The City Beyond the Glass (A Fairy Tale Retold) by Suzannah Rowntree

Author:Suzannah Rowntree
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bocfodder Press
Published: 2018-04-01T22:00:00+00:00

Papa rang for Maria and told us to wait in the portego. With the door of the study closed behind us, Filippa seized my arm.

“The Inquisitors,” she choked. “Gemma, we have to tell them. If we make this one disappear, Papa will turn us over to them.”

I put my hands to my head. “If we tell Gonzaga what we’re up to, he’ll marry Lucia. But I know him, Filippa. I’ve met him before. He’s worse than Friuli. He’s a killer.”

Filippa paled. Mercifully, before she could ask another question, Maria joined us. There was nothing else to say. Lucia still hadn’t spoken, her eyes blank and shadowed. I felt desperate. I had to fix this, but how?

When Papa and Gonzaga emerged from the study, Papa was more cheerful than he’d looked in days. He was even chuckling at something the condottiere said. “Get to know my daughters,” he told Gonzaga. “I have business to attend to.”

He went downstairs, and Gonzaga turned to us with a smile. “Will you show me to my room? I’d like to see where all these disappearances took place.”

We stared at him woodenly until I realised that as the eldest, they were waiting for me to direct him. I moved reluctantly to the staircase. “Follow us.”

Instead of falling into line, he snapped his fingers as if remembering something. “A moment. Your father neglected to tell me which of you is to be my bride.”

On the first step, level with his eyes, I whipped around. “None of us!”

Gonzaga’s eyebrows shot up—and he laughed.

There was an awkward silence. Then, to my surprise, Lucia spoke. “I’m Lucia, signor. I’m the youngest. I think I’m the one you mean.”

The laughter left Gonzaga’s face as he took my sister’s hand. “Sweet lady. I am enchanted.”

His voice was familiar. I could still hear it echoing between the narrow walls of a dark alley where I’d nearly been choked to death. Kill her then. Do I seem to care?

If I didn’t know better, I might have been taken in. Luckily, Lucia wouldn’t look him in the eye and pulled her hand away as soon as she could.

“Maria and I will show him upstairs.” I spoke with decision. “You and Filippa have left your needlework on the loggia. You’d better get it before the rain starts.”

Lucia shot me a grateful look. As the two of them retreated across the portego to the loggia, Gonzaga laughed. “You now, Signorina Gemma…” His voice dropped to a breath. “You I could see as a killer. You have just enough of the hellcat in you.”

“You must meet a lot of women like that.”

I put a sting into the words, but it apparently missed him. He said thoughtfully, “You’re the first I’ve met with the wit to bargain her way out of a back-alley brawl.”

My fingers tightened on the stair rail. “How did you know me?”

“Smell.” He lifted an eyebrow. “The soap your laundress uses to wash your clothes. Lemon, cloves, and a hint of cinnamon and rosemary. That, combined with your voice and station.

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