“Ha!” laughed Antonella, giving his cheek a pinch. “You’ll have to take that up with Giorgio someday.”

At that Carter stepped aside and drifted over to the car to wait.

Now it was Giancarlo’s turn to say goodbye to Antonella. He had known of course that this moment was coming, and he had struggled all day to think of words that would be adequate to the occasion. None came, and all he could do was shrug and smile as Antonella came and stood there before him, gazing at him with warmth and affection.

“Thank you for bringing him back to me,” she said. “Thank you for bringing back my Giorgio.”

“Prego,” said Giancarlo, bowing his head.

Then to his complete and utter surprise, and that of all the villagers watching, Antonella stepped up to him, took his face in her hands, and kissed him full on the lips.

“There,” she told him gently, stepping back from him once more. “Now I owe you nothing.”

Giancarlo flushed bright red as a murmur of laughter at the look on his face rippled through all the onlookers.

After all the years of hearing whispers behind her back, Antonella whipped around with defiant eyes and stared every one of them down.

“What’s the matter?” she challenged them with hands on her hips. “Can’t you see I’m just saying goodbye to my brother-in-law ?”

Then she spun back around and gave Giancarlo a wink.

“That will keep them gabbing for at least another thirty years,” she said. “So go now.You are free. Go start your life over again. Go home to America, where you belong, and don’t come back here again unless you come with a wife. Capito?”

“Understood,” nodded Giancarlo. “Arrivederci, Antonella.”

With that Giancarlo turned away, and he and Carter climbed into the car. When the doors were closed, Carter looked at Giancarlo for a moment with curious eyes.

“You know something?” he said with a shake of his head. “This is a nice country, but the women here are a little hard to figure.”

“So I take it you are ready to go home, then?” said Giancarlo with a chuckle.

“Anytime you are.”

Giancarlo leaned forward toward the driver and patted him on the shoulder.

“A Roma, Giacomo,” he told him. “To Rome.”

“Si, Signore,” said Giacomo.

With that he put the car in gear, and soon Castelalto was behind them.

Later that afternoon, when they boarded the airplane in Rome, Carter and Giancarlo settled into their seats and made themselves comfortable for the long flight home. As the plane pulled away from the terminal and began to taxi toward the runway, Giancarlo took out a pen and a piece of paper and, humming to himself, began to draw closely spaced lines across the page.

“What’s that you’re drawing, Professore?” asked Carter, leaning over to see.

“Just a few bars of music,” said Giancarlo. “They just came to mind, who knows from where.”