In two more days, Vieve's appetite returned however slow it took her to eat. She motioned with her hands for things to do and some stitching was brought to her. Lorenzo hadn't stayed with her the whole time and trusted her recovery to Elvera, who returned to take care of Genevieve.
"She hasn't slept very well in the last few days," Elvera told him seriously outside of her room when he came to see her. This wasn't good news.
"I'll just see if she has any information for me," he said slowly. The sad look in Elvera's eye told him that she didn't think it was a good idea. Upon entering her room, he agreed. Vieve was pacing herself across the room, incessantly rubbing her hands and arms. Her wrists had scabbed in their mending. She would have ugly scars around them. She turned this way and that and couldn't keep her eyes on one thing. Lorenzo watched as she threw herself into a chair and pinched her nose with a hand.
She was crying.
Everything seemed to hurt.
Huge racking sobs grated the silence of the room. Elvera knelt next to the inconsolable woman and dabbed her forehead with a wet towel, cooing something quietly. She said that Sinacore had come to visit.
Vieve spied Lorenzo. She obviously had not heard him enter. Burying her pain deep, she sat up, stopped sniffing, dabbed her eyes and refused to meet his gaze. She sat stiffened as a statue. Waiting.
Sadly, Lorenzo recognised when his presence caused anxiety. "I don't want to distress you. When you want to see me, send word," he said, bowed and bid her good day.
The interviews had yielded negative results. Not a single person said that they had heard anything the night that Genevieve had been dragged outside and hung. Every person had an alibi that was cross-referenced and seemed to check out.
Despite cancelling training, the men went on without Lorenzo, Falco, Lazzari and Genevieve. There was nothing to be done to stop them. They organised themselves into groups and practiced skills that they had already been taught. Not one of them was silly enough to make a complaint about how training had halted because of Genevieve's harrowing experience. They knew they would be scrutinised if they dared to do so.
As such, it was difficult to tell what the men were thinking. Most were amiable towards one another but Lorenzo was not fooled. He spied who each person preferred to train with, who each person preferred to eat with and who each person preferred to do their chores with. When they put their heads together to talk quietly with each other, Lorenzo wished against everything else to be privy to the topic of the conversation. Still, it would not do to accuse anyone of conspiracy without evidence. De Rege, the largest of the group with his sharp eyes and impressive towering figure, looked to Franzese, Pecora, Rosso and Pellegrini for muscular friends. He had the mass to threaten a bull but was aware of it and pulled his punches. These were the men who dominated the arena and who consistently bested Genevieve at every physical task.
Barone, the one with the loudest mouth and a sharp wit, had Battaglia, Ruggiero, Negri and Mazza, who were constantly looking to be better than the next man. This betterment never extended into sabotage but did often extend into verbal abuse. Lorenzo wondered if they had taken their verbal reprises too far on Genevieve.
Eposito laughed all the time, even when there wasn't anything to laugh at, which wasn't often because he would play tricks on Greco, Rosetti, Bernadi and Coppola to make sure there was something to laugh at. But he didn't appear to be a vindictive person and Lorenzo had seen him laughing with Genevieve every now and again. Their relationship was easy and open.
Pandimiglio, Genovese, D'angelo, Ferri, Cattaneo and Guiliani were all quiet, contemplative men who had formed an open bond of companionship and comradery through actively seeking knowledge. They spoke about world matters, played chess and shared their perspectives on governments, democracies and trading. There wasn't anything untoward about them and Lorenzo had seen Genevieve sit with them. Just listening to their opinions. Watching the game.
Geneveive was a natural outsider to all of the cliches that the men had formed – being a woman. This was compounded by other existing factors. She was not strong, which meant that she lacked respect from De Rege and his crew. Her wit was not quick, leaving her lacking respect from Barone and his friends. While she laughed at Eposito, she didn't possess the originality that he continually expressed and he quickly tired of her blandness. She was ignorant of worldly matters, hence why she always listened, and only spoke to ask questions, in the largest group of men. There were multiple setbacks for her but Lorenzo couldn't imagine any underlying issues.
It wasn't only the novices who Lorenzo was watching out of the corner of his eye. The servants also shared their fair slice of suspicion. Luigi had his own way of keeping count of who was with who and who appeared to be distracted or not. Despite his methods however, he could not share information that was of any use. Elvera was her only close friend and even she said that Genevieve preferred to work by herself at her own insistence. Genevieve did her work, kept out of other people's way and minded her own business.
The darkness didn't hold any answers for Lorenzo as he lay awake. His familiar room hadn't changed. It was the thing that kept him up at night that had. Every scenario ran through his head but none provided a solution for him.
The last thing to do was hear Genevieve's account of what happened.