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With the end of the harvest, all of the grapes crushed, fermented or fermenting, and the bottles prepared for the vintage, the winery was no longer a hive of activity. Alex used the respite to search the Internet for information about the events of November third and fourth, 1943. The first several results that her search yielded were about the “Erntefest,” ironically translated to “Harvest Festival.” It was the German operation that saw the annihilation of all remaining Jews in an occupied territory of Poland. Alex shivered and moved on with her search. Some of the newspaper archives required Alex to pay for a subscription, and while she hoped to avoid that, she made note of the sites.
Alex narrowed her search to include the name and location of the church, and there she found a small digitized newspaper article. She hit the translate link even though she hardly needed to anymore, but she wanted to make sure she was accurately reading and understanding the information. She read the paper’s account of the shooting of Padre Lorenzo.
November 5, 1943
The body of a local priest was found outside of his church, Our Lady of the Roses on the morning of November 4. The church doors were open, and, according to a local couple, a rare Robbiano that adorned the rear church wall was missing. The area outside of the church where the priest was shot appeared to have been tampered with, said local police. It is believed that the missing sculpture was stolen during the night by the Kunstschutz and that the priest was shot while trying to stop the theft. Authorities are working with the American Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program to discover the whereabouts of the piece of art.
Alex then searched for the name Doctor Stefano Abelli and the Italian word for obituary. She was surprised by her finding.
November 7, 1943
Doctor Stefano Abelli was laid to rest following a private ceremony at Our Lady of the Roses on November 6, 1943 following a sudden heart attack. Beloved by all of his patients, he is preceded in death by his son, Paolo, who is presumed to have died while fighting with the Italian Army in Tunisia. Doctor Abelli leaves behind his wife, Marta Caterina, and their daughter, Isabella Luisa Abelli.
Alex stared out the window across the fields and thought about the events of that fateful night. Isa and Roberto must have retrieved her father’s body and taken it home to be buried. She wondered if her mother knew the truth and guessed that she must have known some of it but not all of it. Alex imagined that the widow would have insisted on one last look at her husband, and a gunshot wound would be hard to hide, so she certainly knew of the gun fight. Judging by the last journal entry, though, Isa’s mother did not know what they were doing that night or where the Robbiano was hidden. They had to hide it quickly, and probably somewhere nearby. It had to be some place large enough to hold it but not used regularly, and in a place where the Germans, if they searched, would not be able to see or find it.
Alex’s eyes stopped on the barn, and her heart stopped along with them.
“Why didn’t we think about this before?” Nicolas said as he opened the barn door.
“Because we didn't have all of the pieces, but now it does seem so obvious.”
Nicolas stopped and looked at her. “Too obvious? Would not Isa's nonno or madre have found it at some point?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps there are some questions that will never be answered.”
They went inside and looked around for some sign that there was a hidden cellar.
“It cannot be,” Nicolas said as he studied the floor. “The tractor is too heavy to sit over a hollow space., and the stalls would have prevented it from over there,” he pointed to the horse stalls that were now used for storage.
“How big would the space have to be?” Alex asked. “We know that it could fit five people, and how big did she say the Robbiano was?”
“I think, two meters?”
They looked around the barn.
“Here,” Alex yelled as she ran to the side of the barn where old barrels, bottles, and other large pieces of no longer used accessories were stored on top of large pallets. “You’re right that there couldn’t be a cellar under the tractor to the stalls, but what about under here? These things probably weren’t here back then, and the space is the right size.”
Nicolas didn't answer but went right to work rolling the barrels out of the way, and Alex jumped in to help clear the spot. When the space was clear, they moved the pallets and stood, looking down at the floor. Wooden planks were hidden under the dirt, but there didn't seem to be any way to get beneath them.
“Oh my gosh, it must be here,” Alex exclaimed, her heart racing. “Do you see any way to open it?” Nicolas shook his head.
Alex got down on the planks and began crawling along the perimeter of the space, feeling for any type of latch or opening with her hands. Nicolas followed her lead and began doing the same in the opposite direction.
“Oh!” she cried. “Here, Nicolas. I’ve found something.”
Hidden in the shadows, on the side of a wall, was a door handle in the floor, or what was left of it. It had been damaged, purposely from the looks of how it was smashed and broken.
“How do we open it?” she asked.
Nicolas jumped up and went quickly to the other side of the barn where all manner of tools hung on the wall. He located a crow bar and hurried back to the space. Not worrying about the door handle, he went to work on the planks and began working to pry up the boards. After making enough progress, he threw aside the crow bar. Splinters of wood flew as he worked to pull away the wood with his hands until finally, he located another trap door. He and Alex looked at each other with anticipation and then each reached for one side of the door and lifted it up.
Dirt and dust filled the air, and Alex coughed and waved her arms to clear it away. Just as Isa described, the space was small and dark, but it was not empty. Nicolas reached in and gently tugged at the dusty blanket, but it did not move.
“Look away,” he commanded, and Alex turned her head.
Holding his breath and squeezing his eyes shut, he yanked the blanket as hard as he could, and it flew at him, causing him to fall backwards. He pushed the blanket off, coughing and blinking his eyes, and sat up. Alex turned; her eyes, wide with disbelief, met his. Nicolas looked into the hole and gasped.
Even in the dim light, the colors of the sculpture shone bright, the innocent eyes of the Babe in his mother’s arms looking up at them, offering them peace and comfort.
“Oh my God,” Alex breathed. “Oh my God, Nicolas, what do we do now?”
It was a Christmas vigil like no other. There was standing room only at Our Lady of the Roses Church. People from miles and miles around came to celebrate the first Mass in over seventy years to be held in the presence of Robbiano’s Madonna and Child. The sculpture had returned from extensive testing and examination in Florence just in time for the holidays. Reporters from newspapers around the world attended the Mass and snapped pictures of Padre Rulli throwing holy water on the sculpture and asking the Lord's blessing on the remarkable piece of art. He thanked God for its safe return and for the anonymous family who found it. For weeks, reporters had been calling the rectory and interviewing townspeople hoping to discover who found the priceless work of art and how. The few who knew promised not to tell.
There was a reason Signora spent all of those years keeping quiet. Whatever it was, Alex and Nicolas made a vow to honor her wishes. Perhaps it was some deep-rooted fear that the Germans would be able to trace the events back to the disappearance or death of their soldier, and they would be charged with murder or war crimes of theft and espionage. Perhaps it had become too painful a reminder of the death of her father and all that they lost in the war. For reasons they would probably never know, the story was one she did not want told, so only their family was privy to the details of the journal.
Alex and Nicolas held hands as they looked up at the sculpture. Surrounded by their loved ones, Marta, Annie, Maria, Pietro, Giovanni, Adrianna, Marco, and Luigi, they celebrated Christmas as well as the return of the Robbiano. There was much to be done over the course of the next week, and they looked forward to beginning the New Year by reciting their vows on the altar in front of the loving gaze of Mary and her Son.