As soon as Eugenio had some free time, he pulled out his cellular from his pocket, opened it and asked the voice to tell him about another Italian.
"Are you curious about when I am Michele, born in Lucca in 1712?"
"I don't know. Did he have an interesting life?"
"Don't ask me, all are interesting for me who lived them. Anyway... I am born in Lucca. My father is a miller of Lucca, and my mother is a very beautiful Spanish girl, but she dies when I am six years old. My father marries again, a woman who has a son, Felice, eight years old. My stepbrother and I fit well together at once. Later on my sister and another brother are also born. We boys help our father in the mill and grow up strong and beautiful. I admire Felice very much, and he is also respected by all the boys of the neighbourhood.
It's been years that we sleep together, and when one night he starts playing with me, touching between my legs and making me touch him, I accept without the slightest problem. On the contrary, as I am reaching puberty, I like those games more and more. In reality we limit ourselves to brush one against the other, to touch each other, until we reach a strong pleasure. Then we sleep, half embraced, enjoying the warmth of the other's body.
Felice is fourteen and I am twelve. Some foreign young nobles pass our town. They are making the "Grand Tour". English Lords, French, Spanish, German aristocrats, usually accompanied by a servant and a tutor, sometimes also by a guide. One night Felice tells me what happened to him - the guide of a French nobleman approached him and told him that the noble wanted to amuse himself with him, and that he will give him some coins if he accepted. Felice did, and the young aristocrat made him undress, took him to his bed and did some really good and amusing things with him.
I ask him what it was, and he asks me if I want to try those things with him. I say yes. So Felice tells me that he will play the part of the French noble, and that I have to play his part. To me this seems a game even more interesting than any other we did before. But in reality, for the first time, we have a real and complete sexual intercourse, and Felice, after we kissed and I sucked him, penetrated me. I really like the feeling, so after that night, we regularly do it again, before sleeping. Also Felice, sometimes, does it again with some passing young aristocrat, in fact the guides had passed word of the fact that the eldest soon of Lucca's miller is willingly available to the noble foreigners' desires.
I ask Felice if and when I too could do it, but my stepbrother tells me that first I have to grow up, that I'm still too young. But he always tells me with abundance of details what he does with these foreigners, and this arouses me very much, and I am even more aroused when we do the same things with each other.
I am fifteen years old when the guide of a young English Lord comes to look for my brother Felice. Instead of going to call him, I lie and tell the man that Felice is not at home, but that, if he wants, I can go instead of my brother. The guide looks at me from head to toe, then accepts, and takes me to the inn where the Lord stopped.
The noble young man looks at me, then makes to me a gesture to follow him. He takes me to his room. I remember Felice's tales so that, even without understanding a single word of what the Englishman says, I know what to do. I let him undress me, and I undress him, and I caress, kiss and lick his body as I am uncovering it and the young man seems happy. I do my best, I want the man to be happy with me, and when he at last mounts me and takes me, I welcome him with real pleasure. His isn't so much bigger than Felice, so I can receive it all inside me almost without problems.
The Lord seems more than happy with me, gives me some coins and later his guide tells me that the young man wants me again in his bed, for the period of his stay. I go to the inn several times, and willingly. When, that first time, I tell Felice in bed of my adventure, he tells me that evidently I'm grown enough. I tell him that I have had a very good teacher in him, but I also tell him that, this time, I want to be the one on top and take him... Felice doesn't object, so I take him and feel that I like taking at least as much as being taken.
I am sixteen when a French Count, a young man twenty-one years old, is so pleased by the sex he has with me, that he proposes that I go on the "Grand Tour" with him. The thought fascinates me, also because the way of making love of this young man, Guillaume, is really pleasing. So, I tell my family that I'm entering the service of that aristocrat, and leave my home.
We go to Florence, Pisa, and Rome. During the days I accompany him, carrying all he needs to make his drawings, and during the nights I am in his bed, ready to please him. I am with him when he goes North to Bologna, and from here to Venice, then Milan, then Bern and finally France. But when we reach Dijon, Guillaume dismisses me. It is true that he gives me very good money to compensate me for my good "services", but I feel disappointed.
