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“I won’t comeunlessyou explain!”
“Look, a gift for you!” Baron Pisani showed her a box wrapped in shiny yellow paper.
“All I want is to see Dante. I have to know he’s safe.”
Baron Pisani set down the gift. “Lucia, don’t be afraid. I know what you look like.”
Lucia’s face went hot. “Tell me where Dante is.”
“He left to find his father.”
Lucia blinked, not completely surprised. She knew it was true that Dante wanted to find his parents.
“Lucia, I answered you, so please come inside. He loves you, he told me to tell you.”
Lucia softened. She knew Dante loved her, but it was reassuring to hear, and Dante must have trusted Baron Pisani to tell him so. She couldn’t decide whether to come out from behind the tree, but Baron Pisani had kept his side of the bargain and she was a woman of her word.
And she could always kill him if she had to.
Lucia had never been insidesuch a house, which was strange indeed. There was a table and two chairs opposite. Books were everywhere, and pictures, official certificates, and a drawing of a building hung on the wall. She had no idea why anybody would live here, without a bed or a brazier for cooking, but that was her least important question.
“Baron Pisani, where’s Dante?”
“Allow me to explain,” Baron Pisani began, and he told her how Dante had come to the madhouse so long ago, then how a lawyer named Gaetano had helped him learn about his mother and father, now both dead, and also the horrible news that his father wasn’t his natural father, and his natural father probably had him kidnapped and put in the madhouse.
Baron Pisani spoke with a calm demeanor that made Lucia trust him. His words rang true, and his compassion for Dante was plain. Remarkably, he didn’t seem bothered by her color, so she began to relax. By the time he finished the story, she realized that he had gained Dante’s confidence and might deserve hers, too.
“Poor Dante.” Lucia felt heartsick for him.
Baron Pisani pushed the shiny gold box across the desk. “Now, please accept my gift.”
“Thank you.” Lucia picked it up, preoccupied by thoughts of Dante. “This is very pretty.”
Baron Pisani blinked. “Open it.”
“Why?”
Baron Pisani smiled. “The gift is inside. Tear the paper off.”
Lucia took the paper off carefully, thinking of its many uses, since she never wasted anything. She unwrapped the paper and underneath was a box filled with tissue paper, for which she had many other uses. At the bottom of the box was something she had never seen before. “What’s this?”
“They’re dark spectacles. I had them made for you in Palermo. Allow me.” Baron Pisani came around the desk, plucked the dark spectacles from the box, and leaned toward her.
Lucia recoiled reflexively.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to put them on you.”
Lucia stayed still, and Baron Pisani hooked each side of the spectacles over her ears, then situated them on her face.
“They fit you perfectly! How do they feel?”
“Good.” Lucia peered at him through the spectacles. “They make everything dark.”
“Exactly. Wear them outside in the daytime. Here, let me put them away. You don’t need them inside.” Baron Pisani unhooked the spectacles and returned them to the box. “I think you’ll like wearing them, and your eyes won’t hurt in the sun.”
“How did you know my eyes hurt in the sun?”
“It’s common in people with your condition.”
