Feehan, Christine - The Scarletti Curse (27 page)

She gasped at the open admission for a need to protect riches from the
Church and glanced at Maria Pia, who crossed herself devoutly. Nicoletta was
also reluctant to take the sculpture from him. It was an exquisite piece,
richly detailed and highly ornate. She admired the skillful workmanship, the
attention to detail, and gave it back immediately. "Why would you have it
in this room? It must be worth a fortune. Someone might steal it."

For a moment the don's eyes glittered dangerously. "I think that most
unlikely." His voice was a purr of menace.

"And there are more of these sculptures?" she prompted.

Giovanni nodded. "The King of Spain has gobbled up most of the cities
and states in this region. I have managed to repel his armies from our lands,
and he does not want to sustain more heavy losses. Still, my 'ancestors,' with
their maps and hidden passageways, are guarding the art treasures in the event
I fail to detect a threat in time to keep the invaders from overrunning us. At
the moment we have an uneasy treaty with Spain, but greed can tip the scales.
There is a rumor of war with Austria. Spain would like to get its hands on our
coffers. This is not something I speak of with any other, so I trust you and
Signorina Sigmora to remain silent on the matter. The passageway is a necessary
evil, and I thank you for bringing to my attention that the
bambino
has
been using it. No one can make it through to the sea without the map. Each
section has numerous traps to slow the enemy and allow the
famiglia
to
escape. Only the ruling don knows where the map is and how to read it."

"You should have warned me," Nicoletta reprimanded him.

A slow smile took the merciless line from his mouth and lit his dark eyes.
"It did not occur to me that a woman would enter such a place. In truth, I
did not think you would even hear of it. In the future, do not go exploring
until you consult with me."

Her chin rose a fraction. "You are always busy, and I do not wish to
disturb you. I do not usually get myself into difficulty."

He made a choking sound.

Nicoletta glared at him. "I do
not
get myself into difficulty.
And I took precautions. Sophie was watching for me. She was holding the door
open." She put her hands on her hips. "Where is that little
imp?"

"I knew you were in danger, and I rushed in a most unseemly manner away
from my important visitor and up to this room. The door was locked from the
inside"—it was said as an accusation—"so I threatened to break it
down. Sophie, doubtless trembling at my threats, ran to unlock the door. She
dropped the key out of the lock at least three times, fearing, I am certain,
she would be severely punished for her part in this escapade. The wall must
have swung shut when she rushed to open the door for me. It was a harrowing
experience, waiting for that child to let me in."

"Why, you probably frightened
her
to death," Nicoletta said
in exasperation, completely unsympathetic to
his
complaint. "Do you
not realize that if you had not frightened her, the wall would never have
closed, and I would have walked out of the passageway with no problem at all?
Poor little scrap, she is probably in tears."

"No doubt," he admitted dryly. His hand slipped around her throat,
warm and strong and far too intimate. "I have asked the holy father to
allow us to be married immediately. He has agreed."

"Perhaps that was not such a good idea." Maria Pia rushed forward,
catching Nicoletta's hand and drawing the young woman firmly to her side. Away
from Don Scarletti. Nicoletta could feel the older woman trembling.

"What is it, Maria Pia?" she asked gently.

"Cristano did not return to the
villaggio"
she announced,
her faded eyes fixed on the don in accusation.

There was complete silence in the room. A cold draft seemed to come out of
the very walls and swirl around Nicoletta. She shivered, and deep within her
heart, she heard her own cry of unspoken protest. There was evil walking in the
palazzo.
She stared up at Don Scarletti, her gaze locked with his.
Fierce. Intense. Soul to soul. She couldn't even feel Maria Pia's hand in hers.
She and the don were the only two people in existence. He was watching her
closely, his mind in hers.
She felt
him there. He was waiting in silence
for her to condemn him.

Unbidden came the image of his scraped knuckles, the incriminating droplet
of blood on his otherwise immaculate clothing. Nicoletta felt her heart pound
uncomfortably. His gaze continued to bore straight into hers, and she couldn't
turn away from him. She knew he was waiting for it, knew he expected her to
denounce him. Don Scarletti,
Il Demonio
of the palazzo. The curse. The
whispers. The rumors.

