Page 219 - The Grotesque Children's Book

with anyone else, that's not fair to him! Some evenings I wonder whether I wouldn’t be happier
if something awful were to happen to Pietro. Oh, no, I don’t mean that. I'm a terrible person.”

“No, no, there, there,” said Francesco. “You're a wonderful person. A wonderful,
wonderful person. I hate seeing you unhappy.”

“And I hate being unhappy,” she said, smiling feebly.
“Would you rather he --” But then Francesco stopped, mid-sentence.
“Would I rather he...what...?”
“No. Nothing. I was just thinking I could send him away, you know, appoint him as a
foreign ambassador, or assign him to an overseas trade route.”
“That's...not what you were thinking, was it? You were thinking to have him --”
Francesco put a finger to Bianca's lips. “Shh. L'ignoranza è felicità. Ignorance is bliss.”
Bianca nodded slowly. “If you do...if....”
“Shh now. But it would make you happy, wouldn't it?”
“I wouldn't want to know. I could have -- I -- No, please forget I ever had the thought.”
They both stopped speaking and were silent for several minutes.
Several weeks later, Pietro Buonaventuri was murdered by bandits on the Bridge of the
Della Ininita in Florence.
Bianca scrubbed her floors for a month.

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