Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Issue #26 by Dean Wesley Smith

Author:Dean Wesley Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WMG Publishing

Firelight and candles flickered in Catarucia’s rooms, chasing away the chill of rain outside her windows.

“Giancarlo,” she said, “faithful friend, you took a very great chance today.”

“You don’t ask how you may repay me,” he pointed out, humor in his voice.

“I would not dare to offend you with such an offer,” she said, and she suspected he heard the seriousness in her voice, because his smile fled.

“And for that I thank you,” he said. “But in truth, there is one thing I would ask.”

“Name it,” she said without hesitation.

“Your beauty is, they say, beyond measure. Although I cannot lay my gaze upon it, I wish to see your face in the only way I know how.” He held up his hands. Graceful hands with long fingers, skilled at coaxing music from a lute or viola da braccio or cornetto.

She drew over a chair and sat before him. Reached behind her head to loose the ribbons, let the mask fall to her lap. Gently she took his wrists and guided his hands to her face.

With a touch so light it felt like a gentle breeze upon her skin, Giancarlo traced the shape and planes and curves of her face, his eyes closed as if he memorized all he touched and formed a picture in his mind.

His fingers found her lips. Stopped, trembling.

“Giancarlo,” she whispered, feeling the movement of her own mouth in a way she never had before.

“Signorina,” he said. “I spoke a falsehood before the courts this day. I must confess I have long been bewitched by your beauty: the beauty of your voice, of your mind, of your benevolence, of your very soul. I have loved you for all your beauty save the beauty of your face, which until now I have never seen.”

Venus and Amor heard his words, heard Catarucia’s response, and laughed with joy.

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