Waterfall (28 page)

“In truth, I fancied myself in love,” I said. I pulled away from his hand and went to the picture window, with its view of the courtyard. “But he sent me away. He said that I was interfering with his alliance with Lady Rossi’s family. There was no other way than for me to leave. The timing, however, was providential. He had no idea I would be coming straight to you.”

He moved over and placed his big hands on my shoulders. “I am sorry for your pain.” Slowly he turned me around, his hands still on my shoulders. I dared to look him in the eye. Was he trying to comfort me?

No, he was testing me, trying to sort out what was truth, what was lie. But I could see he wanted to believe me.

“You shall use your pain,” he said, a sick smile twisting on his lips. “Turn it into anger, vengeance, Lady Betarrini. And you shall get your reward. Not only your sister, but horses, and a chest full of gold to see you safely on your way. I’ll even send four guards with you, as far as Firenze. But we shall wait until Marcello returns home. I want him there to witness it, when I breach his defenses at last. He is the last of the line of Forellis. With him gone, no other can stand in my way.”

I looked back at him, as if considering his words. Then after the right amount of time, I simply said, “Agreed.”

Now let go of me.

Instead, he moved his hands to my neck, caressing it, but the threat was clear enough. He rubbed his thumbs, back and forth across my jugular vein. “M’lady, you do understand that if you doublecross me, I shall hunt you down and kill you. But not before you see your sister suffer in ways that you have never imagined. Evangelia is quite… untried, yes?”

If I’d had a sword I would’ve run the man through right then. But I controlled myself “You dare to lay a hand on her-“

“You are hardly in the position to make threats, m’lady. Do you understand me? Are you ready to serve me as your lord?”

I nodded, unable to speak. For a moment, I considered charging upstairs and trying Lia’s lame plan for escape by fighting our way out. Better to die fighting than to die via torture. But I knew Marcello, too. I knew I could trust him and that he would do everything in his power to get her out of this place. And we’d have a far better chance with the Forelli men beside us.

But he was then ushering me to the door. “Thank you for your visit, m’lady. Return to me with the information I seek, or your sister will be ushered out of her quarters and into a far less appealing room, one with chains and all sorts of unsavory tools.”

I turned toward him, but he shut the door in my face, a smile on his lips. Did he half hope I proved to be his enemy so he could take it out on Lia? I shook my head, trembling at the thought. The hulking knight led my gelding forward and watched me come near. I felt numb, lost in a stupor.

He lifted me into the saddle, tucked my feet into the stirrups, and slapped the horse on the rump. Two more knights opened the gates before me, and I plodded out, glancing back over my shoulder to Lids narrow window. She was there, watching me.

I raised my hand to wave, but then they were shutting the gates.

Shutting me out.

Shutting her in.

The elder Lord Forelli was outrageously angry when word reached him about what had happened in Siena, that I’d been sent away because Marcello deemed me a threat to his union with Romana. He summoned me to the solarium the next day and paced back and forth, sputtering, trying to be gracious in his word choice but too angry to be very successful at it. Fortino stared at me in misery from a corner chair. I believed it was only because of him that I wasn’t immediately shown to the castle gates.

“I have no choice, m’lady,” said the older man. “You must be on your way, as soon as possible. You cannot be here when my son returns. I’m certain you understand. There is simply too much at stake. Far too much at stake.”

The man had no idea.

He wanted to secure his relations with Siena.

I wanted to save my sister.

“I intend to be on my way as soon as possible, m’lord,” I soothed. “It is why I left Siena immediately. I have no desire to interfere with Lord Marcello’s plans nor his coming nuptials.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but then clamped it shut. “Forgive me, my dear.” He reached up a bent, age-spotted hand to rub his temple. “These are such trying times. Were they not, I would allow love to flourish where it may.” He cast me a sorrowful glance. “You are an uncommon woman, as brave as you are beautiful. Your courage clearly helped save Lady Rossi, and your ministrations have surely rallied Fortino. For both of those things, I shall be eternally in your debt.”

I shared a smile with Fortino. He rose, then, looking shaky, but reveling in newfound strength. “It is little surprise you caught Marcello’s attention. You captured us all.”

“Please,” I said, lifting a hand to stop him. “Truly, I cannot bear to speak of it any longer. All I await is word of my sister, and I shall be on my way.”

Lord Forelli nodded, appearing more as a broken old man than lord of the castle. “I shall have our priest pray for nothing else. Now if you’ll forgive me, I must go and rest.” He reached for a servant’s arm and tottered out of the room.

Luca peeked in. “M’lord,” he said to Fortino, “with your permission-“

“Come, come,” Fortino said wearily, waving him in and sinking back to his chair.

I took a seat beside him, and Luca sat across from us, arms on knees. “Was it truly awful?” Luca asked me conspiratorially.

“About as we suspected,” I said.

Luca and I’d clued in Fortino as to what had transpired in Siena, and of Paratore’s plans. Luca had told me that Marcello’s brother was once one of the most brilliant strategists in Toscana, before he took ill years before. We needed his expertise. And it was his place, as eldest of the Forelli sons.

