Chiara – Revenge and Triumph (65 page)

* * * 

It was a fresh January morning when she took to the road, as usual with two horses. Under her priest’s cloak she wore woollen pants that reached down to the sturdy boots — Alda’s handy work. Not only did it help keeping her warm, but it also made riding easier. The guise of a priest would offer added safety, since they usually carried no valuables. And even callous road bandits were more reluctant to attack God’s representatives on earth.

The rough map she obtained from Signor Benincasa showed the road to Piombino beyond the Orcia river at Paganico as a tortuous winding snake from hilltop town to hilltop town — Rocca Strada, Sasso Fortino, Tatti, Prata, where she would join the road from Siena to Massa Marittima. From there she would have to skirt around the swamps that reached far inland from the Golf of Piombino. It would take her at least four long days.

The first third of the trip was over known roads. She passed a comfortable night in the familiar inn in Mont Elcino. The second day took her past the little town of San Angelo in Colle. Walking her two horses up the steep track where she and Mercurio had the encounter with the four robbers, she felt a slight unease and put two knives in easy reach under her belt, just in case. She had thrown back the hood of the cassock, freeing her hair, aware that if she encountered anybody she would blow her disguise, but she was heating up under the woollen garments. Later, when she looked back to what happened next, it always brought fourth an amused smile.

At exactly the same place as last time, four rough men suddenly stepped out from behind the trunks of big trees, brandishing swords. She recognized the one who shouted: "Your money and valuables, and we’ll spare your life, resist and you’re dead."

He had an ugly scar on his right cheek and was still using the same words. By the time he had finished, two knives were in her hands.

"So we meet again, Ser robber. In which cheek do you want the knife this time? The left would make your face look even again."

He squinted for a moment and then his eyes bulged wide, matched by a high-pitched scream. He dropped his sword and threw himself into the thick of the forest. The other three looked at her dumbfounded and then ran after him. She heard them crashing through the bushes for quite a while. She could not resist laughing aloud. As last time, she stuck his sword into the ground and bent the blade until it snapped.

By nightfall, she reached Rocca Strada without any further incidents, tired but in good spirits. Two days later, in the gathering gloom of dusk she was in front of Piombino’s only gate. It was already closed.

Using a stone, she knocked loudly. At the second time, a guard shouted from the other side: "The gate is closed until sunrise tomorrow."

She was not going to be turned away. "Guard, I am Lady Chiara da Narni and Lady Maria expects me. You will get into serious trouble, unless you open that gate promptly and let me in."

A short while later, noise on the parapet above the gate let her surmise that somebody was looking through the narrow openings. She again had thrown back her hood and freed her hair. The man shouted to the guards, and then she could hear the scraping as one side of the gate was opened.

Once inside, she reined her horse beside the officer and said, handing him a double
grosso
: "My grateful thanks, officer. Here is a coin to offer your men some good wine."

He bowed deeply. "Thank you, Lady Chiara. One of my guards will show you to the palace."

"Thank you."

She passed the lead of her second horse to her young escort and followed him to the palace, the clatter of the hooves amplified in the narrow, almost deserted streets.

* * * 

"Let me look at you," Lady Maria greeted her.

Chiara quickly tied back her hair and hid much of her face in the hood of the cassock. She bowed, rather than curtsied, and said in her deepest voice: "God watch over you, my gracious Lady. I am your humble servant, Padre Anselmo."

The trilling laughter of the countess filled the hall. "Yes, Padre, even I might have been fooled, but I will not make confession to you. Mercurio just told me that you threatened the officer at the gate with my wrath unless he opened the gate."

How could she know this already? The question must have been firmly written in her face.

"Yes, my dear, news travels fast in Piombino."

The voice of Count d’Appiano resounded from behind. "My Lady, I thought you said that Lady Chiara had arrived."

"But this padre is the naughty girl, my Lord," the countess replied, laughing again.

