Read Online Belladonna by Fiona Paul - Free Book Online Page B

maybe she’d misunderstood Luca’s words.
    Then her fingers skimmed a rough edge. She paused and peered closer. Once again, she traced a finger of her dirty glove over the thin strip of mortar between two of the bricks at the back of the fireplace.
    One of the bricks was definitely loose. She jiggled it, biting her lip to keep from crying out as the brick fell into her hand, exposing a hollow space at the back of the fireplace. Cass reached back into the dark opening. Her fingers closed around something wrapped in fabric. She pulled it out for examination. It was a bright red bundle. Inside it was a key.
    Siena sucked in a breath. “Whose crest is that?” She pointed at the carving of a lion holding a shield. “The da Peraga family?”
    Cass shook her head. Her mouth was dry. “It’s mine,” she croaked out. “It’s the Caravello crest.” She had seen the emblem on sashes and wall hangings and even some of the dinner napkins she had used as a child.
    Turning the key over in her hands, she ran one finger along the dulled edges of its teeth. How did her mother come to possess documents from a mysterious Order? Why had she hidden them among the dead?
* * *
    When Cass and Siena arrived back at the villa, there was another surprise waiting for them: a wide blue boat with long leather privacy curtains was tied up at Agnese’s splintering dock. A black silk banner emblazoned with a gold griffin holding a flaming sword was mounted on the stern of the boat. The word
victory
was splashed across the sword’s blade.
    The rage that Cass had been fighting all day threatened to overwhelm her. She knew that crest. She had seen the blue boat before. “What is Joseph Dubois doing here?” she spat out.
    She didn’t even wait for Siena to exit the gondola behind her. She kicked off her chopines as she ran across the damp lawn, sprinting up the stairs and into the portego. Dubois was sitting across the table from her aunt Agnese, sipping from one of Agnese’s painted teacups. They both looked up at Cass in surprise.
    “Haven’t you done enough?” Cass burst out. Blades of wet grass fell from the hem of her skirts onto the clean portego floor. “Letting thieves and murderers go free while sending an innocent man to the gallows? Now you’ve come all the way out here to revel in our misery? Is that it?”
    “Cassandra!” Agnese cried out, shocked.
    Dubois looked unfazed. “Signorina Caravello,” he said, rising from his seat to bow. “Your passion is so like your mother’s.”
    “You have no right to speak of my mother,” Cass said, wishing her voice wouldn’t shake.
    Agnese looked as though her eyes were about to pop out of her head. “I apologize, Signore,” she said quickly. “I can’t imagine what has made my niece behave in such a fashion.” She turned back to Cass, scowling so deeply that her silvery eyebrows met in the middle of her forehead.
    “It’s all right, Signora Querini,” Dubois said. “Young Signorina Caravello is under a great deal of stress. Perhaps, Signorina, it will please you to know that we have apprehended the man responsible for Sophia Garzolo’s death. He is scheduled to be hanged at sunset exactly a fortnight from now.”
    Footsteps sounded on the main staircase. Siena burst into the portego with Cass’s chopines dangling from one hand. She froze when she saw Dubois. Dropping her eyes to the floor, she backed quickly against the wall.
    “And what man is that?” Cass asked, raising her chin and meeting Dubois’s stare. What other poor unfortunate soul had crossed the Frenchman and ended up sentenced to death?
    “Signor Carmino, the estate butler. I was very surprised to find out he had been . . . harassing several female members of my staff. I assume he was trying to court Signorina Garzolo.” Dubois examined his nails. “Things must not have gone his way.”
    Cass fought a feeling of revulsion. She did not believe a single word that came out of Dubois’s mouth. “And did