At first I think to go back to Lucca, so I go down towards Lyon. I am at half way, when I stop in a small inn. Here stopped also a musical trio travelling to Paris, hired by Madame Geoffrin. Amongst them is a violinist, whose name is Antoine, a young man, twenty-five years old. When he understands I am Italian, he starts to speak Italian with me. He asks me how it happens I am in this part of France, and I tell him I was in service with a young noble during one part of his "Grand Tour" and that he dismissed me just a short time ago.
He looks at me and smiles, then he tells me that he did understand, and that he would like to have the same services from me. I look at him somewhat surprised, asking myself if he is really proposing me to have sex with him. Antoine, not to leave me any doubt, asks me if I wouldn't like "to do it" with him. I answer yes, so he proposes me to go at once upstairs, in his room.
He doesn't lose time in preliminaries, he undresses, goes on the bed on all fours, and asks me to penetrate him. He asks me to take him with force, and the more I hammer into him with vigour, the more he seems to enjoy it. When we finally cum, I am satisfied but also a little worn out. Antoine tells me that he liked me very much, and asks me if I feel like doing it again, with his two companions... I look at him in astonishment, so he explains to me that all three of them like being taken, and that usually, if one of them finds a good young bull, he shares him with the others. And he says I have been really good, I am strong and virile, and I also have a really nice tool.
I remain in bed while Antoine dresses and goes downstairs. After a short while Edouard comes in, he is twenty-eight years old and he plays the viola. He greets me, comes near me and looks at me with evident desire. While he undresses, he caresses between my legs. He is less well shaped than Antoine, more thin, but between his legs he has a tool that gives me the creeps - happily he doesn't want to take me, I think... Without coming in bed, he bends down to my groin and sucks me for a good while, masturbating himself. Then he climbs on me, astride, and impales himself... He does everything, he springs up and down, he sways his hips, he enjoys me silently until he obtains his full satisfaction.
Then he goes out of the bed, tells me to wait, dresses and leaves. After a moment the third comes in the bedroom, Victor. He is twenty-three years old and plays the cello. He is Edouard's brother. He hurriedly undresses, he is not bad at all, even if Antoine remains the most handsome. He smiles at me with a glance half way between impudent and shy, and says I am really beautiful. He comes to the bed and starts to kiss and caress all of my body, and I do the same to him, until he lies at my side, upside down, and I understand that he wants us to suck each other. So we unite. He is really skilled in sucking and, even though I did cum already twice, he gives me a new hard on without difficulty.
After a while he lies on his back, spreads his legs and asks me to take him. I make his legs rest on my shoulders and take him. He brushes my nipples, moaning with pleasure, pushing against me at each of my thrusts, giving me a stronger and stronger pleasure. When he feels that I am about to cum he takes my head between his hands and kisses me deeply, until we both have our orgasm. I abandon myself on him, panting, completely emptied, without any energy left in me. He caresses my back, tells me that he liked me very much, that I really am a man and that I have a really beautiful body and an even more beautiful member...
We dress again, and he invites me to have supper with them. While eating they talk about me and at a certain point Antoine proposes me to go into service with them, to accompany them to Paris. I smilingly answer that I would like to, but that I could not be able, each time, to satisfy all three of them like I did this afternoon. They say that they understand that, but that I will stay each night in the bed of another one of them. Along the day I will have to take care of their luggage, keep their clothes always in order, especially when they have to perform in the concerts. They will also have special clothes made for me to accompany them in the concerts. They will pay me a monthly salary, not really high, but with the expenses of meals, lodging and travels on them, quite good. So, in the end I accept.
So, I follow them to the North, to Paris. Of the three musicians, I fit well with Antoine, because he is likeable and speaks Italian fluently. Edouard is not bad, but we two never really become close. Little by little, the one I like more is Victor, especially in bed, but not only.
