Page 37 of A Dangerous Bargain

“Signori, seat yourselves. We have much to discuss before we’re missed at the celebrations.”

Dread bubbles in my gut at the familiar voice. I bite the meaty part of my hand to hold back a gasp.

It’s Piero de’ Medici.

And we’re trapped in his office until he leaves.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The chair closest to me pulls back. I only just manage to move away before it pushes in again filled with the lower half of a man’s body. Leonardo squashes against me as the same thing happens to him. We’re practically sitting on each other now, the red and ermine-trimmed robes of the elected priori brushing our skin, Leonardo’s too-long legs scrunched a hairbreadth away from the tablecloth’s edge.

His eyes meet mine, huge and ringed with white. One sound, one wrong movement, and we’ll be discovered.

Merda! This is what we get for poking fun at God’s muscular, glowering glory on Easter Sunday.

“Piero, what’s the meaning of this? It won’t be long before someone notices the entire city council is missing from mass.” The man’s voice is cajoling, but there’s an edge of steel underneath it.

Piero de’ Medici laughs. “Well, I suppose we should get on with it, then. Guards, seize him.”

There’s a stomp of boots, a flurry of gasps and murmurs, then the unmistakable sound of a body being dragged from a chair. Desperate to see more—and ignoring Leonardo’s frantic gestures to stay still—I twist to press my face to the floor and peer underneath the tablecloth’s edge.

The prior is on his knees before the blades of two Medici guards’ pikes, which gleam beneath his jaw. His shocked look is mirrored on the other men’s faces.

“Tell us, Signore Soderini, why you haven’t been able to find the person responsible for the fountain miracle. It’s blasphemous that a human would attempt to parade as an angel and lie to all those poor people!”

My body goes statue still. They’re talking about Lupa.

Except… Piero is saying it was no miracle, even though I saw the healing waters with my own eyes. Is he lying to his government allies, or does he not believe in the magic?

“Signore Medici, I can assure you, we have been searching for the culprit. It hasn’t been easy. One man claims he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary right on the fountain’s edge—”

“Liar. I know you raced to the fountain yourself to take some of its water. Don’t try to deny it happened.” Piero’s voice is silk-smooth. “My son Lorenzo followed you.”

The hair rises on my arms as if I’m scurrying through a piazza moments before lightning cracks through the sky. Why do the Medici care so much about what happened to people who needed help? What Lupa did was odd and unheard of, but angels and their magic are sacred. Their ways are not for people to question or control. That’s what the church says.

I bite the inside of my cheek, sucking salt.

“Is he certain it was me?” Soderini says cooly. “He could have seen anyone.”

Piero’s voice grows cajoling, almost cloying. “And yet, he saw you. Come now, tell the truth.”

The running-before-the-storm feeling grows stronger. I nearly yelp when a heaviness squashes my hand. Leonardo. I glance down at our hands pressed together, then up to his face. He’s looking at me, too, face wide and frightened. His freckles are hidden in the darkness.

Those freckles are the only thing I want to draw. The wild confession surges to the tip of my tongue. I choke it back, appalled that my peach-fuzzy brain has decided now is the time to unearth this mortifying fact.

Leonardo’s tongue darts along his lips. They part, as if he wants to say something too.

Pulse spiking, I clap a hand over his mouth, shouting at him with my eyes.

Whatever it is can wait!

He sighs against my palm. It warms my skin—and somewhere deeper.

“I went to the holy waters to study it.” Soderini’s voice is an anguished whisper, as if he’s speaking against his will. “It felt like a true miracle, unlike the false ones you parade before us.”

Piero’s laugh holds no warmth. “How can you say that? My family is blessed with no angel of our own.”

“And yet, I have lived long enough to notice how their magic always tips fortune in your family’s favor. Why is that, Piero? You are hiding a secret from us, and I will find out what it is!”