Stravaganza: City Of Stars Part 14

'Ah!' said Niccol, letting the breath hiss out between his teeth when he saw who it was. 'You are getting better at this.'

'Sorry if I startled you, my Lord,' said Enrico. 'But I thought you might be about to leave. And I didn't want you to miss what I have to show you.'

He led the Duke into the stables and back to the furthest stall. Darker than the shadows in which she stood, wings drooping, was the flying horse.

'You did it!' said the Duke, eyes shining. 'The little miracle!'

He stepped forward and stroked the filly's muzzle. She huffed sadly down her nostrils.

'Nello!' called the Duke. 'Come here!'

His stableman appeared out of the shadows.

'Your Grace,' he bowed.

'What can you do for the little one?' Niccol asked.

'She is moping a little, my Lord,' said Nello.

'Only natural,' agreed Enrico. 'Missing her mother.'

'But she will pull round,' said Nello. 'Have no fear, my Lord. I shall look after her as if she was my own baby.'

'Me too, my Lord,' said Enrico.

The Duke looked at his two men and shuddered slightly. But he did have faith in their knowledge of horses.

'I wish Georgia were here,' said Cesare miserably.

'Whatte coulde shee doe thatte we canne not?' asked Dethridge.

'Nothing, I suppose,' said Cesare. 'I just wish she knew about Merla.'

'But the portal has probably stabilised, hasn't it?' said Luciano. 'I mean, ever since she started stravagating, the times in the two worlds have matched. If she's not here today, then it's likely only one night has pa.s.sed in her world.'

'Not necessarily,' said Paolo. 'She could return tomorrow and we could find her four years older. But you are probably right.'

Neither Luciano nor Cesare liked the idea of Georgia coming back older than them.

The atmosphere in the stables of the Ram was bleak. They had searched Santa Fina all afternoon and returned late to Remora, planning to start again the next morning. No one really believed that Merla had gone missing by accident, or that she would be found wandering free in the countryside. Even if she were, what were the chances of someone who found her not keeping her to bring luck to his own house?

But, if someone had taken her, that meant that the Ram's secret was known.

'You are sure that neither of you let anything slip to the di Chimici?' asked Paolo.

'Certain,' said Cesare. 'We never really talked about horses, did we?'

'No,' said Luciano. 'And what's more, even if we had, I don't think they'd have told their father. Or anyone else.'

'Ye seme almoste to favoure these chimists nowe,' said Dethridge. 'Have yow forgot whatte they did to yow? And to the Dutchesse?'

'How could I?' asked Luciano. 'I live with the results of their actions every day. But those two, the young ones, are quite different from their father. And from their cousin, come to that. I don't think either of them cares about the family's plans.'

'And yette the ill-favoured one wolde make a marriage with yonge Arianne, to plese his fathire,' said Dethridge.

'Ah,' said Luciano, more calmly than he felt. 'So you know about that?'

His foster-father looked very uncomfortable.

'I am sorye, Lucian; Maister Rudolphe told mee. I meant not to speak of it, bot ye semed so certayne thatte the yonge n.o.bile is yowre freend. Al I saye is hee is his fathire's sonne and wol doo whatte he is bidden.'

'And what about Arianna?' said Luciano. 'What do you think she will do? Sell herself to the son and her city to his father? She would never do anything like that. She is her mother's daughter.'

'There,' said Maura. 'We'll put it in the airing-cupboard to dry and it will be as good as new.'

The wings were back on the horse and the joins could not be seen. Maura had done a good job with the glue.

'No,' said Georgia. 'It's not going out of my room.'

Her mother sighed. 'Have it your own way. But it will take longer to harden the glue if you don't put it somewhere warm.'

'It can go on the window-sill,' said Georgia. 'I'll wait. I'm not letting Russell get his hands on it again. You saw that it must have been broken deliberately.'

It was true. The wings looked as if they had been snapped off cleanly from the horse's back. But Maura didn't want to believe that Russell had been guilty of such vandalism. She wanted the family to work and simply could not face the idea that her daughter and stepson hated one another.

'I see that you are very unhappy, Georgia,' she said now. 'Would you like to go away for a while?'

Georgia looked at her mother in amazement. Doctor Kennedy had p.r.o.nounced her well enough to return to school the next day 'Just a bit run down; it often happens towards the end of term. Too much homework,' had been her diagnosis.

'What about school?' she asked.

'Oh, you can do these next two days,' said Maura. 'You won't get any more homework anyway. But Alice's mother asked me if you'd like to go with Alice when she goes to stay with her father in Devon on Sunday. Alice asked if you could and she has a horse down there, you know.'

'I know,' said Georgia automatically, her mind whirling. It would be great to get away from the atmosphere in this house and she liked the idea of spending more time with Alice. Best of all, she liked the idea that Alice had asked for her. They had only just started to be friends, after all. But would she be able to stravagate to Remora from Devon? Still, she didn't know if she'd be able to stravagate with a broken talisman anyway.

