Bianca grew pale and jumped to her feet, calling for Agata. Had he found her? She had to escape the villa. She would not allow Sebastiano to force her back to Florence as his wife. “Agata! Agata! Where are you?” She was becoming frantic with her fear.
Prince Amir saw the terror in her eyes, in her face. Jumping to his feet, he said, “I will protect you, Bianca! I will protect you!”
Agata ran into thesala da pranzo.
“Tell Primo to saddle my horse,” Bianca cried. “I must get away! He cannot find me, Agata! He cannot! Hurry! Hurry!”
There came a loud knocking on the oak doors.
“See who is at the door,” Prince Amir said sternly to Agata.
“No! No! I must escape! I must!” Bianca sobbed now, thoroughly frightened.
The knocking resounded again.
“Go!”The prince told Agata.
Pale herself, the servingwoman scurried off to do his bidding. Reaching the door, Agata pulled it open before her courage failed her. “Signora!Oh,signora! You have given us such a fright,” she said to Orianna Pietro d’Angelo, who stood before her. “Come in! Come in! Mistress! Mistress! Come quickly! It is your mother!”
Bianca flew from the dining room, running straight into her mother’s outstretched arms.“Madre! Oh, Madre!”And then she began to weep.
Orianna hugged her eldest daughter as the tears pricked the backs of her eyelids, but she would not let them fall. “Bianca, Bianca,” she murmured into her child’s dark hair. “I could not let another birthday pass without seeing you.” She kissed the tears from her daughter’s face. “I only wish I brought you better news.”
“Have you eaten,Signora?” Agata asked and then answered her own question. “Of course you haven’t. I’ll have Gemma fix you something immediately.”
“My men...” Orianna began.
“Primo or Ugo will have taken them to the kitchens. Their horses will be stabled, and they will sleep dry and warm in the barn,signora.”
Bianca ushered her mother into the dining room
The prince came forward immediately to greet her. “Signora Pietro d’Angelo, I am Prince Amir ibn Jem.” He politely seated her at Bianca’s right hand. “I am your daughter’s neighbor.”
Orianna was rarely surprised, but Prince Amir’s presence was totally unexpected. She sat down at the rectangular oak table. Surely Bianca hadn’t taken a lover.
“We walk together, we ride, and occasionally he can even beat me at chess,” Bianca said, smiling at the prince.
It was a warm smile that a woman gives to a man she is in love with, and Orianna heard in her daughter’s voice something she had never before heard.Madre di Dios!Do not let her have acted foolishly. “Is that all you do together?” she heard herself asking.
Bianca looked puzzled, not quite comprehending her mother.
The prince, however, did. “You have raised your daughter to be a moral woman,signora,” he said. “And I have no need to seduce her or bring shame to your name.” He went to Bianca, who suddenly realized what her mother meant. Mortified, she wasn’t certain what to do next. Amir took her hand up and kissed it. “Thank you for your hospitality, Bianca,” he told her.
“Will you come tomorrow?” she asked, looking up at him.
“The day after, perhaps. You have your mother for company now, and I am certain she has much to tell you or she wouldn’t have risked the journey,” the prince replied. Then he looked directly at Orianna. “Can you be certain you were not followed? You have possibly endangered Bianca’s safety by coming,signora.”
“Rovere is in Rome,” Orianna said. “My journey was planned in advance, and I did not depart from our palazzo,signore. I would never knowingly expose Bianca.”
Amir nodded, and then, turning on his heel, left.
“You were rude to him,” Bianca said quietly.
“Is he your lover?” Orianna asked bluntly.
“Of course not,Madre. I am a married woman, no matter the difficulties with Sebastiano. You did not raise me to be a loose woman,” Bianca replied indignantly.
“Then why is he in your house and alone with you?” Orianna demanded to know.
