Chapter 12
Even gangs of ruthless criminals in the mountains have their generation gaps within them and Il Volpe's group was no exception. With Romina's father and Tullio gone, Roberto gradually changed the emphasis of their activities. They robbed less for themselves and more for the benefit of the downtrodden peasants in Western Sicily and their popularity grew accordingly.
But even robbery was becoming less important as the months passed and Doctor Torresi's visits became more numerous. His first trip to the secluded mountain hide-out to cure Romina had been at the point of a gun, but afterwards he had come voluntarily, spending days in deep conversations with Roberto. Much of their talking centered around the subject of Strappani wine and its unusual effects ... Romina knew she would never forget one particular conversation between the two men a few months after she had regained consciousness.
"You know, I've been trying for years now to isolate chemically what it is about vino strap-panese that gives it the effect it has," said the young doctor. "But I don't have the equipment or, frankly, the know-how. I've managed to smuggle a few bottles to colleagues of mine in England and France for analysis but they need large quantities and the government controls are simply too strict. I can't get it out of the country, even for medical purposes. The government says that it's illegal and that's that!"
Roberto started to make a joke about serious doctors who spent their spare time experimenting with sex-wine, when suddenly the idea struck him.
"Wait a minute, I've been wondering ever since I was a teacher what could be done to improve the economy of this region. The people are poor. Nothing grows here but grapes and the government won't let us sell the wine we make. Without Il Volpe, half the peasants around Strappani would have starved to death a long time ago. What we need is a product, legal or illegal, something the people can sell and earn a living at selling. And wine just might be the answer, particularly a wine like ours. Will your doctor-friends pay for large samples of vino strappanese?"
"Of course!" the doctor responded emphatically. "Outside of our wine, there are only two or three other known aphrodisiacs and all of them have serious negative side-effects. But our stuff doesn't even give you a hang-over. It's more than just good for improving sexual relations among normal people. In my years of practicing medicine in this area, I have never encountered a case of male impotence, even among the old-timers, and frigidity among females is unknown, possibly the only place on earth where this is true. If a sufficient quantity of this wine could be made available to the medical profession, we could bring happiness into the lives of many sexually tormented people!"
Thus, an industry was born. Some of the older men in the gang grumbled at giving up the glamor of banditry to become wine merchants, but cheered up when Roberto pointed out that what they were doing was still dangerous and thoroughly illegal.
With incredible energy and organizational ability, Roberto arranged for grape vines to be planted in obscure out-of-the-way parts of the hill-country where they were not-likely to be found, and a mysterious sailing launch began landing at isolated points along the rocky Sicilian coast at night to take on barrels of cool white wine, bound for London, Paris and the United States.
For Romina, life was active and exciting. Her physical strength restored by the bracing fresh climate of the mountains, she became a full member of Roberto's group, slipping naturally into the role left vacant by Selenia. Return to the United States was impossible, since the sergeant who had accompanied Lieutenant Barzini on his final assault had escaped to tell stories of a beautiful black-haired American girl who handled a machine gun like a man, and she was now wanted by the Italian authorities for the murder of the lieutenant and four of his men.
And for the same reason, she was a popular heroine among the common people of Western Sicily, almost all of who felt that Barzini's departure from this earth was a decided improvement. She had considered telling the gang that she was really Il Volpe's daughter, but finally decided against it. That was over with now and there was no reason to bring it up again.
That she and Roberto would become lovers was accepted by both of them as a matter of course and one night when her strength was back to normal, she simply came to his bed without being asked. When they had made love, he poured her a glass of Strappani wine and explained the hard facts of being a woman in a bandit gang. The group had to be kept small and capable of moving quickly and lightly. Obviously they could not encumber themselves with a collection of wives, but they were normal men and needed sex as much as they needed food and sleep. Thus the tradition had grown up: there was only room for one wife in a band, and she had to be everyone's wife.
Romina understood immediately and accepted the situation, rising from Roberto's bed to go and offer her comforts to the other men, but he pulled her back into his arms and covered her once again with his tawny muscular body.
"One more time before you go," he grinned at her in the darkness. "I want to show you that I'm as good a man as my father was."
An awful suspicion edged into the girl's mind.
"Your father?" she repeated stupidly.
"Oh, of course, I'd never told you. I was born the year before he went to America."
As Roberto plunged into her for a second time, bringing the now familiar thrill of pleasure to all parts of her body, Romina smiled to herself in the darkness, realizing that she now had two secrets to carry inside her. She had passed from her father's bed to her brother's!
But it didn't matter any more.