Giovanni stood tall and straight, his black eyes fathomless, his features
carefully expressionless. Nicoletta took a breath and let it out slowly.
"Will you send your men to search the entire maze for him? Perhaps
Cristano could not find his way out."

He bowed slightly. "At once,
piccola.
And I will send them into the
hills to see if the boy was injured on his way home," he added
deliberately to remind her of the numerous other travelers who had fallen
victim to wild animals, the terrain, or even to robbers. His voice was
incredibly gentle. A warmth brushed at the walls of her mind so that she felt
somewhat comforted.

Nicoletta swallowed the hard knot in her throat. It was difficult to think
straight with the don watching her so intently. She could feel Maria Pia's eyes
on her now, as accusing as they had been on Don Scarletti.

"You were the last person to see Cristano alive, Don Scarletti."
Maria Pia said what Nicoletta would not. Her very tone was a declaration of his
guilt.

"We do not know that he is dead, Signorina Sigmora," Giovanni pointed
out softly. His voice held a thread of menace, as if his patience was fast
wearing thin. "If the young man met his demise in the maze, the scavengers
would be present overhead."

Relief swept through Nicoletta. "That is true, Maria Pia," she
said. But a terrible dread was creeping into her mind and heart and soul like a
dark shadow. She would know if someone was hurt, would she not? She always
knew.

Maria Pia faced the don bravely. "The wedding should be postponed until
the young man is found," she challenged.
If you are exonerated.
The
words were left unspoken, but they shimmered there in the room, as vividly as
if Maria Pia had uttered them aloud in condemnation.

The black eyes gleamed ominously. "Nothing will stop the wedding,
Signorina Sigmora. Not you, not this errant young man. For all I know, he
disappeared with every intention of bringing a halt to the wedding plans. We
are to be married on the morrow." It was a decree, Giovanni's dark
features implacable.

For a moment Maria Pia looked mutinous, but the don's words seemed to sink
in. She knew Cristano well. He had a childish temper and, if humiliated, could
sulk for days. He was quite capable of disappearing to frighten the
compassionate Nicoletta and thus get back at her for not marrying him as he had
demanded. Still, she had the feeling that Nicoletta was in terrible danger, and
she wanted desperately to drag her from the palazzo. Maria Pia looked at her
young charge. "Mayhap I am worrying over nothing," she said softly,
looking at the floor in defeat. Don Scarletti was not going to give up her
beloved Nicoletta; she could see it in his masculine aggressiveness, his
possessive posture each time he was near the younger woman. Perhaps it was her
fear for Nicoletta, living in such an environment, that had caused her to
condemn the don so rashly.

Giovanni reached out to capture Nicoletta's hand, taking it right out of
Maria Pia's grasp. It was a blatant gesture, claiming her, branding Nicoletta
as his own. He carried her fingers to the warmth of his mouth. His black gaze
was locked on hers, and she had that strange feeling of falling forward, to be
trapped for all eternity in the depths of his eyes. Time stood still. Her heart
beat for him. She felt the rush of blood, of heat, of liquid fire.

Don Scarletti released her reluctantly, his touch lingering for a moment
before he glided away. "I have kept my visitor waiting far too long, and I
must arrange for my men to begin the search for your young friend."

Nicoletta stood rather dazed, as if in a trance, staring at the closed door
after the don left the room.

Maria Pia sighed heavily. "Do you believe him, Nicoletta? Really
believe him? Because I am not certain I do. It is possible Cristano is hiding
out in the hills. When he was a boy and angry with his
madre,
he did
such things, or perhaps he is hurt and needs help." She was watching
Nicoletta closely as she spoke.

Nicoletta's teeth teased nervously at her lower lip. She would know if
someone was in need, and Maria Pia was well aware of it. Nicoletta had always
known. And the bird would come to her. She looked at the older woman with
stricken eyes. "I must go outside where I can feel the wind on my face. I
want to look at the sky."

