Into the Lion's Den, Ch 4, part 2
Time passed, and lunch came and went -- a small bowl of stew with venison, leeks, and potatoes with a large hunk of bread, and some more tea. Bella stayed mostly absorbed in the book, reading it straight through from the beginning, and Coeur perched on the back of the chair she'd chosen under the window, seeming to read along with her. When Bella glanced up every once in a while, Sarina remained quiet, seeming to be focused on the surprising amount of mending; even with as many servants as Bella had seen this morning on the way to the library, she didn't expect that much to be there. The task seemed so overwhelming that at first Bella thought to offer to help the woman; but remembering Signora Sincini's reactions last night whenever she'd done something for herself, Bella held her tongue.
Dusk started creeping up the window's glass, and before too much more time had passed when Bella noticed that, a gentle knock came on the door. When Signora Sincini answered, she heard the low words:
"The don will see the signorina now."
Bella made a mental note of where she was in the plays, smiling at the last scene between Viola/Cesario and Orsino, and put the book down on the chair as she rose and stretched a little. Suddenly she was a little nervous; truly, who was she to approach a lord like this? But she had to get Lisette freed; the girl had done nothing, and anyway Bella was already set on her path. She nodded to Signora Sincini as she walked toward the door. "Coeur, it's probably best if you stay here, dear heart," she told the ferret as he made to leave with her. Coeur wrinkled his nose at her, but obediently climbed onto the hearthstones and curled up, watching with forlorn eyes as Bella walked through the door, trying to steel her nerves and compose her thoughts in her head.
Sarina listened as Isabella sweetly bid adieu to Coeur. "You must hurry, signorina. You do not wish to keep the Master waiting too long. He has many appointments You are but one."
Capitano Drannacia agreed, "Sì, signorina. We cannot take a chance on you being late for your appointment. He will not grant you another."
The words sounded final, ominous... and was it Isabella's imagination, or did it seem oddly, personally important to both Sarina and the captain that Bella have her audience with the don?
"O-of course, I wouldn't think to..." The two's words of rushing made Bella's nerves tighten again, when she had just found the point of relaxing a little. She took another calming breath. "Let's go," she said to Capitano Drannacia and Signora Sincini, her voice full of confidence as she started to follow. As she walked, she smoothed out the slight wrinkles in the skirt of her dress from where she'd been sitting all day, the only sign that she was still nervous about what was to come, no matter the facade she put forth.
Isabella looked up from smoothing the wrinkles in her skirt just in time to see a young serving girl throw water from a golden goblet into her face! The water splashed down Isabella's cheeks to drip into the neckline of her dress. A sudden silence fell as all the work ceased and servants gaped in horrified fascination. The water continued to drip down Isabella's gown, running between her breasts like beads of sweat.
“Alberita!” Sarina chastised the girl, frowning severely, although laughter was evident in her sparkling eyes (and in Capitano Drannacia's), despite it all. “The holy water is sprinkled on one’s person, not thrown in one’s face! Scusi, Signorina Bella, she is young and impulsive and does not always listen well. The holy water was for your protection, not your bath.”
Alberita dropped a slight curtsey in Isabella’s direction, gasping up at her in horror, her face ashen, tears in her eyes. “Scusi, scusi! I beg you, do not tell the Master.”
At first surprised, Bella looked at Alberita for a moment, then down at her dress, then bit her lower lip to keep the grin on her face from spreading into a laugh. "It's all right, signorina," she finally managed to get out without laughing in the horrified girl's face, wiping the excess water from her own face with her hand, then passing her other hand over the bodice of her dress to push the water that had beaded there off. What had gone beneath the bodice, she could scarce do anything about short of having Signora Sincini untie the dress and toweling off -- and she wasn't about to do that in present company! She'd live, she knew. "If m'lord asks, I shall just say I wished to wash my face to make myself more presentable, and spilt a little." When Alberita continued to look at her agape, with horror in her eyes, Bella reached a hand forward and gently pushed on the bottom of the girl's jaw until it shut, the grin fading into a caring smile. "Signorina, 'tis but water. Surely, as Signora Sincini says, water that is blessed by the Holy Father; but I'll not melt."
Sarina struggled against the smile that was threatening to betray her amusement at any moment. "I believe you have blessed the signorina enough for one day. Hmm, Alberita?"
"Sì. Scusi." Alberita dropped another curtsey in Isabella's direction. "Grazie." Then she scurried away.
