years apart, were best friends growing up and were affectionate and supportive of each other. There was harmony in the family, and the home brimmed with happiness and peace. Then, on a freezing December morning, Matilda had joined the Berillis, and from one day to the next turmoil had swept the palazzina and its residents.
That year, 1868, the Pellettieris, an old aristocratic family from Turin, had decided to spend the winter in Genoa. They arrived in pomp and circumstance, with a butler, four maids, two cooks, and a caravan of three carriages drawn by champion horses. In the first carriage rode young Matilda, her mother, and two maids; in the last was Matilda’s father, the Marquis Telonio Pellettieri, accompanied by the butler; and in the middle carriage, cramped with the luggage, rode the rest of the servants. They took possession of an estate in the east hills comprised of a patrician house, a stable, a carriage home, and five acres of land. The Genoese took notice of their arrival. One week later, through a common acquaintance, the Pellettieris met the Berillis at the Carlo Felice Theater, during the opera-season premiere. The marriage between Giuseppe and Matilda was arranged by the two families shortly afterwards. Giuseppe was twenty-seven, Matilda twenty. Eugenia, thirty, was unattached. The wedding announcement stunned the town:
“The daughter of a Marquis marrying someone with no blue blood?”
“That’s unheard of. The aristocrats never marry outside their circles.”
“Especially the Piedmontese. They don’t even talk to those who don’t belong to their caste.”
“Why would the Pellettieris wed their beautiful daughter to someone without a title?”
“I have no idea. Those Berillis know their way up, that’s for sure.”
“They were full of themselves before. Can you imagine how they are going to act now?”
“I’d give my right hand to find out how they managed to arrange this marriage.”
“Money?”
“No, both families are as rich as Croesus.”
“What else then?”
“We’ll find out, sooner or later.”
No Genoese, however, would ever discover anything more about the reasons for that surprising, sudden marital arrangement. Only Filiberto, Giulia, and Giuseppe Berilli knew how they had succeeded. Even within the Pellettieri family, only Matilda’s parents knew the details of their daughter’s broken engagement to the Count Arnaldo Della Tessiera, the heir to a large empire of land in the southern part of Piedmont. Matilda had been eighteen years of age, close to nineteen, at the time of her engagement, and in order to abide to a condition imposed on the wedding by her fiancé’s parents, she underwent a physical examination by the Della Tessiera’s family doctor to assess her suitability to carry children. Arnaldo was the last descendant of the Della Tessiera’s stock and his parents wanted to be sure their breed would continue to populate the earth after their death. It was during that examination that the doctor discovered that Matilda’s hymen was not where it was supposed to be and reported his finding to the four parents.
“Impossible!” Telonio Pellettieri blurted out.
Osvaldo Della Tessiera, Arnaldo’s father, jumped to his feet. “Are you saying that our doctor is a liar?”
“If he’s not a liar,” Telonio said, “then he must be mistaken. Our Matilda is honest and god-fearing. She would never engage in such shameful acts.”
The doctor, however, insisted that the hymen wasn’t there. Furious, convinced that the doctor’s report about the hymen was part of some scheme the Della Tessieras had conceived to walk away from the wedding, Telonio requested that his daughter be examined by his own doctor and that he and his wife attend the visit. “This way,” he told Osvaldo, “we’ll certainly prove the incompetence of the doctor you chose.”
“Fine,” Osvaldo said, “but I want to be present as well. How do I know that you and your doctor won’t
That year, 1868, the Pellettieris, an old aristocratic family from Turin, had decided to spend the winter in Genoa. They arrived in pomp and circumstance, with a butler, four maids, two cooks, and a caravan of three carriages drawn by champion horses. In the first carriage rode young Matilda, her mother, and two maids; in the last was Matilda’s father, the Marquis Telonio Pellettieri, accompanied by the butler; and in the middle carriage, cramped with the luggage, rode the rest of the servants. They took possession of an estate in the east hills comprised of a patrician house, a stable, a carriage home, and five acres of land. The Genoese took notice of their arrival. One week later, through a common acquaintance, the Pellettieris met the Berillis at the Carlo Felice Theater, during the opera-season premiere. The marriage between Giuseppe and Matilda was arranged by the two families shortly afterwards. Giuseppe was twenty-seven, Matilda twenty. Eugenia, thirty, was unattached. The wedding announcement stunned the town:
“The daughter of a Marquis marrying someone with no blue blood?”
“That’s unheard of. The aristocrats never marry outside their circles.”
“Especially the Piedmontese. They don’t even talk to those who don’t belong to their caste.”
“Why would the Pellettieris wed their beautiful daughter to someone without a title?”
“I have no idea. Those Berillis know their way up, that’s for sure.”
“They were full of themselves before. Can you imagine how they are going to act now?”
“I’d give my right hand to find out how they managed to arrange this marriage.”
“Money?”
“No, both families are as rich as Croesus.”
“What else then?”
“We’ll find out, sooner or later.”
No Genoese, however, would ever discover anything more about the reasons for that surprising, sudden marital arrangement. Only Filiberto, Giulia, and Giuseppe Berilli knew how they had succeeded. Even within the Pellettieri family, only Matilda’s parents knew the details of their daughter’s broken engagement to the Count Arnaldo Della Tessiera, the heir to a large empire of land in the southern part of Piedmont. Matilda had been eighteen years of age, close to nineteen, at the time of her engagement, and in order to abide to a condition imposed on the wedding by her fiancé’s parents, she underwent a physical examination by the Della Tessiera’s family doctor to assess her suitability to carry children. Arnaldo was the last descendant of the Della Tessiera’s stock and his parents wanted to be sure their breed would continue to populate the earth after their death. It was during that examination that the doctor discovered that Matilda’s hymen was not where it was supposed to be and reported his finding to the four parents.
“Impossible!” Telonio Pellettieri blurted out.
Osvaldo Della Tessiera, Arnaldo’s father, jumped to his feet. “Are you saying that our doctor is a liar?”
“If he’s not a liar,” Telonio said, “then he must be mistaken. Our Matilda is honest and god-fearing. She would never engage in such shameful acts.”
The doctor, however, insisted that the hymen wasn’t there. Furious, convinced that the doctor’s report about the hymen was part of some scheme the Della Tessieras had conceived to walk away from the wedding, Telonio requested that his daughter be examined by his own doctor and that he and his wife attend the visit. “This way,” he told Osvaldo, “we’ll certainly prove the incompetence of the doctor you chose.”
“Fine,” Osvaldo said, “but I want to be present as well. How do I know that you and your doctor won’t
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