A. contents:

Book one:
Prologue.
In late autumn, 1905, a woman arrived in Bethany by train, with one satchel held together by ship rope and a belly large enough for a grown man to sit on. Her name, Santa Francesca Allegra. She had left sicily pregnant by a roman count. According to stories told by men, Cesca was strange, beautiful and generous with herself. Annually, the town Bethany celebrated the arrival of spring with a Festival of Fortunes, named the honor the role played by the fortune-teller. There had not always been one. Cesca had played the role of fortune-teller for many years, sitting in a small dark booth dressed like a gypsy, skirt over skirt, imagining the patterns of lives in people’s palms.

1. The Festival of Fortunes: May 1, 1955.
The festival of Fortunes was held on the grounds of the high school of Bethany. It was actually a rite of spring. Winter in Bethany came before Thanksgiving and lasted until spring, a damp of permanent cold from the sea. On the first of May, all people came out of their houses like flowers. There were dancing and singing, games for the children, clowns and pony rides, a pocket lady with treasures in her apron, acrobats and jugglers. People drank merrily and made love into the next morning. Young women knew that they would loose their girlhood.
Cesca had lost her girlhood in 1949 at the festival, when she was 14 years old. Her parents went home earlier with her twin brother, James. At dusk, Cesca left her friends and went home. Three young men stopped her and one of them had raped them. The boys had made a bet. They all said that her grandmother was a whore, and so was Cesca.
On the morning of May 1, 1955, James and Cesca left early to go to High school. Cesca would be the fortune-teller of this day. At Elm street they saw Dr. Weaver.
Cesca fell in love with Colin Mallory. He wanted to marry her.

2. The wedding of Francesca Woodbine:
In 1956 there was an unforgivable heat. Cesca called James to tell him she was going to marry Colin Mallory. James had thought all summer that his sister was mentally ill, because she was in love with Colin. Cesca was pregnant, and that is why they were going to marry. First Colin did not want to marry or have a baby, but later he had changed his mind.
The next day he had called Louisa Natale and asked if she would come to have lunch with him. He was supposed to work that day, but he called in sick. Louisa knew what Colin had in mind and she did not think of Cesca’s heart. Cesca left their House and went to James and together they would pick up her wedding dress. James pick-up was stuck and wouldn’t be repaired until afternoon. Cesca went to Leonora river and picked some flowers with her ankles in the water. Then she walked to her house and saw a car . She looked through the window and saw that Louisa and Colin were naked. She ran away as fast as she could. Later after the other car was gone, Cesca went back to her house with a gun to shoot Colin. Colin lay down at the couch and woke up when she came holding her gun. Then she shot him. She ran away as fast as she could and buried the gun at the fishpond. She went to James and they went to Boston.
Colin Mallory had died slowly.
When they came home, Cesca said she was ill and went to bed. James thought there was something else with Cesca. Julian said that the flu was going around. James checked her later, but he couldn’t wake her.
Later that day the police came to question her. Cesca made everything up about Colin’s dead. Julian had discovered that the gun was missing and he replaced it.

Book 2
Prologue:
Santa Francesca had given Sophia the long cape she had worn crossing the Atlantic for her twenty-first birthday. Sophia said it was a good-luck cape. Sophia had asked who her Father was, Santa Francesca had said that it was someone from the count.

1. Storm Warnings: August, 1961.
Cesca lay on her back with her son, Tobias who was straddling her belly, waiting for the promised storm. The town of Bethany had never completely recovered from Colin Mallory’s death. In five years his killer had not been discovered. People began to believe someone of the village had killed Colin. At four and a half, Tobias began to...








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