In Paris we are guests of Madame Geoffrin, a beautiful woman, regal, about thirty years old. What amazes me is that she knows that I am a somewhat particular servant, and this doesn't seem to scandalize her at all, on the contrary... Her literary salon hosts each time around fifty, one hundred people, for the main part men. They are men of letters, scientists, artists, philosophers both French and foreigners, mainly Italians. Just to tell you some of the names I meet at her place, important people like Diderot, Beccaria, D'Alembert, Voltaire, Algarotti... And it is right in her salon that the idea of the "Encyclopedie" starts and is carried out. Each time the Madame opens her salon, my three musicians have to perform pieces of their repertoire at the beginning. Then we too mix with the guests. My duty is to bring the music stands, the instruments, the scores, and then to put everything away. For the rest of the time I can stay there, in fact I don't appear to be a servant, but an assistant. It is Madame Geoffrin who wants me to remain. I think that the Madame has a liking for me.
She is a woman of a refined culture, she masters, besides French, also Italian, German, English and Spanish. She is a connoisseur of fine arts, music, literature, history, and philosophy. It is enchanting just to hear her, she has verve, sense of humour and depth of thought. She really is a great lady.
One day the Madame takes me aside and tells me that one of her guests, the marquis De Machy, took a fancy to me. I am somewhat ill at ease, I don't know what to say and, to take my time, I answer that I am in service with the Messiers, the musicians... She answers that I don't belong to them and that, if I accepted to become the protégé of the marquis, I would have all to gain, and she offers to introduce me to the marquis. I don't dare to refuse such a explicit request, therefore I follow her.
The marquis De Machy is completely different from what I feared. He is a young man, just twenty-years old, beautiful like the sun, with intense eyes, smiling, deep and sensual. I feel at once incredibly attracted to him. After introducing us, the Madame leaves us alone. The marquis, Jean-Philippe, invites me to sit near him at a window, where we can talk undisturbed.
I am literally fascinated by that young man, who is just two years older than me. He asks me about my life, a thousand details, and I tell him everything. And when he starts to ask me more intimate questions, I also answer him on these matters, without the slightest embarrassment, so much he is able to put me at ease. When he proposes me to go with him, I feel a great desire to answer yes, but I repeat to him that I am in service with the musicians. He answers me with the same words as the Madame - I don't belong to them. I am still a little hesitant, but my heart hammers, so much I feel attracted to Jean. When the Madame passes near us, he stands up and says something to her. The Madame smiles at me and tells me not to worry, she will settle everything.
So, when the guests begin to leave, Jean waits for me in the hall while I go upstairs to get my mantle, then takes me to his coach. He tells the driver to bring us to his country lodge and to came back to fetch us the day after. His country lodge is just out of Paris, it's a nice little villa in the middle of a park. Servants welcome him somewhat surprised, Jean orders to prepare a room for me and the supper for both of us. Then he takes me to a small studio. Here he pulls me against him and for the first time he touches me, he kisses me. He is so sweet, I like him very much.
He caresses me, I feel he is excited and this arouses me, but he whispers to me he will come to meet me in the night and parts from me, telling me that it is not good to run to the top so fast. He asks me if I am able to ride, and when I say I am not, he promises to teach me. Then he asks me if I want to teach him Italian, and he will help me to improve my French. From all that I understand that he plans to have me with him for a long period, and this pleases me. We have supper. Then we stroll in the park, and here he embraces me again, pushing me against a tree and kisses me. Then again he parts, telling me again he will come to see me, later. I desire him more and more.
A short while after I am in my bed, he enters my room. He lights all the chandeliers before coming near me, saying that he wants to see me well. He comes to my bed and leans against me, just our night shirts separate our bodies, so I clearly perceive his warmth, his excitation. He caresses me, kisses me for a long while and finally he pulls off my night shirt and looks with evident admiration at my body. So I undress him. He is really beautiful, and I caress his now bare body, full of desire. It seems he wants to protract these moments, and that suits me fine.
For the first time in my life I have the sharp feeling that what we are doing is not sheer and simple sex, but really making love. And yet we barely know each other... Jean devotes himself to me with tender passion and I instinctively reciprocate, with the same sentiment. Until Jean, after bringing me to a very strong arousal, first offers himself to me, then he takes me... and in both moments I am conquered by his tender virility, by the gentle vigour with which he gives himself to me and then takes me...
Afterwards we continue to caress and to kiss for a long while, our bodies languidly intertwined. Jean tells me that he likes me very much, and asks me to remain with him. I answer that I can't hope nothing better than that, because I never felt so good with anybody until now. He says he wants to remain to sleep with me. I am happy. We fall asleep in a short while, still embraced.
