“Maybe it will all blow over.”
“I pray about it. You should pray too.” Netta dredged the chestnuts in sugar. “You were out late.”
“I caught up with a few old friends. Do you remember Silvio Birtolini?”
Her mother had to think. “That awful boy. Let me guess. Someone murdered him.”
“Mama!”
“That’s the fate of petty thieves. They start young, and over time they get worse and eventually they have a horrible end.”
One of Domenica’s favorite things about her mother was that she never forgot anything, but it was also one of her worst attributes, as she held grudges until they became mythical. “He’s grown up to be quite handsome.”
“A good-looking thief. Big deal. You can find cell after cell of them in the prison at Lucca.”
“I danced with him tonight.”
“Ugh! He’s in Viareggio?”
“Just tonight.”
“Did he behave himself?”
“He’s betrothed to a nice girl. A schoolteacher.”
“What does he do?”
“Diamond cutter apprentice.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “Another one. Diamonds and pearls for the pope, while the wife gets pasta e fagioli and a thimble of homemade wine if she’s lucky.”
“Shh, Mama. Papa will hear you.”
“He’s heard it all for thirty years. And if God is kind, he’ll hear it for thirty more. The jewelry business is only good for the people that buy the jewelry. Never for the one that makes it. The artisan is always chiseled in the end. Commission! They can keep it.”
“Silvio is proud of his trade.”
“He’s done better than anyone thought he would, I will give him that.”
“I never believed the gossip.”
Mama sat down at the table across from her daughter. “Domenica, whatever he stirred up in you, leave it on the boardwalk. You’ve gone to school. You’re educated. You’re a nurse. I want you to marry a doctor, not a troublemaker.”
“Pretucci is already married.”
“Not him. A young doctor. From Milano. Or Firenze. Roma is fine too. Wherever there are doctors in great supply.”
“I may never find a nice fellow. I don’t want you to be disappointed if I don’t have luck. I’m happy the way I am.”
“You say that, but I don’t believe you. You work too hard. Sometimes seven days a week.”
“People get sick on weekends too.”
“Let them wait until Monday.”
“Maybe I love my work too much. It fills me up. But I wouldn’t mind a nice man to court. I’d like that.”
“You deserve the cream. Don’t settle for il bastardo or his type. Better to be a woman alone with a profession than marry beneath your standing.”
“Mama, who are you talking about?”
“Carnival snakes. You know, they hang around the stands at the festa looking for pretty girls. Don’t forget the story of Giovanna Bellanca. Lovely girl. Sang like a bird! A life of good behavior and high morals shattered like glass one night after one spin on the carousel. Carnevale ended and she took off with a juggler. Her parents were bereft! That beautiful family ruined by a circus actor. You make me worry. You have the eyes of a fish when it comes to Birtolini. Wide open, seeing nothing but him!”
“I hadn’t thought about him in years,” Domenica lied. She had thought about Silvio from time to time, wondering what had become of him. Now she knew, and sadly, he belonged to someone else. “Maybe Aldo will come home with a princess and your dream will come true after all.”
“Aldo? We’ll be lucky if he finds his way back to Viareggio with a guide and a map, much less a princess.”
“Don’t worry about me, Mama.”
“You’ll see how many hours a day can be eaten up by worry when you become a mother.”
“I’ve always felt lucky.”
“Luck runs out. So does a woman’s beauty. You’re old enough to see what’s true in the world. Pay attention.”
Domenica kissed her mother good night.
“You aren’t going to see the Birtolini boy again, are you?”
“He went back to Parma. It was luck that I saw him at all.”
“Bad luck. Well, since he’s marrying someone else, whatever he wishes for us, I wish him double.”
Domenica rolled her eyes. “Mama, you are so kind.”
“I finished your new dress. It’s hanging on the back of your door.”