Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren Page B

endured.”
    “Stay with me. Please, Marcello—”
    “Say no more, my love.” He wrapped an arm around my waist and led me over to the rest of the group. Luca was regaling my parents with the tale of my rescue, and they looked at him, Lia, and Rodolfo in wide-eyed wonder. He paused in his tale when we neared, and Rodolfo stepped forward.
    “M’lady,” he said, ducking his head.
    I dipped my head in response. “Lord Greco,” was all I said.
    “Are you quite well?”
    “Well enough. I am weary of the road and this relentless rain. What news do you bring?”
    He cocked a brow and straightened. “ Relentless is the correct term. But I must get back to my men before they become concerned. They believe I am in the cottage of an old friend, warming myself by the fire.” He smiled. Even soaking wet, he was one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen. After Marcello, of course. There was a raw power in him that both drew and repelled me.
    “You sneaked away?” Luca asked.
    “Indeed. But I must leave shortly, or our plan will fall apart.”
    “Understood,” Marcello said. “What must we know?”
    “The grandi have charged me with bringing back the Ladies Betarrini. I assume you won’t allow us to exit Sansicino, let alone enter Firenze’s gates, with them in hand.”
    “Across my dead body,” Marcello said.
    “And mine,” Luca echoed.
    “As I knew it would be,” Rodolfo said. He shook his head. “And yet Lord Fortino might not live through the night. I left him in the cottage of my friend, by the fire, but he is in dire shape,” he said, sorrow and warning in his thickly lashed brown eyes.
    “Can we go to him? See to him?” I asked. “We have supplies and—”
    “Nay. ’Tis impossible. And my friend is doing what he can for him. But be forewarned, my friends. With him in your care, escape may prove impossible.”
    “We shall manage,” Marcello said. “We have no choice but to try.”
    “And if you’re caught?” Rodolfo pressed, wiping his face of rain and flinging it aside. “The men of Sansicino shall be obliged to imprison you, hand you all over to the Fiorentini for not honoring the agreement.”
    “We shall not be caught,” Luca said.
    But Marcello remained silent. He was clearly thinking about us with Fortino now. Two men would have to haul him in a blanket and be protected themselves—
    “You assisted me in our escape,” I said, “when I was little more than dead weight. We can do the same with Fortino.”
    “But you merely needed food, water. Rest. Fortino…”
    “As you said, we have little choice.”
    Marcello stared at me for a long moment and then looked to Rodolfo. “We shall conduct our negotiations and attempt to escape the trade—but you obviously knew that.”
    “Offer a treasure for Fortino,” Rodolfo said, as clear on how this was going to play out as Marcello himself seemed to be.
    “The negotiations will drag on until nightfall, and when the opportunity is right—”
    “You shall make your escape,” Rodolfo finished for him. He looked around at all of us. “Stay clear of me. I shall look like nothing but your worst enemy and, in battle, be forced to cut down any within my reach.”
    “As you must,” Marcello said. “Thank you for coming to us. For all you’ve done to keep Fortino alive…” His voice broke, and he looked away, blinking rapidly, then took a deep breath. “I would very much like to say farewell to him, if I cannot save him.”
    “I shall do my very best to see that you can.” Rodolfo clasped Marcello’s hand, and they looked into each other’s eyes as old friends. “You know that this will incite yet another great battle between our two cities.”
    Marcello slowly smiled. “Mayhap I’ll retrieve the castle that was stolen from me when it’s done.”
    “I do not know if you will want it back.” Rodolfo smiled in return. “I hear she again has a most terrible neighbor.”
    Cosmo Paratore, he meant. I shivered at the thought of