Chapter 4. Sophia's Last Day
*Seven months had passed since the Boxing Day Party*
It was a bright August afternoon. Duchess Almidia, Sr. was having lunch with her family and also Lorizi at the terrace. She was wearing her favourite dress with an incredibly wide skirt and seemed joyful and happy.
"So, Marianna, how are you painting lessons going?" she asked her daughter.
"Wonderful, Mama. I've recently finished a lovely landscape. Ms. Jones keeps praising me."
"Bravo!" Ferdinand Lorizi cried with a grin, clapping vigorously. "Our bella signora is a genius! I knew it! I knew it! She has amazing talent."
Marianna smiled. Lorizi hadn't changed at all. He was still hoping she'd change her heart, so he wasn't even offended of her declining his proposal seven months earlier.
"Dr. Kennell's birthday is upcoming," Sophia Almidia said. "He has invited us all."
"It's so kind of him," Solange agreed. She loved parties. Marianna just nodded politely: she definitely didn't like the interest Dr. Kennell had for her mother. Ferdi squealed excitedly just as always.
The clock struck half past five. Ferdi turned sad:
"Oh, how awful! I have a business meeting in London in just half an hour. I hate to leave the wonderful villa. But I'll be back tomorrow."
He packed his bag and waved goodbye to everyone before getting into his car and driving away.
"Such a funny fellow," Solange remarked.
Duchess Almidia, Sr. got up and said:
"Solange, dear, couldn't you go and buy some tangerines? I want tangerines."
"Of course, ma'am," Solange smiled. "Marianna, do you want to go with me too?"
"I think I'd better sit in the garden and read," the younger duchess said. "When are you going to be back? Just for me to know?"
"In an hour, as usual."
"Oh," Duchess Sophia suddenly said, turning to Solange. "Go to Dr. Kennell's and tell him to come."
"What's it, ma'am?"
"N-nothing serious, Solange. A little cold – a sore throat. I want him to bring the tablets I always take."
Duchess Sophia entered the house and went upstairs majestically. Solange took a purse and walked to the road, counting money in the purse. Jack Ray – the cook – took the empty plates away to the kitchen.
Marianna snatched her favourite book ("Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontё) and rushed to the beautiful fountain in the garden. She adored sitting near the fountain and reading.
Right now, though, she couldn't concentrate on the novel. She hadn't been able to concentrate on it for seven months. The memory of the man in the sparkling costume had been haunting her every single day.
She took her personal jewelry box out of her purse and opened it. The ruby ring was lying there, the only real reminder of that wonderful Christmas Eve. Marianna gently took it with her two fingers and sighed.
"I still remember you," she whispered to the ring. Somehow she wished that the man would hear her if she talked to him in such a way.
"I still remember you and wish we could meet. I know it's foolish of me, for I don't even know you. I only know your given name, Francois Hercule Duroque. Oh how I'd love to see you again – just to look at you… And don't worry, I don't love Ferdi at all."
She sighed once more and put the ring back. Then she closed and hid the jewelry box and opened "Jane Eyre" on a random page.
But before Marianna could read at least a passage… she heard a faint scream coming presumably from the villa.
"I'm beginning to hallucinate," she mumbled. But the scream was followed by another one, and then by a kind of shriek. Marianna threw the book away and ran to the house.
Jack Ray was already running to the garden, with his face bone white, yelling:
"Your Excellency! Your Excellency! It's dreadful – oh – dreadful – dreadful – I can't bear it!.."
Jack nearly slammed into Marianna and stared at her with terror:
"Her Excellency – I mean, your mother…"
"What? What's with her?" Marianna cried, panicked by the whole thing. The cook was just trembling, desperate to speak anything. Marianna pushed him aside and ran like the wind to her mother's room.
Duchess Sophia was lying on the carpet. She was all covered in blood, and blood was everywhere on the floor. A pistol was in her hand. Another hand held a unfinished note:
Marianna, my dearest daughter, I'm so terribly sorry t—
Marianna felt her world fade before her eyes as she collapsed on the floor.
"Your Excellency, the police…" she heard Jack's shouts. Then everything went black.
Detective Plann, Dr. Kennell and Father Brown had arrived at the Almidia Villa to find Sophia dead, Marianna unconscious, and the servants having a collective breakdown.
"She killed herself," Solange was sobbing. "Why? Why? She was so cheerful just half an hour ago. I can't believe it!"
"Perhaps she was killed," Plann suggested.
"But the note – you see the farewell note…"
"Is it the Duchess's handwriting?" Plann asked.
"It is," Father Brown, Dr. Kennell and the servants said together.
Dr. Kennell was kneeling beside Sophia Almidia's body and wiping his face with a sleeve.
"Killed by a bullet fired into her heart. Died instantaneously," he concluded in a desperate voice. "Oh, Sophia, dear Sophia! Lost – lost – all lost… I'll strangle the murderer!"
"So you're sure that she was murdered," Plann said.
"Absolutely! She's – oh, she was too gentle and kind to…"
Before Dr. Kennell could finish the sentence, he was interrupted by Ferdinand Lorizi marching joyfully through the garden.
"My boss is ill – the meeting's cance-e-elled!" he sang. When he saw Solange's tear-soaked face, he stopped in his tracks.
"Solange!" he smiled reassuringly. "What happened in this terrible world that made the Joy herself weep?"
"Signor Lorizi, stop your jokes," Solange groaned. "Her Excellency – she was – oh, she was found dead in her room!" She collapsed into hysterics.
"Marianna?" Ferdi cried. "No, no!"
"No, sir," Detective Plann said as he noticed the man. "Duchess Marianna Almidia is alive. It's her mother who's dead."
Ferdi's face twisted with shock:
"Not Duchess Sophia – no, no – I can't believe it – it's even more impossible!"
"Calm down, sir, we understand all," Plann said friendly. "We're very sorry for the loss…"
"How's Marianna?" Ferdi wanted to know.
"She's unconscious, sir. You'd better not disturb her. A trained nurse is treating her, so Duchess Marianna is going to be alright soon."
"Thank goodness," Ferdi sighed and ran inside the house.
"Oh, Duchess Sophia," he sobbed, seeing the corpse. "I can't even bear it. It's a nightmare… aah, poor Marianna…"