Chapter 11 (First part)

Patty looked at herself in the mirror of her bathroom and a smile of satisfaction formed on her lips. Since her unexpected arrival at the hospital, it was the first time she had wore a dress, and she was glad for it. Alessandro would finally see her in something other than a nightie. She was always feeling bad to stand before him in such an outfit. Who wouldn't be? This is not very common to welcome one's admirer in pajamas…

She readjusted the boat neck of her pale yellow dress and tightened the thin ribbon around her waist to better highlight it. She took a few steps in her bedroom and did not feel any trouble like the ones she had felt the day before, and which had made her fall into the doctor's powerful arms. Relieved, she went and sat on the edge of her bed, in a standby position. He would certainly be surprised when he sees her dressed so elegantly, and walking straight towards him without tripping. Thinking about this eventuality, a hint of regret touched her heart because it meant that he would certainly let her leave the hospital, and though it was not the most palpitating place of the town, she was nevertheless sorry to have to go. She did not want leave him. How could she be sure that they would keep on seeing each other if she left? It was a question they would surely evoke and she began to elaborate some of them in her mind to be sure nothing would be forgotten.

The noise of rushed hints against her door withdrew her from her thoughts.

It was him! Luckily, Candy was late and she secretly hoped she would take her time to join her. She sat up on her bed, one more time tidied up her hair, and answered with a singing voice:

- Yeeees? Come in!...

The door opened and the radiant smile she was wearing, instantaneously bowed with astonishment. Stunned, pale and trembling, she rested on the bed rail not to faint. The person who had just come in, was indeed the last one she would ever expect to see in Verona, even more in her bedroom!

- Good morning, Patty – said Terry, out of breath from having too much run in the halls. He looked around the room and added – Could you tell where Candy is?

Candy was going to knock at the door of Patty's bedroom when she stopped in her impulse. She could hear the whisper of several voices through the wall. Her heart leaped up in her chest. She could not clearly distinguish them but she was sure about something: Terry was there! This is what Sidney Wilde told her half an hour ago. Terry knew she was in Verona and knew also that Patty was in this hospital. He was probably with her now, waiting for her…

All she had to do was to lower the door handle and she would find him… Hesitating, she moved forward her hand but without going to the end of her movement. How was he going to react when he saw her? He looked so desperate in his letter! Maybe he was going to spit all his contempt to her face since he thought she was married? Would he listen to her? Would he believe her?

She realized that Patty might have explained everything already to him; that it was just a pack of lies and that there was not an iota of truth in all of this. All along the way to the hospital, she had wondered how this fake information had arrived to him and how he could have had faith in it so easily. Thinking about it, she understood she could have committed the same error if she had been in his shoes. They had been both so impervious to happiness for so long, they had been denied from it so many times, that the tiniest suspicion could seem obvious, a new reason for not believing…

But now as he was standing there, just a few meters behind that door, she was very determined to prove him that he could give up with his doubts and fears because he was definitely the one she loved madly, the one who, since Saint-Paul, occupied all her thoughts: the great love of her life…

With a firmer hand, she pushed finally the door, heart hammering and breath quivering. But as she was entering the bedroom, the cruel disillusion she felt when she crossed the only male gaze of the room, belonging to doctor Biazini, let her speechless. A sigh of dejection escaped from her chest and she burst into tears…

The taxi stopped before the little shaded square where was the trattoria that hosted Juliet's Club. It was indeed the place that Patty had mentioned to him. He laughed inwardly while remembering her face when she saw him showing up in her bedroom. Clearly, it was not him she was expecting! The stupefaction following the disappointment he had read on her face, had moreover captured his interest. But he had not stayed long enough to get more information about this, because, once he had gotten his answer, he promptly had left the hospital to go back in town. His impoliteness had certainly not have increased the esteem she had for him, but at that moment, he did not mind what people could think about him, only mattered this one-track mind that obsessed him: find Candy as soon as possible!

- Do you want me to wait for you, mister Grandchester? – Asked Roberto to the young aristocrat, about to exit the vehicle. That latter turned his head towards him and answered with a very calm voice despite his extreme nervousness.

- It won't be necessary, Roberto, thank you. You couldn't be more of help, but I think that I can manage now.

The butler nodded with a knowing smile.

- My mission is accomplished. I wish you good luck, mister Grandchester, and above all, a lot of happiness.

Troubled by these encouraging words, Terry thanked him with a discreet nod. Happiness was indeed standing at his hand and he still had difficulties to believe it. He only had to take a few more steps, and he would be able to touch her at last, to hold her in his arms and keep her forever. He left the taxi and spoke one more time to his new friend.

- Please thank the count for his precious help. I will never forget what he did for me…

- I certainly will, mister Grandchester. Hurry up now! You've wasted far too much time!

The butler greeted him with his hand, then clapped on the driver's seatback to show him that they could go. The taxi moved slowly away, leaving Terry alone with his uncertainties.

The young man turned around and looked at the hostel's frontage whose benefactress shadow fell on the bistro tables. Oddly, that place was close to what he had imagined: a thin-graveled little square, lined with arches that supported centuries-old buildings, among which was the trattoria Giulietta and the centennial basswood that protected its entrance. A little setting of peace away from the hustle and bustle of the town…

Despite his nervousness, he walked across the square with a pretending relaxed look, sneaked between the tables, ignoring the guests who were having lunch, and entered the restaurant. An air stream came and brushed his face and he closed his eyes with contentment. It was so hot outside that this fresh sensation held his apprehension for a few seconds.

He looked for Candy in the room. Where could she be? He came closer to the bar behind which were displayed lines of bottles of liquor. A heavily built and craggy good looks man, busy filling two glasses of wine, raised his thick and bushy eyebrows as he saw him.

- Yes? – He asked, suspicious, putting down the bottle.

- C… Candy? – Terry mumbled as any key, the few Italian words he knew revealing themselves unable to help him in that situation.

- Ah, Candy!

The man's taciturn face enlightened immediately. He put down his cloth on the edge of counter, and walked towards an adjacent pathway. He moved the curtain aside that dissimulated its entrance, stood in front of a stairs half-hidden in the darkness and put his hands in cup around his mouth. His big black mustache began to tremble as he yelled something towards the floor above. Immediately after, they heard someone hurtling down the stairs, and the smiling face of a pretty brown-haired young woman appeared in the doorframe. She stared at Terry for a while in silence. He watched her, embarrassed by the scrutiny of her dark pupils. Finally, Isabella walked towards him and he quivered when, taking his hands between hers and smothered them warmly, she said those sweet words to him :

- Hi, Terrence. We were waiting for you…

Arriving at the crossing road between Rosa Street and Saint Anastasia Street, Candy stopped for a moment to take a break. She still had to walk through the Piaza delle Erbe, to turn into its extension in Capello Street, then to turn at right few meters further in Saint-Andrew Street, to finally arrive at the club. This corresponded to a hundred meters at most, but for her, this amounted to climb Mount Everest! Catching her breath, she sat on a stony post in front the baroque Maffei palace, indifferent to the beauty of the monument that overlooked her from all its height. On the roof, some statues of Roman deities, maintained by a balustrade, were watching her with their empty eyes.

She had been going and coming for two hours under this heat wave, her feet hurt atrociously, and she began to be overcome by doubt and despondency. She hoped Terry would still be at the club and would not have preferred, as she did not show up, to leave for another destination. She knew that the club members could be very convincing when needed, but also excessively talkative, which could make him runaway instead of making him feel confident…

To work up her courage, she remembered the comforting and reassuring words that Patty had had for her while she was about to have a nervous breakdown, when she realized that Terry was not at the hospital anymore. She had been unable to dissimulate her dismay. Gliding effortlessly on the edge of the bed, she had confided in her friend, telling her the outline her adventure, despite the bothering presence of doctor Biazini.

- Married? What is this story? How can he think you are married?

- I don't know. But he is definitely convinced!...

- You must not let you go to this uncertainty. You must go back to the club, Candy! This is where he is!

- Provided he has not disappeared once again! Oh Patty, how can I find him if I always arrive after him!

- Relax, take a deep breath – she had tranquilized her with a hand over hers, guessing she was about to collapse.

- Patty!... I'm so afraid, I'm so afraid he rejects me!

- I can reassure you on this point. The face he did when I told him you were not there showed, I can certify it, that he has strong feelings for you. Stop burying your head into the sand and denying the evidence: you love him, he loves you. He's looking for you, you are looking for him too. You only need few seconds to reassure him about your love for him, and you'll be together forever!

- Patty… - had murmured Candy, big tears rolling again on her cheeks.

- Do you think I would encourage you in your quest if I were not sure about you both? – Had said Patty as she wiped a tear on the young blonde's upset face – Come on, Candy, it's time for you to know the big happiness of being with the one you love!

Looking down, Candy had nodded, sniffing, then both friends had hugged lovingly and parted, under the doctor's bewildered eyes who could not believe the tragi-comedy that had taken place in front of him in the space of a few minutes. Brutally exposed to female feelings' complexity and to their torments, he had turned an afflicted face to Patty.

- At last, at last! – That latter repeated, staring at the door which by Candy had already disappeared, her small fists pressed against her heart.

Then she had raised her head towards him. An ecstatic happiness was making shine her pretty apples and pinked her cheeks. The hoping smile that ran on her lips had then penetrated his hardened heart with a flood of tenderness to which he had given way, troubled, when she had rushed into his arms.

Drawing on her last remaining forces, Candy stood up, walked around a white marble column, topped with a San Marco lion, symbol of the Venetian Republic, and began to walk across the square. On the houses' facades, antic frescoes from the old Roman forum at the location where the square had been built, exposed themselves to the injustice of time. But Candy's mind was not in the mood to linger on these historical wonders. She wanted to arrive at the club as quickly as possible!

It was market day. Cursing inwardly against the merchants stalls displayed on the square that slowed her down, she looked for a way in the busy aisles. She halfway came out on an isolated plot in the middle of which, like an oasis in the desert, a fountain topped with a statue of Madonna, offered itself to her thirsty throat. Joining her hand in cup under the gushing fresh water, she quenched her thirst at length, drinking in great gulps the refreshing liquid. Then, she plunged her naked arms in the pool, and splashed her neck and legs with it several times, with voluptuous pleasure.

One more time before continuing her path, she plunged her hands in the water, threw her head back and ran them into her golden locks, enlightened with sun, like an halo. She closed her eyes in momentum but stopped suddenly, stupefied. One picture, the one of a familiar gaze she had not met for centuries had just grabbed her mind, a look of ocean under the storm, paralyzing, bewitching, that would penetrate your soul and daze you of vertigo. She opened her eyes and staggered under the shock. It was standing before her, a few meters away, on the other side of the fountain, it, this gaze, that she had so often looked for in her dreams, and that had accompanied her all along these years. He was observing her without moving, as incredulous as her, like being abruptly withdrawn from a dream.

All trembling, breathless, she sketched out a step towards him, then stopped, watching for a backward movement of him. He moved forward in return, enough to let see through his half-opened white shirt, the movements of his panting breath inflating his chest. Then he stood still. She was looking at him, like she was hypnotized, with quivering lips, unable to say a word though a screaming flood struggled in her cranium and deafened her. He was remaining in front of her, impassive, and she felt distraught before this recognizable coldness he used to show in the past, when he was angry.

- He's mad at me… - she thought, heartbroken, shaking her head – I'm finding him at last to realize that he hates me! – She moaned as tears of despair went up from her throat and filled her green apples.

This is when she saw a hand coming and meeting hers. A comforting warmth enveloped her, the whole tension that her body had accumulated loosened up in the act, like a divine release.

- Candy… - she heard him whispering tenderly with his voice soft and deep.

She straightened up, quivering, and glimpsed through her half-opened eyes, a touched smile on his beautiful face. She hiccupped with surprise and looked into his eyes. This time, what she was reading in them did not leave any doubt. The mute dialogue that was establishing between them, that they alone could understand, was isolating them from the world that was moving around them. He was the only one left, she was the only one left. Everything around them had vanished in a blurred halo, oscillating between shadows and lights, in a muffled rustling of confused elements.

- Candy… - he repeated, like to be sure he was not in a middle of a dream.

Swept away by a wave of happiness, she felt slipping, her legs unable to hold on her. He was very close to her now, his arm closing around her waist. She closed her eyes and let herself go against his chest. Shyly, her arms embraced him in their turn. He tightened then his embrace and she buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder. She could hear his heart racing, feel his short breath brushing her hair, his muscles contracting as she thrilled with amazement.

- It's not true what they say, you know. You know, don't you? – She mumbled in a strangled voice, submerged by a vivid emotion.

As an answer, he recovered the back of her head with a loving hand, plunged his long fingers into her hair that innocently brushed her lips, and smelled with delight the violet fragrance that emanated from. They stayed cuddled against each other for a long moment, without any consideration of the elapsing time, tasting the joy of the reunion. And when she ended by moving away from him, her face flooded with tears, she noticed he had cried too. They looked at each other, holding a smile, then burst out laughing, nervously, unable to control it. When they recovered their mind, they stood a while without speaking, realizing what they were living. They were meeting each other after all those years, and oddly, it was like they had never existed. They were again those Saint-Paul teenagers, who were modestly discovering that they loved each other.

- I'm so happy to see you again, Freckles… - He murmured, bright-eyed with mischief.

- The pleasure is all mine, mister Grandchester… - she answered, an impish smile on the corner of her lips.

- So happy… - he added, putting his hand on her cheek, caressing her pretty chin with his thumb – The happiest man in the world…

Blushing, she looked down and tilted her head on the side to the meeting of the soft contact of the palm of his hand against her skin. With half-closed eyelids, she contemplated his beautiful face that years had ennobled. She remembered this rare beauty that characterized him, his too perfect features that had so often destabilized her, and she quivered at this thought. He had not changed, except… except this little injury above the eyebrow arch, that long brown locks almost dissimulated.

- What is it?... – she said, her fingers brushing the stitches.

- This is a long story… - he did while taking her hand and kissing it.

- Tell me, then…

A sibylline smile appeared on his lips and he nodded.

- It might be long…

- I've my whole life ahead of me… - she said with a knowing pout.

Leaving him no time to answer, she took his hand and drew him towards the end of the square, in the direction of the narrow streets whose benevolent shadows would protect their confidences…

End of chapter 11 (1st part)