Gianna felt as if she'd made the right choice when the plague started to spread to the countryside. Sometimes starving peasants came to the gates, begging for food and protection from the outside world. They were turned away, of course, who knew if they might be sick? One day, after the peasants stopped coming to the door, Marina and Giana went out to explore the countryside. The farmer’s homes looked abandoned, but in truth, they were still inhabited, just by the dead. When Giana came upon the corpse of a dead mother clutching her dead child, she seized with horror, before hurrying back to the villa. Along the way, she passed by mass graves of nameless dead.
After that, Giana didn't leave the chateau much. She figured a life lived indoors was better than death.
