The house wasquiet, the servants likely busy downstairs cleaning and readying for the guests to return from their outing. Iris crept down the hallway, pausing once or twice to listen for footfalls.
When she got to the baroness’s room, she pulled a hairpin from her bun, and with a few twists and turns in the lock and a last glance down the hallway, she opened the door.
Her suspicions had been growing that the baroness was not who she claimed to be. It shouldn’t have been hard to determine, but Iris had only met the Contessa Catarina di Farnese once at the palazzo of the Medici. The contessa was a chameleon, just like her former minion, the Nazi time traveler.
Iris had first crossed paths with the Nazi when she witnessed him shooting and killing her parents in cold blood after dragging them off a train in Bordeaux. He then aimed his pistol at Iris and pulled the trigger. But just as the bullet passed through her heart, she’d vanished into thin air. Fate had plucked her from certain death and hurtled her from era to era, forcing her to survive by her wits and an inner strength that grew with each new journey. Her life was not her own, and she feared she would be destined to live as a time-traveling vagabond for the rest of her days.
Until the day she arrived in the Mercado Vecchio in Florence. Her heart soared and her soul rejoiced when her eyes met Marco’s across a crowded market square.
Little did she know that the Nazi had been hunting her all along and would eventually join forces with Catarina.
At least the bastard is dead.She and Marco had dispatched him in Paris with the help of Emily, Colin, Jenee, and Xavier. Now, she and her friends were reunited again to battle the contessa herself and destroy her once and for all.
Iris scanned the lovely bedchamber decorated with burgundy velvet drapery and carved mahogany furniture. A beautiful jewelry box drew Iris’s attention. She ran her finger along the smooth, lacquered surface of inlaid marquetry. Iris lifted the lid, and a haunting melody filled the room. She recognized the tune, for she’d heard Marco hum it many times, a lullaby from his childhood. Iris was still unsure, because the lullaby was common to the period and could have been known to anyone.
A glint of green caught her eye, and her pulse quickened. She hooked a finger through a gold chain and lifted it, gasping at the magnificent emerald dangling at the end. Her knees went weak, and she dropped into a chair, overwhelmed by a vision from the past…
The fortress-like palazzo shone brightly with hundreds of torches as Marco introduced her to his friends Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. When a woman approached, they were laughing at one of Leonardo’s entertaining witticisms. She was beautiful, dark-haired, with eyes that glittered like a cat’s. She took Marco’s arm, her nails biting into his skin; she pinned him with her gaze and leaned in to whisper, “Amore mio, there is always a price to be paid for betrayal. Yours will cost you everything.”
Marco pulled away from her grasp. “Do not dare threaten me or anyone I love,” he replied through gritted teeth. “For I will fight you to the end of time.” He took Iris’s hand in his and turned his back on Catarina.
“You have made a choice that will only lead to your destruction,” the contessa hissed.
Marco bade his friends goodnight and tucked Iris’s arm through his. “Come,amore mio.” He bent and kissed Iris on the cheek. “It is time to go home.”
As they made their way to the doors, Iris could not help but look back over her shoulder. Her heart leaped in her throat as she saw Caterina watching them with a venomous gaze. And Iris knew in that instant that she and Marco would never be safe from Catarina’s wrath.
Iris shook off the chill from the vivid memory and regarded the emerald pendant. It was the same one that had glittered between Catarina’s breasts the night she confronted Marco at the Medici palazzo. It was proof that Donatella Falaguera, the Baroness of Blythe Hollow, was really Contessa Catarina di Farnese, a Florentine noblewoman of great wealth and a sorceress of great power. But would Colin and Xavier accept her as such? Em and Jenee would, and no doubt Gabriella. But Iris had gotten to know the marquess/investigator and the inspector quite well. They’d want more proof.
She turned in a slow circle as her eyes swept the room. An eerie feeling made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.There is something else. Something that will prove that the baroness is the contessa.
Her gaze settled on the desk opposite the bed. One by one, she searched the drawers. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she needed to keep looking. There was something here. Something that she needed to find.
The desk yielded nothing, and nor did the bedside night table. She ran her hands around the mattress’s edges as frustration built in the pit of her stomach, then approached the elegant armoire and opened it. Everything inside was meticulously organized by color, with day and evening outfits separated on either side. A dozen pairs of shoes were arranged on the lower shelf. On the upper shelf were hatboxes, some bearing labels from the famous department store in Paris, Bon Marché. The contessa did not travel lightly nor deny herself the finest of luxuries. Iris inhaled the scent of lavender from the potpourri sachets that hung from silk ribbons between each garment.
Dragging a chair over, she climbed up and examined the hatboxes. She shuddered. Stuffed birds decorated several of Caterina’s hats, reminding Iris of Emily’s aversion to this gaudy style. Unfortunately, the hatboxes contained nothing but hats, but Iris refused to give up. The contessa was hiding something.
Iris ran her hands down each gown, and her heartbeat accelerated with excitement as an object in a dressing gown pocket took shape in her hands. She pulled it out and gasped at what she beheld.The Time Traveler’s Lover, the novel Iris had written that would be published more than a century into the future.
Knowing that the contessa had gotten her hands on a copy of her book and read it filled Iris with fury and fear. Donatella Falaguera, Baroness of Blythe Hollow, was, beyond a doubt, the Contessa Catarina di Farnese, her mortal enemy.
Iris needed to strengthen her resolve. She flipped through the pages, curious to see if Catarina had written any observations. There were none, but when Iris reached the book’s last chapter, she blinked back tears. Emily and Jenee had told Iris that her book had become a bestseller. They also shared that it had brought the three friends together. Holding the book in her hands brought all the emotions rushing back, and Iris feared the ending she wished for would not be realized. Unable to refrain, she read what she’d written.
Marco’s heart-wrenching plea to keep her with him overrode the howling winds that roared in her ears. The winds of time had come as she knew they would, taking her away from the man she loved. But even though she knew that she and Marco were already parted by centuries, she could still hear his words echoing in her mind. “Dio, ti imploro, non portarmela via.” God, I implore you, do not take her from me.
Tears stung her eyes. As much as she hated the cycle of traveling through time to strange places where she was forced to survive by her wits, she realized it was time travel that had delivered her to her soul mate. She and Marco were born hundreds of years apart. Yet fate had miraculously brought them together, and she would be eternally thankful for that. Even though her fate with Marco remained unknown, she would not rest until the contessa and her evil were destroyed…
Iris closed the book and held it to her heart.The ending to my love story has yet to be written, and I pray it will be a happy one.She slipped the book back into the pocket of the dressing gown and returned to her room to formulate her plan.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Populonia, Italy
October 20, 1902
Agunshot blastbroke the silence. “OMG, what was that? Gabriella asked.
“I don’t know,” Jack replied, “but that was the report of a firearm.” He squinted, searching in the direction from where it was likely the shot emanated. “Stay here while I investigate. I don’t want you in any danger.”
