Chapter 54
Although Dafne hoped Basta would make an appearance at dinner, she still dreaded the prospect of going to the church. The men were bound to behave worse than ever since it was a special occasion. Monster Night. As soon as she stepped out of the house with the other maids, her fear was confirmed. There was a strong smell of smoke in the air. Every now and then the night stillness was sliced by the sound of gun shots and firecrackers being let off. These noises were accompanied by distant uproarious laughter.
Claudia walked very close to Dafne. Poor girl. What a night to serve your first meal in the church. At this point the men could only be heard, they would even more frightening to the girl in person. But there was nothing Dafne could do but stick by her and protect her as best she could.
Dafne expected the church to be packed with Capricorn's men but this wasn't the case. There were quite a few to be sure but not as many as their regular number. To her dismay Basta wasn't present either. Neither were Pietro and Nico, his unwanted houseguests. Perhaps they were coming later. She hoped.
"Where is everyone?" Dafne asked Marietta.
Marietta eyed her strangely as if she expected Dafne to know the answer to her own question. But then she seemed to understand.
"Oh is this your first Monster Night?" she said.
Dafne nodded. So did Claudia for that matter.
"I thought as much," Marietta said, "On Monster Night this place doesn't get packed until later on. The men are either down at the arena drinking by the bonfires or running around like excited children sounding off their guns and crackers. They only head here once they've built up an appetite."
"Enjoy the peace while you can," remarked Giosetta, a friend of Marietta's who had just introduced herself to them. She had black curly hair and pretty long eyelashes. Giosetta was also dating one of Capricorn's men. She had been just as keen as Marietta in extending Dafne her hand in friendship. "It is going to get a whole lot rowdier in here, I can tell you."
Far from looking fearful at the prospect, she started smiling, smiling in the direction of a man who appeared to be waving at them.
"There they are," she said to Marietta.
Marietta began smiling too.
"Oh yeah."
The waving man had his face blackened with charcoal. So did most of the other men in the church. Dafne uneasily guessed that this was a tradition for this kind of night. But the faces of the two men sitting to his right weren't painted. One had his hair so finely shorn that it gave his scalp a bald appearance. He also had tattoos which emerged from his collar and trailed up his neck. Despite his distinctiveness, Dafne couldn't name him. But she could name the other man. It was bushy-bearded Nero. He seemed to look directly at Marietta and tapped his wrist meaningfully with a frown.
Marietta scowled,
"See Nero over there telling me to hurry up," she complained to Giosetta, "The bloody cheek. We only just got here."
"He's probably just sore about the fact we're making them take us," Giosetta replied, "I know Massimo would much rather stay here than go to the movies."
"You're going to the movies?" Dafne said surprised.
"Yup, over in the next village," Marietta said, "Me and Giosetta aren't interested in watching Darius raise a monster. The last one was way too freaky. So we said to the boys, if you ever want to have se..." she suddenly remembered Claudia's teenage presence, "Er, have us kiss you again, you had better take us to the movies instead."
Giosetta giggled,
"And we're such good kissers that they caved and agreed to it."
"Not that they're happy about it," Marietta added, "But we don't care. We work hard all day so we should get to do something fun instead of being dragged to see some..."
"Marietta!" Nero's voice boomed over all the others, "What are hanging around there for? Get the hell over here!"
Marietta slammed the platter she was holding down on the table,
"Don't order me like that!" she yelled back, "Say please!"
Nero turned to the man next to him with a look of exasperation. But the man was unsympathetically laughing. So was the man who had been waving to them before.
"You tell him Marietta," Giosetta was giggling as well.
But Marietta didn't need any encouragement,
"I'm waiting Nero!"
Nero sighed frustratedly, glancing around at all the eyes which had flicked to him. He rose in his seat and leaned over the table aggressively,
"Puh-leeze Marietta get the hell over here!"
Despite its delivery, Marietta seemed more than satisfied with Nero's 'please'. She actually looked quite victorious.
"That's better," she called to Nero cheerfully "We'll come now."
Nero rolled his eyes and slumped in his chair. The man beside him patted his back consolingly but he was still smiling with amusement.
Marietta looked expectantly at Giosetta who nodded.
"Do you want come hang with us until your man arrives?" she asked Dafne, "You too Claudia."
"Aren't we supposed to be serving the food?" Claudia asked timidly, indicating the other maids who were doing just that.
Marietta waved her hand dismissively,
"It's a waste of time dishing it out individually. All you need to do is just set the food on the table like I did. The men can help themselves."
