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Perhaps he was gazing at the already decorated, resplendent Palazzo Pitti.
"My lord," she called softly, "I'm here to inform you of the return date in advance."
Lorenzo didn’t turn around. After a long pause, he spoke.
"When?"
"Mid-November."
He seemed disinterested in such routine matters, and after a while, he spoke again.
"Do you remember the Christmas procession from a few years ago?"
"It was supposed to be this grand, but that winter, it rained continuously."
Lorenzo rarely discussed such trivial matters, yet today he spoke about it slowly, reflecting for a long time.
"At the time, Alecto asked me whether we should cancel the celebration altogether, since everyone had gone home to warm themselves by the fire."
Hedy listened quietly, not interrupting his lengthy recount.
"I told him, 'Alecto, open the council hall and let people dance.'"
Hedy listened as he slowly recalled the past, her mind drifting.
She thought of a passage from One Hundred Years of Solitude—
"Aureliano," he typed sadly on the telegraph machine, "Macondo is raining."
There was a long silence on the line. Suddenly, the cold, indifferent telegram from Colonel Aureliano Buendía appeared.
"Don’t be foolish, Herineldo," the telegram read, "It rains in August. It’s normal."
Raining in August is normal.
Raining on Christmas is also normal.
Hedy sighed softly, but Lorenzo still heard her.
"Do you remember the celebration after the ball?" Lorenzo turned to look at her. "After the rain ended, the whole city of Florence was bathed in brilliant light, and every roof seemed to be covered in gold leaf."
"I didn’t see it, my lord," she replied flatly.
"Why not?" He paused in surprise.
She didn’t answer.
Because that winter, she had been confined in the Doge’s Palace, unable to go anywhere.
Day after day, writing in her journal, reading books in her room, watching the rain from the window—completely disconnected from the rest of Florence.
That entire winter, she had spent alone.
Lorenzo clearly remembered this as well.
He seemed as though he wanted to explain something, but after a long pause, all he could do was sigh.
"I understand," he said calmly. "You may go now."
