Into the Lion's Den, Ch 3

[ashlayne]

Meanwhile, back with our heroine...

A rather uneventful morning in the woods brought Isabella back home early, when the sun was about an hour or two past its peak and leaning westerly. She hadn't found much trail of the vine today, but her ankle had been bothering her, and she had a thought to get back before Lisette did, hopefully. She'd neither seen nor sensed the lion she'd nearly encountered yesterday, and she wasn't sure if she was worried, disappointed, or relieved at that as she pulled a small novel out of the pocket of her furs and read it, walking casually down the lane when she emerged from the woods.

When Isabella returned, the front door of her cottage was open and the light and warmth from the little stone hearth were pouring out into the frozen street. Romeo had stood in the door earlier that morning allowing that very same thing to happen. Was he doing it again? Had he so quickly forgotten Bella's reprimand?

When Isabella stepped onto the tiny stone stoop, she could at last see the cottage's interior. The chairs surrounding the humble dining table were in disarray as if strewn about during a struggle. Lying half conscious on the floor, pale with the loss of blood (that now pooled upon and threatened to stain the cottage floor) was Romeo Marquis. There was a wound to the back of his head as if he had suffered a fierce blow.

Bella didn't notice anything at first, so caught up was she in her book with Coeur apparently reading over her shoulder.

The ferret was the first to sense it. Something was off. Chittering, he ran down Bella's furs and ahead of her, coming back to her after a moment. "What? Romeo? Why..." She misunderstood what Coeur was trying to tell her as she picked up her pace, marking her page and putting away her book.

When she came in sight of the cottage with its door opened, a feeling of foreboding stole over her, and she drew her rapier as she stepped toward the entrance. "Romeo?" Confusion and fear colored her voice. "Lisette? Papa??" Her voice got progressively louder with each word, until she was running through the house, images that frightened her worse than anything she knew pushing themselves into her head.

Images of her mother, tied to the bed, a man forcing himself on her with a knife to her throat...

Another man, behind Bella, trying to take her...

Her mother's screams as Bella ran from the room, the house...

Tears filled her eyes, and blurred the vision before her as she came to the bedroom, unconsciously drawing her rapier to an at-ready position.

Undisturbed, Monsieur Jean LaRoche lay unconscious in his bed, looking to be in the same health as when his daughter had left his side earlier that morn. The only sign of trespass seemed to be in the front room where Romeo had lay bleeding and barely conscious. There was no answer from Lisette and she was nowhere to be found in the house, though the food that Isabella had sent the girl to buy lay on the dinning table along with the remaining coin.

"Bel...la...?" It was Romeo that groaned.

Tears of relief rolled down Bella's cheeks when she saw Papa in bed safely, and her stance relaxed. Remembering the sight from when she entered, Bella sheathed her rapier and ran back to Romeo, grabbing a towel on her way. "Che cosa! What happened, Romeo? Are you all right?" She tended him as best she could, rolling him over carefully and pillowing the towel under his head.

Romeo winced when Isabella applied pressure to his wound. The head injury didn't appear to be fatal, but one could rarely tell with certainty when it came to head injuries. It would at least leave him weak and perhaps dazed with a concussion. His inevitable headaches Bella would not envy him.

"Fiores. I brought flowers for you, Signorina." Romeo tried to smile, but found the effort only made him wince as the pain in his aching head thrummed sharper. "Bella, andar via. Run. You have to."

Dazed and confused the youth wasn't making much sense, though he seemed to be bearing at least a portion of his soul.

"Lisette? Piccola?"

Bella shook her head when Romeo commanded her to go. "I'm not leaving, not unless it's to find Lisette. Where is she, do you know? Can you remember what happened?" All of her attention was on him, and she didn't miss the comment about the flowers, but those were the last thing on her mind right now.

"Men..." Romeo breathed. "Men came for you, Bella. The don's men."

"The don's men...?" She'd only heard the tales twice, and those two times had been from Lisette.

Lisette... "Do you mean the man she said lives in the forest? What would they want with a sweet, innocent...?" Bella stopped speaking. This wasn't the cottage that Lisette, or Romeo, lived at. Almost the whole village knew she had rented the cottage, and knew why she had.

"Oh, Dio! They weren't looking for her. They were looking for me! Romeo, do you think you will be okay?" Barely waiting for an answer, she ran out of the house and into the forest.

Isabella struggled to remember the name Lisette had given her. "Don Burghof!" she called out boldly once within the woods' confines. "If you are seeking me, do not keep the girl! Return her to her family. It is me, Isabella LaRoche, whom I believe you were seeking! Show yourself, or have your men return the girl to me, and I will come with you." Stories Bella was not afraid of; her voice quavered a little as she called out her challenge, though. The stories may not have been real, but someone took Lisette, and Bella would be damned if she would let Lisette suffer because of her!

Unlike the previous day, the entire forest was alive with sound and activity. Whatever had kept it gripped in a hushed stillness was no longer present. Nothing seemed out of place in the woods -- they were alive as they had not been the day before, and she could get no sense of an elemental predator as when the woods had been dangerously still. Was she wrong? Was she going in the wrong direction?

Something nagged at the back of her memory, something...

"Oh, Papa, look at that palazzo! Isn't it gorgeous?" Bella commented as they started their descent into the next village. It looked, to her imaginative eye, abandoned and haunted. It looked, in fact, exactly as she had imagined the palazzo in one of her books -- a huge, rolling estate, built with dark stone and looming over the village below. In her book, a man from the palazzo had taken a girl from the village, and when she returned it was married and with child. The girl had been terrified of the man's beastly demeanor at first, but had soon warmed up to him.

