Page 37 of Promised to the Don of Naples
"Good morning, signorina."
"Good morning, Donna Beatrice."
"Did you have a good trip?"
"I traveled."
I sat down, and she poured me black coffee, no sugar, and I looked at her.
"May I say something, signorina?"
"You may."
"Signora Varga came back yesterday."
I set the cup down slowly.
"She came back?"
"She came back, and she's staying three days. She asked for the blue room in the east wing."
"Did she ask, or did Don Luca invite her?"
Donna Beatrice looked at me, and her black eyes didn't blink.
"She asked, signorina."
"And Don Luca accepted."
"Don Luca neither accepted nor refused," the housekeeper said plainly. "Signora Varga is a longtime guest of the house. When she wants to stay, she stays."
I smiled for the first time that morning.
"Donna Beatrice. How long have you worked in this house?"
"Thirty-two years."
"So you've known Signora Varga forever?"
"Since she was sixteen."
"What did she first come to this house as?"
The housekeeper hesitated half a second. She brought her hands to her apron and smoothed a crease that wasn't there.
"Signora Varga first came to this house as a secretary, signorina. To Don Luca's father, Don Marco."
"A secretary..."
"For two years."
"And after that?"
"After that, signorina, she became an intimate of the family. Across several generations."
I looked at her, and she looked back at me, but said nothing more.
Across several generations.
