Chapter 40

Six years after the war was over, Rosa got married.

Guillermo should have realised it might happen, of course, but the thought had never crossed his mind. She was over twenty now, getting rather old to marry, and there were so few men available. But she had taken up with a Civil Guard. Guillermo was horrified. The Civil Guard were generally seen as the enemy by the villagers. Nobody spoke to them, except to get their passes. They were excluded from what little social life the village had out of curfew hours.

And they were vicious, sadistic bastards. Everyone agreed that the Civil Guard were worse than the Moors, and that was saying something.

"Rosa," he said, "you can't marry a Civil Guard. Nobody will ever speak to you again."

She looked at him and her eyes were full of sorrow and an infinite weariness.