The church was full, so it was a few minutes before they reached Father Bernardi, who stood at the steps and greeted everyone who passed by name.

“Good morning, Niccolò. And good morning to you, Signora Gerardi. My sincere felicitations on your marriage. We are so happy to have you here in Mezzo Ciel.”

“Thank you, Father Bernardi.”

“You are settling in well?”

“Yes, Father. Everyone has been very kind to me.”

“Good, good. Niccolò has been singing your praises for months now. Needless to say, I am delighted that he has chosen such a lovely young woman to be his wife.”

And that was that. Father Bernardi had announced his approval in front of the entire village. And Nina had survived her first Catholic Mass.

They went home to lunch, which Rosa prepared with the help of the girls, steadfastly ignoring Nina’s offers to help, and then Nico took her on another walk, this one leading them up into the fields above the farmhouse.

“I’m sorry again for those women in church. You will tell me if anyone else is unkind to you?”

“I will,” she promised, although she had no intention of doing any such thing. “Doesn’t it bother you, though? Having people gossip about you that way? As if you’ve broken some kind of law?”

They’d come to the banks of a stream, and he now sat down, his long legs spread out straight before him, and beckoned her to join him.

“Why should it bother me?” he now asked. “They can’t see inside my heart.”

“But they said you’d wasted all those years of work and study—”

“What do they know of it? It wasn’t a waste.” And then, grinning, “I’ve only forgotten the boring bits.”

“I’m trying to be serious,” she protested, though she was tempted to answer his smile with one of her own. “By helping me, have you closed a door you might wish to open again one day?”

“Not in the least. If anything, it’s set me free. I was so young when I left here.” He paused, and it seemed as if he were considering how best to explain. “When Father Bernardi first asked my parents if they’d let me go away to school, it felt like I’d been given this wonderful chance for a life beyond Mezzo Ciel. But the longer I studied, the less sure of myself I became. And the longer I was away, the more I wished to come home.”

“And what if you change your mind?” she pressed.

“About you? The best wife I’ve ever had?” They both smiled at this, but she couldn’t ignore what he hadn’t said.

“Had you hoped to marry one day?”

He nodded, his smile more tentative now. “I had.”

“But my being here—”