DELUGE

by Lisa T. Bergren

  “Mi sono—mi sono ben, non ti preoccupare,” I said at last. I am well. Don’t worry.

  Everyone froze in the room, as if surprised that I was capable of speech.

  “You’ve suffered a terrible fright as well as injury,” Dad said, coming to the other side of my bed.

  “You can say that again,” I said in English, and he smiled. “That was like the worst bath ever.”

  While Luca couldn’t understand my words, the tone of our exchange seemed to give him some relief.

  “So…” he said slowly, tentatively checking the back of my head for cuts, “It seems that I must be by your side at all times and places.”

  “Indeed,” I said, the edge of my own smile helping me breathe more readily. “It appears I’m so popular, everyone wants to come and see me, even in my bathchambers. How is Gabi?”

  “She’s well,” Dad said. “She sustained wounds to her arm and leg.”

  “And the baby?”

  “It seems fine. Mom’s sewing her up now.”

  “They were Fiorentini…” I said, shifting, searching every face in the room, suddenly scared one might remain. But Luca had dismissed anyone other than Forelli knights and servants. “Wearing Ducale uniforms.”

  “We know,” Luca said. “They are dead or in the doge’s prison. Soon, we shall know who sent them. The doge is nearly tearing off his skin, he’s so enraged.”

  “Barbato and Foraboschi,” I said.

  “Yes, yes. I will hunt them down myself,” he vowed, never looking more threatening than he did in that moment. He rose, as if intent on doing so right then.

  “Nay, Luca—” I began.

  “Nay,” Dad said, grabbing his arm as he passed and turning him around. “You belong here. With your future wife. Leave the Fiorentini scum to the Ducale knights. They shall find them.”

  Luca paused, tense, momentarily poised to argue with Dad, but soon relented.

  “You are right, of course. Forgive me.” He ran a hand through his hair and turned back to me, taking my hand again. “You are safe, Evangelia,” he said. “You shall be under constant guard until I myself am with you this night. Forever.”

  I nodded. If I’d thought my wedding day was far from the one I’d imagined in contemporary America, I’d been mistaken.

  It had just moved into its own zip code of weird and wild.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  GABRIELLA

  Mom sewed up the two wounds I’d received in the fight, one on my leg and one on my arm. We knew we’d offended the doge’s own doctor by refusing his services, but we’d seen enough of medieval medicine to know we would do far better on our own. The infection risk alone was enough to convince us.

  I tried to bite back my cry as she finished stitching my arm, but it was the absolute worst sensation when the thread pulled through. Excruciating as well as agitating, like chewing on cotton balls. Marcello held my hand and didn’t even wince as I squeezed it with all my strength.

  “Sorry, babe,” Mom said in English, focused only on tying the knot and clipping off the threads with a sharp knife. It pulled at my skin, and I bit back a scream. “I’d kill for some numbing ointment.”

  “You would,” I returned, leaning my sweating head back against the pillows and panting. At last, she was done.

  Marcello reached up to wipe the sweat from my brow with a soft cloth, all handsome concern. “The…baby?” he asked.

  “I’m certain he or she is fine,” I said, giving him a reassuring—though feeble—smile. I’d not fallen. Not been hit in the belly.

  “He,” Marcello said with a small smile, relief flooding his face. “My baby is fine. He is strong. A Forelli.” He brought a fist to his chest.

  “So you believe it’s a little boy now?” I asked, running my hand across my belly in a slow circle.

  He reached up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “An heir for the castello. The people need an heir. And truth be told, I live in fear of a daughter as beautiful as her mother to protect, too.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “But next, we shall beget a girl.”

  “Babies are surprisingly resilient,” Mom said, winding a bandage around my stitches. Her eyes met mine. “But you’ve felt no contractions, right?”

  “Nay,” I said with a shake of my head, trying to breathe normally. I was worried that my anxiety would stress out the baby. My mind was whirling. Over Barbato and Foraboschi. “Marcello,” I said, taking his hand. “Why would they go to such lengths? I understand what you said about them prospering from battle over peace, but here? Now? The doge will never allow them in his city again.”