"Yes, piccola, it is lovely." Her father's voice brought her out of her wandering imagination and back to the present. "If I could buy you an estate like that and keep you locked up there, protected from the world, I would do it in a heartbeat, Little Izzy. But I know you could never be happy like that." Her attention soon back on the palazzo as they approached it, she missed her father rubbing at his chest with a worried expression.

"If some dashing prince stole me away from you, I'd fight to get you back," she said with a smile, her mind creating the scene of her daring escape from some lord's grasp--

A thud ahead of her had her turning her attention back to her father. "Papa? Papa!!" She stopped her horse -- Jean's had already stopped when he fell from his -- and dismounted. "Papa, Papa! Answer me!" The initial panic -- the initial fear of his death -- soon passed, and the tears cleared, when she saw his chest moving and felt airflow below his nose. "Papa, why did you not tell me you were ill?" She kissed his brow and got up, swiping angrily at the tears on her face. If she'd paid less attention to her fool imagination and more attention...

All thoughts of the palazzo behind her, she rearranged things in their cart to make room for him, then with surprising strength for the slender girl, lifted him into the cart itself, making him as comfortable as she could. Tethering his horse to hers, she remounted and descended into Forks with as rapid and as smooth a gait as she could to find help.

The palazzo. Bella had not thought about it since that day. Is that where this Don Burghof had taken Lisette -- would have taken Isabella herself, had she been at the cottage? She could face a man, she thought as she came back out onto the road. She could approach this don and barter for Lisette's freedom...

With what coin? She'd left it all at home. Damn! Damn her fortune! Would someone living in a palazzo that opulent need more money, though? Wouldn't her and her father's savings from their travels be a laughable, paltry sum in comparison to what a don could easily make on a weekly basis? She decided to go with her original idea. If it truly was her that he wanted -- for whatever reason -- she would trade her freedom for Lisette's when she arrived. If her offer was refused... well, she would think of something!

As Bella started up the path after emerging from the forest, a cold wind swept downhill and ruffled her hair. Shivering, she pulled up the hood of her furs around her, feeling Coeur shift up into it so he could get a better view. Her ankle should have bothered her, but she was so charged with adrenaline she barely felt it.

Palazzo Innerer Burghof was much as Isabella remembered it, though as it loomed grander and grander into view it seemed more the stuff of nightmares than of fairy tales. It was cold (spine chillingly so) in the shadow of the great structure built to reflect the power and virility of the dons of Wald und Höhle.

There were no guards, no patrols evident as Isabella approached the slick marble stairs that led up to a pair of gargantuan, thick wooden doors hinged by tar black iron. Where were the servants? Why had no alarm been raised at Bella's approach?

It was said that the don saw no one whom he did not summon, granted audiences only sought months in advance. It was also said that all who dare to unbidden seek to traverse the dangerous mountain pass leading to Palazzo Innerer Burghof fell to their deaths, were torn apart by savage beasts, or vanished entirely. None of these things had happened to Madame Isabella LaRoche. At least, not yet...

"Odd," Bella said aloud, more to comfort herself than anything else. This place seemed just as majestic and mysterious as in her memory, though as she approached the palazzo the mysteriousness outweighed the majesty, and was joined by a feeling of foreboding. "If this is a don's home, Coeur, shouldn't there be guards or servants wandering the grounds? Shouldn't I have been challenged in my approach?" That's how it worked in her novels, she thought.

The ferret chittered his agreement at Bella, braving the cold wind to climb down her furs and snatch a pawful of the berries he knew were left in the bag. He sounded less concerned about the situation than Bella did, she thought, but then he could just crawl into her furs again and hide if he felt the need. She couldn't very well crawl into her own furs and disappear; wouldn't she look a fine fool if she tried?

As Bella mounted the marble stairs, she found herself moving carefully so as to not slip. It would be bad if she fell and hurt her other ankle in this place, wouldn't it? She got an image in her head that this was the exact reason the grand stair was built of smooth, glass-like marble, instead of a more reasonable material like stone or brick. Any with sense who approached would be forced to bow their head as if in supplication to the palazzo's occupants so as to watch their footing, especially in the cold conditions that were sweeping through Wald und Höhle.

The sheer size of the double doors as Bella made the top step of the landing dwarfed her. She thought that, were Lisette's brother here instead of her, they would have dwarfed even him. Facing the imposing double doors, Isabella spied a pair of large stone lion heads. They were exquisitely carved and a testament to majesty that somehow dwarfed the towering fortress before her. Each lion's mouth was open as if frozen in the midst of a ferocious roar, and their fearsome teeth seemed to sparkle and gleam even while cast in lengthening shadow.

Inside one of the creature's mouths was a heavy iron knocker. The pitch-black metal was frozen to her touch, and as she grasped the knocker, she almost -- almost -- flinched back from its bite. Bella closed her eyes, took a deep breath to steady herself...

She moved the knocker against the door three times, firmly, without hesitation. The look on her face and in her eyes was a determined one, without the least bit of the fear that caused the butterflies to flutter through her stomach. She could -- had -- faced men in single combat boldly, but they were peasants. This was different, though, and she would be stupid to not be a little nervous, a little on edge.

The icy CLANG CLANG CLANG seemed to vibrate through the palazzo courtyard while the wind lashed at the windows, furious that she had escaped into the comparative shelter of rows of columns and buttresses. The don was within the walls of the castello. Somehow Isabella knew he was home. She felt him. Dark. Dangerous. A monster lying in wait... He was watching her.

She felt eyes on her, malevolent, malicious, venomous eyes. Something evil lurked in the bowels of the palazzo. Isabella could feel its fist around her heart. "Run!" the wind seemed to beseech her.

