Sacrilege. S. J. Parris

your country.’ He regarded me thoughtfully. ‘Padua, eh? I have never travelled beyond England, though as a young man I dreamed of doing so. I would have liked to see Italy for myself. A country of wild beauty, I am told.’

      ‘I think no man can say he has seen beauty until he has watched the sun set over the Bay of Naples, with the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in the background.’

      ‘A volcano. I can hardly imagine a volcano,’ he said, with simple longing.

      ‘Perhaps you may see it one day.’

      He slapped his bad thigh and barked out another laugh. ‘With this leg? No – while you are here, you must describe it to me and I shall be able to picture it. I do not think these eyes will ever look on the Bay of Naples.’

      ‘Nor will mine again,’ I said, and the weight of this struck me as I spoke the words, so that I heard my voice catch at the end.

      We looked at one another, the moment ripe with regret. Harry shook his head briskly, as if to rid himself of sentiment.

      ‘Come then, Savolino, we have work to do.’

      Air, real air, with the faintest hint of a breeze carrying the indignant cries of seagulls; I was so grateful that I stood still on the garden path, head spinning as I gulped down great lungfuls like a man who has narrowly escaped drowning. Harry shuffled ahead of me into the cathedral close and motioned to his right; when I had recovered and my blood felt as if it were pumping once more, I followed him. Samuel stood in the doorway watching us with an inscrutable expression. I could not help noticing that Harry’s limp became less pronounced and his pace speeded up a little once we had rounded the corner and were out of his servant’s sight.

      ‘Have you ever been married, Bruno?’ he asked.

      ‘No,’ I said, surprised by the question. Shielding my eyes, I looked up to our left; sideways on, the cathedral had the appearance of a vast warship, ribbed with buttresses, its high windows so many gunports.

      ‘Nor I,’ he said. ‘When I entered the clergy, churchmen didn’t marry, and once it became acceptable, I had missed the boat. Instead I have Samuel – all the fussing and nagging of a wife, with none of the benefits.’ He gave a deep, rasping laugh.