Feehan, Christine - The Scarletti Curse (8 page)

"No," she said softly to the wind. "No."

At the precise moment of her denial of his death, the don's shoulders
straightened, and his betrayer attacked. The don was once again a whirling blur
of motion as he leapt to one side to avoid the dagger, catching his opponent's
wrist and twisting it as he stepped back into the man so that the blade buried
itself in the betrayer's chest. They stood, toe to toe, staring into each other's
eyes, and then slowly the betrayer collapsed, and the don lowered him
reluctantly to the sand. He stood for a moment, his head bowed in evident
sorrow, and she saw his hands come up to cover his eyes.

Nicoletta's heart turned over, and tears shimmered in her eyes for a moment,
blurring the scene below. She wiped them away and looked down again. The don
suddenly looked up. Gasping, she shrank back into the foliage. Even though it
was impossible for Don Scarletti to see her through the thick leaves and branches,
she felt the weight of his stare. He could not have seen her, not from that
angle; it would have been impossible. He couldn't even have known she was
there. Her teeth bit at her lip nervously. She had always been so careful, yet
in a short time she had had two strange encounters with Don Giovanni Scarletti,
the very last
aristocratico
she should ever meet.

"Nicoletta!" Ketsia's plaintive voice caught her attention, and
she turned to see the child rushing toward her. Obviously alarmed because she could
no longer see Nicoletta, she had panicked. Tears streaked her little face.

Nicoletta immediately caught the child to her, dragging her back away from
the cliff so she could not see Don Scarletti and his dead assailants on the
beach below.

"Were you afraid,
piccola?"
Nicoletta stroked back her hair
and bent to kiss the upturned face. "I thought I heard something,
but…" She shrugged casually. "What frightened you?"

"I thought… Did you see the color of the sky? I thought…" Ketsia
trailed off. "Maria Pia told me I should watch you all the time. I did not
want you to get into trouble."

Nicoletta hugged her. "The sky was indeed a wondrous hue, but Maria
Pia—well, she can frighten the men in the
villaggio,
she can frighten
the sheep on the hillsides, perhaps she can even frighten the fish in the sea,
but certainly not you, Ketsia. Why, I have seen you fly at your big brother
when he teases you. Surely he is much more terrifying than Maria Pia."
Deliberately she teased the little girl as she continued to walk with her
toward the trail.

Nicoletta wanted to go back and see what had happened, but she didn't dare
rouse Ketsia's suspicions; the little girl was curious about everything her
mentor did. Night was falling rapidly. Nicoletta often roamed the wilds at
night, but she would never keep a child out so late. The villagers were a
superstitious people and believed in all sorts of things Nicoletta had never
found to be true. With a sigh of regret, Nicoletta began to lead the way down
the path.

"Wait!" Ketsia called, turning and running back toward where they
had been working on the plants. "Your shoes! I left your shoes! Maria Pia
will lecture me!"

Nicoletta burst out laughing. "We cannot have that."

Ketsia giggled, her world right again. She skipped after Nicoletta, chatting
and happy, completely unaware of Nicoletta's silence. It had grown dark by the
time they made their way to the village. When Ketsia saw Maria Pia, she tugged
at Nicoletta's skirt. "She is frowning at you," she whispered, surreptitiously
tapping the shoes against Nicoletta's leg.
"Presto,
put them on
before she sees."

Nicoletta ruffled the child's hair as she took the shoes. "She sees
everything, Ketsia. Do not worry. She frowns, but she does not bite."

Ketsia's mother took the child off after exchanging all the endless gossip
of the day with Nicoletta, who pasted on an appropriate smile.

Maria Pia evidently felt the same impatience. She clutched at Nicoletta's
arm tugged. "We must eat. I am sagging without food."

Nicoletta followed her quickly into the small hut they shared. "You
look tired. Allow me to fix you something to eat while you rest." Gently
she helped the older woman into the one good chair they had beside the
fireplace. Curbing her curiosity, she built a fire and began to heat the soup.
Maria Pia did look tired and strained. She was usually so spry, Nicoletta often
forgot her advancing age.

"Stop giving me those worried looks,
piccola.
I am just tired. I
am too old to traipse off to the palazzo with Mirella. She is an old fool, that
one."

