Read Online Death in the Palazzo by Edward Sklepowich - Free Book Online

boating accident.
    My mother’s patience with Renata, whom she wouldn’t have found sympathetic even if I hadn’t been interested in her, was tried from the first half-hour of her arrival.
    â€œBut Gemma can’t possibly stay in the same room, Bianca. She’s becoming such a big girl, aren’t you, my love?”
    Gemma, a sweet-faced girl with chestnut hair, nodded her head. Cradled in her arms was a doll. Perhaps it was because I had always wanted a little sister to love and protect or because she reminded me of Flora. Whatever it was, I felt an immediate bond with the little girl, whom I had never seen before. She looked at me directly with her large brown eyes and smiled, then whispered something to her doll.
    â€œAs you wish, Renata, but we are a little short of rooms …” My mother trailed off and cast a nervous glance at my father, who was talking to Luigi, the doctor, and Renata’s mother, Marialuisa Zeno.
    â€œShort of rooms? You make the Ca’ da Capo sound like a pensione . Ah, but I understand! You’re not still locking up that room where Cousin Flora died! Gemma and I needn’t suffer because of some medieval superstition!”
    My mother was silent for a few moments and gave the appearance of considering the possibilities.
    â€œVery well, Renata. I’m sure we can make arrangements to accommodate your sweet girl.”
    What transpired because of Renata’s insistence on a private bedroom was that Gemma was given the room that had been set aside for them both, and Renata was installed in the Caravaggio Room. What my father had feared had happened. The Caravaggio Room was going to be used after almost ten years.
    As soon as Luigi and I were alone an hour later, he made it clear why Renata didn’t want Gemma in the same room. He was a close friend of the Zenos and claimed to know everything about them.
    â€œShe wants to entertain the Englishman,” he said. “She wouldn’t care if she had to sleep in a closet as long as it’s private and she can be with him. ”
    He indicated an attractive man in his thirties who had arrived in the company of Signora Zeno, her younger daughter, Bambina, and Renata and Gemma. He had met the Zenos through an English friend married to a Roman, who had been tutoring the family in English for the past several years. I had exchanged only a few words with him earlier and had summed up Andrew Lydgate as one of those Englishmen with an abundance of money and leisure time and a deep love for all things Italian. That this deep love might extend to Renata had not occurred to me until Luigi made his comment.
    I don’t know if I was more surprised at what Luigi said or the way he said it. He sounded bitter and disappointed. He went on to explain that Signora Zeno was determined to secure Lydgate as Renata’s husband.
    â€œEven a woman as beautiful as Renata has her liabilities,” he said.
    â€œThe child?”
    â€œYes, and she has almost no money. You know Bellini squandered what little he had.”
    I observed that surely many men other than Lydgate would be very happy to take on the responsibility of Renata and her daughter. My comment had the effect I intended. Luigi could now be in no doubt that I shared his admiration for the beautiful Renata. He became all scowls and glowers, not all of them directed against me, by any means, but mainly against Lydgate. And when Luigi scowled and glowered, he did it like no man I had ever met before or have since.
    Before dinner that night I pointed out to him that rather than being at odds because of our admiration for Renata, we should feel a brotherly kinship, all the more so since neither of us seemed to stand any chance because of Lydgate.
    â€œThis isn’t a game for me, my friend,” he said. “I don’t intend to be made a fool of.”
    What he meant by this I don’t know, other than that Renata might have given him reason to