City of Flowers (18 page)

‘But it cannot be helped,' said Sulien. ‘When do you all return home?'

Sky calculated. ‘Four days,' he said. ‘I'll come and tell you, the night we get back, and then you can come the next day. I can look out for you,' he added, feeling peculiar at the thought of the friar and the sculptor turning up on his doorstep. He must make sure Rosalind was out.

Just then, Luciano was shown into the room, his eyes sparkling and his cheeks glowing. Sky knew immediately that he had been swordfighting with Gaetano.

‘Hi!' he said to Sky, and then made a more formal greeting to the others, first raising the Duchessa's hand lightly to his lips.

‘You look well,' she said, smiling under her mask.

‘I feel well,' he said simply.

Sky looked at them and felt sorry for Georgia. What a mess.

‘What do you think, Luciano?' asked Arianna, as if reading his thoughts. ‘Would Georgia give up her flying horse for a new talisman?'

‘It would be hard for her,' he said. ‘She loves horses and it's her only link with Remora and Merla.'

‘We can but try,' said Rodolfo. ‘We need her here. I am not so sure about Falco. It's a risky strategy. If he is recognised by any member of his family, except Gaetano, who knows his choice, there's no telling what might happen.'

‘Yet he is the one more likely to accept a new talisman from here,' said Luciano. ‘Giglia is his city, after all – not Remora.'

Luciano walked back to the friary with Sky and Sulien.

‘Why does Doctor Dethridge talk like that?' Sky asked.

‘Like what?' asked Sulien.

‘It's because Tino and my foster-father come from the same world, centuries apart,' explained Luciano. ‘I've got used to it, but to other English speakers from our world, Doctor Dethridge sounds as if he's speaking a very old-fashioned language.'

*

Arianna was going to change her dress but Rodolfo stopped her.

‘There is something else I must tell you,' he said, but he waited so long to say what it was that Arianna thought he had forgotten she was there. Silvia had her eyes fixed on Rodolfo, waiting for his news.

At last he took Arianna's hand in his and, sighing, said, ‘Duke Niccolò is going to ask you to marry him.'

Arianna felt numb. This was not like hearing that Gaetano was going to propose; this felt like being a small bird with a hawk circling in the air above her and she could see no way of escape.

‘If you wear the dress he sent, at the weddings, he will assume you look kindly on his offer,' said Silvia.

‘When?' said Arianna. She could scarcely find her voice. ‘When is he going to ask?'

‘I should think the night before the weddings – or perhaps the wedding feast itself, so that he can make the announcement in front of all his family,' said Rodolfo.

‘Then I am trapped,' said Arianna bitterly. ‘What will he do when I refuse him?'

‘Not so hasty,' said Silvia. ‘You don't have to refuse him outright.'

‘Silvia!' said Rodolfo. ‘You are not serious.'

‘I am completely serious,' said Silvia. ‘At least about getting my daughter and my husband out of this city alive. It may be necessary for Arianna to seem to go along with his plans. It will buy us time to work out what to do.'

Arianna shuddered. The Duke was repulsive to her. He was not unhandsome, even though so much older than her, and he was a cultured, civilised man, who valued art and literature and music. He was fabulously wealthy and could give her anything she might ever want. Except her freedom and the freedom of her city. But he was a murderer. And she did not, could not, love him. But her own mother was suggesting that she should not turn his proposal down out of hand.

Worst of all, Arianna guessed that Luciano knew of this development and had said nothing. What else was all this fencing about? It was pathetic; she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Luciano against the Duke. She wished with all her heart that they had never come to Giglia.

Next morning, Paul himself came to collect Sky; the young people were out riding, he explained. He also explained that only one horse was Alice's, the one called Truffle. He was looking after Conker, the horse that Georgia rode, for a friend, and she and Nicholas had to take turns when they were both down together.

He clearly saw nothing odd in Georgia's friendship with the younger boy and nothing odd about his daughter's fondness for Sky either. He sat in Nana's parlour as much at his ease as in his own kitchen, chatting about horses and drinking her coffee, which was much less nice than at Ivy Court. Sky decided that he liked Alice's dad very much; he was the sort of person who was at home everywhere and accepted everyone on their own terms.

Paul hardly spoke to Rosalind, but he looked at her often and Sky wondered what he was thinking. He tried to see his mother as she might appear to Paul. A thin, pale-skinned, very fair woman in her late thirties, with a ready smile and expressive dark blue eyes. He wondered if she looked as fragile to Paul as she did to him. Sky suddenly felt fiercely protective of her. In all his seventeen years she had not dated anyone to his knowledge. Was it going to happen now? And with Alice's father, of all people! Sky couldn't imagine how that was going to affect his own relationship with Alice.

