In This Quiet Earth (Part Three of The People of this Parish Saga) by Thorne Nicola

Author:Thorne, Nicola [Thorne, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Walking back from the Fenice in the cool of the night with a gentle autumnal breeze blowing in from the Adriatic, Venice was a romantic place, the narrow streets and alleyways softly illuminated by lamps glowing from the walls of the buildings – the houses, shops and palaces – of that ancient and venerable city. Here and there was the glimpse of water and, still, at this late hour, gondolas gliding along propelled by huge poles that sought purchase with the mud of the lagoon.

Connie had gone to dinner and the opera with Francesca and Guido Valenti and Paolo Colomb-Paravacini, now strolling by her side, who was increasingly her constant companion. It had been a delightful evening in the company of interesting and intelligent people. Good conversation at dinner and then the stimulation of the opera, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, played out in the magnificent setting of one of Italy’s, indeed the world’s, finest opera houses. Having parted from the Valentis Paolo was now escorting her home.

Paolo Colomb-Paravacini was a scion of one of Venice’s oldest noble families, his palazzo occupying a commanding position on the Grand Canal. He was an art lover, an expert on the eighteenth century Venetian painter Tiepolo, but eclectic enough in his tastes to embrace the Post-Impressionists whose art had scandalised London at exhibitions held there before the war. He was a widower, about fifty, who had been introduced to Connie by the Valentis not long after the death of his wife during the war.

He had two children; a son of fifteen who was at boarding school in England, and a daughter of nineteen who was studying art in Rome. He was a delightful, cultured man and made no secret of his interest in Connie.

Connie was flattered by Paolo’s attention because the fact that any man admired her slightly amazed her. As she had told Carson, whatever exterior changes may have occurred, inside she was the same person she had been when her guardian attempted to thrust a shy young woman into marriage with a man who did not love her and who bitterly hurt her in the process, contributing thus to a mammoth loss of self-confidence.

Connie frequently recalled that time when, tongue-tied, unsuitably dressed in an unbecoming pink frock which was far too young for her, Carson’s father had given a dinner party for the newly-engaged couple only to announce that he was to be married again himself. It was then that her massively egocentric, larger-than-life half-sister Agnes, whom she had not seen since she was a child, reappeared on the scene.

Experiences such as Connie had had needed to be lived down, and she had done her best to suppress them with the help of Francesca Valenti, who had brought out the best in her and shown what money could do to accomplish such change. One could buy beautifully styled garments that improved one’s image, one’s own self-esteem; employ hairdressers and beauticians who exploited one’s natural assets, changed the colour of one’s

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