Un matrimonio eccentrico : romanzo

The story unfolds in the spacious, semicircular Villa Arombelli, where polished marble columns and rose‑streaked stucco give the dining room a cool elegance. Servants move silently among silver candelabras and towering fruit arrangements, while the fire in the drawing‑room glows like molten metal, casting a reddish hue over the quiet corridors. In the heart of the house, the petite, generous Marchesa Arombelli presides with a calm, aristocratic bearing, directing her household with a subtle mix of kindness and authority.

Behind the polished façade, the young Elisa Valenti sits alone, a tear tracing her pale cheek as she confronts a private anguish that seems out of place amid the villa’s opulence. The household buzzes with anticipation for the arrival of the Marchesa’s nephew, the charismatic and notoriously reckless Massimo d’Astorre, whose promised visit has set every guest and servant on edge. As the clock chimes toward two o’clock, the stage is set for an encounter that promises to stir the carefully balanced world of the Arombelli family.