Chapter 42
Duchy of Aragoni
Marco
SUMMER CAME TO an end, and the boys started attending the kindergarten for five-year-olds. We managed to stay in the house on the mountain until the leaves began to turn, but in the end we were glad to be back in the castle when the snows began in earnest. Christmas with three five-year-olds in the house was a lively affair; I did my best to persuade Grandmother to come to Aragoni for the event, but she declined.
“Marco,” she said, “I’m comfortable here in Tuscany, and my old bones don’t tolerate freezing weather like they once did.”
We compromised by taking the boys to Siena and celebrating the arrival of the new year with her. My mother was pretty much herself, but the fact that the boys were actually her grandsons never seemed to quite register wit
