Brontu laughed but Isidoro Pane paid no attention. ‘Do you hear me?’ The drunken man began to stammer. ‘I’m telling you to come here. So you don’t want to come here, you toad. I’ll give you—’

But Isidoro only walked on, his footsteps soundless.

‘Don’t talk like that. What sort of a way is that to carry on?’ Giacobbe muttered.

‘Come here, little flower,’ Brontu called, changing tactics. ‘I want to tell you something. Tell that woman, your friend – you know, Giovanna – tell her she should divorce that husband of hers.’

At that the old man stopped, turned, and called out in a clear voice, ‘Giacobbe Dejas!’

‘What do you want, my sweet?’ sneered the shepherd.

‘Tell him to keep quiet,’ replied Isidoro, meaning to be obeyed.

For a reason he could not explain to himself, at the tone of that voice, Giacobbe took his new master by the arm and pulled him away, murmuring, ‘You’re such a fool. What sort of tactics are those? You’re behaving like an idiot, my chicken.’

‘Me? You talk rubbish. I’m no fool.’

They staggered on, arm in arm. In the Dejas’ portico they found Martina still spinning in the dark. She saw at once that her son was drunk, but she said nothing because she knew that when he was in that condition the least thing could send him into a rage. When Brontu asked for wine, however, she said there was none.

‘So there’s no wine in the Dejas house, the richest house around? How mean you are, Mama. I won’t cause a scandal, no,’ he blustered, ‘but I am going to marry Giovanna.’

‘Yes, yes, you’re going to marry her,’ Martina said, to soothe him. ‘Now go to bed and keep your voice down, because if she hears you she won’t have you.’

Brontu quietened down, but he made Giacobbe spread two rush mats out on the floor. Then he lay down on one and made the shepherd lie down beside him. Rather than cause further trouble Martina left them alone. And so it was that Giacobbe began his labours on the Saturday night instead of the Monday.

V

One Sunday morning a fortnight later the whole village assembled at a mass celebrated by the parish priest.