“Allow me to pay half,” Robert offered.
“There’s no need,” Vanda protested. “I can afford it.”
“I don’t doubt it. But I should like it to be a gift from both of us – ” he hesitated, “if that is what you would like, too.”
He sounded unsure of himself. Vanda could never recall that happening.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “That’s what I would like, too.”
They watched as the piece was wrapped up carefully.
“Is there a message to be enclosed?” the shopkeeper asked.
They chose a card and on it Vanda wrote,
For those whom Aphrodite has blessed.
She signed her name and Robert signed his beneath.
“Whom Aphrodite has blessed,” he repeated, smiling at Vanda.
“It will be delivered to the Palazzo Firese within an hour,” the man said, writing a receipt for the money. “Good day to your Excellencie