The creak of the door warned the girl. Soft. Ominous. Forbidding. A portent of danger. The interior beyond was dark. An elderly man dressed in severe black stood looking at Isabella with sad eyes. "The Master will see no one."

Behind them, beyond the marble stairs, the storm that had been moving in grew in a frenzy as sheets of ice started to slam to the earth and white crystals began covering the ground almost instantly.

Thinking fast, Bella decided to play up her injury a little, especially with the sudden ice storm. "Please, sir. All I need is a place to rest for the evening, until this storm passes. I was out looking for my sister and twisted my ankle on the road." The door began to swing closed, but Isabella, thinking quickly, faked a stumble, hoping Coeur would remain hidden, and landed against the open door, effectively preventing the old man from closing the door unless it was on her. She braced one hand against the closed door, and took weight off of her ankle. What she said wasn't entirely a lie; the effects of adrenaline were wearing off, and her ankle started throbbing from her day's exertions as she took her weight off it.

The servant stood impassively, staring at her. He neither moved out of her way nor opened the door wider to allow Isabella entry. Terrible warnings seemed to shriek at the woman, telling her to run while she still had the chance. The storm was full fledged now, the howling wind hurtling pieces of ice that felt like spears into the shelter of the entryway.

"Please, sir. All I need is a place to rest for the evening.” Bella's words, tinged with the slightest bit of desperation, hung between her and the older man.

The manservant hesitated, glanced into the darkened interior, and then slipped out in a way that forced Isabella to fully step out as well. He closed the door behind him. "You must leave this place. Go now." He was whispering, his eyes restless and his gnarled hands shaking. "Go while you still can." There was a panic in his eyes, pleading. His voice was a mere thread of sound, almost unheard in the bitter shrieking wind.

"Just... for a while, until the ice storm is gone. Please, kind sir. I dare not brave Mother Nature's wrath for as long as it would take to get to the next nearest shelter." Then the man's words hit Bella. He was scared. Scared enough to warn her off, from what she could tell at his own peril. If Lisette was in any sort of the state in which she'd found Romeo...

Isabella could tell that the man's warning was genuine. What was so terrible within that this man would send her out in an icy blizzard to take her chances with raw nature rather than have her enter the palazzo? Where the manservant's eyes had been blank before, they were now filled with trepidation. He had a quiet dignity about him, a fierce pride, but Isabella could smell his fear. It oozed out of his pores like sweat.

Bella had to get in! She had to find the girl and get her away. She wouldn't allow herself any other option. "She is here, isn't she, Signore? If what I know from the villagio is true, then I should have been the one taken. Please! Inform your master that it was not the girl, but I..." Her storm-grey eyes steady on the manservant's, Bella took a steadying breath. "But I who unknowingly crossed onto his land. She has done nothing wrong. If one should suffer, let it be me." The pleading in her eyes combined with the trepidation thrust upon her during her journey to the palazzo, the worry that (despite herself) she bore for Romeo, and the fear that coiled in her belly, but she stood her ground.

The door opened a crack, no more. The servant stiffened. An older woman poked her gray-haired head out. "Betto, the Master has said that she must come in." The male servant sagged for a fraction of time only, his hand shooting out to the doorframe to steady himself, but then he was bowing low. He had been caught in a lie.

The high walls of the castello loomed behind him, making the manservant look no more than an insignificant ant at the base of a towering hill. The palazzo was a fortress, nothing less. The great doors were large and thick and heavy.

Composed, the man regarded Isabella with a lifted eyebrow. He was shocked that she had not berated him for his deception. That she seemed to understand that he was desperately attempting to help her. To save her. He bowed again, hesitated slightly before turning back towards the palazzo, then squared his shoulders in resignation as he opened the door for Isabella, laying the path before her.

Isabella stepped across the threshold. Alarm triggered her heart to thud wildly. A thick stench of evil permeated the castello. It was a cloud, gray and somber and edged with malice.

The entryway was quite spacious, tapers burning everywhere to light the great hall and dispel the darkness she had glimpsed. As she stepped inside, a wind whipped down the corridor, and the flames leapt in a macabre dance. A hiss of hatred accompanied the wind. An audible hiss of acknowledgment. Isabella had been expected...

The interior of the castello was immaculately clean. Wide-open spaces and high, vaulted ceilings left the impression of a great cathedral. A series of columns rose to the ceilings, each ornately carved with winged creatures bearing lion's heads. Isabella could see the apparitions winding their way upward. The castello preyed on the senses -- the artwork rich, the structure impressive -- yet it was a trap for the unwary. Everything about the palazzo was beautiful, but something unearthly watched Isabella with terrible eyes, watched her with malignant hatred.

“Follow me. The Master wishes you to be given a room. The storm is expected to last through the night.” The woman smiled at Isabella. The expression was genuine, but her eyes held a hint of worry. “I am Sarina Sincini.” She stood there a moment waiting.

Just as suddenly as hiss of acknowleding hatred had come, the two women were enveloped in the utter silence of the huge palazzo. No creaking of timbers, no footsteps, no murmur of servants. It was as if the castello itself were waiting for Isabella to utter her name aloud. Even the ice that had been beating itself against the windowpanes futilely seemed to mute. It was as if something was anticipating her response...

"Madame Sincini, my name is Bella LaRoche." In the instant before she'd said her name, she'd intended to give her full name of Isabella as opposed to its shortened version. But as her name passed her lips, her instincts said, this is right. This is how it should be. She pulled back her hood, almost seeming to dare the silence of the room to continue, and started to curtsy, careful to keep the weight of her curtsy on her left ankle lest the injured one give way. "Thank you for the kindness of allowing my entry, madame. I wish I did not have to impose myself upon you so, but the storm precluded my journey back to the villagio this evening."