On the following morning, at dawn, Jean wakes me with kisses and caresses all over my body and we make love with renewed desire. His luminous, smiling eyes fill me with passion and again we take each other with calm passion, for a long while. Then he goes back to his room to dress, and we meet downstairs for breakfast. His coach arrives. Jean tells me to wait for him there. He has to go to his family mansion to settle something, but he will be back, and he will teach me to ride a horse, and then we will spend some days together.
When he is back, in the evening, during supper he tells me that he wants me to stay with him. He says he is preparing his "Grand Tour" and he wants me to accompany him. "As your servant", I say happily. "No," he says, "as my companion. You will never be my servant." I make him remark that I am not a nobleman, I would not even know how to behave, he would cut a bad figure because of me. He tells me that there are so many pretending to be noble... he will teach me the manners, and he intends, as soon as I am ready, to introduce me to his family as an Italian gentleman. Michele Di San Martino, gentleman of Lucca. I laugh, say to him that they will never swallow it, but he is really determined - he wants me to be able to stay at his side on any occasion. I ask him how his family will take this project, but he says I don't have to worry.
In these days he teaches me to ride, I teach him Italian, which he easily learns, having studied Latin, and he corrects my French. He teaches me the etiquette and some rudiments of fencing. And he spends every night in my bed to make love, and it is splendid.
He is back in Paris for a couple of days, then he spends some more days with me, continuing my education. Then he goes back to Paris, but this time he takes me with him. He takes me to an Italian tailor and asks him to prepare a full wardrobe of clothes in the latest Italian fashion, then he takes me to a little hotel where he comes to see me almost every day. The tailor is making me a set of really beautiful clothes, fit for various occasions. I never wore such beautiful attires!
He takes me again to his lodge and here I find a young Italian servant - he will be my personal servant, the servant of the knight of San Martino... I let him have his way, he seems so sure... Certainly, wearing these clothes and my first powdered wig, I seem another person. I am beginning to ride almost easily, and also fencing is not bad. Jean says I am a fast learner and is proud of me. And he makes love with me with unchanged pleasure and passion. Little by little I become aware that I am falling in love with him. He is really an exceptional young man, he has a strong and gentle character at the same time.
We are together for one month and a half when he decides it is time to introduce me to his family. He first announces the visit of an Italian friend, then he comes to fetch me with his coach, together with my luggage and my servant, and takes me to the De Machy Mansion. On the way I ask him if his family could not become aware of the truth from the servants of their country lodge, but he assures me that they are faithful to him, and that they will never betray us. In the past they willingly covered his adventures, without any problem. I ask him if I too am one of his adventures. He looks at me with is sweet eyes, takes my hand, squeezes it gently and says that no, he hopes not, he hopes that between us something more solid is growing. I am moved and tell him that I feel I am falling in love with him. Jean takes my hand to his lips, kisses it and tells me he his happy.
I am welcomed by Jean's family, without any suspect. They have a room prepared for me on the guests wing. Jean has two elder sister and two younger brothers. Besides his father and mother, the widowed sister of his father lives in the Mansion, with two adolescent sons. When we are alone, I ask him how he plans to come to my room at night, with all these people around. He explains to me that he will pass through his servant's room, come upstairs using the servants' stair, enter my servant's room and from there in my room, without danger of being seen by his family. I ask him if he can trust our servants. He says yes, I have not to worry, in fact Sandro, my servant, is the lover of Paul, his servant... and when he will come to meet me, Sandro will go to spend the night with Paul. And if somebody went to look for him, Sandro would come to prevent him... He really thought of everything! Anyway, nothing happens. We never have problems.
I take part in the parties at De Machy's Mansion, and when they are invited somewhere else, I go with them to the parties at other nobles' mansions. And I never make them ashamed of me. For the King's birthday, I go with the De Machy to Versailles. Here I meet some of the guests of Madame Geoffrin, but they seem not to recognize me... Apart from Madame Geoffrin who makes me her compliments, and tells me that she is glad that I am in good shape. I thank her to have introduced me to Jean. She simply answers that she thought I was the right person for her young friend.
