Oh God! Anna was planning to run away with Gabriele. The book she mentioned ‘with the places marked’, was that the Australian guidebook that I’d found in the bottom of the wardrobe when I first searched this room? It must be! So the young lovers had made plans to elope but something stopped them. Neither of them made it to Australia. Gabriele never left the headland and Anna only went as far as England.

I read on:

I’m making lists in my head, changing my mind about what to take, knowing that anything I leave, I might never see again. It’s only now I’m forced to think about it that I realise how little I care for anything except my love.

I can’t sleep for excitement. I lay awake and stare at the ceiling and think of the adventures to come, the happiness we will share. I feel my life is about to start. These last eighteen years have been a rehearsal. My school friends keep asking me what’s going on, but I don’t tell them. Miss Gallo wonders if I’m ill. I tell her, no! I have never felt healthier in my life.

She was in love. She was describing the elation of first love. I felt happy for her. I also felt terribly sad because she couldn’t have picked a less suitable sweetheart than Gabriele Arnone.

A few pages further on, I read:

Papa is coming to pick me up from school. He looks fine to me, but he says he hasn’t been well and he’s going to use the opportunity of being in Rome to visit his doctor, but the doctor’s very busy and we might be stuck in Papa’s apartment for weeks. WEEKS! This is terrible news. I can’t have my return to Sicily delayed. Not this year! Please God, not this year! Please, please, please let there be a doctor’s appointment available for my papa soon.

So maybe Anna’s parents were aware that something was afoot. Perhaps they were concerned about a possible scandal. Maybe the doctor’s appointment was a ruse to keep Anna in Rome, well away from Gabriele Arnone.

Two weeks later, the entry read:

We’re still in Rome. It’s driving me out of my mind knowing that G is waiting & not knowing what’s going on. I sent a postcard, but it won’t arrive until next week. What if G thinks I’ve changed my mind?

I asked Papa if I could travel to Sicily alone, but he said: ‘No’. His attitude has changed lately. It’s scaring me. I came into my room the other day and this diary had been moved from its hiding place. It might just have been the maid, but I suspect he’s been snooping. Papa doesn’t speak English, but there are plenty of people who would translate for him. I must be more careful.