Nothing escaped Sarina Sincini's rapt attention, including the way the hapless young lady had favored her right ankle. "Oh, bella signorina, you must be very tired." Signora Sincini immediately wrapped an arm around Isabella's waist. "Allow me to help you. I can call a manservant to carry you if need be." The mysterious man who had first greeted Isabella had quietly slipped away unnoticed.

Gratefully, Bella accepted the woman's arm around her waist, though her pride wouldn't allow much more than that. "Grazie. I am fine. I have merely done too much today after... after I injured myself in the... while trying to find some medicine." She thought better of mentioning her trek into the forest. If those truly were Don Burghof's lands, she thought it would not be smart to mention a trespass, however unintentional.

She may be revealing herself as a non-local, but her curiosity outweighed her caution when Bella next spoke. "Is this the palazzo of Don Burghof? I have read about places so grand, but this seems..." Her eyes rested on some of the artwork as the two ladies walked through the hall. "Fantastic," she breathed, recognizing a piece from one of the country's most famous painters hanging on the wall. After a moment, she went on, looking at Signora Sancini. "Like something out of a fairy tale."

"Yes," the seemingly kind old woman answered. "The don has great wealth. He has seen to it that not only himself but also his people have enjoyed many years of great bounty and prosperity during his reign."

Nodding at the painting, Signorina Sincini explained. "A gift of gratitude to our don." She smiled with what could only be pride.

Without warning, from somewhere close by a ROAR! filled the silence. It was answered by a second and then a third.

SHE IS HERE, SHE IS HERE, SHE IS HERE...

The horrifying noise erupted from every direction, near and far. For one terrible moment the sounds blended and surrounded them, shaking the very floor beneath their feet. The roars reverberated throughout the palazzo, filling the vaulted spaces and every distant corner. A strange series of coughlike grunts followed. Isabella, standing with Signorina Sincini's arm about her waist, felt the older woman stiffen. She could almost hear the servant's heart thudding loudly. "Come, signorina, we must get you to your room." Sarina applied trembling pressure to Isabella's back to guide her forward.

Bella moved as the woman requested, picking up her pace as much as she could. "What is going on?" she asked, though, as they moved. If the don was so gracious and kind, then why had the doorman tried to warn her off? Why did Signora Sincini now act as though they two were in grave peril?

As they picked up their pace, Bella's long blond locks fell out of her hood, their ends bouncing against the small of her back with each step. Every once in a while, the hair caught in the furs still wrapped around Bella's shoulders, each time she looked aside from where the signora was leading her and at her surroundings. Had she heard right in the echoes of the roars? She had heard anguish, joy, relief... something between the three, or all three mixed. And something familiar, as well.

Isabella's eyes searched the older woman's face and saw dread there. The woman attempted to casually shrug. "The Master has pets. You must not leave your room at night. I will lock you in for your own safety."

"Pets? What kind? I would like to see them," Bella replied. She would like to know if the lion she nearly met in the forest was with them, see if he was truly all right, or if he had tried to scare her off because he was as scared as he had made her yesterday. "I am excellent with animals, Signora," she continued when she got an odd look. Something about the sound had frightened Madame Sincini, and Bella got a sense she wasn't being told everything; but she also felt she had no right to push. Everyone was entitled to their secrets.

An odd look indeed! Sarina looked at the girl through sideways eyes, shocked by her... enthusiasm. Yes, there could be no doubt. Bella was the child who had dared to trespass in the don's forest, not that hapless babe wrongfully imprisoned below.

"Signorina, you must understand. It is not safe now. Darkness has fallen." There was a wealth of compassion in the woman's faded eyes. The servant did indeed know things that Isabella did not and was obviously concerned for her safety.

"There is nothing to be done but to make you comfortable. You are shivering with cold. A fire is burning in your room, a warm bath is being prepared, and the cook is sending food for you. The Master wants you comfortable." Her voice was very persuasive.

Signora Sincini failed to answer Bella's questions about the don's pets...

Obviously the pets were a subject that should not have been broached, and Bella regretted saying what she had... but not her desire to see them herself. Chewing on her lower lip in nervous habit, Bella made a mental note to herself that she was actually not shivering with cold, but did not speak on it or anything else further until they reached the room which Signora Sincini was leading her to.

Mention of food made her remember that she hadn't eaten anything all day; her appetite after her fight with Romeo had been ruined, and she hadn't exactly given herself time to grab a bite to eat before taking off after Lisette.

Lisette... The girl's meek demeanor, her sweet voice and charming laugh, came to Bella's mind, and she stopped Madame Sincini as they reached a room with large double doors closing off its interior. "Signora, please tell me," Bella asked, trying to meet the woman's eyes and keeping her voice low. "Has a young girl besides myself been seen around here?"

They were moving all the time through a maze of wide halls and up a winding marble staircase, where a multitude of portraits stared at them. There was an eerie weight to the eyes that seemed to be watching Isabella, following her as she made her way through the twists and turns of the palazzo. The structure was beautiful, moreso than the cathedral-like entry hall had hinted, but it was an icy kind of beauty that could leave one cold. Everywhere Isabella looked she saw carvings of enormous maned cats with razor-sharp teeth and ferocious eyes. Great beasts showed shaggy hair around their necks and down their backs. Some had huge webbed wings spread to launch them into the sky. Small icons and large sculptures of the creatures were scattered throughout the halls. In an alcove recessed into one of the walls was a shrine with dozens of candles before a fierce-looking lion. With her natural curiosity, Bella tried to stop and look at the portrait of the lion, which seemed as though enshrined. Odd... But Signora Sincini's hand at the small of her back urging her on gave Bella little time to contemplate the painting's nature.

