Demon Knight

* * *

They spoke very little. Hamish was calm but understandably bitter at the cruel blow fate had dealt him. Toby had only clammy comfort to offer. He mentioned the bereavements he had known — Granny Nan, Jeanne, friends in the Company — and of how all wounds must heal in time. But that was sometime, this was now.

'You always knew it could not be,' he said. 'You never expected to share her throne in Greenwich Palace. Could you have endured watching her washing clothes in the burn?'

Hamish gave him a sour look. 'Do you think she wouldn't wash shirts for me, or I wouldn't dig fields for her? If the Don Ramon Company ever pays me what it owes me, I'll have enough to buy a farm, and farmers can afford servants. Or I could go back to Barcelona and work for Josep Brusi. He offered me as much to wield a pen as you pay me to risk my hide. I should have put Lisa on a horse and ridden off into the night. I should have taken her where the Fiend would never find us.'

After a long silence, Toby said, 'Yes, you probably should have.'

He wondered what he would have done, had he been in Hamish's place. Had he been like other men.

* * *

They did not turn aside to Fiesole, but went on to Florence and the Marradi Palace. Even Hamish, who had made a point of befriending all the Magnificent's gatekeepers, could not gain admission that evening. He learned only that two golden-haired foreign ladies had arrived the day before and were staying on as guests. It was encouraging that their identity had not yet become public knowledge, but this could not be long delayed after Marradi's display of temper at Cafaggiolo.

They rode back to the villa to break the bad news and reassure Diaz that he had made the correct decision when he surrendered Lisa and her mother to the Magnificent. Then there was nothing else to do except clean up and eat and go on with the rest of their lives.

CHAPTER FIVE

'We call this the portrait gallery,' Lucrezia said. 'At the far end you will find some very imaginative impressions of what my forebears wished their forebears had looked like. At this end the art is more pleasing and probably more plausible. This one, for instance — Orpheus calming the waves. By Ruffolo.'

Lisa said, 'Charming.'

'You prefer Apollo driving his chariot?'

'Bizarre.'

The duchess eyed her guest thoughtfully, as might a hangman or taxidermist. 'How about this one, Sisyphus rolling the boulder?'

'It is quite realistic.' After an entire day in the Marradi palace, Lisa had not been tamed yet. She had a lot of fight left in her, although it was not likely to do her much good.

'The naked man or just the boulder?'

'Boulders are dull; they don't do anything. The man reminds me somewhat of High Constable Longdirk.'

However well the courtesies were being observed, Lisa was a prisoner and the little smiling duchess her jailer. The Marradi Palace was a treasure-house of gorgeous things, but it was also a trap, a web shining in sunshine, and Lucrezia was the spider, the smiling spider. All of Lisa's struggles merely amused her. The one exception was Longdirk. He was the one topic that could cut through the woman's insufferable smugness. Any reference to the condottiere riled Lucrezia excessively. The man did have some uses, therefore, if he could bring a flush to Lucrezia's cheek and a flash to her eye.

As now. 'I think you are indulging in wishful thinking, monna!'

Lisa attempted what she hoped was a cryptic, wouldn't-you-like-to-know smile. 'About the calves, I mean. Have you never noticed those great bulges in Toby's hose? When he walks they run like rabbits up and down —'

'Come and sit here, Lisa.' Mother had noticed the battle in progress. She was huddled on one of the gold-silk sofas as if she were freezing to death, although the gallery was hot and stuffy. She had aged twenty years since leaving Fiesole the previous day. Having spent her adult life staying one jump ahead of the hounds, she was convinced — as she had explained to Lisa fifty times in the night — that as soon as the two of them were identified in public the Fiend would catch them. Now it was about to happen.

Lisa ignored her. She turned her back on the Sisyphus anatomy lesson. 'And what happens now, Your Grace?'

'Do please call me Lucrezia, Your Majesty.'

Lisa smiled and waited.

Lucrezia smiled right back at her. 'Now? Now we have a private little dinner party, just six of us. Tomorrow or the day after, there will be a banquet so the signory can welcome Queen Elizabeth of England and Queen Mother Blanche to fair Florence.' Queen Mother Blanche moaned in the background, but the duchess ignored her. 'You must excuse my brother for keeping you waiting like this. They only just got back from Cafaggiolo.'

So the conclave was over. Longdirk would have returned to Fiesole and learned that his guests had been abducted — or rather that his prisoners had been stolen, because Lisa had no doubts that she had been just as much a prisoner in the villa as she was here. A prison with Hamish in it had much more appeal, though. Could even Longdirk do anything against the Magnificent? Did he want to? Had the goods been stolen or sold?

'Do tell me what happened at Cafaggiolo. I know that Constable Longdirk held few hopes of the conclave.'

Lucrezia's smile had triumph all through it like the gold thread in her gown. 'Then he would not have been surprised. Disappointed, yes, of course. The prince has appointed a comandante in capo, and it is not Longdirk.'

Hamish had made no secret of the fact that Toby had wanted that title, but evidently he had not bought it with Lisa, which was encouraging. 'I do hope Florence does not feel slighted. And who is the new champion?'

'You will meet him shortly.'

'Oh. And who else?' Lisa realized she might be facing a long evening.

Lucrezia's smile confirmed that supposition. 'Just the prince. You can ask him yourself why he did not choose your lover to be comandante.'

'My who?'

Another catlike smile. 'So it was wishful thinking!'

'If there is any wishful thinking, it is more on his part than mine.' Lisa would not admit that she and Longdirk detested each other, snarling like cats every time their paths crossed. But she was in retreat now, like an outclassed fencer, and Lucrezia's rapier was flashing, drawing blood with every stroke—

'Then he will not be further disappointed when he learns of your betrothal?'

Squeak! 'My what?'

'Dear child, what do you expect? The royal houses of Europe have been decimated and must be rebuilt. You have a lifetime's work ahead of you.'

'You make me sound like a broodmare!' Lisa very nearly stamped her foot.

The duchess shrugged. 'Call it what you will, I am sure the darughachi will want to br — will have plans for your early marriage. You can ask him that, too.'

'I have no dowry!'

'You bring all England as your dowry, child.' Oh, how Lucrezia was enjoying herself! Now it was Lisa who was outranked.

'Not very easy to collect.'

'An interesting challenge. You are prime marriage material. The greatest houses in Europe would accept such a bride, even in normal times. Now, if necessary, you can be used to confer royalty on some man of lesser rank.'

The footmen stationed outside the door opened it and bowed in the Magnificent, who in turn bowed to Lisa and then her mother.