When they reached Ivy Court and found the others still out, Paul offered Sky the chance to drive his Shogun in the grounds. It felt enormous, sitting behind the wheel, but Sky managed to drive it without stalling and even changed gears with only one crunch. He was still in the driving seat when they finished a complete circuit and returned to the front of the house. Alice was waiting with her thumb stuck out.

‘Any chance of a ride?' she smiled at him.

‘Not till you've had a shower,' said Paul. ‘I don't want my car reeking of horse. I have to drive it to my office, you know.'

But, horsey or not, Alice gave Sky a quick kiss when he got out of the car and, since it didn't seem to bother her father, Sky put his arms round her and kissed her back.

‘You can go and get your sword-fighting out of the way while I shower,' she said. ‘Nick says he's not going to bother till after – he'll only need another one after you've finished. He's waiting for you in the yard.'

Sky went round to the back and found Nicholas still talking to Conker. Sky himself was a little nervous of horses, never having had anything to do with them, and this one struck him as huge. But he was a handsome beast, with his arched neck and long mane. Seeing Nicholas with him reminded Sky of how little he knew about Georgia's stravagation and the time when the di Chimici's youngest prince had made his fateful decision.

‘I miss having my own horse,' said Nicholas, looking up. ‘I mean, I used to have them around all the time, before my accident.'

‘But at least you can ride again now,' said Sky. ‘And you would never have been able to do that if you had stayed in Talia. Or fence, come to that.'

‘That's why I did it,' said Nicholas, but he sighed so deeply that Sky decided to tell him about the Stravaganti's plans straightaway.

‘I'd be sorry to give back Merla's feather, of course,' said Nicholas, his eyes shining. ‘But I'd do it if your friar could bring me something from Giglia.'

‘That's what I thought,' said Sky.

‘When are they coming?' asked Nicholas eagerly.

‘As soon as we get back to London,' said Sky.

‘So I could be back home in less than a week?'

‘I guess.'

‘Brilliant!' Nicholas punched the air, then stopped. ‘What about Georgia?'

‘Well, do you think she'd be willing to give up her talisman?' asked Sky. ‘You know her better than I do.'

‘I think it would be very hard for her,' said Nicholas. ‘It was stolen twice, you know – by her awful stepbrother. The first time he broke it and the second time he kept it for nearly a year. We couldn't go back and it was agony. She was so happy when the horse came back. It means a lot to her.'

‘More than seeing Luciano again?' asked Sky softly, but Nicholas couldn't answer that.

Giuditta had finished the macquette of the Duchessa's head. The hair was only suggested, because she had already sculpted it; it was the face she had made it for.

‘Remarkable,' said Rodolfo, who had accompanied Arianna to her latest sitting. ‘You have caught her to the life.'

‘Will you hold on to the back of this chair, your Grace?' asked the sculptor. ‘I should like to sketch your hands as if holding a ship's rail.'

Arianna was quite happy with this arrangement, which left her free to talk. Giuditta was taciturn as always, but her workshop was, unusually, empty, so Arianna and Rodolfo were free to speak to her about private matters.

‘Is it true that you are going to Luciano's old world?' Arianna asked the sculptor.

‘Yes. Please don't tighten your fingers. Thank you.'

‘Giuditta has of course been before, more than once,' said Rodolfo. ‘But not to take a talisman for another Stravagante.'

‘What will it be?' asked Arianna and saw Giuditta's dark eyes glance up, startled.

‘I don't know yet,' Rodolfo answered for her. ‘It must be from Giglia and Giuditta must choose it herself.'

‘Do you think that Georgia will come?' Arianna asked Rodolfo.

‘I think she will want to,' he said, looking thoughtful. ‘And she is brave and loyal. But it would mean giving up her connection with Remora, and that will not be easy for her.'

Giuditta was listening, though she appeared to be totally concentrated on her work. So this girl she had to fetch was going to be difficult to persuade. Giuditta had hoped that, since Georgia was already a Stravagante, her work would be almost done. Now she could see this was far from true.

‘Give up the flying horse?' said Georgia. ‘Why on earth would I want to do that? They must have gone mad!'

‘It's the only way to get you to Giglia at the moment,' Sky explained. ‘And they all seem to think you'll be needed there. As well as Nicholas.'

Georgia was flattered, but the enormity of what she would need to do overwhelmed her.