'When did you see Alice's mum?' she said, playing for time.

'She rang me at work,' said Maura. 'Alice was anxious when you didn't come into school today. She wanted to ask you herself, but was afraid you wouldn't come back before the end of term.'

'I think I would like that,' said Georgia.

Maura sighed with relief. That would be one set of teenage hormones out of the house for a while, and perhaps she could persuade Ralph to talk to Russell while Georgia was away. And it would stop Georgia from seeing this peculiar man Russell had talked about, until Maura had a chance to check him out.

Falco limped down the great staircase of the summer palace. He had been waiting all morning for a visit from Luciano and, he hoped, Georgia. But no one had come. The palace was deserted and quiet and Falco's courage was beginning to fail. It was all very well to talk boldly of his new life in Georgia's world when he was with the young Stravaganti, but what if his plan didn't work? The talisman might not take him. Suppose he got horribly stranded between one world and the other? The half-life that he led here was better than no life at all and at least he was used to it.

And, if it did work, Falco knew how much his family would miss him, particularly Gaetano and their father. But ever since he had heard about the Duke's plan to send him into the Church without any vocation he had known that his father viewed him differently from his other sons. 'I won't be a disappointment to him,' he vowed. 'I'd rather not be here at all.'

Falco looked down the staircase at how many steps he had yet to descend, then back up behind him to see how far he had travelled. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a blue cloak whisking behind a pillar. He had seen it a few times before; there was someone else staying in the house besides himself and the servants.

But then the bell at the great door began jingling and a footman ushered in Luciano. Falco was pleased to see him, even though he entered alone.

The young Stravagante took the stairs two at a time and was in front of Falco before the boy knew it.

'I'm sorry I didn't come sooner,' he said. 'But I have been in the town all morning, on another errand. We need to talk somewhere privately.'

On Thursday Georgia lifted the winged horse gently off her window-sill and inspected it. It seemed fine. Carefully she swathed it in bubble-wrap and put it in her pocket. Today she would take it to school and tonight she would see if it would take her to Remora.

Alice was waiting for her in their cla.s.sroom and her face lit up when she saw that Georgia was looking all right. In fact Georgia was feeling a lot better; she hadn't expected to sleep at all for worrying, but she had had a really good night and was feeling stronger than she had for a long time.

'You're coming to Devon?' whispered Alice during registration. 'My mum spoke to yours last night.'

Georgia nodded. 'Yeah, thanks. It'll be great. Can I ride your horse?'

''Course,' said Alice. 'We can take turns.'

'Alice,' whispered Georgia. 'Can you ride bareback?'

There was just time for Alice to nod before Ms Yates told them off for chatting.

Luciano looked at the long ballroom in amazement. Musical instruments sat at the far end shrouded under cloths and a hundred mirrors reflected the two figures of himself and Falco standing in the middle of the room. It could not be a comforting image for the younger boy.

'Is there nowhere a bit ... smaller?' asked Luciano.

'It's all right,' said Falco. 'No one ever comes in here except when the family is entertaining.' He limped the length of the ballroom.

'It's quite snug here in the window,' he called back.

Luciano felt a surge of pity for the lonely boy, who had made this vast and dreary building his kingdom. They sat behind the ghostly shapes of harp and harpsichord and talked softly about Georgia and how Falco was to make his escape.

'I think,' said Luciano, 'that you'll have to do a trial run.'

'What's that?' asked Falco.

'Like a heat for the Stellata, a kind of a practice,' explained Luciano. 'We need to get Georgia to bring you a talisman and you can try going back with her at the end of one of her visits here. Then it will be morning in her world and you can see if you like it. I don't think you should make such a big decision without knowing what it's like. It's going to be so different from all this.' He gestured at the empty ballroom.

'Different from this is what I want,' said Falco. 'I'll do it. When do you think she'll come back?'

But Luciano realised he had no idea. And for the first time, he was worried about her.

Chapter 15.

A Ghost in the Palace Gaetano was too confused to enjoy his stay in Bellezza. But there was no doubt that the city was beautiful. Much as he loved his native Giglia, he had to admit that Bellezza was spectacular. The Regent had asked his older brothers, Egidio and Fiorentino, to show Gaetano around and the two men spent their days sculling the young di Chimici along the ca.n.a.ls and telling him all their stories from their days as mandoliers.

They were surprisingly good company, full of laughter and anecdotes and not at all like their intimidating younger brother. But on the first day, when Egidio was sculling, Fiorentino told him to pull in at one of the traghetto jetties. 'There's a woman there, waving us over,' he said. 'She must think we're a ferry.'

