"LOOK at their faces," Jodie whispered to Lorenzo as
they stood side by side in the Castillo courtyard,
watching the expressions of the children who were
just being helped from the specially adapted bus that
had brought them from the airport. The first of the
young victims of war to come to the Castillo under
the scheme Lorenzo had initiated.
It was a year almost to the day since they had returned
from England, committed to one another and
their marriage, and to the accomplishment of
Lorenzo’s dream.
In the state apartments the restored paintings
glowed with the richness of their vibrant colours. In
the newly painted and furnished dormitories, beds
waited for the children and trained therapists waited
in the new extension housing the swimming pool,
treatment rooms and gym.
"This is such a wonderful thing you are doing,
Lorenzo," Jodie told him emotionally. "You are giving
so much to so many, bringing so much joy to their
lives."
"No more than the joy you have brought to mine,"
he told her, bending his head to kiss her, and then
laughing as their three-month-old son, whom she was
holding in her arms, reached out to grip his finger.
***