The House at Zaronza by Vanessa Couchman

Author:Vanessa Couchman [Couchman, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction & Literature
Publisher: Crooked Cat publishing
Published: 2014-08-01T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

1906

Six years had passed since my miscarriage. Despite Vincentello’s efforts, I had not been able to conceive again, and I feared that it was my fate to be childless. My husband consoled himself with other ‘ladies’ at Santa-Lucia. He tried to keep it a secret but some of the village women delighted in hinting at it. It was nothing to me. As long as it kept him away from me, I was happy. We still lived with Maman and Papa; Vincentello’s house at Casaccia remained empty. What a waste! But my opinions had no bearing on the matter.

Vincentello was so shiftless. It was not that he was lazy; rather that he was incapable of doing anything right. He had no sense of business and was always trying to get Papa to enter into ridiculous speculations. I knew they had arguments behind closed doors. I could see that Papa was disappointed in him but he couldn’t do much about it. After all, he was the one who had been so keen to make him his son-in-law, and now he had to live with the consequences. At least Papa kept a firm hand on the reins.

I was more concerned about Maman, who had aged before her time. Little by little, with the help of Sophia and Annunciata, I had taken over the running of the house and was now a competent cook as well as a passable seamstress. If only I had taken the trouble to learn about these things earlier. Maman sat in the kitchen, her sewing on her lap, looking into the fire. Sometimes I saw her mouth working as if she was talking to someone. When I talked to her she looked at me blankly at first, and then recognition returned to her face, as if she was coming back from a long way away. Her hair was quite grey and she had put on a lot of weight.

Oh, Maman. If only I had known about your lost babies. You had no one to confide in, and I only ever thought of myself and my feelings. What had we come to?

***

One day, I was coming back from the village store and opened the door into the hall. It grated as usual on the flagstones. As I removed my headscarf in the echoing hallway, I was aware of a row coming from the direction of father’s study. He and Vincentello were having another quarrel. This was becoming all too common.

My father was raising his voice and I could hear almost everything. “You imbecile! What have you done? Why didn’t you consult me before taking this step? You could have ruined us. You might still have done.”

Then a lower voice – Vincentello’s – but I could only make out odd phrases: “Seemed a good plan at the time…have to move with the times…old-fashioned ways…can’t continue.”

“Can’t continue! Can’t continue!” Papa was shouting now. “What are you talking about? How do you think I’ve managed to run a successful business all these years? Tell me that, you young fool.

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.