The madame stopped beside a door and pushed it open, stepping back to wave Isabella through. "The girl has been tended to. Now you must do as the Master wishes."

Bella's eyes widened a little. She hadn't expected so direct an answer to her question, but there it was; Lisette was here somewhere, and damned if Bella would leave on the morrow without her! Understanding the meaning behind the woman's words, Bella nodded in reply. "As a guest, I give you my word that I shall not leave this place before morn, and shall be grateful for the hospitality. Please, give the Don my thanks for providing shelter this night." With that, she stepped into the room, looking around at the fine furnishings in fascination as she searched for a place to hang her furs, her eyes already seeking other entrances and exits from the room. She had carefully worded her promise to the signora, but if she could search the palazzo for Lisette without an escort, she would surely take the opportunity.

"Sì, Signorina Bella. I will do as you say." Sarina waited until Isabella had moved into the room and then followed in the girl's wake, firmly closing the door behind them. At once the terrible, oily thickness that permeated the air of the palazzo seemed to be gone. There was a strange scent rising from the surface of the hot water in the tub prepared for her, a clean, fresh, floral fragrance Isabella had never encountered before despite all her years of herb-lore.

The room was large, the fireplace roaring with the warmth of red and orange flames. There was a long row of windows, each plated in stained-glass. The furniture was elegantly carved. The giant four poster bed was covered in a thick inviting quilt. Signora Sincini moved to a small serving table and poured Isabella a warm cup of tea which she presently pressed into the young lady's hands. "You must drink this immediately." Sarina encouraged. "You look so cold, it will help to warm you up. Drink every drop."

Well, so much for that idea... A little suspicious at the signora's insistence on the tea, Bella surreptitiously sniffed it first. It smelled of mint and lavender; smiling, she took a sip and discovered it had been sweetened with honey, just the way she liked it. Was it coincidence that it was made this way?

Setting the cup down, she took off her bag, rapier belt, and furs and hung them on a coat rack close to the door. This, of course, disturbed Coeur's sleep he'd been in in one of her inside pockets; with an annoyed chitter, he emerged and trotted across the room, barely staking it out before curling up close to the fire and going back to sleep.

Signora Sarina Sincini visibly paled at the sight of wee Coeur. How ridiculous that a woman who worked and resided in the palazzo of the infamous, mysterious, elusive, dark and dangerous, commander of the heavens above and master of the beasts below, should be unnerved by so tiny a beast as Coeur. Really, how did the woman stand to roam the corridors by candlelight is she were so easily put off by such an innocuous creature? Bella hid the small smirk of amusement that she couldn't keep from her face by taking off the sweater that had been over her bodice. She spied a dressing screen on one side of the room, next to the closet, and took another sip of the tea to cover her nervousness. "Excusez-moi, madamoiselle, I have not undressed in the presence of any but my papa these last few years." Bella's stomach took the opportunity to grumble, and she flushed. "Not to sound ungrateful, but did you mention that food would soon be here?"

"The Master would want me to attend you." The serving woman insisted as Isabella claimed modesty. "Why listen! You are practically faint with hunger! Sì, Signorina Bella. The chef is sending your meal up even now."

Signora Sincini moved towards Bella and reached out long slender fingers to grasp the ties of the girl's bodice. "If my daughter were to spend the night away from home, I would want someone to aid her. The bath is hot and will help to warm you while we await cena leggera. Sì?"

Bella briefly debated protesting, but decided against it. After all, she had promised to be a faithful guest. Nodding to Signora Sincini, she relented and took another sip of the tea, trying to hide her embarrassment as the signora's skilled fingers quickly undid her bodice, then her skirt, to leave her in the loose long shirt she habitually wore beneath her clothing in winter. It was a little worn in places, but it and her clothing in general didn't look as patched and thin as a typical commoner's might.

Remembering the madame's reaction at the revelation of Coeur, Bella looked at the woman as best she could to address her while she was being undressed. "I apologize if Coeur startled you, Signora. He is my near-constant companion, but he's very quiet when he chooses."

Sarina glanced at the rodent as her fingers nimbly undid the bodice. "Perhaps piccolo Coeur would care for a bath as well?" The woman was not at all joking, but rather quite serious. She certainly could not have thought the creature smelled offensive, for they were much too far apart for her to have intellectually come to such a conclusion.

Remembering the woman's choice of words, she went on: "Do you? Have daughters of your own, I mean?"

Signora Sincini replied with a perhaps surprising, "No." Then she walked Bella to the side of the great tub, allowing the girl to wear her loose long undershirt until the very last for the maiden's coveted modesty's sake. Sarina even made a point to surreptitiously look away as Isabella stepped into the steaming wash.

Once Isabella was settled into the basking warmth, Signora Sincini knelt behind the fair haired youth. Sarina busied herself with combing her fingers through Isabella's golden tresses as she explained: "Mi marito and I always longed for children, but alas..." There was a low sigh.

Very gently, Signora Sincini massaged Isabella's scalp with her fingertips, applying water and rubbing in homemade soap that smelled of flowers.

"I am sorry, madame. You spoke as if you had children." Bella smiled at the signora, greatly appreciative that the woman turned to spare her some modicum of modesty as she slipped out of the undershirt and into the warm water. Oh! The warm water felt surprisingly good on her throbbing ankle. "You treat me as though you had been doing this for a long time." Stupid thing to say, Izzy. She works for the don. She's probably used to people being a lot more demanding than I am.

