Read Online Ilario, the Stone Golem by Mary Gentle - Free Book Online
Authors: Mary Gentle
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Battista walked
to sit beside me.
‘That’s poor thanks for saving my life.’ He spoke firmly, holding my
gaze. ‘I’ve told Neferet the marriage will remain in name only: she has no
need for concern. Please don’t take that as an insult – if I were not hers, I
could seek for no better woman than you for my wife.’
Rekhmire’’s luminous dark eyes caught mine. Whatever else Neferet
might have said in her rage, I perceived that ‘hermaphrodite’ was not one
of those words.
‘I don’t take offence,’ I said, and attempted to sound as if I only
changed the subject out of feminine embarrassment. ‘I had expected you
and Neferet to be on the first ship out for Alexandria-Constantinople?’
Leon Battista looked down at his hands. The knuckles were more
prominent than they should be. He rubbed his fingers together.
‘My family’s exile is ended, on condition they rein in their rabble-
rousing son.’ His expression turned sour. He looked up, without lifting
his head, and met my gaze through his long, dark lashes. ‘Therefore, I
have to be seen in Florence. With my family, carrying on the family’s affairs, and not fomenting rebellion against the Duke.’
Rekhmire’ leaned forward and prodded the coal with one of the fire-
irons. He sat back with a grunt. ‘The Alberti family expect Master Leon
Battista to be in your company, Ilario, as soon as you may travel. Not Neferet’s.’
The short walk from church had given me enough time to solve that
problem. ‘Tell them I died ! Plague. Cholera. Anything! It happens all the
time. You can safely tell anyone that, just as soon as I can leave Venice.’
Not before. I would be very surprised if the Alberti didn’t have men
watching their son’s wife. And, by his expression, I had no need to spell
that out.
Leon’s mouth quirked. ‘There’s no need to condemn you to an early
grave. When it becomes possible, I can prove our marriage void.’
‘You can?’ All the banns and church offices had been what I
understand the Frankish marriage ceremonies to be. I could not help
looking at him in surprise. ‘How?’
38
Leon Battista took a deep breath. ‘I married Neferet six months ago, in
the autumn.’
My mouth was open, but I could make no sound come out.
‘Although,’ he added, ‘for obvious reasons, I can’t take Neferet to
Florence as my wife – the family would insist on having a council of
midwives to examine her, to confirm that she was a virgin before she
married me, and capable of child-bearing. And that . . . ’
‘Yes, I can see that would present problems.’
The door opened; Neferet’s women servants came in, followed by
Neferet herself – she looked taken aback to see me still present, and she
glared at Rekhmire’, but since neither of us moved, she gestured for wine
to be served.
After a warming sip of the wine, I had courage enough to look her in
the face. ‘Couldn’t you go to Florence as Leon’s mistress?’
The lines of her face spoke, I don’t know what business this is of yours!
more clearly than any word could have.
She nevertheless seated herself gracefully on one of the window-
embrasures, reclining on cushions embroidered in the Alexandrine style.
‘Think, Madonna Ilaria! Leon arrives without his new wife and infant child, but with a mistress – and a foreign mistress at that! How long before the family demands he be respectable?’
Something under a quarter of an hour after passing Florence’s walled
gate, I suspected, but didn’t desire to say. Neferet’s long-fingered large
hands still faintly trembled with anger. No need to draw the lightning
down on myself.
‘If I go as a cook or servant,’ she said, her graceful reclining pose
stiffening with her neck, ‘or anything else an unmarried woman may do,
I will be assumed as a matter of course to be Leon’s whore.’
Her head turned: she fixed Leon with a desolate stare.
‘And I am your wife .’
Leon Battista
to sit beside me.
‘That’s poor thanks for saving my life.’ He spoke firmly, holding my
gaze. ‘I’ve told Neferet the marriage will remain in name only: she has no
need for concern. Please don’t take that as an insult – if I were not hers, I
could seek for no better woman than you for my wife.’
Rekhmire’’s luminous dark eyes caught mine. Whatever else Neferet
might have said in her rage, I perceived that ‘hermaphrodite’ was not one
of those words.
‘I don’t take offence,’ I said, and attempted to sound as if I only
changed the subject out of feminine embarrassment. ‘I had expected you
and Neferet to be on the first ship out for Alexandria-Constantinople?’
Leon Battista looked down at his hands. The knuckles were more
prominent than they should be. He rubbed his fingers together.
‘My family’s exile is ended, on condition they rein in their rabble-
rousing son.’ His expression turned sour. He looked up, without lifting
his head, and met my gaze through his long, dark lashes. ‘Therefore, I
have to be seen in Florence. With my family, carrying on the family’s affairs, and not fomenting rebellion against the Duke.’
Rekhmire’ leaned forward and prodded the coal with one of the fire-
irons. He sat back with a grunt. ‘The Alberti family expect Master Leon
Battista to be in your company, Ilario, as soon as you may travel. Not Neferet’s.’
The short walk from church had given me enough time to solve that
problem. ‘Tell them I died ! Plague. Cholera. Anything! It happens all the
time. You can safely tell anyone that, just as soon as I can leave Venice.’
Not before. I would be very surprised if the Alberti didn’t have men
watching their son’s wife. And, by his expression, I had no need to spell
that out.
Leon’s mouth quirked. ‘There’s no need to condemn you to an early
grave. When it becomes possible, I can prove our marriage void.’
‘You can?’ All the banns and church offices had been what I
understand the Frankish marriage ceremonies to be. I could not help
looking at him in surprise. ‘How?’
38
Leon Battista took a deep breath. ‘I married Neferet six months ago, in
the autumn.’
My mouth was open, but I could make no sound come out.
‘Although,’ he added, ‘for obvious reasons, I can’t take Neferet to
Florence as my wife – the family would insist on having a council of
midwives to examine her, to confirm that she was a virgin before she
married me, and capable of child-bearing. And that . . . ’
‘Yes, I can see that would present problems.’
The door opened; Neferet’s women servants came in, followed by
Neferet herself – she looked taken aback to see me still present, and she
glared at Rekhmire’, but since neither of us moved, she gestured for wine
to be served.
After a warming sip of the wine, I had courage enough to look her in
the face. ‘Couldn’t you go to Florence as Leon’s mistress?’
The lines of her face spoke, I don’t know what business this is of yours!
more clearly than any word could have.
She nevertheless seated herself gracefully on one of the window-
embrasures, reclining on cushions embroidered in the Alexandrine style.
‘Think, Madonna Ilaria! Leon arrives without his new wife and infant child, but with a mistress – and a foreign mistress at that! How long before the family demands he be respectable?’
Something under a quarter of an hour after passing Florence’s walled
gate, I suspected, but didn’t desire to say. Neferet’s long-fingered large
hands still faintly trembled with anger. No need to draw the lightning
down on myself.
‘If I go as a cook or servant,’ she said, her graceful reclining pose
stiffening with her neck, ‘or anything else an unmarried woman may do,
I will be assumed as a matter of course to be Leon’s whore.’
Her head turned: she fixed Leon with a desolate stare.
‘And I am your wife .’
Leon Battista
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