“Stop, Uncle Jamie, you are scaring me,” the girl cried.
Behind them Luciano retched uncontrollably.
Jamie stood and staggered to Nora, pulling both of them into an embrace. Giovanni lay bloodied on the stones; he did not move.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Stop staring at me as if you expect me to keel over,” Nora whispered.
Jamie stared, transfixed on the tiny red spot on Nora’s neck.That animal could have killed you,he thought, would have done it without remorse. He didn’t dare say the words out loud.
“You won’t,” Jamie said instead. No woman who took on an attacker with a knife at her throat would keel over—unless an overheated salon full of excitable Italians did her in.
“Then stop looking as if you want to eat me,” she hissed.
Jamie pretended to look affronted. “Not in front of people,” he whispered. Her blush rewarded him. The wound looked as minor as she claimed once it had been cleaned.
His wife pretended to listen to Castellimonte’s description of Sardinian law regarding treason, but he doubted if she understood it. Her real attention lay with the child in her lap.
Isabella cuddled her two dolls, Marietta and one whose name escaped him. He heard her murmur, “The bad men won’t take you again. Uncle Jamie won’t let them.”
It felt like a knife to his heart. The conspirators had used her toys as bait to entice her to follow them quietly. Now she clutched them as if they would be taken away again. Isabella didn’t look as calm as she claimed.
“They must hang immediately!” Victor Filiberto’s voice carried across the room. The count responded with studied calm about the need for a trial.
Jamie watched the pallor on Nora’s face. Isabella didn’t need to hear such things. He needed to get his family away from wagging tongues.
“What trial?” Filiberto continued. “They have admitted their crimes!”
Jamie had enough.Giovanni hasn’t even regained consciousness enough to confess to anything.He rose to his feet. He didn’t want Nora reliving what they heard in the cellars.
“I demand it!” Filiberto shouted. Abrupt silence greeted that.
“You demand?” his father asked. He stared his son down.
A burst of talk erupted again. The entire court seemed to speak at once. Some believed the criminals should be shipped to the court in Turin in chains. Some sided with Victor, advocating for immediate execution.
One voice with a heavy English accent carried to Jamie. “You must do as you see fit, Count,” Wentworth soothed oozing oil. “I’m sure you will make certain you have all the facts before you act and know exactly how deeply this conspiracy goes.”
Wentworth had arrived in the confusion of revelations and arrests. His paid informers worked efficiently. The whole web of them made Jamie sick.
“We need to take Isabella home,” Jamie told Nora.
“Is it safe?”
“Safer than it was last night,” he said. “Safer than any time since we met her.” He believed it. Jamie refused to believe Giovanni and Luciano acted alone. He glared over at Filiberto, so anxious to silence the two young men. He shook his head to cool his rage. Whoever the conspirators were, they wouldn’t try the same ploy twice.
He shepherded Nora and Isabella toward the door. A familiar voice cut him off.
“Courageous work today, Major,” General Rambaudi said. “Courageous and ingenious.”
“Not I, General. My wife is the hero.”
“I doubt that, Major,” the general said. “Your Mr. Wentworthtells me you fought at Waterloo.” Jamie saw the windbag sidle up to Rambaudi.
“Indeed,” Wentworth said. “14thFoot, wasn’t it?” The man knew full well what Jamie claimed. His knowing eyes watched like a spider in its web.
“That’s correct,” Jamie said, taking Isabella from Nora’s arms. “Let me carry her, you must be exhausted,” he told her.
