Read Online Secret of Light by K. C. Dyer - Free Book Online Page A

she felt she must have heard incorrectly. “Surely,” she stammered, “not
the
Verrocchio?”
    â€œAnd none other, of course!” He laughed, standing tall, then turned back to Brodie. “Who were you expecting? Your father has apprenticed you for the season, has he not? He sent word to my family to expect you this week — and here you are!” He gestured dismissively at Darrell and Kate. “Send your serving girls to the kitchens and let me show you around.”

    Brodie raised his eyebrows at Darrell. “These are not servants — ah — Cousin Giovanni. They are...” he stumbled, as though the words had dried up in his mouth.
    â€œSisters of his friend,” Darrell interjected, “who was unable to attend, though promised a place. We are here to study, too, in his stead. My name is Dara and this is — Katerina.”
    The young man laughed, loud and long, and slapped his knee in apparent delight. “
Girls
,” he said, barely recovered, “girls do
not
study with Verrocchio.” He looked at Kate appraisingly. “You’d better stay in the kitchens, with red hair and a name like Katerina.”
    Kate flushed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He shrugged and grabbed Brodie by the sleeve. “Now come along, cousin. You have not been here since you were a tiny baby. I will show you around while the girls find their way to the
cucina
.” With a yank on Brodie’s arm, the young man pulled him out into the golden afternoon.
    â€œItalian! We’re speaking Italian.” Kate was on her feet, pacing.
    Darrell nodded. “Italian, or something very like it,” she said. “The only Italian words I’ve heard are when my Uncle Frank drops a hammer on his toe, and he won’t ever translate.”
    â€œQuit kidding around, Darrell. We need to follow them!” Kate said, her eyes frantic.
    â€œJust a minute.” Darrell sat down on the stable floor with a thud. She ran her hands over her clothesand patted the floor beside her. “Let’s just take stock for a minute here, okay?”
    Kate paced around the stable, biting a thumbnail. But when Delaney pushed his nose into her hand, she glanced down at him for a moment and then slumped on the straw beside Darrell. She rubbed her cheek against Delaney’s soft head. “He’s changed clothes too,” she said, her lips curling into a tiny smile.
    â€œHe looks like he did on our trip to Mallaig,” said Darrell, ruffling the dog’s fur.
    â€œHe
is
brown, but his fur is longer and he’s not as skinny as before.”
    Darrell winced at the memory of the starving dogs she had seen roaming the streets of Mallaig during the Black Plague. “It seems like, whenever this is, times are a bit better,” she said. “Our clothes are richer, for one thing.”
    Kate looked down at her own dress, a floor-length tunic of a finely striped silk in vivid red and gold with rich brocade. “Yeah.” She ran her hands along the lush fabric. “I don’t feel quite so frightened this time,” she said, her voice lower. “And this whole experience is different from the cave. How can a lighthouse turn into a stable?”
    Darrell shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s almost like we were pulled through a doorway and landed here.”
    â€œThat’s not how it felt for me,” Kate said, rubbing her head. “More like we’d been sucked into a giant blender, spun around a million or so times, and spat out on the floor.”
    Darrell pulled up the hem of her own elaborate overskirt and sighed. “One thing’s certain,” she saidwith a grimace, “they don’t make prostheses much more comfortable here than they did in Scotland.” The wooden peg bound tightly to her leg looked depressingly familiar, though the wood was of a fine grain and elaborately carved, ending in a roll-toed paw,