I had my own suspicions since that was the same time Connie decided to have me as his mistress. To this day, I regret my actions.I was seduced by Conn...e with money and beautiful things, but most of all by his promise to see my son educated. Without considering the consequences, I let myself be taken by Connie one night when Ramon was working. I was so ashamed and I told Connie that I couldn't do that any more. I pleaded with him to not tell Ramon, but he showed me some pictures that he had. Dad, a minor Lord, had employed a new, much younger man called Betters to take over from him; he came with impeccable references. He was a handsome man, but there was something about him that sent a shiver down my spine. Ok lets get back to my party, well the morning after anyway. I was on my way down for a late breakfast when I noticed Betters leaving my friend Trish's bedroom, she had stayed over as she was a bit the worst from the party; he didn't notice me, he shut her door and he walked. "So nice of our stars to join us," he said waspishly as we came in. I looked at the backstage clock on the wall; it was 9:59. It took me another one of those nanoseconds to decide against pointing this out."All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's get cracking. We have all of these fine musicians"—he gestured at the orchestra—"here for exactly four hours today, and in that time I expect to go through the entire opera without unnecessary interruptions. If we finish early, well and good but there. Giovanna. Also my moon-mate. We are, in fact, the only actual ... married couple in the usual sense here. We left South Africa together in 1954. We were done with apartheid. She was from Italian Somaliland, originally from Italy itself, but fled during the Second World War.“We all nearly died from snakebite, but we were within earshot of these fine wolves on Long Island, of all places, and so we’re still alive. Care to guess how old your own moon-mate is? She was just fifteen when the snake.