A question in Ortigia

I should have known. A man does not insist on four trains and a boat for no reason. He had been patting his left trouser pocket since Paddington, and I had put it down to the sandwiches.

On our second evening in Syracuse we walked to the Piazza del Duomo, which is pale gold and enormous and lit from below, so that the cathedral looks like it's on stage. Teo stopped by the fountain, reached into the pocket, and dropped the ring. It rolled under a bench, and he went in after it on his hands and knees in front of a hundred people eating ice cream. When he came out, he stayed down there, on one knee, as if he'd planned it. He says he planned it. He did not plan it.

I said yes. Four Italian grandmothers applauded. One of them asked Teo if he was going to get up.

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We flew home from Catania, which felt like cheating after the way we'd come, but we had a wedding to start planning and a lot of people to ring. Teo held my hand the whole flight. I let him. He'd earned it.

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