Signora Sincini smiled at the maiden's flattery. "Sì! There are many in the palazzo who need my care." Many... There had been seemingly few enough thus far. "But you mustn't flatter me, Signorina Bella. Tis my duty. Tis what I do," the woman graciously concluded.

The signora's fingers ran through Bella's hair, working at the knots. She hadn't had someone do that for her since her mother... Trying not to let her mind wander down that road, Bella closed her eyes and just let herself relax a little under the signora's ministrations.

Between the soap being massaged into her hair, the relaxing element of the tea, and the warm scented water, Bella found her eyes growing heavy more than a little. She was helped out of the water by the signora, who dressed her in a thick robe of soft material almost immediately and started the task of using a towel to soak as much water out of Bella's thick, long locks as possible.

When the knock on the door to her room came, she didn't even know her eyes had closed, and a brief moment of confusion was evident on her face when it was not her mother, but Signora Sincini who walked through her vision to answer. When the door opened, the smell of food woke Bella up fully, and the haze in her mind retreated a little.

An unseen servant passed the good signora a tray bearing Isabella's meal. "Grazie!" Sarina said and then quickly closed the door. She moved to a second, larger table. This one was ideal for small candlelit dinners for two, and indeed a pair of candles were already lit atop the table recessed in the inviting little nook. "Soup to warm you, Signorina." Sarina explained. "And fresh bread to sustain you."

With the hour of her arrival, Bella guessed that the signora may have already eaten; that and the fact that there seemed to be only enough food for one person precluded her asking Signora Sincini if she would dine as well. She was a fast learner, this maiden, and her stories served her well, though her ingrained manners made her think of the signora more as an equal than a servant of any sort.

As Bella took her seat at the table, the signora quietly approached her with a brush in hand, a questioning look in her eyes. Bella felt like she was being treated like royalty, and modesty almost made her decline, but in her exhaustion she consented to the signora's ministrations. Maybe her hair wouldn't be a wild mess come morning for once!

Bella soaked pieces of the hard bread in the soup, leaving a couple of pieces sitting to the side to give to Coeur before she went to bed. The soup tasted like a nice, strong stock of a type Bella was unfamiliar with, but it was very tasty. The pieces of potato and carrot added body, and... what kind of meat was that in the stew? Whatever it was, it was savory and succulent, and all was quickly gone.

Bella drank the last of the soup in the bowl, then an enormous yawn escaped her lips before she could cover her mouth. "Mi dispiace, signora. I didn't expect that." She picked up the two hunks of bread and waited for Signora Sincini to finish with her hair before getting up to lay the bread beside Coeur's sleeping form with a little pat on his head. All of a sudden, the bed looked like the most welcoming thing in the room to Bella.

Sarina noted the longing look in the maiden's eyes as she peered towards the bed. Isabella had grown sleepy now, as well she should have. "Please, Signorina, lay down. Rest. I will clear these dishes away and then leave you to your slumber. We will meet again in the morning. Sì?"

Bella nodded, the haze of sleep developing into a fog as she pulled back the covers on the bed and crawled under them. Part of her mind wanted to get her novel from her coat, but...

She was asleep before she'd barely pulled the covers up around her.

*******

Far away, insulated in her dreamlike state, Isabella heard Sarina gasp. She tried to open her eyes and managed to peak out from beneath her lashes. The shadows in the room had lengthened alarmingly. The rows of tapers on the wall had been snuffed out, and the flames in the fireplace had died down, leaving the corners of the bedchamber dark and unfamiliar. In one corner, she made out the shadowy figure of a man. At least, she thought him human.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, with long hair and slashing eyes. Flames from the fire seemed to blaze red-orange in his hot gaze. She could feel the weight of his burning gaze upon her. He was watching from the shadows, blending in so that she couldn't discern him clearly. A shadow figure for her dreams.

Isabella's eyes refused to focus more fully and her body felt like lead. The tea she had drank was taking full effect.

For a moment, the man's hands appeared to be claws and his great hulk moved with a grace not quite human. "She is much younger than she sounded. And far more beautiful than I remember." The words were said softly, as if mused aloud and not for anyone's hearing. The voice was deep and husky, a blend of seduction, command, and a near heart stopping throaty growl.

"She has much courage." Sarina's voice came from the far side of Isabella, quite close, as if she might be protectively hovering.

The shadowy figure watched Isabella intently. Like a predator.

Reality was mixing with dreams and Isabella couldn't be certain if any of this was real. It was as if she were watching this all happen to someone else.

"She was foolish to come here." There was a stinging lash in his voice.

"It took great courage and endurance. She came alone." Sarina gently pointed out. "It may have been foolish, but it was courageous, and nothing short of a miracle that she accomplished such a feat."

"I know what you are thinking, Sarina." A singular weariness tinged the man's voice. "There are no miracles. I should know. It is better not to believe in such nonsense." The blurry image moved closer, looming over Isabella so that his shadow fell over her, engulfing her completely. She couldn't see his face, but his hands were large and enormously strong with razor-sharp claws.

Was this an illusion? Was he real or nightmare?

His palm cupped the side of Isabella's face, his thumb stroking a gentle caress over skin. "So very soft," he murmured to himself. His fingers slid down her chin to push the thick rope of hair from her neck. There was an unexpected heat in his fingertips.

The strange roars began again and the castello seemed to reverberate with the hideous sounds.

"They are restless tonight." Sarina observed. Her hand moved to Isabella's shoulder and tightened. This time there was no doubt that she was being protective.

"They feel a disturbance and it makes them uneasy and therefore dangerous. Be most careful this night, Sarina." The man's warning was plain. "I will see if I can calm them." With a sigh, the shadowy figure turned abruptly and stalked out. Silently. There was no whisper of clothing, no footfalls, absolutely no sound at all.

