Creasy—Nadia Schembri

Creasy and Nadia Schembri’s relationship turns on a revelation that is at once intimate and withheld: Nadia is carrying his child, but has not told him, and the account of her motives leaves love unresolved. The pregnancy becomes more than a private fact. It alters how others imagine Creasy’s future, prompts an intervention on his behalf, and gives the relationship its final image: two figures meeting in the darkness on Gozo and moving into each other’s arms.

Pregnancy and Secrecy

Nadia’s pregnancy is disclosed in a conversation between Laura Schembri and The Cowboy. Laura tells the priest, “She is with child.” When he asks if the father is Creasy, she explains that Nadia has not informed him and has forbidden both her mother and father to do so. The concealment is therefore deliberate, not simply a delay in passing on news; Nadia has also expressly restricted her family from intervening.

Laura presents the conception itself as deliberate. In her angry account, Nadia conceived the child to use Creasy as a provider of “the seed.” That is Laura’s interpretation of her daughter’s actions, rather than a settled account of Nadia’s inner life. The distinction matters: the relationship is described through someone else’s judgment at the moment when its most consequential private fact is disclosed. Laura calls the pregnancy part of Nadia’s sin, while The Cowboy hears the news with apprehension, thinking that Nadia’s journey through life has been strewn with difficulties.

The Question of Love

When The Cowboy asks whether Nadia loves Creasy, Laura cannot give him a definite answer. She says she is not sure and does not know. Her uncertainty prevents the pregnancy from serving as simple proof of romantic devotion. Nadia’s decision to conceive, her choice not to tell Creasy, and her refusal to let her parents tell him point in different directions: she has tied her future to him in a lasting way while withholding the knowledge that would make him a participant in that future.

The resulting tension is not resolved by an explanation of Nadia’s motive. The evidence instead preserves the gap between what she has done and what her mother can say about her feelings. The relationship is consequential precisely without becoming transparent: parenthood is already possible, but the terms on which Nadia and Creasy understand their bond remain uncertain.

The News Reaches Satta

The pregnancy becomes consequential beyond the family. As Guido and Satta travel through the city toward the Autostrada, Guido tells Satta that Creasy is going to be a father. Satta, ordinarily quick with a response, is momentarily surprised into silence. Guido then explains the circumstances in Gozo in detail, emphasizing that Satta needs to understand them.

Guido believes the news might stop Creasy, and says it is the only thing that might do so, though he cannot explain exactly why. Satta considers what he knows of Creasy and comes to agree that fatherhood could make a difference. He then uses the radio transmitter to reach Bellu in Rome and orders him to retrieve and personally destroy the recording of the last intercepted phone call, along with any transcript. He insists that nobody else handle the material and tells Bellu to wait at headquarters; Satta and Guido will reach Rome by lunchtime. Guido thanks him, and Satta shrugs. The scene makes the pregnancy an active force in the decisions surrounding Creasy: before Creasy himself is shown receiving the news, Guido and Satta are already acting on what the possibility of fatherhood might mean to him.

The Reunion on Gozo

The final image associated with the relationship is a meeting at night behind Gleneagles. A Land Rover rolls down to the jetty, where the light is not working. George, standing on the launch’s narrow deck, can just make out two figures. The woman appears bulky beneath her coat; the man coming from the wheelhouse walks slowly, the outsides of his feet touching the ground first. The woman moves forward and into his arms.

George signals, and the launch pulls away. From its stern, he looks back at the embracing couple before turning his gaze to Gozo’s dark, silent hills. No words explain what the meeting means or settle the earlier uncertainty about love. Its placement nevertheless gives the relationship a quiet, physical close: after a pregnancy concealed from Creasy and discussed by others as a reason he might change course, the two are finally shown together. The embrace answers none of the questions about how their bond began, but it leaves them facing a shared future rather than apart.