Fruit of the Golden Vine

by Sophia French

  Father chuckled and took Adelina’s fingers into his big palm. “I should confess that I was the last to be persuaded. Your words reached my heart, Ada, but in the end it was your mother who convinced me. I thought, if even Delfina can find it in her to allow this, what kind of brute would I be if I said no?”

  “Bastian, are you implying that I am peculiarly cold-hearted?”

  “No, not peculiarly, my dear.” Father took Mother’s hand and kissed it, and she blushed. With effort, Adelina held back laughter. For the first time, she was able to see these people not as unfair tyrants who dictated her life, but as the man and woman they truly were. Flawed, but admirable too, their lives rich with heartfelt wishes and difficult decisions.

  Father looked to Silvana. “I can’t say I’m pleased that you came into our house and stole our daughter’s affections, but God knows I would never find her a husband to match your strength of character. That night in the coach, the way you stood up to me…it impressed me more than I let you see. If you’d been a man, I’d have offered you Ada’s hand on the spot.”

  “As it was, you only needed a little coaxing,” said Silvana. “I’m glad you came to see reason.”

  “Immodest as always. But it’s that forthright tongue that gave you the better of us. I have such influence in this town that nobody dares speak against me, and even Orfeo will eventually relent and accept my business proposals. But you knew of my power and reputation, and still you secretly and scandalously courted my daughter. To the end you’ve defied me.” He frowned. “Speaking of Orfeo, where has he gone to?”

  “We dueled and he forfeited. It wasn’t as exciting as it might sound.”

  “Not exciting?” said Adelina. “I don’t believe a single person breathed while watching.”

  “God in heaven.” Mother arched an eyebrow. “You matched swords with that awful man?”

  “I wouldn’t say matched,” said Silvana, lifting her nose in disdain. “That would imply he had a chance of defeating me.”

  Mother’s eyes narrowed to disapproving lines. “You are a distasteful and arrogant woman with a mind host to heathenish views and a heart of aberrant lust. I worry for Adelina’s soul in your hands, and I try my hardest not to think what kind of sinful carnality you might espouse to her.” She looked away. “Yet Irena was right to admonish me for acting as if God talks to me alone. Perhaps I am listening as much to my prejudice as to His divine ordainment. I will pray for you, but also for myself as well.”

  She extended her hand, and Silvana clasped it. “You may, of course, stay for the wedding,” Mother said. “I trust you will both give rousing speeches, and for once, you can have pious love and not reckless indulgence as your subject matter.” She freed her hand and bowed. “I am retiring for the afternoon. Good day.”

  Mother ascended the staircase with an uneven step, her hand resting on the balustrade. Father watched her climb. “She isn’t well,” he said in a low voice. “The doctor believes that she worsens. She tells me that she refuses to die, however, until she has seen Felise grow into a young woman.”

  “I think she would be healthier if she cut back on those medicines,” said Adelina. “The stench of some of them…”

  “The stress of your disappearance did her no favors.” Father put his hand on Adelina’s cropped head. “Nor did you showing up looking the way you did. In private, she complained that you now had the appearance of—what was it?—that’s right, an ‘impudent temptress of loose-virtued women.’”

  “Father, thank you for relating that to me. It’s the finest compliment I’ve ever received.”

  “You’re lucky I’m a man of the world, and very little is capable of shocking me. I suspected your inclinations, but I’d hoped you would grow out of them.”

  “No woman truly grows out of such inclinations, Master Sebastian,” said Silvana. “Some try to convince themselves as they feign desire for an unwanted husband, but in my experience, a woman who wishes to be with her own sex and is deprived that pleasure will forever know an aching absence in her chest.”

  Father reddened. “Well, let’s let that side of things rest, shall we? It’s easier for Delfina and me to think of you as close traveling companions, rather than, well, lovers, even if we both know the truth.” He took hold of Adelina’s sleeve. “Come along. I’ve something I’d best give you now.”

  Adelina took an excited breath. On top of everything else, a mysterious gift! “What is it?”

  “Oh, you’ll see.” Father smirked at Silvana. “One thing you ought to know about my Ada is that she adores unexpected presents. Give her a book out of nowhere, and she’ll be affectionate for months. Well, come on.”

  Adelina and Silvana followed Father back into the study. Instead of taking his place behind the desk, he took down an oil painting of a scowling priest—it had given Adelina nightmares for years—and exposed a steel safe behind it. Adelina hopped on her toes, excited thrills springing through her, as Father clicked the combination and swung the safe open. He took out six leather bags, counting under his breath as he placed each one on the desk.

