by Mary Hoffman
Up till now, Sky had thought that would be a disaster, but here he was speeding towards Devon and the girl he really liked and the two other people who now meant most to him in his life. And until as recently as a few weeks ago he had never spoken to any of them.
‘It’s enormous!’ said Arianna, looking at the cathedral cupola. Fine as the Basilica of Santa Maddalena was in Bellezza, with its silver domes and mosaics, it couldn’t rival Saint-Mary-of-the-Lily for size and grandeur.
She was staying at the Bellezzan Embassy in the Borgo Sant’ Ambrogio. It was uncomfortably close to the Palazzo di Chimici in the Via Larga, and it was with relief that she learned that the Duke had moved further in towards the city’s centre. Her Ambassador had refused as diplomatically as he could, on Arianna’s behalf, all the offers for her and her retinue to stay at either palace, on the grounds that it was the first visit of a Duchessa of Bellezza to Giglia for nearly twenty years and that the Embassy must have the privilege of entertaining her.
She stood on the balcony of the Embassy’s most splendid bedroom, looking down the Borgo towards the cathedral. In a few weeks she must attend the splendid weddings there and she still did not know what to do about the Duke’s dress. Barbara was unpacking it even now, smoothing out invisible creases in the jewel-encrusted skirt, although it really was too stiff to crumple, even on a long journey.
There was a tap at the door. ‘May I come inne?’ said Doctor Dethridge, putting his grizzled head around it. ‘Youre visitours have arryved.’
He was followed by Rodolfo and Luciano, and Arianna’s heart lifted to see them both. Her visit to Giglia might be a diplomatic quagmire but at least she was to be surrounded by people she loved, who were Stravaganti into the bargain. She would be much more comfortable with her father and Luciano living in the Embassy.
*
In another part of the city, two more Stravaganti were talking about the Duchessa’s safety. Giuditta Miele was visiting Brother Sulien in his laboratory, drinking a tisane of mallow.
‘Rodolfo has called a meeting of members of the Brotherhood for this afternoon,’ Sulien was saying. ‘With Doctor Dethridge now arrived in the city, there will be five of us. Six if you count young Celestino.’
‘That will not be enough,’ said Giuditta. ‘You know my apprentice Franco? The pretty one.’
Sulien nodded.
‘He has been posing for Bruno Vecchietto, who has been painting angels all over the Nucci’s new palace. And he told Franco there is definitely trouble brewing. Their armoury is stocked full of weapons, and they are not a military family.’
‘But there is no reason to suppose their violence will be offered to the young Duchessa, is there?’ asked Sulien. ‘It is the di Chimici who are their enemies, and since Bellezza is opposed to the Duke’s plans, I should have thought the Nucci would be on Arianna’s side.’
‘Violence is never tidy, Sulien,’ said Giuditta. ‘All it takes is for young men armed with swords and daggers to get their blood up and there could be a massacre. Can you be sure Arianna will be safe in such a mêlée?’
‘What would you have us do?’ asked the friar. ‘Rodolfo will be open to suggestion.’
‘If only there were another strong faction who could help keep order,’ said Giuditta.
‘The Nucci could have been useful,’ said Sulien thoughtfully, ‘but not since the death of Davide. If they see the opportunity to attack the di Chimici they will be caught up in that, not looking out for the Duchessa.’
‘We need more Stravaganti here,’ said Giuditta. ‘I would have Rodolfo summon others of the Brotherhood from all over Talia. If it comes to a fight, it is not swordsmen we need, but those who can communicate without words and surround the Duchessa with their thoughts rather than their muscles.’
Sky moved into the little boxroom he always slept in at his grandmother’s. It looked smaller than ever this time.
‘Good heavens!’ said his grandmother, looking in on him. ‘You’ll be bursting at the seams. I had no idea you had grown so tall!’
‘Growth spurt, Nana,’ said Sky. ‘Don’t worry – I’ll be fine.’
‘Next time, I’ll put you in the back bedroom and let Rosalind sleep in here,’ said Mrs Meadows. ‘We can’t have you cramping your young limbs. Are you sure you can fit in that bed? It’s not even a full-size single.’
