About Marianna was that she knew a lot more about the inside of the Morelli houseknew it longer than almost anybody alive, beyond Cassandra's and his parents'; beyond even her own, because parents and siblings glimpse reality through the filter of the love and history that distorts it, but a housekeeper glimpses what someone really is day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute: the person they are when no one's watchingthe person they are at six in the morning with yesterday's tears still on their face; the person they are at eleven at night, with theirarmor of the moment cast aside because they haven't got the energy to wear it. Marianna revealed so much of this to Ariaprecisely in length and toneand in such a calm careful measured way, as a person might reveal a treasure, parceling it ou
