DELUGE

by Lisa T. Bergren

  “What changed today?” he asked hesitantly.

  I took a deep breath and turned toward the rail, looking out at the lagoon again. He settled in behind me, rearranging the blanket to better cover me. Waiting. I leaned into him, liking the feel of his strong torso behind my back, his arms around me, cocooning me, protecting me.

  “It’s difficult to explain. But I think…I think in meeting Orazio and Galileo, in knowing of this new tunnel and thinking again of going back, of leaving this place…” I shook my head and then looked over my shoulder at him. “It was as if in that moment,” I whispered, my eyes not leaving his, “I knew I could never leave. Leave you, Luca. I mean, I knew I was staying before. But it was as if…as if I’d agreed to stay for my parents. For Gabi and Marcello. But today…today, it became my choice too. Wholly mine. For me. For you. For us.”

  “Evangelia,” he whispered huskily, his eyebrows hunched, as if every word from my lips was miraculous. “Could it be true? Does this mean that you will be mine? My wife?”

  I slowly turned around and lifted my arms to encircle his neck. He pulled me closer, his hands roaming my back as hard and as fast as his eyes searched mine, waiting.

  “If you will still have me,” I whispered at last.

  His breath left his chest in a huff of a laugh, his eyes alight, his grin spreading like a contagion. My knight. The man who could always make me smile.

  Then his grin morphed into pent-up desire and hope and joy, all at once. One hand left my back and went to my face, and he cupped my cheek. “Would I have you? Every day, every night, for the rest of my life. My heart has always been yours, Evangelia. You’ve ruled me, as a queen rules her servant. I live for God, for the House Forelli, and to be your man.”

  “My heart has always been yours, Luca,” I said coyly, smiling up at him. “And now your queen commands you to kiss her.”

  “Oh, she does, does she?” He smiled and leaned closer toward my face, teasing me, nuzzling me, letting his breath wash over my skin like a caress. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation of his proximity at last, the nearness, the heat of him. And then I tilted my head just a bit higher, until our lips brushed at his next pass. He froze in surprise. But without further invitation he kissed me then, in earnest. Plying my lips apart, hungry, searching, demanding.

  I thought I could kiss him all night. We’d kissed before, but never with such abandon. He’d always been so cautious, careful with my reputation, my virtue. But now that I was to be his…well, his kisses promised me many days and nights of passion ahead. He pulled back and looked at me in wonder, searching every inch of my face as if I was brand new to him, as if he were trying to memorize me. And then I couldn’t stand it any longer and pressed up on my tiptoes to kiss him again.

  “Oh, my Lia, my beautiful Evangelia,” he said in a whisper, pulling back and gently bending my head to the side. He planted tiny kisses across my cheek and slowly, delectably, down my neck, pausing at the clavicle. There, he hovered. “Please,” he said, kissing me there again, the breath from his words sending shivers down my arms. “Tell me that we can marry soon.”

  “Soon,” I said, our years of courting suddenly ramming into a tiny bottle of anticipation.

  “Very, very, soon,” he said, moving back up my neck with his tiny, fabulous, kisses. How could lips do such things to a person?

  “Here-soon,” I said, kissing him on the lips again.

  “Here-soon?” he repeated, pausing halfway up my neck. “Not in Siena?”

  “Here-soon,” I said in mock demand.

  “Yes, my queen,” he said, with a grin. “I am yours to command.” And then he finished me off with the most knee-weakening kiss of my life, telling me that as much as he said I ruled, he would soon rule me in ways untold.

  “Soon, Luca,” I moaned. “Marry me within the week.”

  “My betrothed, so fickle,” he said, tipping up my chin to look me in the eye and give me a chance to gather myself. “Cast me aside for weeks. Then demand I marry you within the week.”

  I gave him a rueful smile. There was no malice in his words. He was like that, too, my knight. Forgiving.

  “Forelli knights!” he called over his shoulder, all manly and in control. “Attention!”

  I heard the men turn on their heels and face us.

