The Golden Hour (epub) by Margaret Wurtele

Author:Margaret Wurtele
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com)
Published: 2012-02-05T22:00:00+00:00

I was so exhausted at supper I could barely lift my fork. Rosa came and went without giving me so much as a single glance. I sat up straight, not wanting to call attention to myself.

“Does it seem to you that Rosa’s cooking less food these days?” Father scraped the last of the fagioli from a platter onto his plate when she had left the room.

“Easy, easy,” Mother said. “She does the best she can. I’m sure supplies are hard to come by.”

I kept quiet, vowing to cut down on my own portions. Below us a couple of German vehicles pulled to a stop. Hearty shouts rose as some of our housemates greeted the new arrivals. There was rough, bold laughter, then the slamming of doors.

Father seemed to be working himself up to something. He mopped his entire plate with bread, picked up his wineglass, then his water, moved his fork from one side of the plate to the other. “I don’t know much more than this, but apparently there was some action in the river valley today.”

Mother looked up. “What’s that, dear?”

“In Diecimo. Apparently since dawn yesterday, when the evacuation began, the Germans have been taking over the town building by building. They’ve moved into the vacant houses, set themselves up in the restaurants—”

“Well, we know what that feels like.” She rolled her eyes. “At least they don’t have to live in the same house with them.”

Father ignored her and went on. “So last night—it was Saturday night, you know.” He paused. “A lot of them were gathered in the cinema watching some German movie when a partisan bomb went off.”

Mother and I both set down our forks at once.

“It blew the place up, killed a bunch of them too.”

“Germans or partisans?” Mother’s face drained to the color of the tablecloth.

“I don’t know.” He avoided looking at her. “The radio only mentioned Germans, but who knows?”

Tears welled up in Mother’s eyes. She folded her arms across her chest. “Enrico, I’m not sure I can take much more of this. What if Giorgio was part of it?”

“Oh, come on. There are hundreds of those guys all over Tuscany. I doubt that Giorgio would be working quite so close to home. But war is a dangerous business. You know that.”

I stared fixedly at my plate. What if it was Giorgio’s band? My stomach twisted into a knot as I imagined the possibilities. An image of Mario’s oozing arm floated into my consciousness, and I was surprised to note that my first thought had been not of my own brother, but relief that I knew exactly where Mario was. “Don’t worry, Mama.” I kept my voice calm to hide the feelings behind it and reached out and stroked her arm. “I’ll see if there’s any news tomorrow at the clinic.”

“Hell, it’s progress, isn’t it?” Father broke in. “Maybe they’re doing some good after all.”

Was it possible I caught a note of pride in his voice?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.