Gaetano shaded his eyes with his hand. Even at this distance and with the sun behind her, he could tell it was his cousin Francesca. The two middle-aged mandoliers were not averse to taking on board a beautiful young woman, particularly when Gaetano explained that she was related to him.

'What are you all doing?' asked Francesca, when she had been introduced and was settled among the mandola-cushions. 'You look like a tourist, Gaetano.'

'Not really,' said Fiorentino, 'he'd have a younger mandolier to scull him if he were. My brother and I are long retired from that trade, but we still know enough to show an honoured guest our city.'

'You surely can't have been retired for long,' said Francesca. 'I've heard that mandoliers have to stop at twenty-five.'

The brothers were delighted with the compliment, which they took as a huge joke.

'I'd like to see more of the city myself,' said Francesca. 'My cousin the amba.s.sador brought me here last year for my marriage and I have seen very little of Bellezza except the main sights like the Basilica and the market on the wooden bridge. For most of the time, I have been shut up in my husband's palazzo with just my maid for company.'

'And not your husband?' asked Egidio, who knew something of the background to this marriage.

'No,' said Francesca. 'Councillor Albani has gone south to oversee his vineyards near Cittanuova.'

She didn't add that she had insisted to Rinaldo di Chimici that he must get her marriage to old Albani dissolved and that she would not stay a minute in Bellezza unless her husband were removed from her sight. It was true that Albani had vineyards in the south; they were doing very badly because of a blight on the vines and that was why he had accepted the di Chimici bride who came with a large dowry. It was proving more difficult than Francesca had hoped to get out of this marriage that had been forced on her, because Albani was canny enough to want to keep the dowry.

It was a delicate matter for the di Chimici family. Francesca had a.s.sumed that she would be able to return to Bellona as soon as the farce of the Ducal election was over, but a message had come from no less a person than Duke Niccol that she must stay in the city until the dissolution of the marriage had been engineered, to save face for the family and support the illusion that she had her own reasons for coming to Bellezza.

'It would be a pleasure to show you our city with the Principe,' said Egidio.

It did not cross Gaetano's mind to wonder how Francesca knew he would be on the ca.n.a.l at that time and why she had been allowed out of the palazzo unaccompanied. He was just pleased to be with her. And so for the next few weeks, he spent his days with Francesca and the Rossi brothers, exploring the city by land and by water.

They visited the islands and he bought her lace and gla.s.s and a fine new dagger for himself. They ate delicious cakes on Burlesca and visited the gla.s.s museum on Merlino. Gaetano studied the gla.s.s mask and read the story of how a prince of Remora had been dancing with the d.u.c.h.essa who wore its original, when she slipped and it splintered on her face. It was from that time that all unmarried women over sixteen in Bellezza had to wear a mask.

'It's the one good thing about my horrible marriage,' whispered Francesca. 'I don't have to wear a mask here. I don't know how the d.u.c.h.essa can bear it. What's the point of being young and beautiful and having lovely clothes and jewels if no one can see your face? I expect she'll marry soon just to get out of it.'

This conversation made Gaetano very uncomfortable. He didn't know whether to tell Francesca why he was in Bellezza or that almost every night, when he dined privately with the d.u.c.h.essa, she sat smiling at her side of table with her beauty unmasked and he called her Arianna.

'He must have been our great-uncle,' said Francesca, reading the label by the mask.

That brought Gaetano back to earth. He and Francesca were di Chimici; it was one of their ancestors who had danced with that d.u.c.h.essa. He had no idea if Arianna was her descendant, but he did know that there was a family tradition that a d.u.c.h.essa of Bellezza had poisoned the young Prince of Remora. He wished now that he had paid more attention to the story. No wonder there was a feud between the di Chimici and the city of Bellezza.

The question was, could a marriage between himself and Arianna bring it to an end?

'Nay, ladde, thou moste try to staye on!' laughed William Dethridge, hugely entertained.

He and Cesare had a secret; they were teaching Luciano to ride. At least, they were trying to. He was not a natural horseman and came off his mount quite often. But they were practising in a field full of soft hay and he suffered no more than bruises and hurt pride. He didn't want Georgia to know about this, so he had decided to have his private lessons early in the morning and late at night.

Luciano had come to this decision the morning he saw Cesare ride bareback in the preparatory races for the Stellata. He had envied the boy's easy seat and his sense of oneness with Arcangelo, the beautiful chestnut. He was also still smarting from seeing Georgia and Cesare ride off from Santa Fina with Gaetano di Chimici, while he and Falco followed in the carriage. Even Falco, three years younger than him, had apparently been a fine horseman before the accident.

'If I was still in the twenty-first century,' Luciano had told his foster-father, 'I'd be looking forward to getting my driving licence next year. You know, driving those horseless carriages I told you about? My dad had already given me a few lessons in the sports centre car park. Now all that has gone I won't even have a bike. So I might as well learn how to get around on Talian transport.'