The House of Serenades Read Online Free PDF

he didn’t care to discuss with strangers. There were, nonetheless, other considerations: What if someone got hurt because he had kept the letters to himself? What if he should die at the hand of a mad stranger? Suddenly, Giuseppe was hit by the thought that this might be the last day of his life. He swallowed twice, then took a pill from his pocket and thrust it into his mouth. He knew he had to act immediately, or he would have a heart attack for sure. It was at such trying time that he needed all his stamina and control. He remembered one of his father’s favorite sayings, God bless his soul: “Always think rationally, never out of fear, for he who lets fear be the captain of his ship will suffer shipwreck and will be lost in the waves.”
    Easier said than done, he muttered between his teeth as he put the letters back in the drawer. He breathed in then hummed the air out of his shiny nose. A moment later, on the north wall, next to unlit fireplace, the grandfather clock struck noon. With firm gestures, he took a steel-nibbed pen from a pewter tray and plunged it into an inkwell. As always before using fine parchment paper, he tapped the wet nib on the edge of the well and waited for a drop of ink to fall. Three lines were all he wrote to make his point. Finished, he rang the table bell. Guglielmo appeared at the door within the minute.
    “Sir?”
    Giuseppe dried the ink with the blotter and folded the sheet of paper. He slid it into an envelope, closed the envelope with the family wax seal, and said, “Have this letter hand-delivered at once to the Chief of Police. With discretion.”
    Guglielmo took the letter from his master’s hands. “I’ll take care of it myself, sir.” He added, “Madame would like to know if you intend to have lunch with her today.”
    “Yes, I’ll have lunch today,” Giuseppe said.
    Guglielmo bowed. “Lunch will be served in fifteen minutes.” Outside, in front of the palazzina , Eugenia breathed the sweet perfumes of the breeze. She looked up and noticed that the sun was high. It must be close to noon, she thought, and Matilda hadn’t asked her to lunch. What else could one expect from that snob? Not that she looked forward to spending time with her sister-in-law. She had spent plenty of time with Matilda after the wedding, none of which had been a pleasure. With a shake of the head, she crossed the street and walked to the belvedere , a tree-lined lookout area from where one could enjoy wide-open views of the city. As she had done many times before, in her youth and in more recent years, she sat on a bench and watched the scenery in brooding silence: the horizon, the calm waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the port with its ships and docks. Behind the port, the city began, clawing the hill slopes in an irregular, multilevel topography of steep roads and unpredictable architectural arrangements. Then Eugenia turned to the hillside, and her eyes scanned the silhouettes of the villas, the shady gardens, the occasional palm and olive trees. North of the gardens, in a protective semicircle, the sharp hillcrests towered over people, houses, and sea as they had for centuries, since the time of Noah.
    Nostalgia caught Eugenia by surprise as a warm longing gripped her heart. She longed for her childhood, her youth, and all the years prior to Matilda’s marrying Giuseppe and moving into the palazzina . It was heavenly back then, with her parents still alive. Her father, Filiberto Berilli, had been a tall, strong man with a raven handlebar mustache and a powerful look in his eyes. He had always stood out in a crowd. In contrast, his wife, Giulia, had been short and thin, with no noticeable features. What drew people to her was her remarkable musical talent. Eugenia’s nostalgia grew stronger as she recalled how her mother would spend hours fingering the melodies of Mozart and Beethoven on the piano, which she had learned to play as a child. And Eugenia and Giuseppe, close in age, only three