Chiara – Revenge and Triumph (55 page)

"Yes, the vendetta that was put to rest when your grandfather married one of my cousins. But go on, did you not flee Elba?"

"Yes, my Lady, I did, only to fall right into the hands of Signor Sanguanero. While I was locked into a cabin, I overheard them talk about what to do with me. They were going to let me drown, but only after violating me first."

"And did they violate you?"

Chiara locked eyes with the old woman. "The old man did."

"And that is when you blinded him."

"Yes, I knew that unless I escaped, I would be violated again and then drowned. I used the first weapon that came to hand and then jumped into the sea. I was lucky to find a piece of cork to help me stay afloat to swim to the coast. And a year later I found out that Casa Sanguanero had forced my father to cede my inheritance to them based on lies."

"And that is when you took it upon you to destroy them in a way only a woman can."

"Yes, my Lady."

"And what about my two distant nephews? How did they have the misfortune to meet you?"

"Lady Teresa, one tried to rob us. I did not even know that he was a Baglione —"

"Would you still have killed him, had you known?"

"Yes, he was a common road bandit… And the other threatened to kill me."

"I am told he was burned."

"I took the first weapon within my reach, an oil lamp, and threw it into his face."

"So, you only ever defended yourself."

"Yes, except for exacting a heavy price from Casa Sanguanero for stealing my inheritance."

"Let me ask you one more question. What will happen if my son refuses your peace offer? How will you react?"

"My Lady, I will only defend myself if attacked, as I have done in the past. I have no interest in seeking revenge. However, if any of my troupe are hurt or killed, I will use all my cunning to exact revenge. Nobody in your family will feel safe any longer."

"You dare threaten the Baglione family just like that?"

"Lady Teresa, it is not a threat. It would be beyond my control, like the inevitability of a ball bouncing back when it hits a hard surface."

The old woman scrutinized her for a long moment and then said: "I will think on all this. I appreciate your openness, your loyalty to your people, and I also greatly admire your courage. Few would have dared to approach my son in the way you did, including that fascinating mental skirmish in the courtyard this afternoon."

"My Lady, I bear no grudge against your house. I did not even know that there had once been a vendetta between the Sanguanero branch of the Baglione families and my family. As I said, I would like to have one day children of my own. Which mother wants to expose her children to the senseless killing of a vendetta that nobody even knows anymore what it is all about?"

"True, very true. I am grateful that you spared my grandson."

"It would have been on my conscience for the rest of my life." She bent her head in humility.

* * * 

Next morning, Lady Maria, Chiara, and Heloïse were invited by Luigi to take a ride into the countryside surrounding Cortona. They were accompanied by two Baglione retainers, as well as Mercurio and one of his guards. It was a leisurely excursion through olive groves, vineyard, and deciduous forests. Chiara was not really in a mood for it. The meeting with Lord Baglione, scheduled for the late afternoon, was heavy on her mind. She was impatient, wanting to have it done and over with, and then get back to Chianciano as quickly as possible, to be with her own. So the beauty of the landscape was largely lost on her. She wondered again, as she had last night while seeking sleep, whether it would have been wiser not to have said that she would hit back if any of her troupe suffered. It had come out spontaneously, the way she felt.

She donned the same dress that she had worn at Niccolo’s betrothal party, the four decorative knives in their sheaths on her broad belt. When she joined Lady Maria to meet with Lord Baglione in the loggia of the palazzo, she noticed her glance straying to the belt, producing a fleeting frown.

To her surprise, both Lord Baglione’s wife and his mother were also present. He bowed to Lady Maria and only nodded to Chiara.

"Lady Maria, please be seated," he said, offering her one of the two chairs eight or so paces opposite the ones where his mother and wife sat. "And Lady Chiara." He pointed to the chair to the left of Lady Maria. He then sat in the high-backed chair between his mother and his wife.

"Lord Baglione, Lady Teresa, Lady Amelia, thank you for your willingness to meet with us," the countess opened the parley.

"Lady Maria, I could hardly have refused Lord d’Appiano’s wise request." He turned to her. "Lady Chiara, I understand that you have come to me as a supplicant, and I have agreed to hear you."

