Read Online Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy - Free Book Online

before!”
    “It is certainly exquisite,” agreed Giulia; “and I should never have kept it from you for a day, sweet Lucrezia, if I had had it to show you. I have just received it.”
    “A gift! From whom?”
    “That would be to tell, and to tell is somewhat unwise.”
    Giulia had seemed to grow up in a few hours. Full of coquetry, sheseemed more like a girl of eighteen than one of fourteen. Her laughter was high and infectious; she sang gay Italian songs about love; and she was tantalizingly secretive. There was also the mystery of the necklace.
    But Giulia was too young, too excited to keep up the secrecy for long. She wanted to share confidences; she wanted to flaunt her experience before Lucrezia. Lucrezia demanded: “What has happened? Why are you so pleased? You do not care that the Cardinal complained to Madonna Adriana of your forwardness—which may well mean that you will be sent away.” Then Giulia laughed and retorted; “I shall not be sent away. And the Cardinal did not complain. I’ll tell you something, Lucrezia. I have a lover.”
    “Orsino …”
    “Orsino! Do you think I should ever take Orsino for a lover? Would you?”
    “I … but I would never …”
    “Mayhap you are over-young yet. For myself I shall be fifteen soon … and married to Orsino. Therefore what is there for me to do but take a lover?”
    “Oh, have a care,” begged Lucrezia. “What if Madonna Adriana should hear you talk thus? You would be sent away.”
    “I shall not be sent away. Oh no … no … no!”
    Giulia laughed so much that the tears came to her eyes. Lucrezia gazed at her puzzled.

    The Cardinal’s visits to Monte Giordano became very frequent and he did not always come to see Lucrezia.
    Giulia would dress very carefully before his visits—not in her most modest gowns—and sometimes Lucrezia would hear Giulia’s high-pitched laughter when she was alone with the Cardinal. It was disconcerting.
    But he always came to see me! Lucrezia told herself.
    And then she began to understand.
    Giulia had many rich presents. She was the loveliest girl in Rome, Lucrezia had heard the servants say. They had named her La Bella , and referred to her more often by that name than her own. The rich presents came from a rich lover, a lover whom Giulia was entertaining in the formalhousehold of the Orsinis. It was some time before Lucrezia would allow herself to believe who that lover was.
    Then she could keep her suspicions to herself no longer.
    One night she slipped from her bed, took her candle, and went to Giulia’s bedchamber. Giulia was asleep, and the light from Lucrezia’s candle showed her the beauty of that perfect face. Giulia was indeed La Bella .
    The candlelight playing on Giulia’s face awoke her and she started up, staring in alarm at Lucrezia.
    “What is wrong?” she demanded.
    “I have to know,” said Lucrezia. “The Cardinal is your lover, is he not?”
    “Did you wake me up to tell me what everybody knows?” demanded Giulia.
    “So it is true!”
    Giulia laughed. “Think of it,” she said, sitting up and hugging her knees. “He is fifty-eight and I am not yet fifteen. Yet we love. Is that not miraculous? Who would have thought a man so old could make me love him?”
    “With him,” said Lucrezia solemnly, “all things are possible.”
    That made Giulia emit one of her secretive laughs. “It is true,” she said. “And I am happy.”
    Lucrezia was silent, looking at Giulia, seeing her afresh, trying to remember what she had been like before this astonishing thing had happened to her.
    Then she said slowly: “If Madonna Adriana heard of this, she would be very angry.”
    Giulia laughed again, recklessly it seemed to Lucrezia.
    “What you are doing should be kept secret,” persisted Lucrezia. “I know we do not like Madonna Adriana, but she is a good woman and she would never allow you to live in her house if she knew.”
    Giulia stopped laughing and looked intently at