“Father’s anger and fear are dissipating a bit,” Fortino said. “He believes that you intend to leave, Gabriella. But he’ll be beside himself if Marcello returns and you are still here.” He looked at me with regret.

Luca nodded, considering his words. “Marcello will be five miles out, on the morrow. That was our agreement.”

“And Gabriella can go to Lord Paratore on the morrow with her final plan.”

“What plan?” I said, hating the squeak in my voice. “We still don’t have an entry point to suggest to Lord Paratore, right?”

They shook their heads. Fortino rose on trembling legs and went to the fireplace, stirring the cold ashes and then dividing them into mounds. Luca cast me a wise eye and waited-Marcello’s brother was thinking it through.

“Lord Paratore knows you are adept with a sword,” Fortino said, looking at me from the corner of his eye. “He knows you are daring. What if you go to him and tell him the truth-that you see no weakness whatsoever in the castle. But his threats are understandably making you fear for your sister’s life. Propose that you take out the two front gate guards yourself Plunge a sword into one, toss a dagger across at the other. Swing down and open the gate before any others can reach you.”

I opened my eyes wide. “Swing down. Just like that?”

He looked embarrassed to have assumed so much. “Luca said that you slid down a rope one night-“

I held up my hand. “That’s quite a plan. But I am not prepared to kill Forelli men to save my sister’s life.”

“We feign your attack, their death,” Luca said with a shrug, picking up on where Fortino was going. “In the dim, flickering torchlight, it will be easy enough.”

I leaned back, considering it. “Dare he believe it would be that simple?”

He thought it through too. “Cosmo Paratore has never had a spy on the inside of Castello Forelli before. Not since his father’s time has there been such unrest between us. It was he who seized that hill and redrew the property boundary. He is power hungry, willing to do whatever he can to secure his place in Florentine society. If Castello Forelli is breached from the front gates, so much the better. That sort of thing lives long in tales around the table. He’ll glory in the plan, and never suspect that reinforcements might be nearby.”

“And those inside the castle? They could withstand such an attack? Resist them until our reinforcements arrived?”

“Yes. We’d have them divide into the various corridors. Barricade the doors. Paratore’s men would have to divide as well.”

That put me on edge. What would happen if they broke through one of those barricades?

Fortino saw my trepidation and touched my hand comfortingly. “We can build additional barricades that will surprise them, inside the first, further slowing them down.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, Fortino. It is such a grave risk. If anyone was to perish….”

“M’lady, we’ve lost many men in the last three years. Lord Paratore and Marcello have been saved, neither side ready to bring down the wrath of the city the opposite represents. But people continually die around them. If this could be decided, now, if we could capture Castello Paratore and claim it for Siena, it is as Marcello hoped. We become more formidable still. It is a wise risk to take, given the increased hostilities between our cities. And freeing your sister becomes an added benefit.”

“And I am always amenable to rescuing damsels in distress, especially if it means they will be forever grateful to me,” Luca said.

I smiled at his bravado. “So, when they attack, would a portion of our soldiers go directly to Castello Paratore? Before Lord Paratore could return from here?”

He knew what I was asking. I didn’t want any chance that Paratore could fall back and get to Lia before us.

“Mark my words. If Lord Paratore dares to attack Castello Forelli, you will find him nowhere but at the front of his men, charging through those gates.”

I swallowed hard, imagining the men in crimson coming in on horseback. Open battle within the courtyard. It was hard to fathom.

“Which isn’t to say that your sister will not be heavily guarded,” Fortino cautioned. “He knows she is significant, a powerful pawn in this game. His only hold on you.”

I stared at him. “But we can get to her?”

“M’lady,” Luca said, “all manner of unexpected things transpire during battle. I can promise that I will do everything in my power to get to her, to free her.” He shrugged his shoulders. “That is all I can promise.”

I sighed and looked around the courtyard. “Begin your preparations. Make it appear as something else. You’re certain Marcello shall return on the morrow?”

“He promised. Even Lady Rossi couldn’t force him to stay in Siena.”

I shook my head. Lord Forelli would have a heart attack, seeing me in the same room with his younger son.

“You shall go to Lord Paratore tonight,” Luca said.

“And how do I manage that?”

“Over the wall,” Luca said, waggling his eyebrows. “You’ll bribe a couple of guards. They’ll turn a blind eye, even as they lower you down in a basket. When you return, they’ll raise you back up, making it appear as nothing more than a clandestine exit and entry by a woman with a secret to keep. It will help in convincing Lord Paratore that you can manage the guards, the night of the attack. Tell him you’re using a good measure of your feminine charms. He’s a leech at heart.”

I sighed. The plan just kept getting better and better.

“We’ve come this far,” Luca said, cocking his head. “Do you have it in you to see it through?”

I nodded, pretending to be a hundred times more courageous than I felt.

But that was the thing about courage. Sometimes you had to fake it to feel it.