La Bellezza (The Golden Door Duet Book 1) by Susan Fanetti

Author:Susan Fanetti [Fanetti, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-04T18:30:00+00:00

XV

Dario and Caterina were married on a cold, rainy day not quite three weeks after Columbus Day. There were traditions and protocols to a Catholic wedding, weeks of preparations in the church as well as the community, and when most of those were suspended or expedited, everyone in all of Little Italy thought they knew why a rush was necessary.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first Catholic marriage sanctified before there had been six weeks to read the banns, and the reason for such a rush was always the same.

They’d all been whispering to each other about La Bellezza living with Dario and his mother, and now they thought their whispers confirmed.

Caterina didn’t mind. What they believed was far more preferable than the truth, and the power of their belief would turn their whispers into truth.

It was already the truth in the ways that should matter.

People thought they were marrying so quickly because she was pregnant. That was true in every sense.

People thought Dario was the father of the baby inside her. That was true in every way that would matter to everyone but Caterina, and perhaps Dario, though she knew he’d never admit any sense of ambivalence he might feel toward a child not his blood. He had committed to her, and the child, and he’d done so wholeheartedly. She’d known him only a few weeks, but already knew he was not a man who stewed in regret.

She hoped someday she could make such a good man happy, but she had no idea how she’d manage it.

Because everyone thought Dario and Caterina were marrying for love—or, at least, for the consequences of a lust between them—the wedding was seen as a celebration. Caterina would have much preferred something quiet, but she’d never bothered to hope for it. Their people did not marry quietly. Even on the dreary cold day of the ceremony, the nave was full, and there was color and cheer all around them.

She wore a wedding dress from a neighbor—one who’d married in Sicily a generation ago and had carried her dress across the sea with her. Caterina was glad to wear a dress that reminded her of her mamma. Another neighbor lent her a crocheted wedding veil, and the florist on Mulberry Street gifted her with a spray of purple and pink asters and white mums.

Dario wore a new suit, his first ever. He was very handsome, and when he smiled as she walked down the aisle on his uncle’s arm, Caterina almost believed they were marrying the way she’d once dreamed she would—for love, and with hope.

But when their vows and been said, and the priest told Dario he could kiss his bride, Caterina’s body froze into polar ice. He had never kissed her before. She had, in fact, never been kissed when she’d wanted it. The mouths on hers had always been violent, slimy and demanding and full of stink, and each and every one of them leapt to her mind when the priest said kiss your bride.

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