Feehan, Christine - The Scarletti Curse (42 page)

At once the room fell eerily silent, absent even the shuffling of feet.
Nicoletta was immediately aware of every eye in the room fixed on her. Slowly
she unraveled the scarf so they could see the marks on her neck. A collective
gasp went up. "I was attacked, but certainly not by my husband. I believe
my attacker was here to harm Don Scarletti, not me. I was merely in this man's
way. I want it known that I will not tolerate disloyalty to the don among those
of you who work in our home. I do not wish to hear further rumors about him or
us. If you have concerns, I will be happy to address them, but it will serve no
purpose to try to divide our home."

Nicoletta grasped Ketsia's hand firmly in hers and reached out to Sophie,
who was standing wide-eyed, fearfully staring at Nicoletta's throat. Maria Pia
had her arms around the child. They immediately moved off as a family unit,
presenting their loyalty toward one another before the servants. Maria Pia was
beaming at Nicoletta with pride.

In the next few minutes Nicoletta went through all the appropriate motions,
attempting to carry on a conversation with the chattering girls, constantly
reassuring them that she was, indeed, going to live. But her mind was busy
elsewhere, occupied with the raven. If she was correct in her assumption that
Aljandro had not intended to harm her, or even Giovanni at that precise moment,
but had simply taken advantage when he came upon her, then it meant her strange
ability was not necessarily gone. It merely meant the bird had had no time to
warn her. Still, why hadn't she been warned of Cristano's death? If Giovanni
had slain Cristano in the maze, so close to her, she would have felt it. And
the bird would have come to her. "Nicoletta!" Ketsia stamped her
small foot. "I have said the same thing to you three times, and you have
not answered me. You are staring out the window. All the soldiers are
everywhere outside, yet Maria Pia says it is not safe and we must stay indoors.
I do not want to stay indoors, and neither does Sophie."

Nicoletta looked at the courtyard below her. She could see the soldiers
swarming over the grounds like ants, searching every possible escape route. But
Aljandro was already gone. He had slipped away. She knew it in her heart, a
dark dread that remained a shadow in her soul. He was watching from the safety
of his hideout, where someone Don Scarletti trusted had aided in secreting him.
"I am sorry, Ketsia, but in truth, Maria Pia is right. It is not safe to
go out yet. The man who attempted to harm me is not yet captured. And he is a
man known to you, Ketsia. It is Aljandro, dressed as a soldier, and he would
not want you to identify him should you see his face. When you return to the
villaggio,
I will have several of the don's guards go with you."

Why hadn't the bird come to her? Why hadn't she felt Cristano's death? It
didn't make sense. How could he have died and she remain so unaware of it?

"We want to go outside," Sophie persisted, tugging at Nicoletta's
skirt.

Nicoletta bent down to drop a kiss on the child's head. "I am sorry,
piccola,
but you cannot. If you look out the window, you will see that a thick fog is
moving inland from the sea. It is dangerous when it comes in like this. Maria
Pia will devise a game for you to play here in the palazzo. The fog may be such
that Ketsia will have to spend the night. Wouldn't that be a grand
adventure?" She patted both girls absently, turning to go. "I have
matters I must attend to now."

"Nicoletta!" Maria Pia hissed her name, crossing herself as she
did so. "You forget yourself. You have no protection while your guards are
outside. Do not go wandering around the palazzo by yourself."

Nicoletta lifted her chin. "This is my home, and I will move about
freely within it, or I will have no life at all." She hurried back up the
stairs, determined to take a look once more into the room where Maria Pia and
Sophie had been sleeping. Why were the scorpions placed in that room? If the
soup had been meant for the don, was there another reason for the scorpions,
other than a threat to young Sophie? Did someone want Sophie out of the room
for different purpose? There was an entrance to the secret passageway in the
nursery and in that particular room. Sophie had now been driven from both
rooms. As she had been driven from the other room downstairs, the room where
she had been so ill. Was there also an entrance to the passageway from that
room? Nicoletta wanted to know.

As she passed Margerita's room, she heard the young woman's voice raised in
a shrill, nasty tone. "I will have you flogged for this. I know you took
my jewelry! You are a thief and a soldier's whore. You deliberately tore my
gown!"

