Gabriel's Promise (Gabriel's Inferno #4)(80)

“We should look into it the fall after we come back from Scotland.”

Julia nodded.

“Julianne.” Gabriel lowered his voice. “I’ve spoken with both Nicholas Cassirer and your uncle Jack in the past couple of days. Neither of them has been able to uncover any information about the intruder.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the man is a ghost. Jack has been working things from this side of the Atlantic, while Nicholas has been speaking to his contacts in Europe. Nothing has emerged.”

Julia drank more coffee. “I suppose if the man is a professional, he’d try to keep a low profile. If he’s good at what he does, he won’t get caught, which means he wouldn’t have a record.”

“That was Nicholas’s assessment as well.”

“Gabriel, I hope this doesn’t mean you’re planning on keeping us in Miami indefinitely.”

“No.” Gabriel stopped the stroller and moved to the side. He caught the toy bunny that was dangling from its leash and placed it on the tray in front of Clare. She grabbed it and hugged it. “Rebecca says she wants to go back to the house, but I asked her to wait for us.”

“And what did she say?” Julia felt into step with Gabriel as he continued pushing the stroller.

“She relented. I think she misses us, but since we aren’t there, she’s content to have a longer stay with her son. Although it sounds like he isn’t home much, because he’s working.”

“She’s probably spoiling him with her cooking.”

“No doubt.” Gabriel helped himself to his own (hot) coffee, which was resting in the stroller’s (pretentious) cup holder. “How are you doing with Wodehouse’s reading list, now that Rachel has sent you your books?”

“It’s coming. I think if I work on it every day, I’ll make progress. It’s when I skip a day that I run into problems, because I forget where I am and have to reread passages. How about you?”

“It’s coming along.” Gabriel’s features brightened, as they always did when he had the opportunity to talk about Dante. “What do you think of the river of Lethe?”

“Um, I don’t know. I think it’s the river of forgetfulness in Purgatory, right?’

“Correct. There’s a debate in the literature as to how much forgetfulness it bestows on a human being. Some commentators argue it’s a river of oblivion.”

“I don’t think that’s right. The souls in Paradise have memory. So whatever the role of the river, it can’t be complete forgetfulness.”

“Exactly,” Gabriel agreed excitedly. “This is one of the things Rachel has been struggling with. She picked up this notion that the blessed in Heaven are entirely removed from those of us still on earth—as if they’d forgotten about us or can’t be bothered about us.”

“Paradise has to be better than that. However, there is that strange passage in The Divine Comedy where Dante can’t remember what Beatrice is talking about and she says it’s because he drank from Lethe.”

“There’s the conundrum. That’s part of what I’m trying to work out for my lectures. Beatrice says the waters will affect his sad memories.”

“And the three virtues say he’s faithful to her after he’s drunk from the river. I think that’s strange—that he needs to drink of forgetfulness in order to be faithful.”

Gabriel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m not sure that’s what’s happening. In any case, he hasn’t lost all his memories. He asks for Beatrice in the next canto. And in the canto after that, she exhorts him to leave behind fear and shame.”

“Fear and shame.” Julia froze. “Can we sit down for a minute?”

“Are you all right?” Gabriel crowded close, his hand going to her lower back.

“Yes, but I think you’ve said something important. Is there a place to sit?”

Gabriel looked around. “Just past the church, there’s some trees and a low wall; we can sit there.” He grabbed her hand and piloted her forward.

When they reached the wall, he positioned Clare under the shade of the trees, facing him, and he and Julia sat down.

He placed his hand on her knee. “What is it?”

“I was just thinking about what you said about fear and shame. When I look back on my life, there are a lot of things I was ashamed about. And I’m still afraid of things.”

“Julianne, you don’t need to be afraid. Not anymore.”

Julia entwined her fingers with his. “When you heal from a wound, you’re supposed to move on. You should remember the lesson you learned, but not focus on the pain. I think that’s Dante’s point about the river Lethe. We need to forget the pain and put aside fear, and shame, and guilt, but remember the lesson.”

“I think that’s in line with what he’s trying to communicate. But his exchanges with Beatrice are puzzling. After he drinks from Lethe, he says he can’t remember being a stranger to her. But we know he reacted to her scolding with shame in a previous passage.”

“Lethe takes away the shame.”

“But the memory of inconstancy seems to be gone, too. That’s the problem I’m having. I think your account is healthier, but in canto thirty-three he says he doesn’t remember the estrangement, nor does his conscience trouble him.”