Read Online The Scarletti Curse by Christine Feehan - Free Book Online Page B

was impossible that he could have heard, something alerted the don,
and he swung around to catch his assailant's wrist. He moved so fast, he seemed
a blur, somehow swinging the man around in front of him so that, when the one
he had been speaking to plunged
his
knife deep, it was buried in the
don's assailant instead of the don himself.
    Don Scarletti allowed the man to crumple helplessly to the beach. Nicoletta
could see that the shocked assailant's mouth was wide open, as if he was
screaming, but she could hear nothing. His body writhed for a moment,
contorted, then lay still. The don looked from the dead man crumpled in a heap
at his feet to his betrayer. Nicoletta's heart went out to the don. She could
almost feel his sorrow, see it in the droop of his shoulders. For one awful
moment she thought he was going to open his arms and allow the other man to
kill him. Don Scarletti seemed to be speaking softly, shaking his head.
    "No," she said softly to the wind. "No."
    At the precise moment of her denial of his death, the don's shoulders
straightened, and his betrayer attacked. The don was once again a whirling blur
of motion as he leapt to one side to avoid the dagger, catching his opponent's
wrist and twisting it as he stepped back into the man so that the blade buried
itself in the betrayer's chest. They stood, toe to toe, staring into each other's
eyes, and then slowly the betrayer collapsed, and the don lowered him
reluctantly to the sand. He stood for a moment, his head bowed in evident
sorrow, and she saw his hands come up to cover his eyes.
    Nicoletta's heart turned over, and tears shimmered in her eyes for a moment,
blurring the scene below. She wiped them away and looked down again. The don
suddenly looked up. Gasping, she shrank back into the foliage. Even though it
was impossible for Don Scarletti to see her through the thick leaves and branches,
she felt the weight of his stare. He could not have seen her, not from that
angle; it would have been impossible. He couldn't even have known she was
there. Her teeth bit at her lip nervously. She had always been so careful, yet
in a short time she had had two strange encounters with Don Giovanni Scarletti,
the very last
aristocratico
she should ever meet.
    "Nicoletta!" Ketsia's plaintive voice caught her attention, and
she turned to see the child rushing toward her. Obviously alarmed because she could
no longer see Nicoletta, she had panicked. Tears streaked her little face.
    Nicoletta immediately caught the child to her, dragging her back away from
the cliff so she could not see Don Scarletti and his dead assailants on the
beach below.
    "Were you afraid,
piccola?"
Nicoletta stroked back her hair
and bent to kiss the upturned face. "I thought I heard something,
but…" She shrugged casually. "What frightened you?"
    "I thought… Did you see the color of the sky? I thought…" Ketsia
trailed off. "Maria Pia told me I should watch you all the time. I did not
want you to get into trouble."
    Nicoletta hugged her. "The sky was indeed a wondrous hue, but Maria
Pia—well, she can frighten the men in the
villaggio,
she can frighten
the sheep on the hillsides, perhaps she can even frighten the fish in the sea,
but certainly not you, Ketsia. Why, I have seen you fly at your big brother
when he teases you. Surely he is much more terrifying than Maria Pia."
Deliberately she teased the little girl as she continued to walk with her
toward the trail.
    Nicoletta wanted to go back and see what had happened, but she didn't dare
rouse Ketsia's suspicions; the little girl was curious about everything her
mentor did. Night was falling rapidly. Nicoletta often roamed the wilds at
night, but she would never keep a child out so late. The villagers were a
superstitious people and believed in all sorts of things Nicoletta had never
found to be true. With a sigh of regret, Nicoletta began to lead the way down
the path.
    "Wait!" Ketsia called, turning and running back toward where they
had been