in the past, and that bastard is not worth the dirt beneath your shoes. He is powerful, Dante, and he could hurt you.” Her voice hitched. “I could not bear that.”
Dante ran his hand lovingly over her hair. “Already you fuss over me as a wife fusses over her husband. I like that. But please don’t worry. I know who Santo is. I know his strengths, and I know his weaknesses. I’m going to make him pay for what he’s done to you, but in a just way. Trust me. Now before I go, let’s find Mother Maria and tell her our news.” He kissed her hard one more time, took her hand firmly in his, and headed toward a future that filled him with indescribable joy.
Dani shook her head as she followed the crowds leaving the Arena after the performance. She should have known better than to pick Aida, for heaven’s sake! Given her state of mind, the last thing she needed to think about was a pair of doomed lovers. It just hit too close to home.
She and Agnese had spent the afternoon visiting and caught an early dinner together, but she was glad her friend had begged off seeing the opera; apparently she’d had to finish some lab work before tomorrow. Dani had considered asking Dante, but decided not to bother him. It just didn’t make sense for any of them to wallow in the sorry state of their love lives. She felt a twinge of guilt for not telling Gabe about the change in plans, but let it pass. It wasn’t her fault Agnese couldn’t make it, and besides, if he knew she’d decided to attend the opera alone, he would have worried too much about her safety. He was already caught up in her family’s troubles; he didn’t need one more thing to stress him out.
Gabe. Right now he was probably cozying up to Ines. Had he learned anything more from her? Dani could tell after their interview with the two employees that he’d made a date to connect with the blond. Dani knew he was worried she might be jealous. He was so sweet, he wanted to explain in the car why he was doing it. Dani had cut him off, not because of the green-eyed monster, but because she had to start weaning herself from him. How could she do that except to freeze him out? If what her Uncle Santo implied was true, the sooner she could show that Gabe meant nothing to her, the safer he was going to be.
If only Gabe would listen to her and stay away! But he couldn’t help himself because he was too busy helping her. Trying to get more information out of Ines was a typical Gabe maneuver and she loved him for it. And that’s what made cutting him off all the more heart-breaking.
She took her time walking along the outside of the stadium toward the taxi stand, trying to clear her mind. The street lamps were low and she watched, fascinated, as several stage doors stood open, casting a peculiar light from the actors’ dressing rooms onto the street. Many of the performers were still in costume, their faces heavily made up. They looked otherworldly, as if they were truly Egyptian soldiers who had somehow found their way to modern Verona for the night. Although she was on the other side of the street, she could tell they were smoking and drinking from water bottles, which seemed out of place. But it was the singsong cadence of their Italian voices that really threw her off. Wouldn’t Egyptian soldiers be speaking Arabic? She smiled at the extent to which she’d been willing to suspend her disbelief.
She reached the curved end of the stadium and looked around. Where was the taxi stand? She was sure it had been on this side of the Arena. She began to feel uneasy. There were fewer street lamps and the departing crowd had thinned considerably. A car rolled slowly by and she quickened her pace. Always act like you know where you’re going, she remembered from a self-defense class she’d taken. Out of habit she reached into her purse for keys to use as a weapon, but quickly remembered she was out of luck—Fausta had never given her one.
Clutching her purse tightly to her body, she scanned her surroundings. No one was near her and it was nearly pitch black. Not a good situation. Maybe she should go back the way she came. She glanced back and saw another vehicle driving along the street, a van this time, moving even more slowly than the car. Fighting back panic, she started walking even faster, breaking into a jog and cursing the fact she’d worn boots that definitely weren’t made for walking.
It wasn’t enough.
In the next instant she was grabbed from behind by two assailants and shoved into the van.