King Louis is twenty-one years old and has not yet assumed the fullness of his power. He is a fascinating young man of an extreme elegance. When I am introduced to him by Jean's father, he greets me with a smile and, before going on, he tells me in Italian that I am welcome in his kingdom. I am moved.
Then, we leave for the "Grand Tour". We pass in Denmark, Sweden, then we go to the Czar's Court, we then go down to Budapest, Vienna, Venice, Florence and Rome, to then go North again to France. It is a three years journey. We are Jean and I, Sandro and Paul, and Jiri, a Czech, our guide and interpreter for the languages of the East, and his lover Misha who is also an interpreter... Sometimes we stop in uncomfortable hotels, real hovels, but sometimes we are guests of aristocrats, in sumptuous mansions or ancient castles. We have to eat unusual food and travel on dangerous roads, threatened by bandits that, luckily, we don't meet. When we leave Florence, Jean wants to stop in Lucca to meet my family. With some trepidation, I accompany him to my father's mill. My elder stepbrother has married and has already three children. We are really welcomed. My family admires my clothes.
Felice guesses that Jean and I are lovers and when he asks me, I confirm it. He says he is happy for me, because he likes Jean. I ask about him, how does he feel being married. He says he is happy, but that at times he goes to Florence where he has a young boyfriend. We stay in Lucca for five days, then rapidly we go North, with our luggage full of souvenirs we collected during our tour.
In Paris, as it is custom after a "Grand Tour", we have to take part in several parties where we have to tell about our experiences, show our souvenirs and answer a thousand questions. Also Madame Geoffrin, our good friend, invites us to her salon. And once she asks us what we intend to do, to remain together. Jean says that he didn't yet think about that, but that I can remain a guest in his mansion...
But the Madame points out to him that soon his parents will propose him a marriage, and that I cannot be their guest forever. Then Jean asks her if she has some suggestions, in fact he doesn't want to marry and neither to be separated from me. Madame Geoffrin tells him that she did think about this problem and that she really has a suggestion. One of her dearest friends, possessing wide estates at the German border, is looking for an administrator, and she thinks that Jean is fit for that role. In that way we both can leave Paris and Jean's family and live in our way in a small castle refurbished as a residence, in the centre of the estates.
Jean asks me my opinion. I propose him to go to see the place, so we go with his coach. The place is enchanting, the residence delicious, on the border of a small lake, kept in order by a dozen of servants, the estates are wide and variously cultivated, the retribution is generous. So Jean decides to accept and we move there. Our rooms are divided by a lounge, and each has a servant's room at his side. We take with us, of course, Paul and Sandro. As they are the only ones who tide up our rooms, the rest of the servants cannot be aware that we always sleep in the same bed...
Jean doesn't have problems with his new occupation, in fact he assisted his father in the care of their estates. I learn to help him and to understand the problems of that work. We don't miss the society salons of Paris, where we go from time to time anyway. We are happy, the life in the outdoors makes us stronger and healthier. Our love doesn't know any crisis.
But in 1752 Jean has an accident while going to Paris. His coach, pursued by the bandits, overturns and falls down a scarp. He is picked up still alive, but after just five days, he dies. After his funeral, Madame Geoffrin convinces me to go back to the estate to continue administering it. I understand that I have really no other best choice. But certainly I now feel very lonely, I miss Jean terribly.
Two years later, while I am going through the Northern estates riding my horse, I see somebody on his tummy on the ground, next to the road. I dismount, thinking it could be someone who suddenly felt faint. I turn his body. It is a young man, white as death, wearing a dirty, torn servant's livery. He is still alive. I bodily raise him, put him on my saddle and go back to the castle. I call Sandro and Paul and make them put him on a bed. With their help I undress him to check him, but he is not wounded. His body, especially his arms, legs and chest, is studded with small wounds and scars. I ask what could have happened to him, and Paul says that in his opinion the youth has been tortured.
We wash his body, we medicate and bandage him, then I entrust him to Paul, asking him to call me as soon as the young man recovers his senses. The youth has a handsome body, strong, and while I was washing him, besides the sympathy his conditions aroused in me, I felt slightly excited. I ask myself who can he possibly be - an escaped servant? But why? And these wounds?