She pointed at the men who were already grabbing carvings of meat off the platter with their bare hands. They were shovelling it into their mouths with their hands too. Dafne looked away in disgust. Marietta didn't seem as repulsed but she still shook her head,
"See," she said, "Just like cavemen. So just unload what you have on the table and we'll go see Nero and Massimo. We'll give them what Giosetta brought in."
Dafne didn't need to be told twice. She happily set her platter down on the table. Claudia hesitated however,
"Won't Orlanda get mad at us for not doing what we're supposed to?"
"Orlanda doesn't care as long as the food gets served," Giosetta said, "She's not like Mortola. She's too lazy to kick up a stink about how we go about it."
Marietta smiled slyly,
"She's too busy watching like the entrance like a hawk to notice anyway. I bet she's waiting for moustache man to show up."
Giosetta giggled,
"If I were him, I would stay well away. Come on you three. We have men who actually want to see us."
As if on cue, Nero chose that moment to yell "Marietta!"
"Keep your beard on!" Marietta shouted back, muttering to Giosetta, "You're not wrong about that."
Dafne suddenly felt Claudia tugging insistently on her arm. She turned to the girl enquiringly. Claudia was pointing towards the entrance. Three people had just walked in.
"There's my brother! There's Tonio!"
Tonio resembled Claudia almost enough be her twin. He was tall with the same chubby cheeks. His face currently had the sickly paleness of someone about to throw up. Dafne could understand why, given his companions were Cockerell and Flatnose. The two had their faces painted and were looking gleeful. What had they been doing with the boy?
"We'll catch up with you later," Dafne said quickly to Marietta and Giosetta, "Claudia's brother is over there and..."
Claudia was already rushing towards Tonio. Dafne chased after her. She didn't want her confronting Cockerell and Flatnose alone. But Claudia only had eyes for her brother. She threw her arms around him, calling out his name with relief. She seemed to ignore the presence of the two men standing by him. But they weren't about to do the same, eyeing the girl with interest.
"My my, who's this girlie," Cockerell smirked, "This must be our new friend's sister by the looks of it."
"I'd say you're right," Flatnose said, "You can see the family resemblance."
"The hugging gives it away too. Hey girl, are you going to give us a hug?"
Claudia broke away from Tonio. She regarded the men fearfully as if noticing them for the first time. She couldn't seem to find the words to speak.
"No she's not," Dafne said, answering for her, "You keep away from her."
Cockerell eyed Dafne frustratedly,
"I should have known you'd come stick your nose in."
"If you stopped hitting on young girls, I wouldn't have to stick my nose in," Dafne retorted.
"Who says I'm hitting on her," Cockerell said breezily, "She ain't my type. She's far too tall."
"Not for me," Flatnose smiled, his eyes blatantly travelling over Claudia, "She's just the right size."
Claudia backed away, towing Tonio with her. The boy remained silent. He seemed to be in a state of shock.
"You stay away from her too," Dafne hissed at Flatnose.
"Or what?" Flatnose said, looking unconcerned.
"Or I'll get Basta to sort you out," Dafne answered.
Flatnose put his hands to his cheeks in mock fear,
"Oh no really, I'm so scared. I'm so scared of Basta and his little knife."
He and Cockerell burst into laughter.
"I know Cockerell's scared of it," Dafne said, "I don't see why you shouldn't be."
Flatnose kept laughing as Cockerell scowled,
"I am not!" he snapped.
Dafne smiled,
"Yes you are. I've seen what you're like when he gets his knife out. Please don't hurt me Basta please don't hurt me," she mocked him.
Cockerell flushed angrily,
"Shut up! Shut up, you stupid cow."
He took a step towards her but Dafne held up a cautioning finger,
"I would seriously rethink doing anything to me," she said, "Remember what happened when he caught you threatening me last time."
Cockerell did remember and he halted resentfully.
"Just you wait pussycat," he growled, "Capricorn took you off Basta like you were a toy and who knows if he'll ever get you back. Given his success rate lately it's looking highly unlikely. Maybe I should have a talk to Capricorn," Cockerell smiled nastily at her, "I think it's only fair that everybody gets a chance to play with you, especially if they do a better job at things than Basta. I'm sure Capricorn will agree."
The thought of Capricorn handing her over to Cockerell worried Dafne but she was determined not to show it.
"Even if he does, Basta would kill you before you laid a finger on me," she said, "And he'll cut off that finger and all the rest of them if I ask him to. Remember that. Stay away from Claudia and Tonio. That goes for you too."
