Chapter 6 #4
“Not really, although the Arte di Calimala have said they consider me one of their own, despite my foreign origins,” Amir told her with an amused smile.
“The cloth merchants are very important,” Bianca said, “and your carpets are fashioned of wool and some of silk,” she pointed out.
She was educated enough to know this, and he was more curious than ever. “Who are you?” he asked her.
Bianca stopped a moment before moving on again.
“I cannot tell you that, signore, and I beg that you do not press me further. I will tell you that it became necessary for me to flee the city. My very life is at risk, even now. The villa in which I reside belongs to my family. I am a respectable woman, not a courtesan, but if I am to remain safe I must remain unknown to you.”
“I will respect your wishes, Bianca, if you will agree to continue to walk with me,” he said with a smile.
“I will agree, for I find your company pleasant, signore.”
For several weeks, Agata accompanied her mistress each day as she walked with the prince. Then there came a day when Agata was sniffling, sneezing, and snuffling.
Bianca bade her remain at home, for it was a windy day. “I can go without you. I believe you will agree that Prince Amir has proven himself now.”
Agata was feeling poorly enough that she didn’t even suggest that Bianca let one of the housemaids chaperone her. She just waved her mistress off.
He asked after her about it, of course. “Where is your dragon?” he teased her.
“Ill, but not seriously,” Bianca said. She bent and patted Darius. “His coat is so beautiful. How do you keep him that way?”
“Krikor brushes him daily,” the prince answered and took Bianca’s hand in his for the very first time.
Though she was startled by the warm fingers suddenly curling about hers, she decided she liked it and said nothing.
Agata did not come with them again, and each day Amir took Bianca’s hand in his as they walked.
But soon the weather would grow rainy and chilly with the late autumn.
They would not be able to walk together, and the thought of it made Bianca very sad.
It had been just over a year now since she had escaped her husband and come to Luce Stellare.
She had grown to enjoy the prince’s company.
Then one day a sudden rainstorm swept in on them from the sea as they walked.
They were too far from either villa. Amir quickly led them into the mouth of one of the caves that edged the beach beneath the low cliffs.
They stood watching the rain pour down in a silver sheet.
It had been chilly before. Now the rain made it seem colder.
Bianca pulled her cloak tightly about her, but she was unable to contain her shivering. He put an arm about her, drawing her close against him, and then he spoke, breaking the deep silence that hung between them. “Tell me why you fled Florence.”
And to her great surprise, Bianca found herself explaining to him her brother’s foolish actions that had caused Sebastiano Rovere to literally blackmail her father into giving her to the dissolute lawyer as his third wife.
“When my mother was finally allowed to see me many months after the wedding, I told her of what I had suffered with Sebastiano. She immediately removed me from his house. My family hid me in Santa Maria del Fiore convent until they were able to spirit me to Luce Stellare, which had belonged to my paternal grandmother’s family.
I have lived here for the past year while they have attempted to gain an annulment for me.
My family warned me that they would not communicate with me until they had good news, for Rovere had put a watch on our palaz-
zo in the city,” Bianca explained. “I have heard nothing, and so I must assume that so far their efforts have come to nothing. I am certain he has used his kinsman Cardinal Rovere to block their efforts, but my mother’s family is not without influence with the Church.
I know that my grandfather in Venice will be working to free me.
Now you understand why I have been so cautious, Amir. ”
“You have trusted me enough to tell me this,” he said softly, suddenly happy. He knew of Sebastiano Rovere by reputation. He was of unsavory renown. To think this exquisite girl had suffered at the hands of such a man was unbearable, and he now understood much more than he had previously.
“You have given me no reason not to trust you,” Bianca said.
“But now that I have, my very life is in your hands. If you expose me, Sebastiano will surely kill me. He could hide my absence for a few months, but eventually it would have become public knowledge that I have left him and am seeking an annulment. And if he finds me, I will suffer greatly at his hands before the relief and release of death. He is an evil man.”
“I do not know him,” Amir told her, “but his character is that of ill repute, according to the gossip. He was jailed recently for a despicable act, but his victim died before she might testify in court against him. His cronies eventually saw to his release, as there was no witness remaining except those men themselves who, it is said, were all involved in the crime. The girl’s family was of a lesser guild. ”
“I suspect I was gone from the city by then,” Bianca said. “What did he do?”
“It is not something that should be discussed with a decent woman,” the prince told her.
“I will say the victim was an innocent virgin of a respectable family, kidnapped, and brought to your husband’s palazzo, where she was raped many times by his guests and others.
There was talk of something else but it is not for your ears. ”
“The little donkey,” Bianca whispered fearfully in spite of herself.
“Yes,” the prince said. “How do you know of such a thing? By Allah! He did not commit such a monstrous and savage act on you, did he?”
“He was considering it, but I escaped him just before the creature came into the house. He has a Moorish slave girl who is quite dissolute. Even more so than my husband. I am certain she was involved,” Bianca told Amir.
His arm tightened about her. No wonder she lived in terror of Sebastiano Rovere.
He was a monster and did not deserve to live.
Nor did he deserve Bianca. She, however, was bound by her Christian church’s law to the brute until she could obtain an annulment—or one of them was dead.
The lawyer, however, was a slippery fellow.
He could and would probably delay any bill of divorcement of his marriage until he could revenge himself on her. The rain continued to pour down.
Whom had Rovere married? She had told him all but her family’s name.
He cudgeled his brain to remember. The most beautiful girl in Florence, it had been said at the time.
Who was she? Who was . . . The silk merchant’s daughter!
Of course! Bianca was the daughter of Giovanni Pietro d’Angelo.
The family was a large one and beyond respectable.
No wonder the man had panicked and sacrificed his eldest daughter to protect his own wife and other children.
He would make it a point to learn more about the family when he went into the city next.
There was a rumble of thunder, and Darius whined.
“I know who you are now, Bianca. I will not betray you,” the prince told her.
She looked up at him, and he wanted to drown himself in her aquamarine eyes.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Unable to help himself, he brushed her lips with his own, but when he sought to deepen the kiss she put two fingers over his mouth.
“No, signore,” she chided him, her beautiful eyes meeting his.
“Remember that I am a respectable woman. While I seek to free myself from Sebastiano Rovere, I am still, unfortunately, his wife. I will not add adultery to my sins.”
“You have no sins!” he declared passionately, catching her hand up and kissing it.
Bianca smiled.
“The rain is stopping,” she told him. “I must go now.” She gently removed the protective arm he had about her shoulders and felt a sudden loss.
She had been so safe with that arm about her.
Safer than she had believed in over a year.
She gave Darius a pat, slipping from the cave’s mouth to hurry down the beach and up the path that led to her villa.
He stood watching her go, the taste of her still on his lips.
He had two wives back in Turkey. Women taken at his grandfather’s request, but he had never been in love.
He had no harem to satisfy his desires. It startled him to realize that he had fallen in love with the silk merchant’s beautiful daughter.
He realized she was not a woman to fling herself into an affair, no matter how lonely or unhappy she was.
She would never have him while Rovere remained her husband. Something had to be done about that.
One day, when she was free, he intended to take her home to his palace, which was set in the green hills above the Black Sea.
He would keep her safe at the Moonlight Serai.
He would never allow Bianca to be afraid again.
“I love her, Darius,” he said to his companion dog.
“I will love her forever, no matter what her people or mine say. I can but pray she will feel the same. She is the other half of my soul. I know that now.”