midday
They would not spend August at Torre Amiata . It would need stubbornness with Eleanor to bring her to the point of change . But stubbornness there should be . One morning , a day or two after the festa , Lucy left Eleanor on the _ loggia _ , while she herself ran out for a turn before their midday meal . There had been fierce rain in the morning , and the sky was still thick with thunder clouds promising more . She escaped into a washed and cooled world . But the thirsty earth had drunk the rain at a gulp .