  Gently, he took off the blanket and settled it around my shoulders. Then he turned me to face the guys. “May I present my intended, the future Lady Forelli?”

  The knights broke out in grins so wide they practically lit up the night, and hooted and laughed as they stepped forward to congratulate us, kissing us both on either cheek, slapping Luca on the back. We bade them to secrecy for the night, until we could tell our family. Luca had long ago sought my parents’ blessing, but I knew he’d want their reassurance that they still thought it a good idea. I knew they would. They loved him like a son.

  With one last, long look at the magical lagoon, I walked with Luca to the doorway and down the stairs, then along the hall to my room. There, he kissed my hand and held it.

  “Thank you, Evangelia. For the greatest honor anyone has ever bestowed upon me. Thank you for trusting me.”

  “Always and forever, my love,” I said.

  “Until the morrow?” he asked.

  “I do not know if I’ll sleep a wink.”

  “Nor I,” he said, reaching up to touch my cheek. “If I do, I’m certain to only dream of you.”

  “That’s no different than before,” chided Lutterius with a laugh.

  Luca laughed with him, but his eyes never left mine. “Indeed. Until the morrow.”

  “Until the morrow,” I said. And, as I tore myself away from him and made myself shut the door between us, I thought about never having to part from him again, come night. Of going to bed together. Of kisses, and more kisses…

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  GABRIELLA

  I was up before the sun the next morning and found my husband awake, too. He stood over by a window, facing the lagoon. As much as I wished we could have stayed with his cousin Caterina in her palazzo on the Canal, I could hardly complain about our accommodations here in the doge’s palace. The view was even more spectacular.

  I shifted out of bed, wincing as a ligament in my belly stretched in complaint, then rose and padded over to join him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead as I rested my cheek against his chest. My baby bulge felt like a melon between us, but he didn’t seem to mind. Together, we watched in silence as the fishermen left the docks for the morning, their chipper calls to one another like sparks in the dark. The air was so cold it chilled my nose, and I snuggled in a little closer to Marcello.

  “Cold?” he murmured, shifting his arms to better cover me.

  “Yes, aren’t you?”

  “Here,” he said, opening his thick tapestry morning coat—sort of a medieval version of a robe—and offering me his bare chest.

  “Ooo, better,” I said, settling closer to him. His skin was far more welcoming than the rough fabric. He closed the robe partway around me.

  “I’d have to agree,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice as he pulled me even closer. After a moment, he said, “That was quite a day, yesterday.”

  “Indeed. I can’t stop thinking about it. About Orazio and Galileo. And Lia! I didn’t think my sister could surprise me anymore. But she did yesterday.”

  “She’s come into her own. No longer your little She-Wolf shadow, my love. But her own She-Wolf, full grown.”

  I mulled over his words and nodded. “That’s true.” I felt an odd mixture of pride and the pang of loss. It was good for Lia, her maturing. Right. It would just be a bit different. A transition for us. Time and again yesterday I’d taken a breath, about to say something, when she began instead. And she’d handled it all like a pro. Better than I could’ve, likely. But it was…weird. I’d always been the leader. And yesterday, it was all Lia’s show, and my turn to play the supportive role. I smiled as I thought about
her. About the doge’s face, when he thought he had her. Twice. With the Betarrinis. Then with the prisoners and his wonky bow. And both times, she’d shown him who was boss.

  “The whole city fell in love with your sister last night,” Marcello said.

  I laughed under my breath. “I think even the doge fell a little in love with her. But don’t tell the dogaressa.”

  I smiled as I listened to the rumble of his gentle laugh in return. “Luca will have to keep his wits about him in the next few weeks and watch out for her. We all will. Given that Evangelia’s proven to be such an engaging guest, the doge will be more resistant than ever to let us leave.”

  “But it’s best if we don’t tarry,” I said. “Last night I met a noble family from England. They’d heard that we hailed from Brittania and were eager to speak in detail. Only the drama of the piazza saved me from having to share more than I wished.”

  He leaned back and cupped my face in his hands. “What was their name?”

