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And then through the doors came Antonietta.
‘Oh!’
‘Don’t cry,’ Antonietta warned as they embraced.
She wanted to, though, for it had been four long years with just the occasional message in between. ‘I never thought you’d come today!’ Aurora said.
‘I nearly didn’t,’ Antonietta admitted. ‘But I could not stay away from your wedding.’
‘Have you seen any of your family since you’ve been back?’
‘Don’t worry about that now,’ Antonietta said. ‘You have a wedding to attend. I’m going to head down to the ruins, but I just wanted to give you a kiss and offer my best wishes. Now, in case I don’t stay for the party after, here…’ She handed Aurora a little silver medal. ‘For you to carry with you today.’
It was a French good luck charm: Bonheur, the little medal said.
‘It means happiness,’ Antonietta explained. ‘That is my wish for you.’
Aurora thought back to that night on the hillside, watching the fires coming for them, and the wise counsel her friend had given her when she had told her to go home.
Aurora was so glad she had.
‘I will carry it with me for ever. And I wish the same for you,’ Aurora said.
But she felt the fragile shoulders beneath her hand and looked into her friend’s sad eyes. It was an almost futile wish, Aurora was sure.
No!
She would never give up on her friend.
‘We are going to catch up properly soon,’ Aurora said as tears sparkled in her eyes. ‘Even if I have to come to France to do so.’
‘You will have to come to France,’ Antonietta said, ‘for I am no longer welcome here.’ And then she recovered. ‘Get on with your wedding! Your Nico is waiting…’
‘My heart is waiting,’ Aurora corrected. ‘And I will tell this only to you. I think he almost loves me. And I believe that Nico will be the best father in the world.’
She blew at an escaped curl that Luigi would have to attend to in a moment. But right now she spoke honestly to her friend.
‘He tells me that I am mad to doubt him…’
‘Aurora…’ Antonietta said.
She braced herself for a pep talk from her friend, for Antonietta to tell her that of course she was not mad. That of course she should enter this marriage with a reasonable nugget of doubt as to Nico’s love.
But Antonietta had long ago thrown away the script.
‘You are mad,’ Antonietta said. ‘Nico loves you. Why can’t you just accept it?’
It was a good question.
It had been wonderful to see her friend, although Aurora was very pleased that Luigi hadn’t applied the eyeliner before Antonietta had arrived.
‘You are ready,’ Luigi said to the bride.
He had indeed waved his magic wand—but not too much, for it was happiness that shone through on this day.
‘Oh, Aurora…’ Her father beamed when he saw her. ‘This is the best day of my life,’ he said. ‘I always knew he was right for you…’
It would be easy for her to hold a grudge. But her parents doted on Gabe and had been all over Aurora from the second they’d found out that the baby was Nico’s. They seemed to have conveniently forgotten that they had forced their pregnant daughter to leave home.