Chiara turned, while freeing her head, and curtsied to the count, murmuring: "My Lord," glad to see a faint smile replace his frown. She noticed his gaze briefly fall on the two knives stuck under her girdle. Mercurio stood behind him. She returned his wink.

"And now Chiara, you must go and change," the countess admonished her with a voice still full of mirth, "and then you will join us for our evening meal that will be served shortly."

She put a hand on the shoulder of the young girl at her side — ten or so Chiara guessed. The child had watched the whole exchange with a puzzled face.

"This is Beatrice," the countess said. "She will show you to your room. Off with you now."

After a brief wash, a change of clothing and some rose water, she went to the large dining hall next to the kitchen. About a dozen people were already seated. Apologizing for having let them wait, she took the only place left empty opposite the count and the countess, sharing the plate with Mercurio.

"Lady Chiara, I must say I prefer you dressed like this," the count said.

"My Lord, the roads through the mountains are still not safe, particularly for a woman traveling alone. So the disguise afforded me a bit of added protection."

The countess immediately chided her. "You were naughty to travel on your own. I would have gladly sent an escort to accompany you."

Mercurio burst out grinning. "Yes, my Lady, Lady Chiara would have offered the escort welcome protection."

"Messer Mercurio, you better stop your impudent tongue," exclaimed the countess, "we all know that when it comes to Lady Chiara, your bias utterly blinds your good judgement."

"And did you run into any difficulties, Lady Chiara?" asked the count.

"Difficulties? Not really, but I experienced a rather amusing encounter with four would-be robbers near San Angelo in Colle. Messer Mercurio, you remember the place?"

"How could I not, Lady Chiara? That is where you showed me that surprise is nine tenth of the victory."

Both the count and countess looked at them puzzled.

"Chiara, do not keep us in such suspense. What happened?" the latter asked.

"Their leader welcomed me again —"

"— and did you plant your knife in his left cheek this time?" interrupted Mercurio, grinning.

"Actually, I asked him which side he preferred, but he never gave me an answer."

"There you see, how imprudent of you to be alone," cried the countess. "They did attack you and you were lucky to escape unharmed."

"Maybe I was wrong to say that he did not give me an answer, my Lady. He gave me an answer of sorts. He screamed as if he had seen Satan incarnate and literally threw himself down the steep slope."

"And the other three?"

"They ran after him."

The count smiled, while Mercurio broke into laughter, which earned him Lady Maria’s silent rebuke. A glance of her blazing eyes and he swallowed it, turning red.

"My Lady," remarked the count, touching his wife’s hand, "it seems that Lady Chiara is capable of handling small bands alone, and for a large group even an escort of four guards would not be much help."

Chiara found it prudent to change the topic. "My Lord, I have not thanked you yet for agreeing to let my case be heard in court."

"I did, but regardless of my personal views I will not influence the three judges in any way. As Professor Barbarigo explained in his submissions, this is not a simple, straightforward case, but one that could create a substantive precedent of far-reaching consequences."

"I understand, my Lord. All I asked for is to be heard and let justice take its course. I must admit that I am extremely disturbed by what seems to be happening to my father’s tenants. I doubt that without that cause I would have wanted to get into a new dispute with Casa Sanguanero, but I feel some guilt for what happened to them and responsibility for their well-being."

"I am glad these are your reasons, Lady Chiara. They are noble reasons that I fully support. Your father was much loved by his tenants."

"Thank you, my Lord."

The conversation broke into small groups. After a while, the countess again spoke to her: "Chiara, I was so hoping that you would bring your whole troupe to Piombino and perform your marvelous
commedia erudita
."

"I apologize, my Lady, but I Magnifici are no more. Our male lead has gone his own ways, and the arlecchino is with Master Luigi, studying law at the University of Perugia, and my adopted sister, Veronica, is the personal attendant to Lady Teresa Baglione."

"To Lady Teresa? You have done well, or should I say, both your charges have done well. There you see, you prepare her for a good marriage, but do not look after your own welfare. Why are you still refusing to get married yourself? I can give you a choice of at least a dozen outstanding noble families of the first rank and unions with several of the top merchant houses in Siena and Florence." She turned to her husband. "My Lord, I really think that the time has come when you should order Lady Chiara to obey my wishes to see her safely married."

