The Marshal at the Villa Torrini Read Online Free PDF Page B

tear escaped her blue eyes. She dried them and dabbed at her nose.
    'Poor Celia.'
    'Never an unkind word about anybody. You haven't changed. Nevertheless, you didn't like him and you might as well admit it, because the Marshal here misses nothing so you won't be able to hide anything from him!'
    'Hide anything? Oh, Marshal, you don't think I was trying to hide anything, not seriously?'
    'No, no . . . ' Wretched man!
    'I had nothing against him . . .'
    'Eugenia, he's not dead.'
    'No but . . . He often helped me, you know. He saw to the lemon trees this year because Giorgio hadn't time, and that was kind . . .'
    'Eugenia!'
    'Oh, you must forgive me, but you shouldn't speak ill— There I go again, I don't know what you must think of me, Marshal . . . Well, I'll be absolutely straight. He often did things for me. Sometimes he insisted on doing things for me that I wasn't altogether sure I wanted him to do. But Celia was a friend, I really felt that. She would help me if I wanted help, but mostly she just spent time with me— Oh, I don't know how to explain it exactly, but I just think Celia did things because she liked me whereas he . . . he did things so that I'd like him and that's the difference! You see, everybody liked Celia, she didn't have to do anything to make herself liked. She told me once he was jealous, not sexual jealousy. They'd actually had a row over some people they'd had to dinner because, according to him, their friends were not really their friends at all but her friends. He got drunk, I think, during the dinner and disappeared. She found him on the bed out cold. She said he'd drunk a lot before the meal—well, he must have done because he only got as far as the soup . . .'
    Fusarri glanced at the Marshal.
    'Must make a habit of it.'
    'Oh, I don't think so,' said the Signora Torrini, 'Of course he could have done it on other occasions, but she only mentioned the one time.'
    'Sorry, Eugenia, I was joking. It seems to be more or less what he did tonight, whether before or after his wife died we don't know.'
    'I suppose if he was upset . . . I think I'll have another drop. Giorgio thinks . . . But I will. Just a drop—and oh heavens, who's going to tell Jenny? There's a daughter, Jenny, you know.'
    'We didn't know. I don't think we knew.' Fusarri looked the question at the Marshal, who shook his head and wondered why the devil Forbes himself hadn't wondered who was going to tell his daughter.
    'Hmph . . . ' They both looked at him. 'Where is she? This daughter?'
    'Jenny?' Signora Torrini rested her glass on her neat grey lap and thought for a moment. 'In England—I'm trying to remember where exactly—I'm afraid I forget names. But you'll see she'll be home tomorrow for half-term. Celia told me that.'
    'Then her father will tell her,' Fusarri said. 'He'll no doubt have sobered up by then, eh, Guarnaccia?'
    'He was always very good with Jenny . . . Oh dear . . .'
    Fusarri decided to give up on reminding her which one was dead, only registering his observation by a wink in the Marshal's direction. But the Marshal didn't see it. He was frowning.
    'Where does she sleep, this daughter, when she comes here? There's only one bed.'
    'She stays next door at Sissi's now.'
    'O my God, no! Don't tell me she's still going! Ah, Marshal, you have a treat in store—pity we can't go round there now. I'd like to have seen the old girl again. She must be ninety!'
    'Ninety-one and going strong. She likes to have Jenny. It's company, you know, and they play piano duets together.'
    Fusarri roared with laughter, which led to a fit of coughing.
    'Really, Eugenia, this room is full of smoke!'
    'Oh dear, you must forgive me. I do smoke a lot, but when I'm alone it doesn't matter . . . ' She wafted ineffectually at the drifting clouds with a long pale hand, the nails well-manicured but unvarnished. 'I know what Giorgio would say and he's right—'
    'Never mind Giorgio,' said Fusarri. 'You're going to suffocate the Marshal here who is