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CHAPTER FOUR
Later on the night that neither can forget…
‘WESHOULDHAVEgot out.’
Aurora turned and looked at Antonietta as the three friends sat on the hillside, watching the ominous glow.
‘We’ll make it,’ Chi-Chi said. ‘There is soon to be a storm.’
‘And with storms come lightning,’ Antonietta pointed out. ‘I wish I had left. I wish I had taken off to…’ She thought for a moment. ‘Paris.’
‘But you don’t speak French,’ Aurora said.
‘I’m learning it.’ Antonietta shrugged, and then was silent for another moment before continuing. ‘Pa says we shall have a proper party after the fires. I’m getting engaged.’
Chi-Chi let out a squeal and jumped up in excitement.
‘To Sylvester,’ Antonietta added, and she looked to Aurora, who had to fight not to pull a face.
For Antonietta and Sylvester were second cousins, and Aurora was sure this was a match to keep money within the family rather than for love.
‘Are you happy?’ Aurora asked carefully.
Antonietta was silent for a very long time, and then she shrugged an odd response.‘C’est la vie!’
Aurora didn’t really know what that meant, but she could hear the weary resignation in her friend’s voice and it troubled her.
‘I hear your Nico is back,’ Antonietta said.
‘He is notmyNico,’ Aurora said.
‘No,’ Chi-Chi agreed, and made a scoffing noise. ‘You should forget about him,’ she said. And then she nudged her as a fire truck turned into the hillside, bringing weary firefighters for a break, some food, and maybe a kiss…
But Antonietta caught Aurora’s arm. ‘If Nico is back, then what are you doing here?’
‘He doesn’t want me,’ Aurora said.
But Antonietta, though only newly twenty-one, had an old head on her young shoulders.
‘Go home,’ Antonietta said. ‘Fix what you can, while you still can. I heard my father speaking to his men about the direction of the fire…’
And hearing the solemn note in Antonietta’s voice, and watching the weary firefighters approach, Aurora no longer wanted to be out in the valley tonight.
This…Nico thought as he sat at the table with Aurora’s parents playing cards.This would have been my life.
Hard work out on the vines by day, and a tired body at night.
Except no amount of labour would be enough to tire his mind.
Yet, on the plus side, he would be sitting with Aurora in the now vacant house across the road, rather than looking at Bruno’s hairy arms as he shuffled the cards.
Just because Nico did not want to be married to Aurora, and just because Nico did not want to stay, it did not mean there was not desire. It did not mean he did not care.
And heloathedthe thought of her out there tonight.
‘I’m going to check on my father,’ Nico said.
He found Geo deeply asleep, and as he came out Nico felt the hot winds lick his face. He looked at the glowing mountains, and the approaching fire spreading towards them, and in the distance he could see lightning strikes.
