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Roberto laughed, but Franco wasn’t joking.
“Why notus, the Fiorvanti brothers? Why should we grow for others? Why not grow for ourselves? Noblemen aren’t better than us, despite their titles. God loves all men equally.” Franco felt himself falling under the spell of his own dream. “Like a woman in love, agiardinooffers everything. Beauty. Sustenance.Life.”
Roberto’s eyes narrowed. “Are you in love?”
“No.” Franco kept his secret, unripe for telling.
“Ezio thinks you are. He says you’re seeing someone new.”
“I’m always seeing someone new.”
“He says this one matters. Last week, you smiled.”
Roberto chuckled, but Franco wanted to change the subject.
“Roberto, lemons are the future. We canmasterthe future.”
“Now you’re talking like Mamma. Crazy.”
“She wasn’t crazy. She just had dreams.”
“Crazy dreams.” Roberto shrugged. “Okay, I’m in. We’ll be the famous Fiorvanti brothers. We’ll be rich.”
“It’s not only for money. It’s for dignity. Respect.Equality.”
“Have you become a Communist now?”
Franco scoffed. “Politics is a corrupt conspiracy between colonizers and nobility against us. Sicily is still feudal. We’re workers in their fields, fodder in their cannons. We’re far behind the mainland and Europe in this way. I was reading—”
“I knew it!” Roberto wagged his finger. “This is because Mamma taught you to read. What a mistake!”
Franco let it go. “Roberto, other families have succeeded in business, not only nobility. The Florios aren’t noble, but they’re ascending the ladder. Baron Zito owns thislatifondo, though he can’t sell because it’s feudal land. But there’s talk of changing the law, and if that happens, I think I can convince him to sell me a small parcel.”
Roberto cocked his head. “Where would you get the money?”
“Savings, since I left home.”
“But why would he sell?”
“He doesn’t like the country life at all, and he complains about the taxes.”
Roberto smiled, narrowing his eyes. “Are you trying tobecomea baron?”
“Why not?”
“They were born noble. We were born handsome.”
Franco didn’t laugh. “I want to move up, Roberto.”
“You want to be king of the mountain. Remember that game we used to play?”
“Yes, and back then, you wanted the same. So why not now?”
“This is life, not a game. Nobility is like the stars. They belong up there.” Roberto waved at the night sky. “We belong down here with the women, the wine, and the cards. Which place is truly heaven?”
Suddenly they turned at the pounding of a horse’s hooves, then a man materialized from the darkness, cantering toward them. Franco had been awaiting him. “Roberto, go inside.”
“Why? Who’s this?”