  “Before you get too excited, Ada, it’s merely money,” he said. “This is what I already had set aside for your dowry. Money that was supposed to be given someday to your husband, to help guarantee your comfort and happiness. Needless to say, a large factor in Orfeo’s disappointment.” Father prodded one of the bags, which clinked. “It’s yours, Silvana.”

  “Ours, you mean.” Silvana stared at the bags on the desk, wearing a rare expression of bewilderment. “I never considered that you would…”

  “There’s nothing legal for you to sign because you’re not going to and cannot marry her. So you’ll stick it in your pockets, and that’s that.” Father’s voice grew wistful. “Some fathers complain about having to pay dowries, but I’ve always thought it the proper thing to do. Who wants to send his daughter away with uncertain means to rely upon another man who cannot possibly bear her the same strength of affection?”

  “Silvana, you’d best be responsible for it.” Adelina bounced one of the pouches in her hand. “I’d just spend it all on books and cakes. Silvana?”

  Silvana’s eyes glistened. “I never imagined that I could not only win a woman’s heart but be accepted by her family as well. To think you’re going to give me the dowry…” Her voice caught, and she wiped her lashes. “I’m sorry. This was unexpected, that’s all.”

  Adelina reached for Silvana’s hands, and their coupled rings touched. To love me truly, one would have to give up a great many things, Silvana had told her. Friendships, reputations, hopes for a family…

  “We were willing to sacrifice everything,” Adelina said. “Instead, we’ve kept all that we had and gained immeasurably more. Thank you, Father.”

  “If you want to thank me, remember to visit your family, who will unceasingly love you.” Father sat behind the desk and opened the drawer. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start writing a document of emancipation.”

  Adelina and Silvana left the office hand in hand. As much as she wanted to speak, Adelina was too stuffed with emotions to manage a word. Joy, excitement and affection mingled in her chest, palled by a hint of sadness. She had always cursed her misfortune at being born with such a mercantile father and unyielding mother. Yet they had let her read as she willed, given her an allowance, never struck her, permitted her to stay unmarried for an extraordinary length of time and now they were allowing her to live with another woman. In a fair society such concessions would be a matter of order, but it would be churlish not to give them their due. They had indeed always loved her.

  Adelina and Silvana stopped in the lobby and stood in a shaft of sunlight. Silvana kissed Adelina on the neck, and Adelina murmured at the warm touch of her lips.

  “With this much money, we could travel where we willed,” Silvana said. “We could even invest in a property and start our own business.”

  “So we could. But I think we have the same thought, you and I.” />
  “The same thought, the same breath, the same spirit. Soon the day comes when we’ll lie beneath the old branches together, our bodies as entwined as roots are with the earth.”

  “And as the moon wends silver through the canopy, we will lose ourselves in the poetry of our desire, written with heated lips across our bodies. It will be as if the heavens themselves were made manifest only by virtue of our love.” Adelina giggled. “And I want you to teach me how to kiss you between the legs.”

  Silvana broke into laughter. “I’ve no doubt you’ll become expert at it.”

  They left the manor and let the sound of barking and childish shouting guide them. On the lawn before the gardens, Felise ran in circles with Mona held aloft. Irena knelt on the grass nearby, giggling to the point of tears. Rafael sat beside her, an arm over her shoulder.

  “Fly, Mona!” Felise lifted Mona higher, and the puppy barked and thrashed her tail. “You’re a bird!”

  Adelina settled beside Irena, and Silvana sat cross-legged beside Rafael. “Tell us everything,” said Irena, holding Adelina’s hand in her lap. “I can tell by the looks on your faces that you don’t have bad news.”

  “They’re letting me and Silvana be together,” said Adelina. “I’m free, Ira.”

  Irena’s mouth fell open, and Rafael blinked as if to force himself from a dream. “I never would have believed it,” said Irena. “Mother agreed to it?”

  “Apparently it was Mother who convinced Father. I almost feel like we should run away now before they change their minds.”

  Rafael grinned as he drew Irena closer. She lay her head on his shoulder. “I’d love to know how you did it,” he said. “High-flown speeches? Temper tantrums? Did Silvana draw a blade on anyone?”

  “You will never know.” Adelina ran her fingers through the grass beside her. “There’s something else too. Father has given Silvana my dowry.”

  Irena sat upright. “Truly?”

  Rafael opened his mouth, hesitated and shut it again. Silvana grinned at him. “It’s true, brother.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Rafael said. “They haven’t even given me Irena’s dowry yet.”

  Irena sighed. “Oh, you money-minded beast—Lise! Be careful where you put your feet!”

  Felise stumbled but managed to retain her grip on Mona. “Oh! A rock!”

  “I’m terrified for her. She doesn’t look at all where she’s treading.” Irena grew somber as Felise began swooping Mona through the air again. “She’ll be alone soon, Ada. Our little Lise. She’s a rascal, but she’s our rascal.”