The haughty tone of voice struck her as a bad omen. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Lady Maria’s sudden retraction of her folded hands. She let the actor take over, keeping her head high, meeting his gaze unperturbed, a warm smile on her face. "Indeed, I come as a supplicant, for a just cause, an offer of peace between your family and mine, whatever is left of mine. If ever there was animosity between the two families, I would not even know its cause, nor do I feel any obligation to assume the burden of that meaningless animosity. I have no ill-bearing against you or any of your family, and as proof of that I have cared for your son after I injured him before I recognized who he was and I restored him to you in full health and good spirits."

Lord Baglione raised his eyebrows.

She continued: "The fight between Casa Sanguanero and Casa da Narni has nothing to do with Casa Baglione of Perugia. It was renewed by Massimo Sanguanero without the slightest provocation on the part of my father, after more than sixty years of peace between the two families. It was aggravated by violating me, and had I not fought back and escaped the Santa Caterina, he would have drowned me in the sea. Is Casa Baglione willing to defend a rapist of a seventeen-year-old girl? My plea is simple. Let there be peace between you and me, maybe even friendship, like the friendship I have forged with Master Luigi."

While she spoke with a firm, warm voice, she locked eyes with him and it was he who first shifted his gaze to his folded hands for a moment.

"You killed Ser Piero, my best retainer."

"He came after me. I did not seek him out."

"You killed my cousin, Gianfranco Baglione of Giogo di Scarperia."

"A common bandit who wanted to rob us, who set his dogs on us and then threatened to slay us when we killed his dogs."

"And Giuseppe Baglione in Assisi?"

"He raised his sword to kill me. Would you have let it happen in my place, Lord Baglione?"

"And after all those injuries to Casa Baglione you still expect that there can be peace between us?"

"Yes, because I respect you; because I believe in your sense of honor and justice; because I deplore the senseless killing of people, like Ser Piero, in his prime, who was deprived of many more useful years of life, and for what? To defend a rapist? A road bandit? A misguided bully?"

She noticed the contrasting facial reactions of the two women, Lady Teresa, a faint smile, Lady Amelia, a frown.

"Lady Chiara, you use strong words."

She lowered her head in humility, a very calculated gesture to give him ascendance.

Lady Maria, who, with increasing alarm at the turn the parley was taking, cut in. "Lord Baglione, let me ask you: What does your house gain by declaring war on a twenty-year-old girl? A girl who so far has only defended herself and killed in self-defense; a girl who, by all accounts, has earned the admiration of a large part of the Tuscan gentry and influential merchants, such as Averardo di Bicci, the head of Casa Medici, not just for her courage of seeking justice, but also for her exceptional skills as a reviver of
commedia erudita
. It would pain me to see your house decried as supporting injustice when, in fact, I know that you have striven in all your past dealings to remove that slur from Casa Baglione of Perugia."

He waved his hand in acquiescence.

Encouraged, a conspiratorial smile adorned her face. "And how would it look for the prestige of your house, if further encounters between Lady Chiara and your retainers ended like the last?"

He chuckled benevolently. "I must admit, not very good."

"So, why don’t you grant Lady Chiara the peace she begs you for."

"Lady Maria, I will grant Lady Chiara what she asks for. I would not want to incur the wrath of my mother for going against her wish. But I first wanted to test the mettle of this young woman, and I have come to the conclusion that there is more merit to have her as a friend than as a foe. Lady Chiara, let there be peace between us."

"Thank you with all my heart, my Lord." She again lowered her head in humility.

"I thank you too, Lord Baglione. I counted on your sense of honor and justice," exclaimed Lady Maria.

"Naturally, I cannot speak for Casa Sanguanero."

"Nor did I expect it, my Lord," replied Chiara.

"However, I will write a letter to my nephew, Filippo Baglione da Camerino, setting out my position. It might influence his own stance, although being married to Lucia puts him in a difficult position. Do you know Lady Lucia?"

"Yes, I became very fond of her, and my only regret in this whole affair with Casa Sanguanero is that I ended up hurting her, that I betrayed the trust she had given me."

"What had you actually done to Casa Sanguanero that they are now threatened with bankruptcy? What we heard is a rather confused picture."

"I would rather not talk about it. It does not put me in a good light."

"Reluctance? That is a trait of yours that I have not seen so far."