It was nice to be fussed over for a while but Sky was itching to get to see Alice. Next morning, after breakfast, he got Rosalind to drive him over to Ivy Court in Laura’s car. Laura’s parents lived within walking distance of Nana Meadows and Rosalind was quite happy to drive short distances on roads she knew well.
It was a fine spring day and the scent of flowers was in the air. It reminded Sky of Giglia. Particularly when they turned into the drive of Ivy Court and he caught the unmistakable scent of pine trees.
‘Crikey,’ said Rosalind. ‘Your girlfriend must be loaded!’
Sky scarcely noticed that she had called Alice his girlfriend for the first time. His heart had sunk. Ivy Court was a red-brick Elizabethan farmhouse with imposing chimneys and a circular gravel drive. There seemed to be a lot of outbuildings as well. Nicholas had said that Alice had plenty of space but he had been very casual about it. Now Sky thought that it was all very well for Nicholas, who had been a prince in another life.
But it was Georgia who came round the corner; she was flushed and rather pretty – something Sky had never thought before.
‘Oh, hi,’ she said, smiling. ‘Hello, Rosalind. We’ve just been for an early ride.’
‘You obviously enjoyed it,’ said Rosalind.
‘Yes, it was great. There’s something about the air down here. Come in and meet Alice’s dad. I’ll make us some coffee. Alice and Nick are still rubbing down the horses.’
Horses? thought Sky. She has more than one? He moved into the house like a zombie.
Paul Greaves was sitting in the kitchen, reading the paper. He was relaxed and friendly and immediately started chatting to Rosalind while Georgia filled an enormous kettle and put it on the hotplate of a cream Aga. It was a comfortable, untidy room but Sky knew that it meant money. He thought of their kitchen at the flat, where they ate their meals. There was a wooden table and chairs in here too, but he was pretty sure that this house would have a proper dining room as well.
Georgia made six full mugs of real coffee and set out hot cross buns, and, by the time she was done, Alice and Nicholas had come in, smelling slightly of horse and with their hair ruffled and their faces glowing. Sky couldn’t have felt less at home. But Alice gave him a beaming smile and he thought again how lovely she was and how lucky he was that she liked him.
‘Did you bring the foils?’ asked Nicholas, under his breath.
‘They’re still in the car,’ said Sky, feeling glad that at least they had turned up in the new Rover and not his granddad’s old Fiesta.
‘Good,’ said Nicholas. ‘We’ll start after coffee.’
‘Start what?’ asked Alice. ‘Don’t tell me you two are going to spend the holiday fencing?’
‘Fencing?’ said Paul. ‘Are you another swordsman, Sky?’
‘Not as good as Nick,’ said Sky. ‘But I’m learning.’
‘He’s obsessed,’ said Rosalind. ‘Every spare moment.’
‘It’s a good sport,’ said Paul. ‘I wish I could do it. It always looks so glamorous and dashing.’
Alice laughed. ‘You want to be dashing, Dad?’
Now it was Paul’s turn to blush a little, and Sky saw where Alice got her looks from. He also noticed his mother looking appreciative, which alarmed him a bit.
‘You know what an old romantic I am,’ said Paul, putting his arm round Alice. ‘It comes of being a country solicitor, who lives in the house he was born in,’ he explained. ‘I often think how unadventurous my life must seem from the outside, though I do like my job.’
‘And it’s a wonderful house,’ said Rosalind.
‘Alice tells me you were born round he
re too,’ said Paul, and then the two adults were off on one of those ‘Where-did-you-go-to-school and did-you-know-so-and-so?’ conversations that meant the others could escape.
‘You’re not really going to start fencing, are you?’ asked Alice. She was longing to be alone with Sky.
He felt torn in two. Insecure and lacking in self-confidence all over again, he would have liked to be on his own with Alice, too. But he also needed to talk to Nicholas and Georgia, who were obviously keen to quiz him about what was going on in Giglia.
‘Come on, Nick,’ said Georgia, coming to his rescue. ‘Let’s give them some space. I’m sure Alice would like to show Sky round.’
‘We do need to get more Stravaganti here,’ said Rodolfo, agreeing with Giuditta.