  “She won’t be alone,” said Adelina. “She’ll have Mother and Father. And the amazing flying Mona.”

  “So what will you do? I know you’d love to travel. Rafael has told me about all the exciting places he’s seen. You could visit each one.”

  “And I will. Someday.” Adelina pressed Irena’s hand and looked into her eyes. “But first, we want to help you and Rafael. We’re going to come with you, and we’re going to use this money to help rebuild your new home.”

  “But it’s your money…” Rafael turned to Silvana, his mouth agape.

  “You know the difference it’ll make.” Silvana rested her head against the garden wall and gazed, smiling, at the horizon. “Six good-sized bags of southern currency, each one fit to bursting. Spending Ira’s dowry alone, you believed it would take you a year or more to make the manor comfortable. Now it could be a matter of months.”

  “We’ll come with you,” said Adelina. “We’ll help with the rebuilding and the hiring, we’ll dig up the nasty weeds, we’ll clamber on the roof and we’ll chase spiders out of the chimneys.”

  “And when you’re settled in and your firstborn has entered the world, Ada and I will set off on adventures of our own.” Silvana plucked a length of grass and tickled Rafael’s cheek with it. “What say you, Brother Sun?”

  “Silvie, you have every right to take that money and go live the life you’ve always wanted.” Rafael frowned. “God knows you’ve earned it.”

  “You’re damn right I have. But you’re now brother to both of us, and Irena has become my sister too. Your happiness is our own. We will build with you, and though eventually we shall part, we will return someday to grow old beside you.”

  Rafael touched his cheek and held his damp fingertip to the sunlight. “Damn you to hell. I’ve made it this far without shedding a tear, and now look what you’ve done.”

  Adelina laughed and gave him a playful shove. “It’s all you deserve, you smutty baron.”

  “This isn’t fair.” Felise wandered across the grass, Mona held squirming to her chest. “I want to know what everyone is laughing about. Tell me the joke too.” She set Mona down—the pup immediately flopped to the ground—and sat beside her.

  “We were laughing at you,” said Adelina. “We were talking of how foolish you look spinning about with that puppy.”

  “That’s not true.” Irena pinched Adelina’s forearm. “We were just telling adult jokes, Felise.”

  “I’m thirteen,” said Felise. “I want to hear adult jokes too.” Mona rolled to her back, and Felise scratched the puppy’s fat belly. “There was a lot of fuss earlier. All those people about. What happened?”

  “Well, it’s complicated,” said Irena. “But the simple story is that Adelina and Silvana will be leaving with me and Rafael.”

  “Oh.” Felise lowered her eyes. “So now I’ll have no sisters.”

  Adelina slid over the grass and lifted Felise into her lap. “Don’t be silly. We’ll always be your sisters.”

  “Will I get to visit you?” Felise glanced at Mona, who had risen to her paws and was tottering away. “No, Mona!”

  Silvana swept Mona up and held her wiggling body tight. “I’ll hold her for you.”

  “Will you look after my sisters, Silvana?” Felise’s voice trembled, and a sharp pain pierced Adelina’s chest. “Will you make sure Ada doesn’t get lonely?”

  “She won’t be lonely. I promise.” Silvana laughed as Mona licked her ear. “This dog of yours is friendly, isn’t she?”

  “She’ll be the only person left to play with me. And she can’t tell me stories, like Ada does, or say nice things about my drawings, like Ira does. It’ll be just Mother to scold me and Father to squish my cheeks like I’m a baby.” Felise hugged Adelina’s neck. “Can’t I come with you too?”

  “Don’t worry, Lise,” said Irena. “You’ll get to visit us. Maybe not right away, but once we’re ready, I’ll send everyone an invitation.”

  “Will you write one for Mona?”

  A sad, soft light crept into Irena’s eyes. “Yes, I’ll write one for Mona.”

  A warm breeze swept across the plain and stirred the golden grass into motion. The wind carried the scent of summer, a tangled aroma of petals and pollen, and Adelina closed her eyes as she inhaled it. She might never again taste this fragrance, nor bathe in the heat of the plains sun, nor run through the long grass and let it whip against her legs. In time she might even forget the prickle of Father’s beard, the scratching sound of Felise’s pencil, the acrid odor of Mother’s medicines and other such simple memories that had for so long formed the texture of her life. Like a neglected vine, the past would wither, and a new seed would be planted in its place.

  “I’m allowed to paint this afternoon.” Felise’s voice pulled Adelina from her thoughts. “Mother said so.”

  Adelina stroked Felise’s hair. “What will it be this time? A puppy? More horses?”

  “No.” Felise gave Silvana a shy look. “I want to paint a tree.”

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