I look at her. “Do they?”
“They stand still while everyone passes through.”
“Useful profession.”
She smiles a little. “Underpaid.”
“Most useful professions are.”
She leaves the room before I can ask anything else, which means she has answered enough.
I sleep badly. Not because of the pregnancy. Not because of Alessandro. Not because of the room, though the room has begun to feel less assigned than occupied, and that has its own danger.
I sleep badly because my mind has found movement. Movement is intoxicating after weeks of walls.
* * *
By morning, I have a plan. Not a good plan. Good plans require too many resources, and I have black dresses, nausea, hidden notes, and a talent for appearing less dangerous than I am.
It’ll have to do.
I need access to the gas station without using a house car for the full route. I need money that doesn’t pass through Vitale hands. I need a reason to leave the estate that doesn’t involve doctors, dressmakers, or anything that makes Luca’s eyes sharpen. I need to become boring.
Fortunately, mourning is useful for that as well. Women in mourning are expected to visit churches. Men respect grief most when it is contained inside buildings built to keep women kneeling.
So I request to visit the chapel in the village.
Teresa hears the request while pouring tea. “You don’t attend Mass.”
“I may have found God.”
She gives me a look.
“I’d like to light a candle for my father.”
She sets the teapot down. “I’ll inform Luca.”
The next piece comes later that day, from Marco by accident. He passes me in the west corridor just after noon, phone at his ear, voice low enough to be private but not low enough to be secure.
“Not the station,” he says in Italian. “The cousin. He moved to?—”
He stops when he sees me. I look at him politely but blankly, as if Italian remains elevator music to me.
“Miss Brennan,” he says.
“Mr. Benedetti.”
His eyes narrow slightly. “Lost?”
“Frequently.”
“This wing isn’t yours.”
“How fortunate that architecture has never cared about ownership.”
His mouth twitches. “Luca is looking for you.”
“Then I should stand still. It will help him find me.”