"I will tell you," exclaimed the countess, "in fact, I think it is important that you know how ruthless and cunning this young woman can be when somebody does her an injustice. Being a skilled actress, she transformed herself into a courtly lady —"

"— but she is a courtly lady," interjected Lady Teresa. "It is rare nowadays to find a young woman with such impeccable manners."

"Oh, yes, I remember she was the quickest learner I ever had. But a courtly lady you can predict how she will behave, and you may already have experienced that you cannot predict Lady Chiara. She always seems to be a step ahead of you." An amused smile played around Lord Baglione’s eyes. Chiara noticed the strange look his wife gave him. "Anyway, when I saw her on that fateful day when all was revealed, I was stunned. She almost fooled even me, posing as a young aristocratic lady from a rich Naples merchant family, looking for a husband who would take over her diseased father’s business. She even rented a fashionable mansion in Siena and had a marriage broker invite all families with eligible sons to a reception, but it takes little brain to deduce that Niccolo was the only target. The lure was a huge dowry, and to get it, Niccolo had to go halves on an ambitious trading venture that promised big returns. She refuses to tell me what devious schemes she used, but he fell for it. I heard that he even fell in love. He handed over to her so-called guardian a letter of credit on casa Tolomei for ten thousand florins —"

"Ten thousand florins! Lady Chiara, you are a rich woman."

She did not acknowledge his remark.

"Yes, ten thousand, and by the time I unwittingly unmasked her at his betrothal celebration, Casa Tolomei had already paid out the whole sum. But Casa Sanguanero had also started buying goods at high prices in a rush to fill a galley, much of which remains unpaid since Casa Medici saw to it that they are unable to raise any more funds."

While the countess talked, Chiara looked at her, displaying a curiosity as if she too had never heard the story. It was not lost on her that Lord Baglione watched, bemused.

"My son told me how that betrothal celebration ended in utter chaos."

"The chaos came only after Lady Chiara had made her escape, taking Niccolo along as a hostage and not a single man in the room lifted a finger to prevent her."

"Not even your own guard?"

"You mean Mercurio?" For the first time that day her trilling laughter filled the room. "My dear Mercurio is so taken by this young lady he would have helped her if she had needed it."

Lord Baglione chuckled. "I always said that the Sienese gentry is going soft. That is why I predict that Siena will sooner or later fall under Florentine rule."

"With your permission, I will pass on this intelligence to my Lord."

"By all means, although I am certain he is of the same opinion. But we are straying from our topic." He turned back to Chiara. "Lady Chiara, to come back to your, how should I put it … imaginative exploits, I have no difficulties believing in your cunning. However, I find it difficult to believe what my son tells me happened in that ravine between your people and three of my most experienced retainers. It must have been too dark for him to see. How many men did you have with you?"

"A sixteen-year-old who shaved for the first time the week before."

"This is hard to believe. And it is even harder to believe that you killed them with long bows. You cannot pierce modern chain mail with a wooden arrow of a long bow. Admit that you used crossbows."

"We aimed at their heads."

"They were not wearing helmets?"

"Not the first two. Remember, they were only chasing a young woman in skirts and a young boy — hardly two opponents to be taken seriously. Underestimating your opponents can be fatal," she replied, with a shade of irony in her voice.

"Indeed, but Ser Piero wore his helmet, my son told me."

"It still left his throat exposed."

He smiled. "And you expect me to believe that your aim with a knife is that accurate? That you can hit a small target like that at ten paces?" His voice became ever more mocking as he spoke.

"Lord Baglione," exclaimed Lady Maria, getting all agitated, "please, I implore you, do not provoke her into proving it!"

"Let her prove it and I will believe."

Should I?
she wondered fleetingly. Although common sense told her no, her instinctive response to a challenge had already set things in motion. A little handkerchief dropped from her hand, and she bent down to pick it up, rising as she did so. In the same movement, she whipped two knives from her belt and let fly the one in her right hand. It embedded itself almost in the center of the coat of arms engraved in the high back support of Lord Baglione’s chair, vibrating for a second or two. It happened so fast that the cries of dismay and alarm of the other three women only rang out after the vibrations had stopped. Chiara replaced the second knife in her belt and sat again, her face only showing a shade of triumph.