‘Perhaps he didn’t,’ Maria says. ‘I wouldn’t believe anything that came out of that creepy priest’s mouth.’
She climbs up the steps at the back of the monument to place her note.
‘There’s one already here,’ she says.
‘Oh,’ Chiara says, ‘I forgot.’
The futility of this ritual hits her like a blow to the breastbone. She breathes out heavily.
‘I left one to tell him about you. It must be that.’
‘It’s addressed to Ma,’ Maria says.
Chiara leans on the stick and stares up at the girl. Her heart is hammering, and there is a rushing noise in her ears like the fast beat of wings as a thousand birds take to the air. She can see Maria’s mouth move but she can’t make out the words. Something hideous and irresistible is going on inside her body. The noise and the swirl and a dark fog all try to claim her, and she staggers, but she has the sturdy cane and she plants it in the earth.
It is a blastingly hot day, but Chiara is shivering. Maria places the leather jacket around her shoulders. They sit together on the steps of the monument and read.
Dear Ma,
All those years I left notes for my mother and finally she replies! Wait where you are because I’m coming to find you.
Love
Daniele
Later they will discover that he has been clear of drugs for three years. That after his last meeting with Father Antonio he took himself in hand, knowing that the choice of whether to live or go under was his alone. That word reached him that Father Antonio was looking for him again and that he came here to their special place to find the note Chiara had left him.
In a week’s time, Chiara and Maria will catch a bus to Porta San Paolo, then the train to Ostia, and then another bus along the coast road, and he will meet them there at the bus stop. He will lead them into the thick Mediterranean scrub of the hunting reserve where he lives and works, with the wild boar and the deer for company, amid the holly oaks and the pines. He will show them the trees where the buzzards roost and make them tea on the stove in his shack.
But right now Chiara sits holding Maria’s hand, in the shadow of the monument, with the letter on her lap, waiting for her lost boy to come home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Philip Hensher, generous friend and mentor, for reading and commenting on an early version of the manuscript; fellow writers Sally Flint and Jane Feaver for their support and wisdom; Kate Smiley, reader extraordinaire, for instantly rising to the challenge at a critical juncture; insightful editors Ursula Doyle and Judy Clain and all those at Virago/Little, Brown who worked on this book; my brilliant agent Nicola Barr, her colleagues at the Greene & Heaton agency and Grainne Fox in New York; my family–both in the UK and in Italy–and my friends for their unstinting love and fellowship and enthusiasm for my writing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Virginia Baily holds a PhD and MA in English from the University of Exeter. She founded and coedits Riptide, a short-story journal. She is also the coeditor of the political series of the Africa Research Bulletin. She lives in Exeter, England.
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Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NEWSLETTERS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2014 by Virginia Baily
Cover design by Nico Taylor
Cover photographs: © Reilika Landén / Arcangel Images (mother and son); LatitudeStock / Plainpicture (street scene)
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First US ebook edition: September 2015
Originally published in Great Britain by Virago Press, July 2015
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ISBN 978-0-316-30041-4
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