Nicoletta hid her smile. All in the
villaggio
deferred to Maria Pia,
with the exception of Mirella. Mirella was older than Maria Pia, and, according
to her, she had been the most beautiful and coveted of all the women in her
youth. The stories of her romantic conquests seemed to grow with each telling,
and Maria Pia was exasperated with the tales. "The old fool," Maria
Pia repeated. "She was actually flirting with the don."

Shocked, Nicoletta nearly crumbled the loaf of bread into crumbs. "She
what?"

"Ha! The old fool. I told you her mind was going. But, no, you always
laugh, as if she is so entertaining. And what are you doing to that bread?
Wringing its neck? We have to eat that."

"Mirella detests the entire
famiglia
Scarletti. I remember some time ago you said you had to forcibly stop
her from speaking to Portia Scarletti in order to protect her. What happened?
What could have gotten into her?"

Maria Pia crossed herself solemnly. "It is the palazzo. It is not
right. Evil lurks there. I think she was"—she lowered her voice, looked
around, and finally let the word slip out—"possessed." Hastily she
rose and shuffled to the shrine to the Madonna in the corner of the hut and lit
three candles against any evil she might have invoked with her words. "Nicoletta,
perhaps you know strong offerings that, with the Madonna's consent, you might
make on our behalf against what I may have wrought."

Nicoletta gaped at her. Maria Pia was a devout practitioner of her faith.
She would never consider doing anything improper unless she felt they were in
mortal danger. "Maria Pia?" she said softly. "Come sit down, and
tell me exactly what happened. Surely it is not so bad that we cannot make
things better." She swept her hair back into a knot before
arranging
bread and cheese on the older
woman's plate, the action steadying her
trembling hands. She couldn't bring herself yet to tell Maria Pia about what
had taken place at the cove. She needed to know first what had gone on at the
palazzo.

"I tried to protect you, Nicoletta, but I think Mirella told the don
things about you. He was asking many questions." Maria Pia left the shrine
to make her way slowly, heavily to the crude table.

Nicoletta poured hot water into a cup and added a mixture of herbs to make a
soothing brew. "Start from the beginning. Why did the don command the
healer to the palazzo?"

"He said he wanted to pay me for my services. And he paid us
handsomely," Maria Pia said sorrowfully. "It was ill to take his
payment." She shook her head as Nicoletta placed a steaming bowl of soup
in front of her. "I knew he was looking for you. He stared at Mirella as
if she were an apparition. I think the old fool thought he was intrigued by
her. He asked about you, and I told him you were resting." She glared at Nicoletta.
"You
were
resting." She simultaneously made it a statement and
a question.

"In my way." Nicoletta waved her hands airily and sat across from
Maria Pia at the small table. "Please continue."

"He asked if you knew a great deal about healing. He was speaking so
casually, so easily, I was distracted at first, he was so kind. But then a man
came in and spoke to him in a whisper, and during that pause I realized I was
telling the don things I did not want to tell." She crossed herself again
and kissed the crucifix around her neck. "I am sorry, Nicoletta. I got up
to leave and would not look at him again, but Mirella simpered and fawned all
over him in a terrible display." Maria Pia's faded eyes were watery and
could not look at her young friend.

Nicoletta placed her hand over the old woman's, feeling the papery skin
beneath her palm. Maria Pia shook her head and jerked her hand away. "I am
as guilty as Mirella. I betrayed you, too. He knows you are the true
healer."

Nicoletta took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We must eat while
the food is hot." She bowed her head over the food to give herself time to
think.

Maria Pia prayed devoutly for some time before signaling it was time to eat.
Nicoletta took several cautious sips of the soup before speaking. "What,
exactly, did Mirella say to him?"

"She told him you were magical. She actually used the word
magical.
I interrupted and tried to say she meant you were so filled with joy and
laughter and could light up a room, but Mirella just stared at him completely
spellbound and went on as giddily as a girl."

"The don had to leave to meet someone—I heard him tell his manservant,
Gostanz, that he had a very important meeting and would return late. I hurried
Mirella out of there, I can tell you that, and scolded her all the way home.
She was very contrite, as she should have been, but I fear that will not save
you. Though it breaks my heart, we must send you away, far away, where you will
be beyond the don's reach."

