AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You need to make more cheese next time!” an old woman shouted.
“Yes, a lot more!” her ladyfriend chimed in, and another woman knocked over Marco Citrus’s stand. Oranges started rolling all over the piazza, and Marco Citrus bolted to get them, cursing in front of the women.
A third woman added, “I need that cheese! My back hurts! Alfredo, when will you return? I’m in pain!”
Alfredo felt sorry for her. “It’s only cheese, Signora. It won’t help your back.”
“Yes, it will, I heard! Won’t you please make more? And come back sooner?”
“I can’t. It takes time. You have to let the curds drain, and I have only so much milk.”
“Get more goats!”
Alfredo wasn’t about to explain they were his daughters, not acquired like possessions. He bred them when he wanted to grow his family and he didn’t keep a buck because of its musky stink. All of that was nobody’s business.
“Alfredo, I heard your cheese is magical! That it comes from magical goats!”
Alfredo stopped replying because they didn’t listen anyway. He picked up Beatrice’s rope and turned to go, but Donato Nuts stopped him.
“Alfredo, what are you doing to the cheese? They say it’s charmed.”
“They’re mistaken. I tried to tell them, but I give up.”
“If you want my advice, you should make more cheese.”
“I can’t.” Alfredo didn’t want his advice. He didn’t even know Donato Nuts, who had never before spoken to him.
“Then increase your prices. If they think it’s charmed, they’ll pay extra.”
“That would be cheating,” Alfredo told him, and Beatrice looked over in disapproval.
“No, it wouldn’t. Charmed cheese should cost more than regular.”
“But it’s not charmed, and it costs me the same to make, day-to-day.”
Donato Nuts frowned. “Don’t be so stubborn, Alfredo. I’m trying to help you. If you put nuts in your cheese, you could help me.”
“But I don’t want nuts in my cheese.”
“Why not? Pine nuts would taste good in cheese. Almonds, too. I have Tuono and Avola.” Donato Nuts leaned closer. “You should share your good fortune, you know. We can make a common venture, the two of us. What do you say?”
“I say, no, thank you.” Alfredo turned away and headed up the street. He had sold out of his cheese again, but he was getting a bad feeling.
So was Beatrice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dante squatted in the corner, more terrified than ever. He had tried to run away that night, but he hadn’t even gotten out of the courtyard. Renzo had caught him and put him in a different cell, with three men. One man was so skinny that he looked like a living skeleton, with dark sunken eyes and a long, bony nose, and he screamed himself hoarse, making it impossible to sleep. Renzo called him Opera Singer, and Dante had never been so tired.
The second man had a pimply face and shiny black eyes that glowered at him. Renzo called him Biter, and Biter had already bitten Dante’s arm like a piece of meat. The third man had white hair and cracked spectacles, believing himself to be King Roger, so Renzo nicknamed him Raving King Roger. Raving King Roger would order Dante to serve him roast duck, draw him a hot bath, or fetch him a book from the library, as if they lived in a castle. Dante couldn’t, and Raving King Roger would threaten to cut off his head.
Dante closed his eyes, trying to rest, but Opera Singer was screaming. Biter was sitting on his haunches, eyeing him like a guard dog. Raving King Roger was arranging an imaginary napkin, getting ready for breakfast, which was about to come through the door.
Dante dreaded mealtimes because of Renzo’s game.
“Breakfast!” Renzo opened the slot in the door and pushed in three plates of bread and jam, even though there were four in the cell.
Biter scrambled to his plate.
