The Silent Duchess

IX

At night the two little girls often slip into their mother's bed because of the fear these stories have aroused. Sometimes they wake up crying and sweating. 'Your daughters are so stupid: why do they keep going over there if they get frightened?' That is her husband's logic and one cannot disagree with it - except that logic is not sufficient to explain the fascination of associating with the dead in spite of the fear and the horror. Or even perhaps because of this. Thinking of her two eldest children forever running off, Marianna lifts the baby out of the cradle. She sinks her nose into the lacy dress that covers the tiny feet and smells the unique odour of borax, urine, curdled milk and lettuce water, which all new-born babies carryon them - and no one has any idea why that smell is the most delicious in the world. She presses the little tranquil body against her cheek and asks herself how soon she will start talking. Even with Felice and Giuseppa she was afraid that they would never speak. How anxiously she had watched their breath, touching their little throats with her finger so as to feel the sound of their first words! And in each case she was reassured, seeing their lips opening and shutting, and following the rhythms of their speech. Yesterday uncle husband had come into the room and seated himself on the bed. He had watched her feeding the child with a bored and thoughtful expression. Then he had written a shy note: 'How is the little one?' and 'Is your breast better?' and at the end he had added kindly: 'The boy will come. Leave it to time. Do not lose heart - he will come.' IX The son and heir arrived in due course exactly as uncle husband had desired, and is called Mariano. He was born just two years after the birth of Manina. He is fair like his sister, though better looking, but his character is quite different - he cries easily and if he is not receiving continuous attention he flies into a tantrum. As it is, everyone holds him in the palms of their hands like a 40 precious jewel, and at a few months old he has already learned that no matter how, his every wish will be satisfied. This time, uncle husband has smiled openly. He has brought his wife a present of a necklace of pink pearls as large as chickpeas. He has also made her a gift of a thousand escudos because 'kings do this when queens give birth to a boy'. The house has been invaded by numerous relations never before seen, loaded with flowers and cakes. Aunt Teresa the Prioress has brought with her a swarm of little girls from the nobility, all nuns-to-be, each one with a gift for the mother: one presented her with a silver teaspoon, another with a pincushion in the form of a heart, another with an embroidered pillow, another with a pair of slippers encrusted with stars. Her brother Signoretto stayed for an hour, sitting by the window drinking hot chocolate with a happy smile imprinted on his lips. With him came Agata and her husband Don Diego and their children, all dressed up for a feast day. Carlo also came from the Monastery of San Martino delle Scale, bringing her a present of a Bible transcribed by hand by a monk during the previous century, embellished with miniature paintings in delicate pastel colours. Giuseppa and Felice, mortified at being ignored, pretended not to be interested in the baby. They have gone back to visiting Lina and Lena, where they have caught lice. Innocenza has had to comb their hair first with paraffin and then with vinegar, but even though the adult lice are annihilated, those within the eggs remain alive and emerge to infest the girls' hair, once again multiplying at a terrifying rate. It is decided to shave their heads and now they go around looking like two condemned souls, with naked skulls and a shamefaced look that makes Innocenza laugh. Marianna's father the Duke has encamped at the villa so that he can 'watch out for the colour of the little one's eyes'. He says that the pupils of new-born babies don't tell the truth, that no one knows whether they are 'turnips or beans', and every time he takes the baby in his arms he cradles him...