Not until the serving girl had vanished from sight did Sarina smile. As she did, almost as if by magic, Signora Sincini produced a kerchief from the hem of her sleeve. Preparedness was the mark of a truly reliable servant. Sarina shook her head and carefully wiped Isabella's face. "It is good of you to be understanding, signorina. Most others would have demanded that Alberita be flogged."
"Scherza? That is just..." Signora Sincini's declaration that someone would get flogged over something as silly as spilled water seemed to have put Bella at a loss for words as the signora's skilled light touch brushed up what Bella had missed. The tiny hairs that had gotten loose and wet were smoothed back into place by the woman's skilled hands, and barely noticeable against the rest of her blonde locks now, although Bella herself couldn't see it. She was still lost in awe at the fact that someone would be so thoughtless of others to have someone punished for something like that. "We may want to continue on; I wouldn't want to keep the don waiting." Bella stepped back from the small puddle where some of the blessed water had missed its intended target, and looked at Capitano Drannacia with eyebrows raised in a questioning expression.
The capitano's mouth twitched, but he didn't smile. “Sì. Come, we mustn't be late. Don Burghof has a busy schedule and we mustn't keep him waiting. Be certain that you are properly respectful.”
With that, Capitano Drannacia began leading the way through the wide corridors and archways. They hurried past several working servants. They all looked at Isabella with solemn faces, some of them with tight smiles. All of them made the sign of the cross towards her as if blessing her.
First holy water, and now... Bella was starting to get the impression that the don who was lord here was a real beast of a man, and that the servants thought she was going to her doom. In a straight passage, she closed her eyes briefly. Father, protect me and keep me. Blessed Mother, wrap me in your loving arms. The humor of the past moments had gone from her face, and Bella appeared once again calm and composed as she followed Capitano Drannacia and Signora Sincini through twisted passages and sharp turns.
Finally, about the time Bella had started to wonder if this was a palazzo or a labyrinth, the trio stopped before a door.
As they reached the doorway, Capitano Drannacia opened it and revealed to Isabella that the palazzo was very much what she imagined it to be: a labyrinth.
Signora Sincini stepped to the forefront and began leading the way into a large open court with winding staircases rising off of it in several directions. In the center of the court was a fountain that soared nearly to the second story. Each cutaway section of the fountain was topped with a cross. At the base of each circular column, however, was the inevitable lion, broad and muscular, with a tawny mane tipped in black. Still, the sound of water splashing was soothing, and the intricate carvings kindly figures around the top of the fountain provided more assurance.
Isabella stared at the large sculpture for a moment and then realized that Sarina and Capitano Drannacia were halfway up one of the winding staircases. As Bella hurried up the seemingly endless stairs, she gazed at an array of portraits on the wall. One, the face of a man, was so beautiful it made her ache inside. His eyes held deep pain, deep sorrow.
She looked past the portrait to the next one and recognized it immediately. Francesca’s laughing eyes gazed back at her, mischievous and happy. The painting must have been done fairly recently, as Francesca seemed nearly the same age as she was now. The artist had captured the essence of her, her warmth and sunny disposition.
They took many twists and turns through numerous hallways and darkened alcoves passing more stained glass windows and intricately carved arches. The castello in the fading daylight seemed more open and airy and far less of a threat than it had the night before. Isabella no longer got the oily impression of evil.
Finally they reached the far end of the palazzo, a distance from the main rooms. Isabella caught glimpses of rooms filled with books and sculptures and all sorts of intriguing things she might have liked to examine, but Sarina continued to hurry through the maze of corridors and Capitano Drannacia, having so greatly outpaced the two women, had vanished entirely.
Isabella was truly lost as they made their way up a third flight of wide, curving steps to a balcony and a double door straight ahead. The pair stopped abruptly in front of it. There was no need for Signora Sincini to announce that they had reached Don Burghof’s private lair. Instead, the signora explained, “This entire wing of the house is the Master’s. No one is allowed entrance unless he has issued and invitation.”
The double door was huge and intricately carved. It was graced with a lion’s head complete with shaggy mane and piercing eyes. The muzzle seemed to come right out of the carving, open mouth displaying sharp teeth. But there was something different about this lion, something very different from the others. This lion looked intelligent, cunning, menacing. It was almost as if the portrait of a man had been made it the carving of a lion. Isabella could almost see the human beneath the frightful mask.
“You must go in.” Sarina prompted.