Isabella felt Sarina release her shoulder and fuss with the quilt before the serving woman left, exiting via the door and turning the key in the lock with a sharp CLICK!

*******

Sounds penetrated Isabella's strange dreams. Strange sounds to go with her strange dreams. Rattling chains. A rising wail. Screams in the night.

Bella awakened from a slumber unlike most she could remember in her life. Were the events of earlier in her mind, a product of the day's strange events mixed with a vivid imagination and peppered with inspiration from books? She couldn't be sure; but a line of remembered heat along her jaw reminded the maiden that nobody had ever touched her like that, asleep or awake. There was a particular tenderness to the touch, in her memory-dream, a longing, and a desire...

Cheeks flushed, Bella's mouth felt dry, and a pale arm snaked out from under the covers to search for a cup. When she couldn't find one immediately, she risked the cold to emerge and look for it.

It was dark in her room. The light from the fireplace barely cut through the room's thick shadows, yet it took her eyes a bit to adjust and seek a cup. There wasn't one by her bedside, so she started looking around. The fire had died down to orange embers glittering brightly. Isabella could make out pinpoints of light in the darkened room. An occasional draft breathed life into the flames.

It took a bit, but before long her eyes rested on a figure on the end of her bed, silhouetted by the fire. She couldn't make out details, but caution made her eyes widen. The hand that had been searching for a cup darted back under the covers, starting to go for the dagger she usually kept sheathed near her right ankle...

And only brushed against the clean bandages that Signora Sincini had applied after her bath. Bella hadn't worn the dagger when she left her house because of that injury, and her rapier was on the other side of the room! The shadowed figure was between her and it, so there was no chance of getting to it.

Pulling the blanket up to her chin defensively, Bella schooled her voice into as even and calm a tone as she could manage. "Who are you and why are you in my room?"

At Isabella's movement, the figure turned and looked at her, smiling serenely. "Isn't it grand? He puts all his virgin brides in this room!" For some reason, Bella's mind latched onto the words virgin bride, and she paled. Not so visible in the dark of the room, but who knew?

Isabella's eyes adjusted to the flickering light, and she could make out a young woman rocking herself back and forth, her long copper hair tumbling around her waifish body. She was dressed simply, yet elegantly, obviously not one of the servants. In the darkness, the gown was an unusual color, a deep blue with a strange star-burst pattern, something Isabella had never seen before. "I didn't think you'd wake up. I wanted to see you. I'm Francesca," the young woman went on with a touch of haughtiness in her voice. "You mustn't be afraid of me. I know we're going to be great friends!"

"W-w-what do you mean, virgin bride? I did not come here to marry, Signora Francesca. I came here to find a young girl who was taken, and was caught in a storm." But something about those words brought the memory-dream of that heated touch back to Bella, the whispered words...

far more beautiful than I remember...

and her fingers touched her own jawline, tracing the line she remembered from her dream... or if what this girl said was right, had it truly been a dream?

As if in response to Bella's thoughts, the chains rattled again, the wail rose to a shriek, and from somewhere far away came a rumbling growl and a bird's cry.

Tinkling laughter escaped the... girl's?... woman's?... curving mouth, penetrating the eerie sounds that filled the room to reach Isabella's ears. "Everyone is talking about it, whispering in the halls, in their rooms! The entire palazzo is speculating. It was such fun when we heard you were coming! Of course, the others wagered that you would never live through such a journey or that you would turn back. I hoped you would make it!"

"How long have you been here, signora?" Bella went on after a second, trying to take her mind off the sensation and the sudden cacophony surrounding them.

"Forever. And it is signorina, silly! I am no man's wife, though I would love to be. Do you think your papa would have me?"

Forever...? How was that possible? The signora -- signorina, Bella corrected herself -- barely looked older than her, yet seemed quite child like and mischievous. The sounds in the chamber made Isabella wonder if this was yet another dream after all...

Unsure what to say regarding "the others'" opinion of her bravery, Bella said simply, "I am quite full of surprises, as these 'others' have no doubt learned."

The mysterious terrible sounds that had come from the corridor and beyond didn't seem to bother Francesca in the least. "Yes, yes!" the girl eagerly agreed. "Though they should be used to it by now, sillies. There are many surprises here."

Wait, back up... "How did you know about Papa?" Something was going on here, and Bella wasn't quite sure what, but she tried her best to keep a level head.

The woman carelessly shrugged. "I hear things. He has spies everywhere. He knew the moment you decided you wanted an audience with him. He never sees anyone he does not wish to see."

The moment I decided to have an audience...? "Well, as I still haven't seen him, signorina, what indication should that give me, hmm? As well, as I stated before, I simply came here to find the girl and get her home. I didn't intend for the storm to happen, nor to be here through the night; but it did, and I am, and I take what life throws at me as it comes." Bella decided to get up and stoke up the fire a little against the chill of the room, and see if Signora Sincini had left that wonderful tea in the room. She could heat it up a little over the fire.

Francesca's sparkling curious eyes followed Isabella's movements. "Just by coming to this forbidden place, he knows that what you seek is of great importance to you. That does not make it of importance to him. He has his own problems to deal with." The girl's manner was frank, but she seemed not to be attempting to be intentionally rude.

