They had only just begun to eat lunch when there was a knock at the front door. Constanza ran to answer it. Hilaria was standing on the doorstep. She was in a disheveled state but still wearing her very high heels.

“Constanza! I’ve only got a minute, but I couldn’t go without saying good-bye! Mamma and Papà are waiting out on the road with the engine running. The car’s loaded with stuff. They didn’t want me to come here, but I made them stop. We’re on our way north at last, to get away from the awful fighting. It’ll be right here very soon, so it’s our last chance. You’re leaving, too, I suppose?”

“Not for the moment.”

“You don’t mean you’re staying here? It’s so dangerous! Everyone’s leaving. The road into Florence is jammed. But listen.” Her face was very flushed. Impulsively she reached out and took both of Constanza’s hands. “I had to see you before we left. I had to tell you . . .”

“Tell me what?”

“It’s . . .” She suddenly burst into tears. “It’s about that day I dropped by to see you. A couple of days ago, remember? I thought there was something funny about the way you and Paolo were behaving, the way you didn’t want me to go down into the cellar. As though you were hiding something.”

“And?”

“Well . . .” Hilaria was clinging to her now. “Well, we heard afterward that the Gestapo had been to search your house.”

“Yes. And they found nothing, nothing!”

“I know . . . I know. But I just wanted to tell you that it wasn’t me who tipped them off. I mean, we’ve always been friends, haven’t we? Mamma and Papà didn’t like it, what with your father’s politics and all, but I never let that bother me, never!”

Constanza pushed Hilaria’s hands away.

“Don’t speak to me about my father,” she said in a very low voice. “My father has nothing to do with this, or with you.”

Hilaria was becoming shrill with impatience.

“But you don’t understand, Constanza! After they’d been to search your house, I felt so awful. I mean, I may have let drop something about my suspicions to Aldo at some point. It was silly of me, I know. It just slipped out as a kind of joke when I was talking to him. He was — you know — leading me on to gossip about you and your family. He seemed sort of curious. But what I’ve come to tell you is that today I heard him talking to Colonel Richter on the phone. Aldo mentioned your mother’s name, so I picked up the extension and I heard the colonel say her name was on some sort of list — a Gestapo list — of people who might be helping the Partisans. And that means she could be shot, Constanza! The colonel said he was sending soldiers back again to make another search. Really soon — today, probably. So you’ve just got to get away — all of you — right now!”

At that moment, they heard a couple of urgent honks from the waiting car.

Hilaria hurriedly brushed away her tears and shook out her hair. “I’ve simply got to go. I’ll see you again, I expect — when all this is over.” She made an attempt to take Constanza’s hands again but was met with a stony response.

“Good-bye, Hilaria.”

“I’ll send you a postcard with my new address. But I don’t expect it’ll arrive. . . .”

“I said good-bye.”

There was another honk on the horn. Hilaria hesitated uncertainly for a moment, then turned and ran off down the drive, unsteady on her high heels, waving over her shoulder but not looking back.

Constanza stood still in the doorway, her eyes tightly closed and her fists clenched. Then she ran inside to find her mother and warn Joe.