'Coffee, Señor Roman,' Maria asked him from the doorway.
'Thank you, Maria.' He smiled sardonically. 'Maria, too, is a force to be reckoned with. And don't be deceived by Camilla's talk and her good looks. That girl has the nerve of a canal horse when circumstances dictate. And she has also has rather . . . quaint little drawbacks.'
'That is Roman's polite way of inferring that Camilla can be wilfully manipulative,' Señora Castellan said. 'Somewhere down the line she would have to be broken of that.'
'Good luck!' Kara blurted without thinking. 'I have an older sister like her. Sophia, that is her name, she from the very beginning began operating behind her husband's back. But she is at heart a wholly selfish person, and nothing in the world can change that. She seems not to notice that everyone around is made miserable by the fallout from her behaviour- !' Belatedly realising what she was saying, Kara flushed scarlet and stopped her mouth with both hands, watching Roman for the responding defensive anger he would surely show. Roman, however, merely chuckled wryly as he accepted his coffee from Maria.
'You really think Camilla is that sort, eh?'
'No! I didn't mean her, exactly. I meant my sister, Sophia-'
'Why is it that when you tell the truth, the truth just flows out of you and there is no stopping it, but when the truth becomes a bit much you start falling all over your words?'
'Those things I said . . . well . . . they really aren't true of Camilla-'
'Oh, yes they are,' Roman said with a quiet chuckle, catching a wry look from his mother. 'I have on numerous occasions explained to Camilla that I will not tolerate such behaviour in a wife, and that I would go so far as to divorce the woman who deceitfully counters my will.'
'Sophia received many such warnings before she was married-' Kara protested before catching herself once more. 'I am sorry- I will stop talking! I keep saying all the wrong things. Will you excuse me, please? There are things I should be doing.'
Moments later, stumbling up the path towards where Guiseppe was at work in the mill, Kara excoriated herself mentally for her words to Roman about Camilla. 'What is the matter with me? You would think that I was jealous! I have no right to be! Why do I say such stupid things? Roman will surely hate me for them! And what must the Señora think of me now?'
To her surprise, she found Guiseppe speaking with a man seated on a wagon. 'Ah, there she is!' Guiseppe said when he spotted her. 'Kara, come and meet our neighbour, Pietro. He would like to borrow you for the day, if that is all right with you.'