The Blue Dress Sisters

CHAPTER 18: THE RED HOUSE WITH THE CYPRESS

While Fátima was at the parish, celebrating her temporary vows alongside all the orphans and the sisters, Delilah was confined at home, cleaning. She was still grounded for skipping her first communion for the fourth time.

She watched Spaghetti from the window of the abbess's office as he gathered the harvest and loaded the carriage with vegetables and legumes. Sister Bonafila had asked him to go to the village to sell the eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and leftover produce that wouldn't be consumed at the home.

Meanwhile, Delilah pretended to dust the desk and furniture in the office while searching through the drawers for her file. She carefully rifled through the folders until she found her record. She wasn't surprised to see that it was nearly empty. All it contained was her name—without a surname—her admission date, and... another name.

The name of the woman who had delivered her to the home.

She took a pen, dipped it in the inkwell, and wrote the words "Grazia Leone" on the back of her hand.

Could there be any chance that this woman was her mother? Had she abandoned her?

In a rush, she dashed out of the home to help Spaghetti load the buckets of milk onto the carriage.

"Patata, maybe you shouldn't," Massimo protested, taking the bucket from her hands. "Things tend to go wrong when you help."

"Ha, ha," the little girl replied sarcastically as she climbed onto the carriage. "Are you ready? We need to hurry before they realize I'm gone."

"Someone's missing."

When Spaghetti whistled, Cannoli jumped into the carriage. The young boy took the front seat to guide the horses, and they set off toward the village.

Upon reaching the market, Spaghetti went to the merchant to deliver the goods, while Patata wandered from stall to stall, asking each vendor if they knew a woman named Grazia Leone.

After receiving negative answers from all the vendors and buyers in the market, Delilah began to wonder how, in such a small village, they didn't know this woman.

After selling all the food, Massimo returned to the carriage and gestured for his friend to come back.

"Really? How can you not know her?" Patata was confronting a man for not recognizing the woman's name. "In this village, where everyone knows each other and no one can have a secret lover because it would spread all over the Kingdom of Italy faster than a rooster crows, you're telling me you don't know anything? When it suits you, suddenly you don't know a thing!"

"I don't know her, little girl!" the man retorted angrily.

As soon as Massimo came from behind, he gently pulled her arm to bring her back.

"Patata Piccolina, stop harassing people, maybe they don't know her, maybe she doesn't even live here."

She let her shoulders slump, frustrated at not finding any answers. When she looked around, searching for someone she hadn't asked, she noticed a boy delivering newspapers while shouting the latest news.

Without thinking, she approached him.

"Hello," she greeted him with a charismatic smile. "What do I have to do to publish in the newspaper?"

"Buy one from me," the boy said. "If you buy a copy, I'll tell them to publish whatever you want."

She turned to look at her friend, hoping he would give her some coins to buy a copy. He shook his head disapprovingly.

"He's lying, Patata. We have to go to the press office and pay them for a publication."

The newspaper boy smiled mischievously.