He responded with an amused smile. "My Lady, I thought you had told me yourself that it is useless to order Lady Chiara, that she will always find a way to do her own thing."

"My Lord," exclaimed the countess, "are you now even going to offer her support against my wishes?"

Conversation at the table faltered. All heads turned to them.

"I would never dare to do such an outrage," replied the count, barely conquering a smile. He turned to Chiara. "Lady Chiara, tell us then why you do not obey Lady Maria’s wise counsel?"

"My Lord, I know that Lady Maria’s counsel has always been just and wise. Deep in my heart, I have always wished to become like her, although to my shame my actions may have many times been just the opposite. All I can plead is that circumstances and youthful inexperience — Lady Maria will call it ‘stubbornness’ — have driven me to do things that she disapproved of. So why have I not heeded her wise counsel and generous efforts on my behalf about marriage? Three reasons: I was not willing to suffer the humiliation of being turned down for lack of a dowry."

The countess wanted to intervene, but the count covered her hand, and briefly met her eyes.

"That reason has not disappeared. I am not willing to use the funds that I extracted from Casa Sanguanero as a dowry. I do not see myself as the owner of that money, but only as its guardian. I will use it to help other people, such as my father’s tenants who have suffered under Casa Sanguanero." She paused briefly. "The second reason is that I have high standards that any man I would accept as a husband has to meet. Maybe they are unreasonable, but I am convinced that if I married a man of lesser qualities, the marriage would quickly turn into a farcical façade rather than remain a real one, like the one I perceive my Lord and my Lady are blessed to enjoy."

"And what are those standards?"

"Intelligence, a strong sense of justice, respect for the rights of other people, generosity, dependability, loyalty, a sense of humor, and it would help if I felt some attraction."

He chuckled at that last comment. "You are indeed setting your standards high. Have you ever encountered a man who came even close?"

"Such men exist, my Lord. If I may say so in all humility, I see you as the living proof of it, and Jacomo, my adopted brother meets them all."

"But you are not attracted to him."

"Not in that sense. I have grown to love him, like I loved my brother."

"That makes two reasons. What is the third?"

"Each time, Lady Maria has urged me to get married, I was engaged in a task that I was not willing to abandon, that was so important to me that I would have lost my self-respect had I done so."

"And you are again facing such a task, I guess."

"Yes, my Lord." She lowered her face in humility, only to be startled by Lady Maria’s outburst.

"This may all be so, my Lord, but do you not see how cleverly this young woman puts her arguments to sway even an experienced and wise man like you. I have seen her do it to Lord Baglione, in fact, he almost melted under her charm, but fortunately she also had the good sense not to encourage him. From what I hear she did it to Averardo di Bicci. She uses men like puppets. She even dares to do it to me and when I tell her, she apologizes and says that it saddens her that I think so badly of her."

"My Lady," murmured Chiara, lowering her face, "it does really sadden me that you think so badly of me." And then she raised her eyes. Little devils were dancing in them.

The count exploded laughing and after a short hesitation, everybody else joined in.

"Then she really has been your most apt pupil, my Lady, has she not? Maybe even more apt than you wished for." He put his hand back on hers. "My dear, I know you do the same with me, but do not stop, I enjoy it."

The countess opened her mouth in protest and then closed it again, not able to suppress a proud smile.

* * * 

The court was scheduled to sit on the case at the start of the first week in February, another four days to go. The first day, Chiara simply rested and enjoyed the company of Lady Maria. Young Beatrice wanted to know about Chiara’s travels with a troupe of players. The girl had never seen any. She begged Chiara to demonstrate tumbling and knife throwing. Chiara tried to put her off. She did not want to do anything that might upset the countess and wanted her permission first. To her surprise, the girl asked the countess herself.
I like her determination and courage,
she mused silently. It was agreed that she would do it later in the afternoon.