And to her great surprise, Bianca found herself explaining to him her brother’s foolish actions that had caused Sebastiano Rovere to literally blackmail her father into giving her to the dissolute lawyer as his third wife. “When my mother was finally allowed to see me many months after the wedding, I told her of what I had suffered with Sebastiano. She immediately removed me from his house. My family hid me in Santa Maria del Fiore convent until they were able to spirit me to Luce Stellare, which had belonged to my paternal grandmother’s family. I have lived here for the past year while they have attempted to gain an annulment for me. My family warned me that they would not communicate with me until they had good news, for Rovere had put a watch on our palaz-
zo in the city,” Bianca explained. “I have heard nothing, and so I must assume that so far their efforts have come to nothing. I am certain he has used his kinsman Cardinal Rovere to block their efforts, but my mother’s family is not without influence with the Church. I know that my grandfather in Venice will be working to free me. Now you understand why I have been so cautious, Amir.”
“You have trusted me enough to tell me this,” he said softly, suddenly happy. He knew of Sebastiano Rovere by reputation. He was of unsavory renown. To think this exquisite girl had suffered at the hands of such a man was unbearable, and he now understood much more than he had previously.
“You have given me no reason not to trust you,” Bianca said. “But now that I have, my very life is in your hands. If you expose me, Sebastiano will surely kill me. He could hide my absence for a few months, but eventually it would have become public knowledge that I have left him and am seeking an annulment. And if he finds me, I will suffer greatly at his hands before the relief and release of death. He is an evil man.”
“I do not know him,” Amir told her, “but his character is that of ill repute, according to the gossip. He was jailed recently for a despicable act, but his victim died before she might testify in court against him. His cronies eventually saw to his release, as there was no witness remaining except those men themselves who, it is said, were all involved in the crime. The girl’s family was of a lesser guild.”
“I suspect I was gone from the city by then,” Bianca said. “What did he do?”
“It is not something that should be discussed with a decent woman,” the prince told her. “I will say the victim was an innocent virgin of a respectable family, kidnapped, and brought to your husband’s palazzo, where she was raped many times by his guests and others. There was talk of something else but it is not for your ears.”
“The little donkey,” Bianca whispered fearfully in spite of herself.
“Yes,” the prince said. “How do you know of such a thing? By Allah! He did not commit such a monstrous and savage act on you, did he?”
“He was considering it, but I escaped him just before the creature came into the house. He has a Moorish slave girl who is quite dissolute. Even more so than my husband. I am certain she was involved,” Bianca told Amir.
His arm tightened about her. No wonder she lived in terror of Sebastiano Rovere. He was a monster and did not deserve to live. Nor did he deserve Bianca. She, however, was bound by her Christian church’s law to the brute until she could obtain an annulment—or one of them was dead. The lawyer, however, was a slippery fellow. He could and would probably delay any bill of divorcement of his marriage until he could revenge himself on her. The rain continued to pour down.
Whom had Rovere married? She had told him all but her family’s name. He cudgeled his brain to remember.The most beautiful girl in Florence,it had been said at the time. Who was she? Who was... The silk merchant’s daughter! Of course! Bianca was the daughter of Giovanni Pietro d’Angelo. The family was a large one and beyond respectable. No wonder the man had panicked and sacrificed his eldest daughter to protect his own wife and other children. He would make it a point to learn more about the family when he went into the city next.
There was a rumble of thunder, and Darius whined.
“I know who you are now, Bianca. I will not betray you,” the prince told her.
She looked up at him, and he wanted to drown himself in her aquamarine eyes.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Unable to help himself, he brushed her lips with his own, but when he sought to deepen the kiss she put two fingers over his mouth. “No,signore,” she chided him, her beautiful eyes meeting his. “Remember that I am a respectable woman. While I seek to free myself from Sebastiano Rovere, I am still, unfortunately, his wife. I will not add adultery to my sins.”
“You have no sins!” he declared passionately, catching her hand up and kissing it.
Bianca smiled.
“The rain is stopping,” she told him. “I must go now.” She gently removed the protective arm he had about her shoulders and felt a sudden loss. She had been so safe with that arm about her. Safer than she had believed in over a year. She gave Darius a pat, slipping from the cave’s mouth to hurry down the beach and up the path that led to her villa.
He stood watching her go, the taste of her still on his lips. He had two wives back in Turkey. Women taken at his grandfather’s request, but he had never been in love. He had no harem to satisfy his desires. It startled him to realize that he had fallen in love with the silk merchant’s beautiful daughter. He realized she was not a woman to fling herself into an affair, no matter how lonely or unhappy she was. She would never have him while Rovere remained her husband. Something had to be done about that.
One day, when she was free, he intended to take her home to his palace, which was set in the green hills above the Black Sea. He would keep her safe at the Moonlight Serai. He would never allow Bianca to be afraid again. “I love her, Darius,” he said to his companion dog. “I will love her forever, no matter what her people or mine say. I can but pray she will feel the same. She is the other half of my soul. I know that now.”
Chapter 7
“Praise blessed Maria!” Agata said as Bianca entered the house. “I am so relieved you have returned. Where were you in this storm?”
“Standing in the entry to one of the caves below, for the rain caught us unawares,” Bianca answered her. “I thought it would never stop. Poor Prince Amir, for he has a farther distance to go before he reaches home, and the downpour has begun again.”
Bianca did not see the prince for several days, for the rains continued. It was better that way, she decided. That brief, innocent kiss had set her senses reeling. She had wanted him to continue to kiss her, but praise Santa Anna, to whom she prayed daily, she had managed to retain her sense of propriety when she hadn’t wanted to do so at all. Amir’s mouth had been warm and his breath fragrant. She had never realized that a simple kiss could be so sweet, so tender, so tempting, but his kiss had been just that. It had offered her far more than she had the right to accept at the moment. Would that ever change?
Sebastiano’s lips were cold, hard, his breath foul. Her husband’s kiss demanded she surrender everything that she was, so he might possess it. In the brief and delicious touch of the prince’s lips, there had been the mysterious promise of a shared ecstasy to come. Bianca wept silently into her pillow that night, and for the first time in her life felt desire for a man. If only her family could obtain the annulment they sought for her. If they did, she would be no man’s chattel ever again.
She would accept Amir as her lover, for his every action in recent days had told her that he wanted her. Did he love her? How nice it would be if he did, but it didn’t matter to her at all. She would gladly be his mistress, no matter what the world thought of her. But she would not have another husband, and no one would change her mind.
The next day, to her surprise and excitement, a messenger arrived from Florence with word from her family. The courier was not one of her family’s servants but rather in the service of the Medici, as his proudly displayed badge revealed. He accepted a hot meal from Gemma in the kitchens, and then told her he was off for Pisa, for he carried messages for the Medici bank there from Lorenzo himself.
Bianca called Agata to her so she might share whatever news there was. Breaking the red wax seal with her mother’s signet, the dome of San Marco, impressed into it, she opened the parchment and read aloud.