Nicoletta continued to eat calmly, her mind racing. Now she didn't dare tell
Maria Pia what she had seen from the cliff. She would be sent away for certain.
The don had obviously gone to meet someone of importance at the cove, but it
had been an ambush, ending in two killings at his hands. If he knew she had
witnessed the event, he might well wish to dispose of her by naming her a
witch. Don Giovanni Scarletti might live in a pagan household, but he had close
ties to the Church. He had close ties to everyone in power.

"I will stay here, Maria Pia. I do not intend to hide from him.
Besides, no one hides successfully from the don. You have said so yourself on
many occasions. No one has yet come to haul me away. After supper I will go to
Donna Mirella and comfort her. I do not want her to worry that she has placed
me in a terrible position."

"But likely she has, Nicoletta. You are not taking this matter as
seriously as you should."

"I am taking it very seriously," she said softly, "more
seriously than you can know, but I do not think it fair for Mirella to blame
herself when I believe the don is able to… to
influence
people in some
way. You said yourself he influenced you. You said he is rumored to read minds
as well. It is not Mirella's fault."

Maria Pia looked at her a long time and then smiled slowly. "I did a
good thing when I took you in,
bambina.
You are right, of course. We
cannot allow the old fool to be ashamed and mourn. She is dimwitted—that is her
excuse. I, however, have none. If the don should threaten you, I will travel
far from here with you."

Nicoletta smiled sweetly. "You will remain here where I know you are
safe, and you will trust me to hide out until the don loses interest."

"You said he would lose interest immediately, and he did not. You also
just agreed that no one could hide forever from the don." The sparkle was
beginning to return to the older woman's eyes, however, with Nicoletta's
reassurances.

"I thought you told me you were forgetful," Nicoletta teased her
back, pleased that Maria Pia was no longer so fretful.

Nicoletta lay beneath her coverlet, unable to sleep, tossing and turning
this way and that. Outside, the wind rushed at the thin walls of the hut as if
storming a fortress. It brought his voice with it. The don's voice. She could
hear the low voice murmuring to her continually, mercilessly, a relentless
assault she feared would never end. Soft. Compelling. Needing. Commanding. It
went on and on, the sound brushing at the inside of her mind and making her
body burn in an unfamiliar way. There was something darkly sensual in that
voice, a whisper of sin, erotic and seductive, that left her wanting and
needing and burning in her bed. Nicoletta squirmed and put her hands over her
ears to try to drown out the sound. It only increased in volume. Her skin felt
damp and sensitive, her breasts aching with need. Furious, she sat up, her long
hair cascading over her shoulders. Impatiently she braided it quickly, padding
on bare feet to the window to stare out into the darkness.

She desperately wanted to leave the hut right then in the middle of the
night and inspect the cove. What had happened to Don Scarletti? Was he safe?
Was she merely dreaming he was calling to her? Had there been others lying in
wait to ambush him? Could he be out there, injured and in need of aid? But the
voice sounded smooth and haunting, not weak and injured. The voice sounded
seductive, like a sorcerer's weapon that seeped its way through flesh and bone
and under skin to smolder with wicked heat in her breasts, her belly, between
her legs. Color swept up her neck; her entire body seemed hot and unfamiliar to
her. Was the don capable of black magic, as it was rumored? Had he somehow
marked her because he saw her differences? Defensively she put a hand to her throat.
Few things in nature frightened her, but Don Scarletti and his evil palazzo had
managed to do so.

Restlessly she paced across the room to tuck the coverlet more closely
around Maria Pia. Her heart warmed at the sight of her, sleeping so soundly. The
woman had always been there for her as long as she could remember. Nicoletta
knew they shared a distant blood tie—nearly all the families in the
villaggio
were related in some way—yet Maria Pia was more family to her than any other
she had known. Long before her mother and aunt had died, there had been Maria
Pia. She remembered the low murmur of feminine voices conversing while she was
dozing off. Her
madre.
Her
zia.
Maria Pia. Reassuring, secure.
She had been accepted and loved by Maria Pia all her life. Now she had no one
else, and most likely she never would.