‘And I promise the same, come what may,’ she said. ‘I give you my word of honour.’
‘You have mine, Maria.’
‘That is enough, and God believes us,’ she said gravely. ‘But now the truth, and nothing else. We are not going to pretend that we are like brother and sister. We love each other dearly, and we love as man and woman, and I am sure we always shall, now and for ever, in life, and beyond death, and in the life to come. I am very sure of that.’
He bent his head and nodded slowly, but that was not enough for her.
‘Are you not sure, Balduccio?’ she asked after a moment.
He looked up suddenly with blazing eyes.
‘I love you now,’ he said. ‘I have loved you all my life. That is what I know. If there is a God, He knows it, for He made it so, and it will be so for ever. If not, it will end when we are both dead, but not before.’
‘It will never end,’ Maria answered. ‘But it must not be a weight to drag us down, it must be a strength to lift us. It shall be! Say that it shall be!’
‘I will do what I can.’