First pages - Historical Fiction/Mystery - One Too Many Bones

[Alexandra Syrah]

This is actually the third scene, occurring after a montage of the city of Bologna (scene 1) and several women hobnobbing in 1300 AD about the exhumation and burning of Saint Guglielma. (This is a dual timeline narrative)

This third scene introduces the relationship between the modern-day protagonist and her lover in Bologna; establishes basic character outlines/occupations

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“Congratulations,” Amanda said, lifting a glass of the house red wine to Serafina. "On booking your first ever event. May there be many more to come." The remaining liter of wine sat, mostly full, on their small, square table. They were seated outdoors, and the evening October air was just beginning to chill. To Amanda’s back, a violinist was busking alongside the brick walls of the Basilica San Petorino.

Serafina lifted her glass and tapped it to Amanda’s. “Salute!”

“Salute!”

They both drank.

“So, when is the bachelorette party?” Amanda asked.

“Next week. There are three bridesmaids plus the bride. They want to do a group reading.” Serafina took another sip of wine and chuckled. “The thing I’m really curious about,” she said slyly, “is that the mother of the bride asked to be included.”

“What? Really? At the bachelorette party?”

“Surprising, right? Apparently she had no interest until she heard the bride was hiring a tarot reader.”

Amanda snickered. “So she’s into tarot then?”

“Apparently!” Serafina laughed, topping up her wine glass from the carafe.

“How does the bride feel about that?”

“I have no idea. But it seems that her mother is bankrolling most of this, so I suppose there’s no way of keeping her out if she’s very determined to go.”

“Sounds like you’re going to have a good time,” Amanda said.

“I fully intend to,” Serafina laughed again. A gust of wind threatened the violinist’s sheet music. Serafina watched him snatch a sheet out of the air and return it to its stand. Then he pinned them against the stand with his cell phone.

“How did the bride find out about you, anyway?” Amanda continued.

“One of my regular clients is a friend of hers. Apparently the bride remembered seeing my table when I used to do reading in the piazza. She’d never been into tarot herself. But when my client mentioned that I had expanded into team building at corporate events and parties, she thought it would be a good way to build get the bridesmaids to know each other better.”

“Oh, are they not already friends?”

“One of them is the bride’s sister and the other one lives in the States, so while they all know the bride well, they don’t know each well at all. I think this might be the first time the sister is meeting them.”

“Plus the mother-of-the-bride,” Amanda snickered.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of bubbly.”

“Do you think that’s likely to make it better?”

“Well—that’s a fair point. But they don’t seem like the group to get in a drunken brawl!”

“Where in the States does her friend live?”

“I didn’t ask,” Serafina said. “Probably not wherever you’re from that’s 25 minutes from Canada.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Probably not,” she said. “I guess most Italians living in the States end up in New York City. Maybe she’s there.”

The waiter arrived with their pizza.

“I love the crust at this place,” Serafina said, cutting herself a slice. “Anyway, enough about me. How is everything going with you? More importantly, do you have an early start tomorrow, or are you able to spend the night? This will influence how much wine I drink,” Serafina said with her characteristic sideways smile, her head slightly tilted.

“I’m supposed to be on-site at 10:00. We’re still working on cataloguing what’s in the ossuary before we move everything out. But they don’t want us back there until they’ve finished morning mass in the chapel.”

“Does anyone even go to that?” Serafina asked, well into her first slice of pizza.

“I don’t know. I’m never there that early. Probably a few people? Maybe some tourists?”

“Anyway, you didn’t answer my question,” Serafina said, her eye twinkling. Amanda reached across the table, twined her fingers into Serafina’s, and lifted the delicate hand to her lips.

“Let us eat, drink, and be merry,” Amanda said, planting a half dozen kisses on Serafina’s hand and onto her wrist before her lover, laughing, squirmed her arm away. \“You’re so over the top, Mandy.”

“Isn’t that what you like?”

Just then a mime darted up to their table, offering her hand to each of the women in turn. They both laughed and waved her off.