The Cypress Maze by Valpy Fiona

Author:Valpy, Fiona
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2023-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

Our summer was taken up with the routine of lessons, games, and – in every spare minute – gathering and preserving the food that would see us through the next winter. In autumn, once the last of the harvest was in, a bitter chill settled over the valley, filling it each night with a dense, dank fog that surrounded the hilltop estate. We felt safer then. The fog gave us the impression of being completely cut off from the outside world, although the daytime still brought the occasional unwelcome visit from Umberto.

One autumn day he turned up with a large sack over his shoulder. ‘Look, Francesca,’ he said, ‘I’ve brought you all a gift.’ It was a haunch of wild boar and Umberto proudly explained how he’d led the hunt a few days earlier and shot the beast himself. ‘I got the head and liver, of course, but also this piece of excellent meat. And I thought, it’s too much for a lonely bachelor like me to consume alone. So I will share it with those who need it most. Naturally, my thoughts turned to you and the children. We’ll give it to Silvana to prepare, shall we, and I’ll come back on Sunday for a feast of a lunch with you all.’ It was a statement, not a question.

How could we turn down such an offer? It would have been too obvious a snub and, to be honest, we needed all the food we could lay our hands on. So the next Sunday he arrived wearing his best suit – the same one he’d worn at Edoardo’s funeral, I realised – and sat himself at the head of the table. Fortunately, that meant Francesca could place herself at the other end, as far away from him as possible. I sat in the middle, helping the younger children cut up their food, and noticed she was scarcely able to choke down a single morsel of the meat. The children, however, devoured the rich cinghiale alla cacciatora that Silvana had prepared, stewing the meat in red wine and adding garlic and herbs. All, that is, except Alfredo. Silvana brought a small dish of rabbit stew for him and set it at his place. And Umberto noticed.

‘Not eating my delicious boar, son?’ he asked. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

Alfredo shook his head, unable to lift his eyes from his plate as he pushed a piece of carrot on to his fork and chewed it carefully.

‘He doesn’t eat pigs, even wild ones,’ piped up Gio cheerily. ‘But that means there’s all the more for the rest of us. Delicious stew, Mamma.’ Silvana and Carlo had joined us at the table and she gave her son a severe look, shaking her head very slightly as an admonition to him not to say more.

‘I see,’ said Umberto. He chewed a chunk of meat noisily, them washed it down with a gulp of red wine, all the while watching Alfredo through narrowed eyes. ‘Ah si, ho capito.

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.