The sun was level with the windows now, encompassing them all in an apricot glow. Piero got up and brought water to everyone. He’d been so still that Zia had half-forgotten he was there.

Lucia took up her tale again. ‘She left Montelibertà, Tori. We exchanged letters. She sent me a photo of herself once.’

‘Do you still have it?’ Zia interrupted. The young woman who’d given her life seemed to bound from a name on pieces of paper to physical form.

‘In our album,’ Durante said softly. ‘We make a copy for you.’

Zia found her eyes boiling once more. ‘Thank you! Please go on,’ she begged.

Lucia looked on the brink of tears herself so it was Durante who took up the story. ‘She ask about Gerardo often but he will not look at the photograph. It is better to forget, he says, Tori’s mother accept the baby and Tori is OK in England. She soon forgets too.’

‘He didn’t ask about me? Or was he just disappointed she hadn’t had the abortion?’ It was shocking to think of herself as so disposable.

Durante shrugged. ‘It is difficult to know. He begins to see us less. Maybe he is embarrassed or guilty.’

‘When the baby was born, Tori sent us a card with a picture of you,’ said Lucia. ‘That was when we knew your name – Zia-Lucia Costa Chalmers. We thought it was so funny and sweet to call a baby “aunt” but she said she thought Zia made a pretty name.’

Durante twinkled suddenly. ‘Imagine. If you are a boy, she might call you Zio-Durante Costa Chalmers. Zio … uncle.’ He laughed.

Little humour lurked in Lucia’s eyes, though. ‘A few days later another letter came from Tori but she did not sound like herself. She was confused. Repeating things. Scribbling phrases over and over. “Please make Gerardo come. Please make Gerardo come. Zia-Lucia my baby. Zia-Lucia my baby.”’

Durante sobered. ‘Then she arrive in a car. We are so shock. She drives all those kilometres with you and is exhausted.’

‘But, also, moving, walking, hurrying all the time,’ Lucia added, waving her arms wildly to illustrate energy. ‘She wanted Gerardo to see his baby and fall in love. Then he would love Tori too and all would be well.’ Her expression crumbled. ‘But, instead, Gerardo was horrified. He was seeing an Italian girl. Tori got more and more wild. Her eyes were like this!’ Lucia sat up very straight and opened her eyes like golf balls.

‘She talk, talk, talk, cry, cry, cry.’ Gravely Durante shook his head. ‘We want her to see a doctor but she says no.’