Francesca Read Free Page B

one,
Padre
,” Francesca said to her father. Then she walked to where the bay stood, greeting him as she had the white. “And you, my handsome one. Are you ready to join your fate to mine too?”
    The bay looked her directly in the eye and then he nodded slowly up and down, never breaking eye contact with her.
    Francesca clapped her hands delightedly. “Did you see that,
Padre
? This clever beast answered my question. I must have him as well!” She turned back to the groom holding the bay. “What is your name?”
    “I am called Ib,
signorina
.”
    She looked to the groom holding the white.
    “I am Adon,
signorina
,” he answered her.
    “I must have both horses and their grooms,
Padre.
My animals must be happy and they cannot be without their familiar companions.”
    Giovanni Pietro d’Angelo smiled and agreed. It had been quite a while since he had seen Francesca enthusiastic and happy over anything. She must remain this way if they were to get her successfully on the road to Terreno Boscoso. Her show of greediness actually delighted him, and he could well afford the cost, he thought as he negotiated the price with the horse seller, took out his purse, and paid. “I will ask you to send them to my own stables on the morrow,” he said.
    “It shall be done,
Maestro
, as you instruct.”
    As they returned to the palazzo Giovanni grumbled to his daughter, “Those two black extravagances you have wheedled me into taking will have to have suitable wardrobes. I can guarantee they will be sent to us in rags. You are becoming a great expense to me.”
    “But I am so happy,
Padre
,” she said with a mischievous grin.
    “You are happy with new clothing and all the accoutrements that go with a young girl who might wed in several months,” he said.
    “Or who will return to you,
Padre
. This boy may find me not to his taste at all. He may decide one of the other two maidens is far more suitable to take for a wife,” Francesca told him. And I shall see that he does, she thought to herself. I have no intention of remaining in some rural duchy away from my family, even if they do irritate me.
    He looked sharply at her, but Francesca’s green eyes were delicately lowered. He could only imagine what she was thinking. God help them all if she was returned to them. He must pray more diligently. Like most men he remembered to pray only when he found himself in a situation that he was unable to handle by himself. But he did attend Mass more than most men. Hopefully that would count in his favor with God.
    Francesca wanted to help pick the fabrics that would be used in her new wardrobe. Disappointed but taking direction from her husband’s behavior, Orianna said she would go to the convent of Santa Maria del Fiore and request two nuns who would serve as Francesca’s chaperones while she was in Terreno Boscoso. “I am certain two of the nuns can be spared.”
    “Do not let the Reverend Mother palm off two old ladies on you,” Francesca said. “I will have no patience with them, for they will complain the entire journey about their aches and pains. It is too long an expedition for such elders to make.”
    Orianna had to admit that her daughter was correct, although she had hoped to send Francesca with two stern older women who would keep her daughter’s behavior as it should be. She wasn’t surprised to have her cousin, the Reverend Mother Baptista, agree with Francesca’s assessment.
    “It’s too long a time for any of my elders to be away from their home. Do you even know how long it will be before you return my sisters to me, Orianna?”
    Orianna shook her head. “Francesca leaves at the end of May. It will be a good month or more before she reaches Terreno Boscoso. She will remain at least for several months, until Duke Titus’s heir picks his bride from among the three maidens who have been sent for. Lorenzo believes the duke’s son cannot fail to fall in love with my daughter, but we cannot be