Page 24 of Promised to the Don of Naples
"The house talks?"
"The house whispers." He took another sip. "Donna Beatrice told Lina, Lina told the driver, the driver told the gate guard, the gate guard told me at breakfast. In a family home you know everything in forty minutes."
"How efficient."
"Sì." He set the cup down on the desk. "Let's take this one piece at a time. Why do you want a Capri photo?"
I had two options: either I lied and lost him, or I told half the truth and found out what he'd give me back.
"Because my brother spent his summers here. I didn't know that, and that's why I want to see the photos."
"You want to see photos of your brother?"
"Yes."
He looked at me in silence, longer than was natural.
"Valentina. Tell me something," he said very slowly. "Who told you Matteo spent summers on Capri?"
"Luca."
"And what else did he tell you?"
"Why?"
"Because I want to know what he told you and what he didn't."
Now it was my turn to look at him in silence.
"Why would you tell me the part he didn't?"
"Maybe I won't." He smiled. "But you want to tell me anyway. I can see it on your face."
I swallowed hard. He was right.
"He told me Matteo stopped going to Capri in 2015. He didn't tell me why."
"Allora." He got up from the desk and picked up the cup, coming over to the shelf where I was and stopping beside me. "The nonna knows."
"Your grandmother?"
"Mia nonna. Adelina. She lives on Capri. She's coming to the wedding." He glanced at me sideways. "But if you wait until the wedding to ask, she'll already have been coached on what to say and what not to say. Capisci?"
"Capisco."
"You have to go before then."
"How do I get to Capri before then?"
He smiled.
"With luck and patience, cognatina." He looked at the shelf behind me and pointed up high. "By the way, look at that blue book, three shelves from the top. Family memoirs, written by my great-grandfather. There are some photos in it."
I looked up and saw the book was about ten feet up.
"I can't reach it."
"I can."
