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

of her own stravagations. But Nicholas was beside himself when he saw the blue glass bottle.
    â€˜That’s Giglian!’ he said. ‘You go to Giglia, don’t you?’
    â€˜Well, I’ve only been once,’ said Sky. ‘Last night.’
    â€˜Who did you see? Who told you about me?’ asked Nicholas eagerly. ‘Was it Gaetano?’
    The two brothers, so different physically, were very alike in one thing, thought Sky. They were equally devoted to each other and eager for news.
    â€˜Yes,’ he said to Nicholas. ‘I saw him. He asked me to seek you out and give you messages. I think he wants to use me as a go-between.’
    Nicholas looked as if he wanted to climb into Sky’s mind and grab everything in it relating to his old life, but Georgia stopped him. Sky was impressed by the influence she had over the younger boy.
    â€˜Do you know why you’ve been chosen?’ she asked Sky now.
    â€˜No, not exactly. I found myself in a sort of a monastery, with a pharmacy attached to it.’
    â€˜I bet it was Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines!’ cried Nicholas.
    Sky nodded. ‘That’s where I met your brother,’ he said. ‘But not at first. The first person I met was Brother Sulien. He . . . he told me we were both Stravaganti and that I was needed to help the city. He said there was danger coming from all sides. I think it’s linked with the weddings in your family, Nick.’
    â€˜Oh, who is getting married?’ he asked in an agony of curiosity. ‘Gaetano, I know, is to marry our cousin Francesca, but who else?’
    Sky saw that Georgia had gone quite pale.
    â€˜It’s your other two brothers,’ he said. ‘Marrying some more cousins. I’m afraid I don’t remember their names. And your cousin Alfonso, the Duke of Volana, is marrying yet another relative. You have a big family.’
    He saw Georgia relaxing and heard her breathe out.
    â€˜And the Duchessa of Bellezza is coming to Giglia for the weddings and the Nucci clan could be plotting something, but that’s pretty much all I know so far.’
    â€˜Arianna,’ said Georgia, and Sky saw to his amazement that there were tears in this tough girl’s eyes. ‘And where Arianna is, there Luciano will be too. You know about Luciano?’
    â€˜Sulien told me. But what he said seemed too fantastic to be true. It wasn’t until Gaetano told me about you two that I began to believe it.’
    â€˜And is Gaetano well? Is he happy?’ burst out Nicholas.
    â€˜He seemed well,’ said Sky. ‘And happy, apart from missing you. He said to tell you that he has a new horse, a grey stallion called Apollo.’
    He felt a bit silly passing on this message but both Nicholas and Georgia were listening intently, clearly horse-mad.
    â€˜Will you tell him about the fencing championships?’ said Nicholas. ‘I think he’d like to know I am still good with a sword.’

    A bullock cart was delivering a piece of marble to Giuditta Miele’s bottega. She had chosen it herself in the quarry at Pietrabianca, running her hands over the white stone as if sensing something locked within it. Now she was supervising the unloading, while the white bullocks sweated and shivered.
    With her broad shoulders and muscular arms, she looked as if she could heave the marble off the cart herself, but she left it to the team of workmen. A space had been cleared in the middle of the sculptor’s workshop, where soon the piece of quarried marble stood upright. Giuditta was slicing the ropes off the sacking that covered it before the workmen were out of the door.
    Then she walked slowly round and round the revealed white stone, getting to know it all over again. Her apprentices watched in silence, used to her methods; it would be days before she took a chisel to the block of marble.
    Giuditta was remembering her visit to Bellezza, when she had met the young Duchessa.