12
Those were Ivan’s thoughts while he was climbing the steep trail, certain that he was doing the right thing. Indeed, who was she, a pampered beauty, a glittering fragment of the alien, distant world, who had landed in a Nazi camp by a strange quirk of war fate? Who was she that he should reveal to her his pain, the things that had once stolen so much of his inner peace? However good and decent it might be, would the soul of that girl accept the hard truth that was so confusing even to him?
Deep in thought, Ivan was walking briskly, oblivious to time. Giulia must have realised that she had struck a painful chord in his heart, for she stopped talking, fell behind a little and stayed respectfully silent for a long time as they climbed together. Meanwhile, a restless windy evening spread