‘Then send messages to Remora, Bellona and all the other city-states,’ she said. ‘The brothers in Fortezza, Moresco and Volana could get here quickly too.’
‘There is another way,’ said Rodolfo. ‘And one that wouldn’t leave all the other cities vulnerable. It is bad enough that Bellezza is undefended.’
‘Wee have been essaying to altir the nature of the talismannes,’ said William Dethridge.
‘How?’ asked Sulien.
‘You know how they bring Stravaganti from my old world always to one city?’ said Luciano. ‘It’s a restriction we’ve been trying to overcome.’
‘So that Celestino could travel to Bellezza, for instance?’ asked the friar.
‘Yes, though it’s here he’ll be needed,’ said Rodolfo. ‘But there are two others we could bring here.’
‘Then you have succeeded?’ said Giuditta.
‘No,’ said Rodolfo. ‘Not yet.’ He walked over to the window. He and Luciano had moved into the Embassy, to be closer to Arianna, and he was holding his conference of Stravaganti in one of its elegant reception rooms.
Luciano wondered if his old master had told Arianna about the Grand Duke’s marriage plans. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to ask; Rodolfo seemed so preoccupied with the safety of his daughter at the weddings.
‘You sense the tensions in the city?’ Rodolfo was asking Sulien and Giuditta. ‘I don’t think we can depend on the success of our experiments. I think you will have to take two new talismans yourselves.’
Rosalind stayed to lunch at Ivy Court. She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had liked someone as much as she did Paul. And it wasn’t just because he was an attractive man. He was warm and friendly and willing to be interested in her and eager to show her round the house and grounds, not because he was showing off but because he loved them.
Lunch turned out to be a scrappy affair of things dug out of the freezer and larder. Sky was the best cook among them, which was not saying much, but they ended up eating a surprisingly satisfying concoction of rice and peas with what Sky said was chilli con carne. It was quite hot and Paul brought up cold beer from the cellar – it was the kind of house that would have a cellar. And his freezer was well-stocked with large tubs of ice cream – apparently a stipulation of Alice’s when she was coming to stay.
‘You’ll need to get more with four teenagers in the house,’ said Alice.
‘I shall order a daily cartload,’ said Paul grandly, and Sky felt pleased that he had been so easily accepted as just another friend of Alice’s who was going to be around. But he was still reeling from his tour of the house and grounds. OK, it wasn’t like a di Chimici residence, but it was still the grandest home he had been in outside Talia.
After lunch, Rosalind reluctantly said she must be getting back to her mother’s. ‘What time shall I collect him?’ she asked Paul.
‘Oh, don’t worry,’ said Paul. ‘I’ll drop him back whenever you want him.’
‘Thanks. It’ll be easier when Sky can drive,’ said Rosalind. ‘He’s supposed to be having some lessons this holiday, so you mustn’t let him spend all his time here.’
‘I could give you some lessons, Sky,’ said Paul. ‘There’s space for you to pick up the basics in the grounds, without going out on the road. It’s an awkward stage, isn’t it?’ he said to Rosalind. ‘Before they’re quite old enough to drive but they’re old enough to go out on their own and you end up ferrying them everywhere.’
Rosalind didn’t feel quite comfortable agreeing; she knew that made it sound as if she was always doing things for her son, when it was usually the other way round.
‘Now,’ said Nicholas to Sky and Alice. ‘If you love-birds are willing to be unstuck, Sky and I could do some fencing.’
Georgia nobly left them to it while she went off to talk to Alice and the two boys were able at last to talk about Giglia.
‘I didn’t go last night,’ said Sky. ‘And I’m hoping it will work OK stravagating from my nana’s. I’ll try tonight.’
‘Georgia was able to get to Remora from here,’ said Nicholas. ‘What happened the last time you went?’
‘Not a lot,’ said Sky. ‘I saw the new Nucci palace. It’s huge.’
‘The Nucci?’ said Nicholas. ‘They have a place up by Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines, don’t they? The one with the tower?’
‘They do. But they’re moving to this swanky new one on the other side of the river. I don’t think the Duke’s too pleased about it.’