"Grazie." Bella nodded to Signora Sincini, her fingers brushing the delicate grooves of the carving on the door respectfully as she went inside. If she had to guess, she'd say that the same skilled artisan who had done the door had also done the statues around the fountain... but the time for guessing games was past, and she ran through her head one more time what needed to be said to free Lisette. She felt her stomach knotting up a little, but pride would not let that show on her face. Now was the time. She drew on all her courage, all the manners her mother had taught her, stopping just inside the room to politely await the don's summons to come closer, if such would be given.
For a moment, she thought herself alone as the heavy door swung closed, locking her in the room. Then she felt him. She knew it was he. The don. Mysterious. Aloof. She sensed him in the darkness, the weight of his stare. Intense. Calculating. Burning.
Before Isabella was a wide expanse of marble floor, leading to a pair of high-backed chairs. But her gaze was riveted to the deepest shadows, a darkened alcove where she made out the shape of a man. He looked tall, and on his forearm perched a raven, a bird with a wicked beak and talons that could pierce, rend, and shred delicate skin. The bird stirred as if it might fly as Isabella's face, but the man spoke softly to it, his voice so low that she could not make out the words. He stroked the raven's neck and back until is settled down, though it never took its gaze from Isabella.
No matter how she tried to pierce the darkness to see the man clearly, Isabella could not. When he turned slightly to touch the bird, he appeared to have long tawny brown hair swept back from his face and secured at the nape of the neck with a leather tie, yet it was still wild and shaggy, like a mane in disarray. The cloak of darkness continued to shield most of him from her so that Isabella could not tell what the don truly looked like. His face was completely hidden, so she had no idea of his features. But as she continued to stare, the flames from the fireplace seemed to leap into his eyes, and for a moment she could see the reflection shimmering through the darkness.
His eyes glowed a fiery red; they were not human.
“You are Isabella LaRoche,” he said from the dark alcove. “Please be seated. Sarina has brought tea to steady your nerves.”
Bella's eyes widened as she took in the features of the dark room, but when they came to the shadowy figure her storm-grey eyes could not seem to move from him for several seconds. This man seemed to know her name... but how? She felt a little like Alice going down the rabbit hole when she took the edges of her skirt in her hands and curtsied, holding it as long as manners required and then a second longer, until her ankle wavered beneath her and she rose.
Something about the room, the mood that was set, made her want to be quiet; when finally she spoke as she approached the chair, the soft shoes adorning her feet barely whispering her passage across the marble, her voice was not much above a whisper, though still audible in the otherwise oppressive-seeming silence of the room.
"Don Burghof, I want to thank you for the hospitality you have shown to me. I wished to speak to you about a young girl I believe may have been taken from Forks when she was mistaken for me." Obediently, Bella took one of the seats, smoothing her skirt around her as she sat and keeping her attention on the shadowed alcove. With barely a glance, she picked up the delicate-looking china teapot and poured a half-cup of herbal tea, picking up the dainty cup and wrapping her hands around it as if to warm them. In truth, something about this man's presence was threatening and at the same time intriguing in ways she couldn't describe; and the cup in her hands was to hide their shaking.
Don Burghof allowed a silence to build between them and lengthen. Isabella could feel the weight of his stare from the shadows, the weight of his... disapproval.
"It was foolish of you to venture into danger, and if your padre had been well, I'm certain he would have seen to it that you were punished for considering such folly." The don's voice was velvet soft, playing along Isabella's nerve endings like the brush of fingertips. He was chastising her, yet his voice was nearly a physical caress.
His voice was mesmerizing, and somehow familiar to Bella, as she took a sip of tea to wet a nearly dry mouth. She set down the cup then, before replying. "Signore, forgive me for being so bold, but please do not presume to know what Papa would say or do. He trusts me to be able to manage myself.
"I came to you to beg the release of the girl who was taken in my place. She has done no wrong; let whatever punishment you choose be on my head, as I am the one who unknowingly trespassed on your lands. I would offer my freedom, in exchange for hers." Boldly, as she stated the words, Bella looked up until she met the don's eyes with her own. The steel in her voice was put there by his words that assumed she was a helpless girl... or so it seemed to her that he thought that way, as all men did who Bella had met since she started travelling with her father.
With a loud, high-pitched, protesting SQUAWK! the raven that had been perched upon the don's arm launched itself at Isabella's face, swooping upwards only at the last, barely avoiding rending smooth, unblemished flesh.