"What do you have in your hair?" Maria Pia reached around her and
picked strands of a spider web from her long hair. "What have you been
doing?" For the first time she noticed the severed broomstick the don had
carefully removed from Nicoletta's hands when she had been in danger of
injuring him with it. It had been neatly sliced through with a blade of some
kind. Maria Pia picked it up, turning it this way and that to examine it before
looking at Nicoletta with a frown.

"Do not ask," Nicoletta said, shoving a hand through her long
hair. "You arrived after the misadventure in the hidden passageway. What
matters now is that you no longer wish me to marry the don. You were not quite
so opposed of late."

"Something is wrong here,
piccola.
When I am in this house, I
feel the echo of your
madre's
screams as she was thrown over the ramparts.
I can feel the spirits of the other dead. They are uneasy in this
palazzo." She made the sign of the cross and kissed her crucifix.
"May the good Madonna- save you from your enemies."

Nicoletta did not protest. She knew she had enemies at the palazzo; she just
didn't know why. She felt eyes staring at her in disapproval each time she left
her bedchamber. "I must go outside," she said again. Her heart felt
heavy in her chest. She opened the door, turning back toward Maria Pia as she
did so. "How did all of this start, so long ago? When did they first
whisper of the curse on the
famiglia
Scarletti? Is it possible there is
a strain of madness in their blood?"

Maria Pia glanced past Nicoletta to the waiting guards. "It is not a
good thing to speak of in this place where the walls have eyes and ears."
She lifted her chin. "Come, let us go out to the courtyard. We will see if
the don kept his word and sent his men looking for Cristano."

For some reason it irritated Nicoletta that Maria Pia entertained the notion
that the don would betray their trust. "I can imagine many things about
Don Scarletti, but he lives by his word. He would not tell me one thing and do
another," she defended.

Maria Pia looked at her sharply. "Perhaps you are already falling under
his spell. I told you to be careful. He can read minds, make one say things one
does not wish to reveal. You must be strong, Nicoletta. Until you know more of
the don…"

"The man who is to be my husband," Nicoletta corrected. "We
are to be wed on the morrow. I will live with him, and this
palazzo
will
be my home. I have no choice in the matter. You said not even the holy father
would defy the don."

Maria Pia muttered unintelligibly as they moved down the long corridor to
the stairs. She looked at the banister and once more crossed herself devoutly.
"Look at this, Nicoletta. A serpent coiled around a tree branch! That is
the artwork on his stairs. What manner of man is he?"

"He inherited the palazzo and the title from his father and his father
before him, and so on. What should he have done? Refused to live here because
he did not like the artwork on the stairs? It is actually quite beautiful,
Maria Pia. If you look at some of the work, it is truly remarkable."

Maria Pia resorted to clucking as she often did when she was agitated.
"I fear he has cast a spell over you,
bambina."

Nicoletta glanced over her shoulder at the silent guards following them at a
circumspect distance. "Where is little Sophie?" The child would still
be upset that Nicoletta had been trapped in the secret passage.

"She was sent to her room,
signorina,"
the guard replied,
raising an eyebrow at his partner.

The other guard shrugged with a wry grin and placed something in the first
guard's open palm.

Nicoletta ignored the byplay between the two men. "I must go to her;
she will be frightened. By now she will think
i fantasmi
have gotten
me."

As she started back up the stairs, the guard shook his head. "She was
removed from the nursery and is on the first floor."

Nicoletta smiled at him. "Thank you." She knew the exact hideous
room the child had been banished to. She ran along the corridor, waving to the
maid she had taken the broom from earlier. The woman stopped working long
enough to lift a hand in return, blushing when she noticed the two guards trailing
behind Nicoletta.

Sophie was facedown on the big bed, so small she could barely be seen among
the covers. Nicoletta rushed to her and dragged her into her arms, rocking her
while the child sobbed as if her heart were breaking. "I thought I killed
you!" She hiccuped the words, her tears soaking Nicoletta's neck and face.
"I am sorry, Nicoletta."