“I think so,” said Carter with a shrug. “But honestly, it’s hard to say. I still don’t know him all that well, and he doesn’t really say very much about himself.”

Antonella gave a little sigh, and nodded. “Yes, I know,” she said. “He has always been that way.”

Carter could not help being a little curious about his professor’s past.

“He did tell me once,” he said delicately, “that he has not seen your husband since he left Italy and came to America. I took that to mean that he has never returned here at all.”

“Mai,” said Antonella, shaking her head. “Never.”

“It made me wonder what happened between them,” Carter went on. “If maybe they had a falling-out of some kind.”

Antonella nodded sadly.

“Giancarlo had a falling-out with the world, I think,” she said. “You could not know it, but that pocket watch he sent you here with is just his way of saying that nothing has changed for him.The watch belonged to his father, you know, and it was supposed to be Giancarlo’s when he passed away, but Giancarlo keeps sending it back. It’s no wonder it doesn’t tell time anymore. It’s as stuck in the past as he is.”

“It seems an awful long time for it to have gone on,” mused Carter.

Antonella gave a little laugh.

“You don’t know Italians very well, Carter,” she told him. “No matter how much it hurts, we can hold on to grudges longer than anyone else in the world.We can keep them going for generations, if we feel like it.”

“I guess that was something we just didn’t get around to talking about during my Italian lessons,” he said with a chuckle.

“Eh, believe me,” she said, waving her hand for emphasis. “There’s a lot to learn.”

As Antonella predicted, Giorgio returned home from the hunt empty-handed a short time later.

“Ayyy, there he is,” he said with a big smile at finding Carter at the table. “I was going to ask you to come along this morning, but you were sleeping like a baby.”

“I was a little tired,” Carter admitted.

“Then you need to rest,” said Giorgio with great conviction. “You should stay here in Castelalto a few days. It will be good for you.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” said Carter.

“Why not?” said Giorgio with mock indignity. “What’s the matter? You don’t like it here?”

“Oh, I like it very much,” Carter hastened to explain. “It’s just that I don’t want to impose, that’s all.”

Antonella held up her hand to silence both men.

“Carter,” she told him, “you are no imposition at all to us.You came here out of friendship for my husband’s brother, and we are very grateful.You can stay with us as long as you like, and of course leave whenever you are ready.”