Bianca (The Silk Merchant’s Daughters #1)

Prologue

The beggar was an optimist but not a fool.

He shrank deep into the shadows of the doorway as he heard the footsteps coming down the nearby alley.

Two men, well muffled in dark cloaks, emerged from the narrow passage carrying a wrapped bundle between them.

Making their way down a narrow flight of stone steps to the muddy shore, they put their burden into a small boat, climbed in, and rowed out into the middle of the river that ran through the city of Florence.

The night was very dark. The thin sliver of waning moon cast no light whatsoever.

The fog was beginning to thicken as the wet mist touched everything.

The beggar could not see the little boat and its inhabitants now, but he heard the distinct splash of something being dumped into the Arno.

A body, no doubt, he thought, and he crossed himself.

Then the small vessel became visible once more as it emerged from the water to be pulled back up onto the muddy shore.

The two men got out and, making their way to what passed for a street again, disappeared into the darkened alley.

The beggar never moved as with unseeing eyes they passed by a second time without noticing him.

He didn’t even dare to breathe. He knew that if he was to see another day, no one must see him.

The footsteps of the two men faded away.

The beggar closed his eyes to doze, in relative safety for the moment.