In the shadows, the don took a protective step forward, but drew short even as the bird's attack drew short, not revealing himself. He watched with fiery red eyes as the raven swooped up and lighted upon the bust of Pallas, just above the chamber door.
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon the bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
A surprised "Eep!" escaped Bella's lips, and her arms went up to cover her face protectively. Even when she didn't feel claws rending her flesh, her arms stayed up for a second, until she grew bold enough to feel out the raven with her gift. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, even when she sensed the bird... There was something strange about it, and with shaking hand she picked up the teacup and took another sip to steady herself.
When Bella thought she could speak without her voice betraying her still-racing heartbeat or the jumpiness she suddenly felt steal over her, she said, "I think Signore Raven takes offense to my request." The tone of her voice held the merest thread of humor, although none of it showed on her face. "Does the bird speak answer for you, my lord?"
Something seemed to flash in the don’s eyes, but it was a mere trick of the firelight and nothing more. Aye? “You think to mock me?!” There was a grumbling growl in the don’s voice not unlike that of the lion. “You who were warned repeatedly not to tread in my wood, not to come to this place, yet now claim to have unknowingly trespassed?! What kind of woman are you, Isabella LaRoche?” Clearly, the don saw no humor in the situation. In truth, he gave off the impression of one having no sense of humor at all.
How did the don know she'd been warned not to enter the woods? Bella guessed visitors were always warned, but apparently for the wrong reasons. The don's voice, familiar yet strange, sent a shiver down the maiden's spine. "M'lord, I do not mean to offend. The villagers warned me not to go into the woods because they're cursed, they said. I was not told it was part of your property. And there was no one who warned me against coming here." She kept her voice even, but Don Burghof's voice raising for some reason got her a little agitated, and she could no longer just sit. Boldly, she stood, taking a step toward the shadowed alcove and meeting his eyes again. "I'll tell you what kind of woman I am, signore. I am young, unique, and independent. I'm intelligent, too, or so Papa is always telling me. I am also protective of those who have been trying to help me, which brings me back to why I came in the first place. What do you seek, my lord, in exchange for the girl's freedom?"
The bird perched above the chamber door shrieked: "SHE WILL COME!"
When Isabella stepped towards him, the don shrank further back into the shadows, retreating from her. When the raven shrieked, what looked to be furious red eyes glanced upwards and then back down towards the agitated maiden.
"You will take the young maid's place. She has spent a night in the dungeons because of you. You will now be jailed in her stead and held until such time as your offenses are deemed atoned for."
Precisely what she'd expected and been willing to do; even so, Bella felt her hopes drop when the don made his declaration. To keep it from showing on her face, she curtsied deeply, holding it as she spoke again. "As my lord wishes. I would ask one small boon before you send the girl away -- to speak with her but a moment, in the presence of yourself or one of your guardsmen if you require it." I will not cry. I will figure out a way to survive. I will see Papa again. This was repeated like a mantra in the back of her mind while she awaited the don's response.
The shadowy figure seemed to nod. "Very well. Sergio?"
The intricately carved door with its snarling lion head doorknob pushed open and Capitano Drannacia could be seen standing in the doorway. Back behind him, Signora Sincini too could be glimpsed. She looked pale with worry, and her hands anxiously wrung the kerchief she'd earlier used to dab the doused holy water from Signorina Bella.
"You will see to this."
"Yes, m'lord," the captain agreed with a respectful bow.
The don looked at Sarina. "And you will go ahead and see to the child."
Sarina dropped a curtsey, curtly bowing to the don's will. "Aye, Master."
A curious rumble like an irritable purr could be heard emitting from the don's chest.
”Grazie, signore," Bella said to the don, turning toward the door when she heard it opening. Every bit the lady, Bella nonetheless resisted a little when Capitano Drannacia reached for her arm, a little put off by the sudden change in treatment. She relented, though, and followed Capitano Drannacia, plotting out exactly what she needed to say to Lisette: where she'd stashed her and Papa's money in the cabin, how sorry she was that Lisette had been held in her place, and to tell Romeo she was sorry, but not to worry about her. Distracting herself with an organized thought pattern was the only way Bella thought she might be able to keep her composure... at least until she was shown to whatever accommodations her new status would afford her and left alone to let her emotions out.
(And this, my friends, is where we will leave poor Isabella for now, until I can get time to write chapter 5! Hope you're enjoying it so far!)