Paul comes to call me, the young man has recovered his consciousness. I go to his bed and he speaks German. I don't understand this language, but Paul does and is our interpreter. The boy's name is Ole, he is twenty-four years old, and he is a Dane. When he was twelve, he entered the service of a German aristocrat. When he was fourteen, he was raped by the son of his master, who afterwards continued to take him at his whim. After some time he got used to it, he didn't complain, but three years ago, he fell in love with a stable boy, who reciprocated. One year ago, his master's son caught them and became furious. The stable boy managed to escape, but he had been shut away in a dungeon where his young master tortured him and sexually abused him, even worse than before. A few weeks ago, another servant freed him and helped him to flee...
The story didn't come out like this, this is just a summary, but Paul had managed to make him tell all, little by little. I take turns with Paul to watch the youth's bedside, we give him light and nourishing meals, and I change his medication. And I feel more and more attracted to the young man. But, after the misadventures he faced, I really don't feel like making him understand my desire. When he has recovered, I offer him to remain to work for me. He gratefully accepts.
Ole is back to his old self, he works hard, and little by little he learns French. I feel more and more attracted to him. Sometimes I see him, bare chest, while he chops the firewood, and cannot do anything but admire the fine muscles of his chest and arms.
One day, I go to the lakeshore, when I hear the noise of moved water behind a bush. I go to look and I see Ole, wearing just his short underpants, who is in the water to his hips and splashes water on himself with full hands.
Then he comes back to the shore and lies down. I can see the swelling between his legs becoming bigger... and in a while he starts to slowly caress it through the wet cloth, his eyes closed. I hold my breath, very aroused. I would like to go near him, to caress him there, but I restrain myself, afraid to put him in embarrass. The youth slips his hand under his underpants and continues to touch himself, unaware of being spied. I swallow, in emotion, staring at that beautiful and desirable body. Suddenly he opens his eyes and turns them towards me, and sees me, still amongst the bushes, looking at him.
He pulls out his hand, sits up embarrassed, and blushes, so I come out and go towards him and say to him that he is really beautiful... He looks at me and blushes again. I slowly crouch near him and the tension between us is at its peak. I stretch out my hand and slightly brush his chest. He quivers, takes my hand from his chest, brings it to his lips and kisses it. I brush his lips with my fingertips. He suckles my fingers, looking in my eyes. Then I tell him how much I desire him. He nods, and almost stammering, he says to me that he feels honoured. I part from him, otherwise I would start making love with him right there, which I don't want? I ask him if he wants to come to my study, later on. He says that he will, for sure.
I wait for him, preparing the speech to make him. I want to tell him that I desire him, but that he has not to feel compelled or obliged, that I want him with me just in case this is also his desire. That he has absolutely not to feel the duty to tell me yes... He knocks at the door of my study. Now he is in perfect livery and I almost regret it. I made him sit in front of my desk and I am about starting my speech, when he asks me the permit to talk.
He tells me that he will be forever grateful to me for how I rescued and received him, and for how I treat him, that is with a respect that very few masters have for their servants. And that he became aware that I treat all my servants with respect, and that I am an extraordinary master, and that he admires me. Then he tells me that, besides the gratitude, besides the admiration, he became little by little more and more attracted to me, because I am a very handsome man, and that for a long time he has dreamed to become mine. And that today, as I revealed him my desire, he felt happy as he never had been in all his life. Then he adds, in a confused stammering and deliciously blushing, that if he can be able to please me...
I stand up and go towards him. He also stands up and waits. I take him in my arms and kiss him. He returns the kiss with passion. I ask him if he wants to come upstairs with me, he nods in assent, visibly moved, at least as much as I am. I take him to my room, in my bed. We start making love, and Ole is so sweet, passionate, spontaneous... He offers himself to me, and I take him with really intense pleasure. When I offer myself to him, at first he seems surprised, but then he takes me with evident desire. His youthful impetuosity pleases me, his tenderness while he unites with me enchants me, the passion the he shows conquers me.