  The muscles in Marcello’s cheeks tensed. “He will not allow those two to return, but Firenze can send others. They are but two of the two hundred and fifty of the Grandi. And where else might they have access to you and yours? Our men would have killed or captured them on sight.”

  But two of two hundred and fifty. I sighed heavily. We could cut the head off the snake, but the snake would only grow two more…

  A knock on the door sent Marcello to his feet and his hand to his sword. “Who is it?” he asked, without opening it.

  Whoever it was, they were not enemies, for he unbolted and opened the door. “Bloccarla dietro di me,” he said to Mom. Lock it behind me.

  She did as he asked, then came over to pour me a glass of water. I knew I should get up and act more tough and She-Wolfy, but at that moment, all I really wanted was for my mom to take care of me. I was wiped out. She went and retrieved a brush and began working on my hair, which had dried pell-mell in the aftermath of our attack.

  “You did well, Gabi,” she said. “Protecting Lia and your baby.”

  “She held her own, thankfully,” I said, closing my eyes, remembering. “I had plenty to deal with.”

  “You two are a wonder,” she mused, working out a stubborn knot and reaching for a new section of hair. “I still can’t believe, sometimes, that you are our daughters. You’re so much stronger than I. So much braver.”

  “We got it all from you. And Dad.”

  “Nah,” she said with a small smile. “Your dad and I…we have a sense of adventure. But wading into battle?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t come easily.”

  “I’ve seen you,” I said. “You rise to the challenge just as we do. It’s not like we go looking for it. We just defend ourselves when necessary.”

  “And thank God you are so good at it.”

  “Let’s just hope we don’t have to do it much more. Life is challenging enough without a bounty on our heads.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not sure we’ll be free of that any time soon. It seems like it’s simply going to be a part of our lives.”

  I frowned at that, instinctively shielding my stomach with my hand.

  “She’ll be fine, Gabi.”

  “So you think it’s a girl?”

  “Yes,” she said, gently nudging my shoulder upward so she could reach the back of my hair.

  “Why?”

  “Just a feeling. Or maybe it’s because I only ever carried daughters, and so I can’t imagine a little boy-child. Whatever. We’d be happy with a healthy, strong babe of either sex, right?”

  “Right.” I ran my hand over the mound of my belly and wondered over it. I didn’t sense a girl or a boy, really. But as she said, all I wanted was for it to be healthy. Healthy enough to withstand what was to come…And weren’t girls stronger than boys? More resilient when facing such things as the Black Plague? Although Luca had survived that earlier strain…

  I lifted my hand to my forehead. “So we have to pull ourselves together for a wedding tonight, huh? They’re not putting it off?”

  “No,” she said ruefully. “I think it’s a bit like when you got married to Marcello. Lia might be a smidge safer as a married woman. Less of a target once she becomes a Forelli. And somehow, from the outside, our clan becomes more unified. Stronger, by name alone.”

  “Amazing what a name can do, eh? Though that didn’t ke
ep me out of harm’s way today.”

  “No. I suspect it’s more of a hope than an iron-clad truth. But we’ll take it, won’t we? Lia wants Luca. The doge wants the party. We want the party so we can get the heck out of Dodge. Everyone will be happier come morn. Let’s just see Lia through it, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said. I swung my legs off the edge of the bed, testing my new sutures.

  “Careful,” Mom said.

  “I will. I suppose dancing is out tonight?”

  “Are you kidding?” Mom asked, lifting a brow. “There’s no way the Forelli boys are going to let you two anywhere near that masked ball. Not after what just came down. And even if they did, your dad and I would refuse you. It’s just not smart, Gabi.”

  “I know,” I groaned. Not that I was in dancing shape. I’d pulled some muscles fighting off the bad guys. And with these fresh stitches…it was best to keep movement to a minimum.

  Wincing a little, I rose, let my head clear of the initial dizziness, and walked to the window. The day was clearing, the sky a powder blue. Boats skimmed across the water, sails full, reminding me of girls in gowns on a dance floor. It was a shame we’d miss our one true chance at a masked Venetian ball…a predecessor of the Carnivale. But the idea of being out there, among many who might take sides with the Fiorentini—or be willing to accept payment from them—was ludicrous. We had to steer clear of any way we’d be vulnerable. And get back to our Tuscan castello just as fast as we could.

