Now she leaned forward in delight, pressing her face right up to the wooden partition of the confessional. "Who are they? The lovers, which? He's already mentioned Cleopatra and Paris and Tristan. Is it Lancelot and Guenivere?"
"Be patient," chided Mari. "All will be revealed." He read Dante's entreaty to the lovers floating on the wind, and their pitiable reply. When asked to tell their tale, the man groaned as the woman spoke:
'Love, quick to kindle in the gentle heart,
seized this man with the fair form
taken from me. The way of it afflicts me still.
'Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving,
seized me so strongly with his charm
that, as you see, it has not left me yet.
'Love brought us to one death.
Caïna waits for him who quenched our lives.'
These words were borne from them to us.
Mariotto paused when he heard a snuffle from the connecting chamber. "Gianozza?" He pressed his faced against the carved grille that separated them. The door to the penitent's cell opened and he heard the girl flee from it at a run.
Oh no! No no no! I've upset her! Was it my reading? Did I do something? Did I not do something? Should I go after her? She's Antony's bride. How can I chase her? God, how can I not?
The door to his cell opened. The gust of air made the candle gutter then die. Quickly the girl stepped inside and closed it behind her, engulfing them both in pitch darkness. She collapsed weeping into Mariotto's arms. "What?" he asked frantically. "What is it? What's wrong?"
She buried her face into his doublet, fingers clutching him in desperation. "It's so beautiful!"
Mariotto rocked her in his arms, pressing the top of her head with his cheek. That he did not kiss her then was probably the single greatest act of self-denial Mari had ever performed. He desperately wanted to shift in his seat, lest the girl notice exactly how excited she had made him. But he could not deny himself the pleasure of her weight in his lap. And an unworthy part of him wanted her to know how excited he was. As long as she wept he daren't caress her as he wished to, but he could stroke her hair, her neck, her shoulders.
After a time the girl's tears ceased to flow. She pressed her face into his. "I'm so sorry, Ser Montecchio. You must think me a foolish girl."
"Mariotto. Please, call me by my name. And no, not foolish, never that."
"Do you mind if I stay here?" she asked in a small voice. Mariotto found himself unable to answer. She settled in against him and he smelled once more the sweet orange blossoms. He drank it in as the gods of old drank nectar.
His hands began to stroke her back again, this time more insistently. In the tense, excited silence, the girl asked suddenly, "Who are they?"
"What? Oh! Her name is Francesca. Her lover is named Paolo. They were both murdered by her husband."
"Tell me their story," she said. He tried to relight the candle but she forestalled him. "You tell me. I'd much rather listen to you than Dante."
Trembling, he obeyed her. "Francesca da Polenta of Ravenna was married to Gianciotto Malatesta da Verrucchio of Rimini."
"Gianciotto?" The name meant, literally, John the Lame. "Was he?"
Mariotto nodded, just as if he'd been in Florence thirty years before. "Yes. His body was twisted while his brother Paolo's limbs were straight. Both of them were brave and virtuous, and fought side-by-side in many battles. Around the year 1280, Gianciotto sent his little brother to Francesca's father to offer a marriage contract. When Paolo arrived in Ravenna, Francesca mistook him for her future husband and agreed to the match. When she arrived in Rimini, she was presented with Paolo's older brother with the twisted limbs. They married, of course, but his business kept him away from home and he always left Francesca in the care of his younger brother."
"And they… they had a liaison?"
At this precise moment Mariotto saw the beauty Pietro's father had given the story of the two lovers. "They were sitting, reading a French romance — the story of Lancelot and Guenivere." In the darkness, her face close to his, Mari was having difficulty finding words. "They — I can't say it as well as the poem, but they were so excited by the story, so moved in emotion and spirit, that when they looked at each other they couldn't help…"
Her mouth found his. Or perhaps his found hers. The kiss was tentative at first, then she pressed harder. He responded, pulling her close. Their hands clutched at each other in the darkness. Breathing in the smell of her, his lips moved from her mouth to her neck. She gave a wonderful little moan. Encouraged, his fingers traced a line from the base of her neck to her shoulder, from there to her breast. She shivered and said, "Oh Mariotto, Mariotto, be my Paolo…"
"My Francesca, my Julia…."
A thudding against the doors of the church made them both start. Gianozza wrenched herself off his lap and out the door of the confessional before Mari could even speak. He heard the side door of the church open and slam shut. The drunks at the main doors carried on past the church, not knowing the moment they had ruined. Shaking, Mariotto sat lamely in the priest's seat and wondered what in God's name he was supposed to do now.
Gianozza fled through the revelers to the palace door, where she was admitted at once. Running up the stairs, she didn't stop until she reached the small chamber adjoining her uncle's guest suite. She bolted through the door into the lit room, expecting and deserving a scolding from her unfeeling chambermaid.
The room was indeed occupied, but not by a woman. Reclined deep in a chair, head in hands, legs splayed out before him, was a comely knight holding his face as if he thought it might fall off. As she closed the door his head came up.
The hungover Marsilio da Carrara gazed blearily at his breathless cousin. "Where the devil have you been?"
Twenty-Four
Verona
10 February 1315
It had been a long fortnight for Antonia Alaghieri, who had never traveled long distances before. The jostling of the carriage often made her ill. The time of year made roads less reliable. New snow crunched beneath the horses' hooves. Her anxiousness to join her father had her peering out of the little windows every few minutes, staring at the landscape until her cheeks froze.
Despairing of a decent tip, the driver of the hired gig was eager to rid himself of this troublesome child. Had he not been promised a huge sum when he delivered her unmolested to Verona, he would have left her and her two servants in one of the inns along the road. Or simply on the road. Anything to ditch the little harpy.
The sun was perhaps two hours away from its zenith when Verona's famous forty-eight towers came into view. Discarding comfort, Antonia leaned frantically out of the window to see. If she had come from the north, she would have been able to look down on the city. Coming from the south, she was blind to all but the vaguest impression as they passed through the gates.
That Verona was similar to Florence somehow surprised her. Like the city of her birth, it was cleft by a river. Yes, the roof tiles were of a slightly different hue, and there were more towers and fewer palaces. Many buildings seemed new, but intermingled with enough aged ones to give a sense of gravitas.
It was certainly as busy as Florence. There were crowds of people everywhere. Her driver called around for directions to the palace of the Scaligeri. Twice they were turned the wrong way before someone gave them proper instructions. They ended up crossing a bridge that must have been more than a thousand years old, yet was solid as ever.