We lie down, panting. I thank him. He smiles gently and says that he thanks me and adds that each time I desire it, he will be ready and happy to make love with me. I caress his body and tell him that I like him very much. He shyly smiles and says that my body is beautiful and sensual and almost to confirm what he just said, I see he is again aroused. I ask him if he wants to make love again, and he answers "At your wish". So I tell him that, if he wants us to continue to be together, he has to always tell me what he really feels, be it a yes or a no, or I will never again make love with him. In my bed I want Ole, and not a servant.
He smiles, blushes and tells me that he really desires to make love with me again. I tell him I am really happy of that... and we start again with renewed passion. If possible, it is even more pleasing than before.
He continues to come to me almost every day and little by little he becomes more spontaneous, freer, even if he doesn't put on airs when he has to carry out his work as a servant. I like him more and more, and not just physically. I decide I want him as my steady lover, so I propose him to side me in my administration work, no more as a servant, but as a friend and collaborator, as my lover. He is moved, but asks me what the other servants could say to this sudden promotion. Wouldn't they find it at least strange? Wouldn't they grumble? He feels all right even remaining just a servant...
His reaction convinces me even more. But in part I follow his opinion. At first he helps me, with the official role as a servant, but meanwhile he practices in his new work. Then, about one year later, I name him copyist and then after about another year, I make him my secretary and collaborator in all matters. There are no problems. In the same time our relationship has deepened, is stronger and more beautiful, in spite of the fact that I am almost twice his age. The joy with which he takes me and gives himself to me, shows me that our age difference is not a problem to him. I ask Paul if he would be offended in becoming Ole's servant, and Paul accepts without any problem. Ole now sleeps in the room that belonged to Jean.
Sometimes, while we are talking, sitting near the fireplace in my room, tenderly embraced, I tell him that, after my death, he will take my place, and he will find a young and handsome lover. But Ole doesn't want to hear such speeches, he tells me that he always asks in his prayers to die with me, because without me his life would be empty. Of course I am pleased to hear these words, also because I know that he is a person of an absolute sincerity.
We live together for sixteen years. He has become a beautiful man, strong and elegant. On the contrary I am becoming old, my hairs are almost completely white. I ask him how he can still like to be near an old man, but he makes me shut up and tells me that, even in bed, I still am a young man, and that anyway he loves me and that's it!
But in 1773, when I am sixty-one years old, I fall ill and die, but only after I obtained from the estates' owner the promise that Ole will succeed to me as administrator..."
"You don't know if Ole did find another lover to whom he bequeathed his place after his death?" Eugenio asked the voice, slightly amused at the idea.
"Of course I don't know. Anyway, remember, about twenty years later the French Revolution bursts out... Who knows if Ole did survive it and how? He must have been about sixty years old in that period..."
"Possibly he became the master of all the estates..."
"He was not the kind of person to profit of the situation, he was honest to the backbone, and loyal... If he didn't die before, or if he didn't flee at the Revolution's burst, I'm afraid he could have become one of its victims... But anyway I cannot know it and never could."
"You like Ole..."
"I liked him very much as Michele. Now, to me, Ole is just one of my past lovers..."
"Come on, you cannot compare him with the others, to make a balance? It is evident you were talking about him with real affection..."
"The affection Michele had for him..."
"I really can't understand this, your alleged detachment from sentiments..."
"Sentiments are just born in the complete reality body-soul. The body alone understands just the physical pleasure or pain, the soul alone just sees things in a disenchanted way. But when they are a unique reality, then sentiments are born..."
"Then I prefer the man to just his soul." Eugenio decidedly said.
"I too, what do you think! The body alone is just matter, doesn't live, is just a moving, or still, corpse. But also the soul alone, is incomplete. That's why I'm longing to reincarnate..."
"So, you know impatience, if you say you are longing for that. You feel some sentiments..."
"No, don't confuse the language expressions I am forced to use to communicate with you, with the sentiments. Also a well programmed computer could be longing for... something."
"And who knows that computers have a soul!"
"Don't talk nonsense. This telephone hosts me, so to say, but it doesn't have a soul, I am not its soul. Objects don't have a soul."
"And animals? And plants?"
"If they have a soul, I don't think at all it is the same as the soul of human beings. This at least is the conviction I have. Also because, in ten thousand years of reincarnating, it never happened to me to reincarnate in a cat or in a marguerite..."