To Nicoletta's shock, she recognized the other voice.

"I tell you, I took nothing from this room. I did not touch the
gown." It was the maid, Beatrice, her voice low and quaking with fear.
"I would never steal from you or destroy your clothes."

The door was ajar, and Nicoletta pushed it open farther. "What is going
on, Margerita?" She took in the scene: the maid cowering against the wall,
Margerita shaking with anger. Items were strewn around the room as if they had
been flung in all directions. Nicoletta could well imagine Margerita throwing things
in a rage.

"It is none of your business," Portia's daughter snapped.
"She is my maid, and I will deal with the likes of her. Get out of my
private bedchamber."

"She is a worker in my household," Nicoletta corrected firmly.
"If there is a problem, I should have been informed at once." She
moved into the room to stand beside the maid. "You say she has stolen from
you?" As hard as she tried, Nicoletta could not keep the disbelief from
her voice.

Nicoletta's tone only inflamed Margerita more. "Get out!" she
growled. "You are nothing but a peasant yourself. What understanding could
you possibly have? How could you know what we have to put up with from these
ignorant people? They know nothing of being servants. Look at my gown! She tore
my gown!"

Beatrice shook her head. "I did not, Donna Scarletti, and I did not
steal from her. I came in to help her dress, and she threw things at me because
she could not find a piece of jewelry. I did not take it. The gown ripped when
she stepped on the hem."

Margerita shrieked and rushed at the woman, her face a mask of fury. She
raised an arm, swinging wildly. Nicoletta stepped in front of the cowering
maid, taking the blow, a hard slap that filled the air with a grotesque sound,
full on her face. It seemed for a moment to Nicoletta as if it had all happened
in slow motion, Margerita rushing forward, hand upraised, faint marks on her
wrist, reminiscent of something, triggering a fleeting memory.

A terrible roar spun the three women around to face the doorway. They all
froze as they faced Giovanni Scarletti. His black eyes glittered with menace,
his handsome face marked with dark cruelty. Behind him, Vincente and Antonello
gaped at Margerita as if she had lost her mind. Giovanni was in such a rage,
the room fairly crackled with it. He covered the short distance to Margerita in
two gliding steps, like a stalking mountain lion.

He caught her arm and flung her away from Nicoletta. "You will leave
this house at once." He bit the words out between clenched teeth. "I
do not care where you go or what you do, but you will never enter this house
again."

Margerita went so white, she looked a ghost. For the first time she looked
young and vulnerable, a child who had overplayed her hand and now was at a loss
as to how to remedy the situation.

Nicoletta touched Giovanni's arm with gentle fingers. "We are all much
too upset to make rash decisions. You, more than anyone, should know that.
Margerita did not mean to strike me. She is little more than a child, Giovanni."

When the don continued to glare at Margerita with slashing eyes, Nicoletta's
hand slid up to his jaw, a soft, tender caress, turning him to face her.
"Please, Giovanni, you cannot send her away. She and I have not had a
chance to become friends. It would be such a terrible start to our
marriage." She whispered the words to him softly, her dark eyes eloquent,
pleading.

Don Scarletti stood quite still, his body rigid. Neither of the other
brothers spoke. No one dared to breathe. At last he nodded abruptly.

Nicoletta relaxed slightly, careful not to touch her stinging cheek.
"Thank you, Margerita, for enlightening me to the fact that you would
prefer not to have a personal maid. As we are short of staff at the moment,
that will free Beatrice to help Maria Pia and Sophie. Beatrice, please tell
Gostanz that it is my wish that you take a few days off—with pay, of
course—and when you return, you will attend Maria Pia and young Sophie
personally."

Beatrice curtsied several times, carefully skirting around the don, slinking
past his two brothers without looking at either of them, and rushing away.

Giovanni took Nicoletta's hand in his, his black eyes as cold as ice as he
stared at Margerita. "Had you been a man, you would be dead right
now." He tugged Nicoletta beneath the protection of his shoulder and
pushed past his brothers.

"It does not hurt," Nicoletta offered softly as she walked with
him down the hall.