  EVANGELIA

  The Betarrini brothers were safe, and Luca saw to it that his men moved them to another location in case Barbato and Foraboschi had thoughts about kidnapping them, given that they’d lost their opportunity with us. We knew the brothers’ presence in this time only put our plans to stay in medieval Italy at risk; we had to get them out of here and back to their own era.

  “Focus on what’s ahead,” Gabi said, giving my shoulder a squeeze as a maid finished with my hair. The maid had braided a band that crossed my head like a crown—with a strand of pearls in it—and tucked the rest in a net covered in matching pearls. The effect was elegant, and I smiled happily into the dark, cloudy mirror, gradually feeling more and more myself. I’d bailed on adding the little band of fabric the dogaressa insisted I order from the dressmaker. Just the pearls and netting would be perfect under my veil.

  The gown, on the other hand, was something out of a movie. It fit me perfectly, and I felt like a princess in it. The neckline dived in a V to a horizontal band that crossed above my breasts. The bodice was tight, and hugged my torso and hips, yet I could still breathe. The arms were loose and flowing from the elbow, allowing the delicate undergown’s arms to emerge from beneath it. The undergown was a navy blue, picking up the darker pattern in the fabric of the overdress, with amazing effect.

  “I gotta hand it to her,” Gabi said, admiring me where I stood as the maid slipped out the door. “That dogaressa knew what would look good on you.”

  “She did well, huh?”

  “I’ll say. Luca will faint dead away when he lays eyes on you.”

  “I hope so,” I said with a grin. “He’d never live that down.”

  There was a knock on the door, and my parents came in, Mom and Dad dressed in their finest. Dad took my hand and looked me over from head to foot, shaking his head as if in wonder.

  “Evangelia…you’re always beautiful. But today, you’re more beautiful than ever.”

  “Good,” I said with a grin. “That’s the goal, right? To look your best on this day of days?”

  “Well, you do.” Mom smiled, walking around to study me from every angle. “You’re a picture.” When she returned to face me, she took hold of my hands. “You’re sure, Lia? Totally sure that this is what you want?”

  “Totally,” I said, and knew I meant it.

  Gabi came over to me with the veil and together with Mom, they gently set it across my head.

  Dad took my hand. “To think I might’ve missed this day…” He shook his head and tears ran down his cheeks. He reached out and took Gabi’s hand too, and Mom closed our circle with an arm around each of our shoulders. “I’m so grateful that you two are okay. That you weren’t hurt worse than you were.”

  “Together, we’re strong,” I said. I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat. Whenever Dad got teary, I did too.

  “You are that. But this place…” He lifted his chin, looked to the ceiling and swallowed hard, as if he was trying to get a grip. After a moment, his brown eyes returned to meet mine. “As much as it’s meant to me, to us as a family, it’s not the safest place for my girls.”

  “It’s the only place for your girls,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze. “It’s where we belong. Come what may.”

  He smiled and then dropped my hand to wrap me in his arms. “I’m so proud of you, Lia. And I love Luca. You know that, right? He’s already a son to us.”

  “Which is the only way I’d marry him.”

  He gave me a kiss on the forehead and then moved so Mom could give me a kiss, too. Last came Gabi.

  “Thanks for fighting off the bad guys,” I said, my voice muffled as she hugged me tight.

  “Any time, Sis,” she answered, and I could hear the grin in her voice. She backed away, hands on my shoulders. We heard the bells of the basilica beginning to toll, calling us forward. “You ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be to pledge my life away.”

  “You’re not pledging your life away,” she said, settling the veil over my face. “You’re pledging to join your life with his, and gaining Luca’s love, forever. If you thought he was devoted before, look out. He’s going to be nutsy as your hubby.”

  I grinned and together, we went to the door. Outside, four knights waited to escort us—Celso, Matteo, Lutterius and Falito—dressed in their formal Forelli gold tunics. Lutterius’s eyes widened and Celso flushed when they saw me, and Falito actually crossed himself as if he’d seen an angel. I laughed under my breath, thanking them all as they took their turns complimenting me.