  “Whitehall or something.”

  “Are they at court? In the palazzo?”

  “Nay, not here in the palazzo. And not a part of the inner court. But any larger event with broader invitation? I’d expect them to attend again.”

  “Hmm. We’ll do our best to avoid them, then. Your list of potential enemies continues to grow, Wife. The Fiorentini, the English, the French…”

  “It’s challenging, coming from Normandy,” I whined.

  “Indeed. Come, you’re still getting chilled, despite my best efforts.” He drew me away from the window, where the hint of dawn was on the horizon, casting a rosy pink glow to the sky, shuttering it against the cold air. He pulled me to a settee covered in horsehair by the small hearth and added wood to the glowing embers.

  “You and my baby need to get warm,” he said, taking a blanket from the bed and settling it over me.

  I grinned. “I could become accustomed to such pampering,” I said.

  “I’m certain you could,” he returned, then bent down and gave me a brief, soft kiss, pulled back and looked into my eyes. “I love you, Gabriella.”

  “I love you too, Marcello.”

  He straightened. “Now let me see about finding a servant to fetch us a bit of bread and some hot apple cider to break our fast. Doesn’t that sound good?”

  “Wonderful,” I said. Cuddled before a fire with my husband eating breakfast? When did we ever get that opportunity? Back home, at the castello, he always had to be up and eating with the men at dawn. And here we were, in the heart of Venice, in the doge’s palace itself, with the morning to ourselves.

  But when he went to the door and opened it, Luca was there. “Luca!” he said in surprise, and I turned to look over my shoulder at him.

  He took Marcello’s arm, glanced at me, and when he saw me with my crazed morning-hair, said, “Forgive me, my intrusion. May I have a word with you in the hall, Marcello?”

  Marcello gave him a quizzical look. Why all the formality? What was so urgent?

  “By all means.” He followed Luca out and quietly closed the door. I threw aside my blanket and ran over to the door, listening at the crack, then grimacing when I couldn’t hear anything. I reluctantly elected to pull on a gown and run a comb through my hair as I waited for Marcello to return. I was at a small dressing table, with the best mirror I’d ever seen in medieval Italy, working on a particularly stubborn tangle when he returned.

  I caught sight of his smile in the mirror and turned to look at him. “What is it? What did he want?”

  “A best man.”

  “A what?” All I could think was that Marcello was the best man. Luca’s best friend.

  “A best man,” Marcello said again, more slowly, crossing his arms and grinning.

  Gradually, I figured out what he was saying, and my mouth fell open. “What?” I said, rising. “What?”

  But I didn’t wait for him to explain. “Oh my gosh,” I muttered. “Oh my gosh!” I scurried past him, opened the door, ignored Marcello’s call, and ran down the hall—barefoot—to Lia’s. The two knights on duty outside her door looked sleepy and surprised when I careened around the corner, like some sort of crazy cartoon character. I hadn’t even bothered to pull back my hair. “I need to see her,” I said abruptly to Lutterius.

  “Yes, m’lady, I think you do,” he said with a wink. He turned to open her door and then closed it softly behind me.

  She was still asleep. I stopped short of jumping on the bed, tickling her awake. Because the three, fat puppies were asleep beside her and the four of them looked so peaceful and content, they were practically a picture. One puppy, Desi, lifted his head and yawned, flashing tiny teeth. He licked his nose lazily then set his head down again. Lia’s hair spread out in a thick, wavy layer of gold, and there was a tiny smile on her lips, as if she was dreaming about her future husband.

  That did it. I pounced onto the bed, right beside her, across from the puppies.

  She gasped and sat halfway up, then, seeing it was me, sank back to the pillows. “So,” she said sleepily, smiling and closing her eyes again. “You heard.” The puppies rolled and sat up, yawning.

  “No more sleep! Details!” I said, shaking her shoulders playfully. “I need details!”

  She giggled and opened her eyes. “All right, all right.” We each took puppies in our arms as she sat up and told me the whole, lovely, romantic tale of how she finally came to accept that she was destined to become Mrs. Luca Forelli.

