Excerpt from Death In Bagheria, a work in progress
Friday, March 25, 1870
The meal continued despite Guido who ate without entering the conversation or looking at his dinner guests. Earlier, when introduced to Loffredo by the baron, he shook hands with him briefly, did not once engage Saintemarie or their other guests in conversation, other than to gaze once with his flat eyes at Serafina, looking through rather than at her. For the rest of the meal, he was preoccupied, keeping his head down for the duration, cutting his food into small pieces like a child and eating with the sensibility of an automaton. When Loffredo attempted to engage him in conversation about Paris, he said, “I’ve not been,” and went on, uninterrupted, shoving morsels into his mouth. The moment was an awkward one and Loffredo risked a look at Serafina. For his part, the baron, sitting at the opposite end of the table, took no notice of his son’s behavior.
Photo: Bagheria. Credit: le foto di Grimmo (Flickr), Creative Commons