The bread, as Bella suspected, was gone, and so was Coeur. As Bella took up the poker and awoke the embers of the fire, she glanced around the room for him. A shadowed lump under the covers of the bed might have fooled others, but Bella could sense it was him. When the fire shone more light on the room, she picked up a small log and tossed it in, expertly dodging the sparks and guiding them to the newly-added fuel. "There, that's better," she said, then turned back to the girl on her bed. Now that Bella could get a better look at her, Francesca had an ethereal beauty about her. The dress the girl wore was beautiful, but something about her nagged at Bella. Walking to the door to her room, she used the pretense of getting her book out of the pocket of her coat to surreptitiously check the door. Locked, from the other side.

"Now, that's curious, Francesca," Bella said, getting an idea. "I remember Signora Sincini locking my door behind her when she left for the night." A little bit of a lie, as she still wasn't sure if what she remembered was a dream or real, and if it was somehow real she wasn't sure who had locked the door: the signora or the mysterious male visitor. "So that has me wondering: how did you get into my room, signorina?" In the receded shadows of the room, Bella looked around for any indication of a hidden entrance in the walls, sitting back on the edge of the bed.

"Silly!" The girl merrily chastised. "He cannot very well keep you from running around the palazzo discovering all the long kept secrets if I tell you that!" There was mirth in her tone and impish delight in her expression as Francesca childishly teased Isabella with what she knew and Isabella did not. "There are many secrets here, all so deliciously wicked! You'll see..."

Unable to bridle her curiosity any longer, Francesca asked, "Are you truly as brave as Signora Sincini says? You are very young." That was ironic, Francesca calling Isabella very young as if she herself was not. "Didn't anyone warn you away from this place? Weren't you told to stay away?"

"How did you get here? Everyone is dying to know!" The waifish girl lowered her voice. "Did you use a spell? I know several spells but none strong enough to protect anyone from the peril of the don's forest. Was it difficult to traverse? Everyone says that you did it on your own. Is that true?"

"Pot, meet kettle," Isabella muttered under her breath when Francesca said she was very young. Then she turned back to the girl. "I like to read fairy tales, but it doesn't mean I believe them," she replied, holding up her book. "I mean, a cursed forest? A Beast who kidnaps people who are then never seen again?" Although that last hit eerily close to home with Lisette's situation. "It sounds like something that the Grimm brothers might have come up with. Besides, I have a curious nature," she confided in Francesca. "Telling me not to go somewhere is an almost sure guarantor that I will.”

Francesca bounced on the bed, laughing softly. "Oh, that is too rich! Wait until the others hear what you said, 'I like to read fairy tales, but it doesn't mean I believe in them!' That is too perfect!"

"The thing is,” Bella went on, “I was in the woods in the first place because I had found a plant there that was helping Papa. It was the only thing I'd found that had. I think Lisette -- the girl I came to save -- was taken because I trespassed in the Don's forest unknowingly. That's why I came. She shouldn't suffer because of me." And now both of us are stuck here tonight, and nobody to tend Papa... She looked down and away from Francesca.

With the rapt attention of a child captivated by a fairy tale, Francesca listened to Isabella's reply until the other woman made for the tiny tea table; then Francesca warned, "I would not drink that if I were you... You'll sleep half the day away!"

Bella looked at Francesca and almost poured herself a cup anyway. After all, it was her favorite... But then, lavender had never knocked her out so soundly as she'd slept during the night. Maybe the girl was right.

"As to your question about the woods, Francesca, let's just say you and this palazzo aren't the only one with secrets." At about that moment, Coeur woke up and worked his way out from under the covers. He blinked twice at the waifish stranger, then crawled up onto Bella's lap.

"That's not why..."

A ferocious ROAR! shook the palazzo. A hideous high pitched SCREAM! mingled with the terrible sound. It echoed throughout the vast castello, reaching to the highest vaulted ceiling and the deepest hidden dungeons and caverns the castello guarded. The scream was cut off abruptly, but a terrible din followed. From every direction wild animals BELLOWED! coalescing in such a raucous cacophony of sound that Isabella could not hope to interpret the noise.

During the cacophony, Coeur jumped up and dug his little claws into the robe Bella still wore, and she clutched him close to her heart, her eyes wide with surprise... and was that a hint of fear? From brave, courageous Bella?

When the noise ceased, she turned to look at Francesca. "What was--"

But not a sign of Francesca remained. The bed was smooth, the quilt without crease where she had been sitting. As abruptly as the terrible noise had started, it stopped, and there was only silence.

"...that, do you think?" she finished to nobody. She set Coeur down on the bed as she rose, leaving him a kiss on the head, and walked to the other side of the bed. "Ha, ha, very funny, signorina. It's all fun and games to scare the--"

Bella lifted the bed skirt, peering under it, sure that the girl had hidden under there. "...guest?" Her statement turned into a question when there was nobody there. And there was no way Francesca could have left the room; Bella'd been facing the only door she knew. Which meant...

"It means one of two things, Coeur," she said aloud, using the ferret as a sounding board. "Either I believe her, and there's something going on here that I can't explain, or..." Bella peered carefully at the walls; with the hasty exit Francesca had to have made, she had to have left some sign. But Bella could see none.

Coeur chittered nervously at Bella, stating his opinion firmly in the former. "Oh, but that's silly, dear heart! There's no such thing as ghosts." The ferret seemed to give Bella a knowing look, as much as a ferret is capable of giving knowing looks. "No, I don't think so. It's pure fantasy, it's all in my imagination..." Was the deep-seated dread you've felt since you stepped foot in this place all in your head too, Izzy? It was something to think on. Oh, how Bella wished she had a quill and paper to write down her thoughts on! What a story she would write about a night spent in the palazzo! What with her imagination and what she'd seen (or thought she'd seen), she could write a story to rival the Grimm Tales!

Shivering a little, Bella crawled back under the now-cool covers, lost in her thoughts and wondering what might happen next.