  “But how?” I asked, wincing as Grasso nipped my finger with his sharp puppy teeth. “How did you finally settle your mind and heart about it? You know, about a possible baby. Because I don’t think that Luca’s the type of guy to buy into the whole concept of a chaste marriage…”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “It just clicked. I was getting close to it anyway. But meeting the Betarrini boys pushed me over the edge, I think. The idea of them going back, entering the tunnel again, Gabs…” She looked to the window, where the sky had become bright with the morning sun, and I studied her lovely profile. She focused her big, blue eyes on me again. “The idea of leaving, truly leaving, terrifies me now. Because to leave Luca…” She lifted her free hand to her heart. “It would break me. And even if I have ten babies by the time this plague finally rolls around,” she added in a whisper, “we’ll all be in God’s hands. I have to trust in that.” She shook her head. “I just can’t leave him. Ever. Because I love him. With everything in my heart.”

  I squealed and pulled her into my arms, hugging her. I was so, so glad. And so, so relieved. I knew she had settled her mind at staying here with me. She had to, when I wanted to stay with Marcello. But now, at last, it was her future too. Not just hers because she wanted to be with us, but hers-hers. Thank you, Lord, I prayed silently.

  I pulled back and ran my hand down her hair. “So…when? As soon as we can get home?”

  “No, here,” she said with a grin. “Now that I’ve decided, I cannot wait. I’m hoping we can find a priest and a blue gown and we can get married fast. Today, even.”

  “Lia! Why? Why not wait?”

  “Have you seen my fiancé, Gabi?” She waggled her eyebrows, and I laughed. She shook her head. “No, no—no long engagement for this chick.”

  “Or…” I said, tapping my lips. It was my turn to look toward the window, thinking. “Yes. Yes.”

  “What?”

  “Or you can beg the dogaressa to help you pull off a wedding within the week, and send us southward on a fine Venetian ship to begin your honeymoon. If you convince her to make it an event, a party, with the send-off as the culmination, we’d have our exit visa to return to Toscana, with the doge’s blessing.”

  She smiled. “Do you really think that would work?”

  “Are you kidding? It’d have to work. He’s not going to make a newlywed couple remain at court. And we’ll just ride along with you…and bring the Betarrini boys with us. They must have gotten their Get Out of Jail Free card today, thanks to you.”
/>   “Let’s hope.”

  “He promised.”

  “He promised to let the six prisoners on the least of charges free. Let’s hope disobeying the doge doesn’t rank higher than, say, stealing an apple from the produce man.”

  “True.” I rose. “Well, we’d better make ourselves presentable and then figure out how we rope the dogaressa into our schemes.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Thanks for being happy for me, sis.”

  “Are you kidding? We’re going to be family from a whole other direction, now. There will be nothing that can drag us apart after you become Luca’s bride.”

  She grinned at me, and I squeezed her hand. “See you in an hour or two?”

  “Two. Luca’s going to speak to Mom and Dad again. You know, just to make sure nothing’s changed.”

  “Right.” I knew it was only a formality. But if there was one thing medieval men liked, it was a measure of formality. Luca would want to be sure he had their blessing before he moved forward with Lia. This time, he wouldn’t want anything to stand in their way.

  I left her and grimaced at my reflection in her mirror. I had really torn out of my room looking quite the sight. My hair was a mass of curls, and my feet were bare. I thought about borrowing a pair of Lia’s slippers, but she wore a size smaller than I did. I could only hope that nobody else was up at this hour. My room was just around the corner…

  I smiled sheepishly when I spied Marcello, waiting for me in the hallway, chatting with the knights. “She is well, m’lady?” he asked.

  “More than well, m’lord,” I returned with a wink.

  Together, we set off down the hall to return to our room. “I’m so, so glad for them, Marcello. I think I might burst.”

  “Well, that would be rather unpleasant. Bursting, and all.”

  I laughed and took his arm, and we turned the corner.

  And ran right into the first Fiorentini we’d met in Venice.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN