Mina sat, silent and alone, holding Aldo in her arms, until Roberto and Dario found her, and helped her to her room. They didn’t ask what happened. She lay on the narrow bed, unable to cry, until Lisette returned and found her.
‘I know about Aldo,’ Lisette said. ‘He was a good man.’ She helped Mina to stand and undress, then washed her vomit-strewn hair with warm water that she fetched from the kitchen. Once this task was finished, they climbed into one of the beds and Lisette held Mina, trying to calm her trembling, until they both fell asleep, worn out by the first aftershocks of Aldo’s death.
~
The next morning the players waited in the hallways of the tavern, silent and morose. Isabella hadn’t reappeared from her night’s adventure, and Roberto had disappeared too. Aldo’s body had be
