exhalation of breath as his best friend was found not guilty.
Thank God.
Luka was more a brother to him than Dino had ever been.
Matteo’s father had died when he was young—old age was a rare treat in Bordo Del Cielo. By all accounts he had been a nice man but his mother had not chosen so well the next time.
Luka had never questioned the bruises on Matteo.
Just as Matteo had never questioned his.
Life was tough, even if, like Luka, your father owned the town.
Even if, like Matteo, you were the one who carried out Malvolio’s wishes.
He glanced over to Sophie to see her reaction to the verdict. She and Luka had been caught in bed together and Luka had later stood in court and shamed her, had said that, despite his ending things, she had offered herself to him.
Sophie’s eyes did not lift.
He glanced to the young woman beside her again, Bella Gatti.
Matteo knew who she was and not just from the times he had gone to her house to collect Maria’s money. He had seen her at Brezza Oceana, of course, and he knew Sophie and Bella were friends, just like he and Luka were.
He looked at Bella more closely now and saw that her eyes were wide with fear, her skin was paler than usual, and she kept tucking her long black hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture as they now awaited Malvolio’s verdict.
She looked petrified, Matteo realised, but, then, so too were most in the courtroom. Malvolio, if he was found not guilty, would be released and his reign of terror would start again.
Perhaps Bella was nervous for her mother.
Matteo knew that she was no longer working. She was racked with debt and soaked in alcohol, thanks to the man who was about to meet his fate.
Yes, that would account for Bella’s nervousness, Matteo decided.
If Malvolio was released there would be debts to collect.
He did not relish the prospect in the least but surely Malvolio would not get off?
There was a hush in the courtroom and a moment of long-awaited jubilation was about to be born as the brute was finally brought to justice.
Malvolio stood.
Fat and sweaty, he dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief and though Matteo silently prayed that he would be put away for life, he knew even that sentence could never atone for all the lives he had ruined.
How he hated that man, Matteo thought, saving the smile that wanted to spread on his lips for a moment from now.
‘Malvolio Cavaliere—non colpevole.’
The courtroom was silent for just a few seconds too long at the shocking verdict, but it was as if everyone, in the next second, suddenly realised that Malvolio was back in charge of Bordo Del Cielo and frantic applause ensued.
Matteo did not join in, he just watched as Malvolio smirked.
He was back.
Matteo looked to where Malvolio’s greedy gaze drifted and now he better understood Bella’s look of fear.
No!
There was a moment of brief recall for Matteo—when he had first taken over management of the hotel he had checked the bar rosters and seen Bella’s name.
He had scratched it out.
‘No,’ Matteo had said, because his intention was to clean up the bar. ‘She is to keep working as a chambermaid.’
He would have no say now. Malvolio was free, and there was not a single thing he could do other than watch Bella sit and quietly weep.
And then Paulo stood.
He was Sophie’s father and a weak, frail man. His wife, Rosa, had died when Sophie had been small.
By Malvolio’s hand, Matteo was quite sure.
Matteo had worked alongside Paulo and had done some jobs that Paulo had either been too weak to do or could not bring himself to.
Though Matteo might appear to be Malvolio’s yes-man, he quietly worked things his way.
As the court stood Matteo remembered a night a few years ago. Paulo had been told to burn down a house where a family slept and Matteo, returning from the bar, sent to check on him, had found Paulo sitting on a wall, holding a bottle of accelerant, his head in his hands.
‘Talia was a friend of Rosa’s,’ Paulo wept. ‘I cannot do this.’
‘Then you are dead by tomorrow,’ Matteo had said without emotion.
‘Damn Malvolio.’ Paulo for once had been strong. ‘There are babies asleep in the house. I would rather be dead myself than do that.’
‘Perhaps,’ Matteo answered calmly. ‘But what will happen to Sophie if you are not here to protect her? What will happen to your daughter if you are gone? Maybe Malvolio will find work for her. How old is she now?’ Paulo’s face bleached white and Matteo sat down on the wall beside him, a few steps away from where a family slept.
‘Give it to me,’ Matteo said, and took the bottle containing the accelerant. ‘I’ll take care of things. You go home, Paulo.’
‘Matteo,’ Paulo protested. ‘I can’t ask you to do my work for me.’
‘Just go home,’ Matteo said. ‘I don’t have anyone that I need to take care of. No one worries about me and I have no one I need to worry for...’
It proved a blessing that night.
With Paulo gone, Matteo walked up to the small fisherman’s cottage. Through the open window he could hear a baby crying and her mother singing, trying to get the infant back to sleep.
He should wait for the house to fall silent. Matteo knew all too well what to do.
But instead of waiting for the hush of silence, he went to the small room and knocked on the window, startling Talia, who went to shout out.
‘Hush...’ Matteo said, ‘or you will get us all killed.’
She nodded wide-eyed and held in her scream.
‘See this?’ Matteo said, and she nodded as he held up the bottle.
‘In five minutes’ time fire will tear through your house, so go and get the babies and go out of the back door with your children...’ As she went to go he halted her. ‘Wait.’
Matteo picked up soil from the ground and smeared her tear-streaked face and then her hands, before Talia rushed off to gather up her precious babies.
A miracle, the villagers had called it.
Talia
