Thursday, 17 August 1916
He thrust his head through the curtains of the balcony door. Rena was setting up the vases with the freshly clipped roses from the garden.
‘Rena…’ he whispered.
‘Are you alone?’
She was.
‘Rena’.
He put her arm in his.
‘I want you to be the first to know…’
A housemaid was coming down the marble stairs. He waited for her to go.
‘Rena. I gave it some very serious thought…’
A second housemaid was coming out of a room.
‘Could I speak to the signora?’ He said very seriously.
‘Of course. Please follow me’.
Rena preceded him on the stairs. He caught up with her in a stride.
‘Rena. I have reached a big decision…’
Another housemaid was coming out of the linen storeroom of the first floor with a pile of white linens in her arms. At the corridor of the second fl