"I should not say that I wanted to strangle her with my bare hands, as
that seems to be the Scarletti way, but I did," he admitted. "I wanted
to choke the life out of her for striking you.
Dio,
Nicoletta, why can't
you stay out of trouble?"

Nicoletta flashed him a quick smile. "I told you it is a knack I have.
Did you find Aljandro? Because I am certain he came here to kill you, not
me."

One dark eyebrow shot up. "How did you come to that conclusion? Did he
speak to you?" His body was brushing against hers, warm and hard and
solid. A comfort to her.

Nicoletta winced at the question. She should have known he was going to ask.
She sighed when he continued to look down at her, silently demanding an answer.
"He said he was not the only one who wanted me dead."

A muscle jerked along Giovanni's jaw; his eyes blazed with menace. Nicoletta
hastily tightened her hold on his hand. "But that is not the point. I know
things—you know I do. I think someone is trying to kill
you.
I think
that whoever it is helped Aljandro to escape all those men searching for him.
Someone poisoned the soup meant for you the night little Sophie ate it. And you
and I both know that your cousin, Damian, was involved in a conspiracy against
you. And now Aljandro."

"It is not safe to pursue this, Nicoletta," he said sternly.
"Forget that you ever saw Damian. Do not ask anymore questions. I know
others are conspiring against me, but I do not know who. Already you are in
danger."

"I want to go up to the ramparts. Do you remember when Margerita was
running toward us in the corridor the day little Ricardo summoned me to
Lissandra's deathbed?" Margerita rushing toward the maid had triggered the
memory in Nicoletta's mind. More than that, there had been something else,
something about Margerita that eluded Nicoletta, but she knew it was important.

Deep inside her, the shadow was creeping into her heart, her soul. Something
was wrong, and her dread was growing. She glanced out the window and saw the
raven circling in the long trails of white fog. It looked deceptively lazy,
even serene, as it soared just outside the window. But Nicoletta saw it, and
she knew. There was trouble somewhere. Instinctively she inhaled deeply in an
attempt to draw cooling air into her lungs and read the signs.

"You are not going near that upper walkway. I forbid it," Giovanni
said sternly. "The guards have been given their orders, and they will
follow them to the letter."

"You can go up with me," Nicoletta pointed out, distracted from
his absolute authority by the deepening shadow within her. "It is
important. I want to see what the maze looks like from above, how much a person
can see when they look down into it."

"A good portion is covered over by bushes trained to form a
canopy," Giovanni said tersely. "You will not go up there for any
reason, with me or without me. Knowing you, you would slip and fall, and I
would find you hanging by a fingernail. You will obey me in this,
Nicoletta." He stopped walking to catch her arms, halting her so that he
could examine her face for bruises.

For no reason at all, other than the hot look in his eyes, Nicoletta found
herself blushing. "Stop staring at me. I told you, she did not hurt me.
And I really do need to go up to that walkway." There she would be able to
sense the trouble.

"Well, you are not going," he said. "You are not going
anywhere for the next twenty years. I am in the middle of something I cannot
share with you. I dare not. You will have to trust me and do as I say."

Gostanz appeared behind them, clearing his throat to draw attention to
himself.

Giovanni spun around, his black eyes gleaming with displeasure. "What
is it?" he snapped impatiently.

"
Scusa
, signore, the healer is needed."

Don Scarletti made a sound deep within his throat much like that of a
drowning man. "No, Nicoletta." He shook his head somewhere between
bitter laughter and total frustration. "I seem to have lost any semblance
of control in my own home."

"Tell them I will come at once, Gostanz,
grazie,"
Nicoletta
said firmly.

"No." The Don shook his head again. "You have been through
quite enough today, and there is still the danger of this madman loose. I will not
have it, Nicoletta."

"These are our people. I cannot imagine you shirking your duties and
hiding in your bedchamber because there was danger. I am a healer, and if our
people need me, then there is no other choice but to go." She rose up onto
her toes and placed her lips against his ear. "You know it is inevitable
that I go, Giovanni, so do not waste time arguing that could better be used
finding a way to keep me safe."