Read Online City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman - Free Book Online

already spotted her mother, in her midnight-blue dress, masked like a silver leopard, and knew where Rodolfo’s feet would lead him next. Arianna was now used to the risks her supposedly dead mother took every time she exposed herself to recognition on occasions like this; she knew how incapable her parents were of staying apart for long, even though one lived as Regent in Bellezza and the other kept up an alias as a rich widow in Padavia.
    Arianna’s mother Silvia took the floor now with a slim young man, whose long black curls were tied back with a purple ribbon. He was a good dancer, almost as good as his partner, and she was quite out of breath by the time they moved near to Rodolfo and Arianna.
    â€˜Time for my staid old woman,’ murmured Rodolfo, taking his secret wife in his arms and whirling her away.
    They did not break the rhythm of the music for a moment, Luciano and Arianna, but danced together smoothly and effortlessly, as if used to holding one another.
    â€˜You last wore a mask like that in Remora,’ Luciano said. ‘When Georgia won the Stellata.’
    â€˜I’m surprised you remember,’ said Arianna. ‘You had eyes only for her at that time.’
    â€˜You were at the window of the Papal palace,’ said Luciano, ‘looking down into the Campo. But even a glimpse of you remains in my mind always.’
    â€˜You are becoming quite poetical,’ she said, laughing.
    She always does this, thought Luciano. Just when I try to say something serious about how I feel, she always turns it aside with a joke. How can I ever get her to understand? But he was used to Arianna’s moods and always took his tone from hers.
    â€˜I wonder what Georgia is doing now?’ he said now, skilfully guiding the Duchessa through the dancing throng.
    But Arianna was not jealous of the girl Stravagante tonight.
    â€˜I hope she’s having as nice a time as we are,’ was all she said.

    â€˜Meet you both outside the school gate at half past three,’ hissed Georgia to Sky and Nicholas.
    Somehow she was going to have to give Alice the slip; she couldn’t wait any longer to find out what Sky knew about Nicholas and how he had come by the name of Falco.

Chapter 5
    Marble for a Duchess
    Rosalind Meadows was pleased and surprised when Sky let himself in with two friends in tow; she often worried that he didn’t seem close to anyone in school. After making them all tea, she made an excuse and took herself out, leaving them the flat to themselves.
    Georgia was looking round the living room and sniffing. ‘This flat is brand new, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘It still smells of paint.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Sky. ‘We moved in a few months ago.’
    â€˜Who lived here before?’ she pursued. ‘Was it all one house?’
    Sky shrugged. ‘Yes, but I don’t know who lived here – some old lady who died, I think my mum said.’
    â€˜That’s it!’ said Georgia, turning to Nicholas. ‘This must be the house my horse came from! Mr Goldsmith said it came from the great-niece of an old lady who died in a house near the school.’
    â€˜And Luciano said his notebook came from there too,’ said Nicholas.
    Georgia looked at Sky for a long time, as if deciding just how much to trust him. ‘Our school is on the site of William Dethridge’s Elizabethan laboratory,’ she said eventually. ‘Or a part of the school and perhaps a part of this house. Whenever a Stravagante comes to England in our time, they seem to end up here. We think that’s why two of us were found by the talismans.’
    â€˜Three,’ said Sky quietly.
    â€˜I knew it!’ exclaimed Nicholas, jumping up and pacing the small living room. ‘Where do you go? And what is your talisman?’
    Sky went into his room and came back with the perfume bottle. Georgia smiled when she saw the bubble-wrap. It brought back memories