  “How does Otello fare?” I asked Celso.

  “He is well, m’lady. Feeling badly that he couldn’t defend you, but he’ll survive his wounds.”

  I frowned. “Tell him, Celso. Tell him I understand. It was one man against four, and he did his best. ’Tis all any of us could do.”

  Celso nodded. Then Dad offered his arm and I took it, and we were escorted down the hall and the stairs with the barrel-vaulted ceiling, Gabi and Mom right behind us. Two knights led the way. Two others protected us from behind.

  The halls were oddly silent; every visitor was in the basilica, it seemed. The only living beings we saw were servants at work or knights at intervals, standing guard. More had appeared since the attack—the doge was taking no further risk with our safety. And while they stood at attention, staring straight ahead as I passed, I could sense them watching us closely.

  We processed out to the loggia, with its Ottoman-inspired arches and decorative swirls cut out of stone. The loggia, as modern Italy saw it, had not been built yet, but this was gorgeous enough, the stonework monumental. For a moment, I wished there was a photographer and videographer on site, helping me to remember this precious day. I’d just have to sketch as much as I could as soon as I got home, commit it all to memory.

  I wondered about the calm pace of my heart. Wasn’t I supposed to feel panicky, or be hyperventilating or something? Maybe it was because we’d been through so much this morning…or maybe because what I was about to do was just so dead-on right…but all I felt was anticipation. Glee, sheer glee. It was like I couldn’t smile enough.

  Dad caught my eye and smiled as we entered the basilica’s side entrance, built especially for the doge. We entered and walked directly to the altar. There was no music, no bridal march, but everyone inside stood and a holy hush settled over them all. In a way, it was its own sort of atmospheric music. My heart was already dancing, because I saw my man at the end, with an elaborately dressed priest, or cardinal
or whatever, and beside him, Marcello.

  At the end of the aisle, Mom and Dad lifted my veil, kissed me on both cheeks, and Gabi handed me a nosegay of herbs. She settled the veil back down over my face and Luca was there, smiling as widely as I was, his green eyes alight with wonder. I rested my arm atop his and lifted my skirt with my free hand to climb the three steps. We stood directly below and in front of the cardinal.

  The old man had kind eyes, and while my Latin was seriously lacking when it came to following along something this intense and fast, I could figure out enough. There was mention of a man and a woman. Of a union. But seriously, all I had eyes for was my husband-to-be.

  This was finally happening.

  Me and Luca.

  Forever.

  We knelt on the step at one point, and the cardinal droned on in a fervent prayer, and while I couldn’t understand all the words, I felt the blessing settle over us like a blanket, wrapping ’round and ’round us. A shiver ran down my back. Never had I felt God so close, even though Tomas and I’d talked about it time and again. But here, now, I was so focused on the blessings of my life, it seemed like God was tangibly present.

  It almost made my heart explode. Seriously. I’d never felt the kind of joy I was experiencing at that moment. And while I wanted it to go on and on, Luca and I were soon facing each other, the cardinal wrapping our hands with a holy cloth, chanting a litany in Latin; a boy was waving a smoking censer on all sides of us, creating a sweet-spicy cloud of incense around us. In a way, it almost made everyone else disappear. All I could see was Luca, taking my hand, sliding a beautiful emerald ring on my finger, then accepting his own gold-and-emerald band from me. There was some sort of vow that I belatedly accepted, after I realized they were waiting on me, and then Luca was lifting my veil, cupping my face and kissing me, so sweet and tender that it made me tear up.

  The people clapped and swarmed around us, offering their congratulations. Luca allowed us to greet the doge and dogaressa, my parents, Gabi and Marcello, but then he took my hand firmly in his and pulled me toward the side entrance where we’d come in. Bells were ringing at a maniacally joyful pace, their deep tolls reverberating in our chests, so loud in the side chamber, I could barely hear Luca. But his expression of joy and peace settled over me, and I merely concentrated on following the knights before us as other Ducale knights made a channel through the loggia for us to walk through. The people were in high spirits outside, crowding close to cheer us on and throw flowers and leaves at us.