"Aw stay away from Tonio too," Flatnose sneered, "But he's our new best friend. We had such a fun time with him earlier."
The boy winced and stared hard at the floor. He looked on the verge of tears. Claudia regarded him with great concern.
"Tonio, are you alright?"
"What did you do to him?" Dafne demanded of Flatnose.
Flatnose inspected his lumpy fingers leisurely,
"Do? We just put the kid through a trial of fire."
Cockerell grinned,
"Yeah and he passed with flying colours."
"I wouldn't say that," Flatnose said, "He needed a lot of prodding."
"That's true," Cockerell conceded, "I mean it was only a bird's nest he had to set fire too. The eggs inside it hadn't even hatched into baby birds yet."
Dafne stared at them in shock.
"You made him set fire to a bird's nest."
Cockerell rolled her eyes at her,
"Well what do think a trial by fire entails stupid? The clue is in the name. You have to set fire to something."
Claudia was looking just as appalled as Dafne. Her disapproval compelled Tonio to finally speak,
"I didn't want to Claudia," he told her insistently, "I didn't want to but they made me."
"Well of course we made you," Cockerell said, "You should be thanking us. If you hadn't done it, we would have disposed of you. It's no good having a boy around who can't light fires."
Both Giulio's children looked at him in alarm. Claudia dragged her brother into a protective embrace.
"You don't need to hold him like that," Flatnose said to her, "Like we said, he passed so we're obviously not going to do away with him."
"Not yet anyway," Cockerell grinned.
"Shut up Cockerell," Dafne had heard enough. "Come on," she said to Claudia and Tonio.
"Always a pleasure, teach," Flatnose called after her as she led the teenagers away.
"It'd be a greater pleasure to smash her face in," Dafne heard Cockerell say.
She didn't turn to voice a retort. She knew he couldn't hurt her without unleashing Basta's wrath down upon him.
"It's okay Tonio," Claudia had her arm around him, "It's okay. You had no choice."
Tonio nodded with a ragged sigh.
"I know," he said, "It's just... Mama's always loved birds. She wouldn't be happy knowing that I did that."
"You had to do it to keep safe," Dafne said, "Your mother would understand that."
Tonio looked at Dafne a little distrustfully.
"How would you know?"
"Dafne's a friend of Mama and Papa's," Claudia said before Dafne could reply herself.
Dafne cringed a little. I wouldn't say friend. Your Mama didn't want to be my friend.
"She's going to help us see them," Claudia went on excitedly, "Even though Papa's in the cages."
Tonio eyed Dafne with new respectfulness,
"Really?"
Dafne smiled,
"That's right. Not that you'll have as much trouble seeing your parents as Claudia will. I expect you'll be staying in their house while you're here."
Tonio's face fell,
"I was thinking that but I don't know where the house is."
"That's no problem," Dafne reassured him, "Someone I know should be able to take you there."
Tonio gave her a grateful smile,
"Thank you."
As they were nearing Marietta, Giosetta and their male companions, Tonio and Claudia cautiously slowed their pace. Cockerell and Flatnose had just given them a taste of what Capricorn's men could be like. Their wariness was understandable. Dafne didn't know any of these men well enough to vouch for them either.
"We don't have to talk to these guys if you don't want to," she told them, "It's up to you."
The siblings looked at each other a moment before turning back to Dafne,
"We'd prefer not to," Claudia said, acting as spokesperson. She looked over at Marietta who was beckoning them, "But you can go if you want. We'll be fine by ourselves."
Dafne was about to shake her head and say no I'll stay with you. But she didn't get the chance.
"Dafne come here," Marietta called out to her, "You don't want to miss this."
This piqued Dafne's curiosity enough to change her mind,
"I'll be back soon," she promised, "And if anyone bothers you, point them in my direction. I'll sort them out."
I'll sort them out by threatening to set Basta on them.
The siblings nodded. They didn't appear too worried about her leaving them alone. They seemed comforted enough by the other's presence. It was obvious to Dafne that the two were quite close. She supposed such closeness came from relying on each other due to the absence of their parents.
"Dafne!" Marietta squealed impatiently, "Quick!"
"I'm coming," Dafne said, hastening over, "What..."
Marietta held a finger to her lips and pointed to the mobile phone in the hands of the man who had waved at them earlier. A familiar voice was coming from it on loud speaker,
"I don't know how Dustfinger managed to survive if he was driving it at the time. It obviously rolled a couple of times before it landed in the ditch..."
"Is that Enzo?" Dafne asked, recognising the voice.
Marietta nodded,
"Yeah," she whispered, "Dustfinger stole Carlo's car so Carlo and Enzo went to track him down. They didn't find him but they found the car. He crashed it somewhere in Switzerland."
"God, you should see it," Enzo was saying, he sounded highly amused. So did all his listeners, "It's a total write off. Carlo is beside himself. Wait a second I'll go back down to the wreck so you can hear him better..."
There was some static and the sound of undergrowth breaking underfoot. Then Carlo's distressed voice came through loud and clear,
"My poor baby, your beautiful paint job. It's ruined. You're all ruined..."
Carlo seemed oblivious to his audience who were all cracking up at this point. He let out a string of curse words with Dustfinger's name added to the end of it.
"I swear to God Enzo, when I catch that," swear word, "I will strangle him with his..." swear word, "marten. Then I'll put his corpse in Duchess and push it off a cliff!"
"No you won't," Enzo said, "Duchess isn't playing any part in your revenge fantasy. This is karma you know. You insulted my car and it's come around to bite you in the..."
"Oh shut up!" Carlo yelled at him, "You've been saying that the whole time we've been out here. Give it a rest! And stop acting like this is the funniest thing in the whole world!"
"But it is the funniest thing in the whole world," Enzo replied, "Everyone back at the village agrees with me."
There was a pause.
"Huh?" Carlo said.
"They've been listening to you rant the whole time on my phone."
Carlo scoffed with disbelief,
"Yeah right."
"Here, see for yourself," Enzo said, obviously handing him the phone.
"Hello?" Carlo said.
The group answered in unison,
"Hi Carlo!"
"What the..." Carlo sounded taken aback. Then he started swearing at Enzo, "You think this is funny, calling everyone up to laugh at me!"
"Yes!" Enzo laughed.
Carlo growled in frustration,
"You... I'll deal with you later. Hey guys are you still there?"
"Yeah we're here," the man holding the phone replied.
"Is that Dante?"
"Yeah it's me."
"Hey cugi, who else is with you?"
"Massimo, Nero, Giosetta, Marietta and..." he glanced at Dafne, "Basta's girlfriend, I don't know her name."
"Dafne," Carlo said before anyone else could answer, "What is she doing with you lot?"
"She's hanging out with us while she waits for Basta," Marietta said, "Sorry to hear about your car Carlo."
"Aw thanks cutie that means a lot to me."
"What did you just say?" Nero growled, "Cutie?"
Carlo laughed nervously,
"Sooo Monster Night tonight eh?" he said, switching the subject, "Should be good."
Nero and the tattooed man exchanged looks of disappointment.
Dante smiled however,
"Should be but I'm the only one going out of all of us."
"What? Why?" Carlo asked.
Dante's smile broadened,
"The girls didn't want to go so they're making Massimo and Nero take 'em to the movies."
Carlo laughed,
"Really? You guys are so whipped. Did you catch what Dante just said Enzo?"
"Yeah I heard."
This was followed by a chorus of whip cracking noises punctuated with laughter.
Nero and Massimo scowled. The latter snatched the phone off Dante,
"At least we have girlfriends cugi," he growled, "The only way you're going to get a girlfriend is if you ask Enzo out and he lets you be the man in the relationship."
The two on the other end fell silent.
"What the hell are you implying?" Carlo exploded.
"Yeah we're not gay!" Enzo protested more forthrightly.
"Oh really?" Massimo smiled as the others around him fell about laughing, "You could have fooled us. You two bicker like an old married couple."
"We do not!" Carlo shouted.
"Our bickering isn't at all like an old married couple's," Enzo said.
"Shut up Enzo, I'm handling this," Carlo snapped.
"Don't tell me to shut up. I have as much right as you to defend my heterosexuality."
"Yes but I'm the one with the phone."
"It's my phone. Give it back."
"No! Enzo, get off me!"
"Give me my phone!"
"No! Ow! You're hurting me!"
"Well we hope you resolve your lover's tiff," Massimo shouted down the phone with a grin, "Bye cugi."
"That was great," Dante exclaimed after the laughter eventually died down, "I would have given anything to see their faces."
"At least we got to have a bit of fun tonight eh Massimo," Nero said.
Marietta whacked him on the arm,
"Oh stop acting so gloomy. You guys might actually enjoy the movie."
"Will it have monsters in it?" Massimo asked.
"No it's a romantic comedy," Giosetta said.
Both Nero and Massimo's faces looked pained.
"Then no we won't enjoy it," Nero drawled.
"Well too bad for you then," Marietta pouted, "You're not getting out of it."
"We're not trying to get out of it O Annoying One," Nero said, reaching to rub Marietta's earlobes between his fingers. It was a strange gesture but Marietta smiled as if she rather liked it, "We're actually keen to get going. If we catch an earlier session, we might just make back in time to see the monster."
"Oh it is that your plan is it?" Giosetta said, draping her arms around Massimo's shoulders and pinching his cheek.
"Yes curly-head," Massimo replied, ruffling Giosetta's hair, "Surely you can't object to that. We're meeting you halfway."
Giosetta turned Marietta,
"What do you think?"
Marietta shrugged,
"I suppose that's okay. Just don't expect us to come see the monster with you afterwards."
"We won't," Nero replied, "We'll be sick of you by then anyway."
Marietta glared at him,
"I'm sick of you already," she retorted.
"No you're not," Nero rose from his seat and offered her his elbow, "Come on milady."
Marietta rolled her eyes but accepted his offer.
"You're such a bastard," she remarked fondly, turning to Massimo and Giosetta, "Let's head off shall we?"
The two both shrugged. They seemed a more laidback couple than Nero and Marietta.
"Dante you look after Dafne while until Basta gets here," Giosetta instructed him, "And don't hit on her."
"I'm not an idiot," Dante replied, smiling sweetly at Giosetta, "I'd like to keep my genitals for when you decide to leave Massimo for me."
Massimo slapped the back of his head,
"In your dreams fratellino," he growled.
Dante rubbed his head smirking,
"Oh I have plenty of dreams."
Massimo went to hit him again but Giosetta caught his hand,
"Don't hit him. He's your brother," she scolded.
Dante poked his tongue out cheekily,
"Yeah Massimo I'm your brother. Where's your brotherly love?"
"Where's yours?" Massimo retorted, "You keep hitting on my girlfriend."
"He only does it to annoy you," Giosetta said, "Don't you Dante?"
Dante grinned impudently,
"Yeah somethin' like that."
"Come on," Giosetta tugged on Massimo's arm, "We have to catch up with Nero and Marietta."
"Don't worry fratellone," Dante called after them, "If you don't make it back in time, I'll take pictures of the monster on my phone."
Massimo whirled around and gave him the finger. Dante just laughed, turning to Dafne,
"So," he said, "Basta huh? How's that working out for you?"
"Er... good," Dafne replied distractedly, looking over to check on Claudia and Tonio. They seemed to be okay but she didn't like them standing there alone. They stood out like a sore thumb and the church was steadily filling with more of Capricorn's men.
"Who are you starin' at?" Dante asked.
"Those two, the boy and girl," Dafne pointed at Claudia and Tonio, "I'm kind of looking after them."
"If you're lookin' after 'em, why are they standing all the way over there?"
"They're a bit... shy," Dafne said.
"Hey you two," Dante shouted at them, "Yeah you two," Claudia and Tonio looked alarmed to be singled out, "Come here."
The siblings didn't budge.
Dante beckoned more insistently,
"Come on, you don't have to stand there like garden gnomes. There are empty seats," he patted the one next to him.
Claudia took the initiative and shook her head.
"What's wrong with them? Dante asked Dafne confusedly.
"I told you, they're shy," Dafne repeated somewhat exasperatedly, "I'll go get them."
"You better come back," Dante said, "I don't want to be left on my lonesome."
Immediately after saying this, he turned to man sitting on his left to strike up conversation,
"Fulvio, how are you going man?"
Lonesome, yeah right, Dafne thought, making her way over to the siblings. But she didn't really mind if Dante forgot about her. She would just wait for Basta over with Claudio and Tonio.
"It's okay," she called out to them, "You don't have to come over if you don't..."
Suddenly something hit her with great force, sweeping her into the air and twirling her around. She looked down at her assailant with alarm then recognition,
"Basta," she said as he lowered her somewhat unceremoniously to the ground.
Yes it was Basta. But his usually intense eyes were slightly glazed over and his face was flushed as if he had been running. He gave her an uncharacteristically cheesy grin,
"Little mouse," she noticed he was swaying a bit, "I knew you'd be here, waiting for mee," he was slurring his words a bit too.
"Basta, are you..." he grabbed her and pulled her in for a kiss, instead of peppermint, she tasted wine.
That confirmed it.
Oh yes you're drunk.
To be continued...
Cugi – cuz, short of cousin/cugino
Fratellino – little bro
Fratellone – big bro