‘I bet,’ said Nicholas. ‘He thinks swank is his prerogative.’
He was still holding a foil but not making any attempt to fence. He was too thoughtful.
‘How am I going to get there?’ he asked. ‘I must be able to see what’s going on for myself.’
‘But wouldn’t you be recognised?’ asked Sky. ‘Even if something could be done about the talismans?’
‘I’ll grow a beard!’ said Nicholas.
They both laughed. ‘You’d better start now, then,’ said Sky. ‘Do you even shave yet?’
‘Just for that, I’m going to whip your ass,’ said Nicholas. ‘En garde!’
The statue of the Duchessa was complete apart from the hands and face. She stood in Giuditta’s studio, looking like a bird poised for flight, her marble cloak and hair streaming out behind her in the invisible wind.
‘It’s wonderful,’ said Arianna. She was wearing a grey velvet cloak with a hood pulled up over her masked face and was accompanied by Barbara and two bodyguards. Franco the angelic apprentice was looking at Barbara in admiration, unperturbed by the two armed Bellezzans.
‘I have never sculpted a face with a mask before,’ said Giuditta.
‘It’s a pity,’ said Arianna. ‘But that’s how I must appear, in a public statue.’
‘Still, I should like to see your face,’ said the sculptor. ‘It would help if I knew what I was covering up.’
‘Then everyone else must look away,’ said Arianna. ‘My guards know the penalty and would exact it.’
Giuditta gave the order and her apprentices turned away, watched over by Barbara and the guards. Arianna untied her mask and Giuditta looked long at her face, sketching swiftly with a stick of charcoal. She walked round the Duchessa for twenty minutes, drawing her face from several angles.
At last she said, ‘It is enough for today. Thank you, your Grace.’
Arianna felt dismissed. She could tell that Giuditta was itching to get back to work on the marble. She re-tied the mask and put on her cloak. The tension in the studio lifted and she was sure she saw one of the apprentices wink at her maid.
When she had gone, Franco came over to look at the sketches.
‘It can’t be forbidden even to look at a drawing of her face,’ he said, and the other apprentices clustered round.
‘She’s as beautiful as they say,’ said one.
‘She’s OK,’ said Franco. ‘But I like the maid better.’
‘How can you tell? She was masked too.’
But Giuditta took no notice of their chatter. She was concentrating on the macquette she was going to make of the Duchessa’s head. It was taking her mind off the other thing she had agreed to do.
Chapter 14
P
ictures in the Walls
Sky took the blue glass bottle in his hand with some trepidation. He had not stravagated the night before – the first time he had missed a night since his Talian adventures had started. He found it difficult to believe that he could arrive there just as easily from Devon as from London.
Everything felt different down here – the visit to Ivy Court had unsettled not just him. His mother had been unusually animated that evening, chattering about Paul and Alice, while he had retreated more into himself. He could see in his mind’s eye the sort of boy Alice was supposed to get serious about – blond, rich and having ridden a horse practically as soon as he could walk – and Sky didn’t fit any of the criteria.
It would be a relief to turn to his new friends in Talia and his alternative identity as a novice friar and secret Stravagante with some serious involvement in politics and strategies. For weeks now he had been leading two parallel lives, and no one who knew him in his everyday world, apart from Georgia and Nicholas, would have believed that this lanky teenager with the long dreadlocks spent his nights striding round a mighty Renaissance city, dressed in black and white robes.
At the beginning, it had been like a game for Sky – a kind of dressing-up and play-acting that gave scope to his more flamboyant side that had been suppressed for years. And it had been a welcome break from being the only fully functioning person in his family. But as Rosalind continued to get better and some of the burdens had lifted at home, Sky had got more and more involved in what he was doing in Talia. It wasn’t just adventures and role-playing; he had been sent there on a mission. Only he wasn’t yet sure what it was.
The more time Sky spent with Brother Sulien, the more he came to respect and admire him. He could see that Luciano practically worshipped Rodolfo and wondered if that was always how it was with Stravaganti. Georgia hadn’t said much about the one she met in Remora, but Sky knew that he was called Paolo and that Georgia still missed him and his family.