Finally, the priest closed the vellum Bible and intoned a prayer. Cassie kept her eyes closed some moments after he had finished, and when she opened them, the black-garbed men were milling about, their voices soft. She was about to turn toward the earl, who was speaking quietly to the priest, when suddenly she heard softly spoken words, words that burned into her mind.
“Pazza fragitara nigli inferno.” “May he rot in hell.”
She looked wildly about her, but she saw only solemn faces, some familiar and some unknown to her. She tugged frantically on the earl’s black sleeve, oblivious of the priest, who was regarding her with profound disapproval.
“He’s here,” she said. “I heard him—he’s here.” Her weakness and shock combined, and she felt the ground unsteady beneath her. For the first time in her life, she fainted.
The earl caught her up in his arms, and called to Mr. Donnetti. “Francesco, quickly.”
“What has happened, my lord?”
Tersely, the earl told him Cassie’s words. “Get your men together. Bring any man who is not known to them to the villa.” But even as he gave the order, he knew it was hopeless. Many mourners had already left the graveyard.
“The shock was too much for her, Antonio?”
The earl looked at Caesare, who was peering with concern into Cassie’s pale face.
“Perhaps. She heard one of the men who abducted her. If you will, Caesare, walk about and see if there is any man that looks suspicious to you. It would give me great pleasure to kill another one of the bastards on the day of Joseph’s funeral.”
Cassie felt a swaying motion beneath her when she awoke, and tried to pull her body upright.
“Hold still, cara.” The earl’s strong arms tightened about her. In the next moment, she was feeling inordinately foolish.
“Oh, it is the carriage.”
“Yes. We shall soon be back to the villa.” His soothing tone gave way to an amused one. “I had no idea that you were the kind of woman who succumbs to the vapors.”
“I am hungry, and it is unkind of you to tease me.”
The earl hugged her against his chest, and allowed himself to become serious. “What did the man say precisely, Cassandra?”
She shuddered. “‘May he rot in hell.’ Almost the same words he said that night. I could not tell which of the men it was, and the words were so quietly spoken—with such pleasure.”
“Then it was the fifth man you heard.”
She nodded her head against his shoulder.
“Francesco and his men are scouring the area, Cassandra. I will question whomever they bring to me.”
“I think even if you find him, he is too smart to give himself away.”
“We will see.”
They were silent for some moments. “You know,” she said finally, “I do not think that Joseph would have particularly cared for that priest. He was terribly filled with his own importance, and so fat.”
The earl’s chest shook briefly with laughter.
“Yes,” he said soberly, “you are quite right.”
Chapter 20
Cassie peeled an orange and chewed thoughtfully on the succulent fruit. “It is odd, my lord,” she said, “to be eating fresh fruit in autumn.”
“I know,” the earl said with a quick smile. “There are few fresh oranges in England in the fall. My name is Anthony, you know,” he added.
“Yes, I know. It is just that you are more often a lord or lordship to me.”
“Am I so remote then? It is not my intention to be.”
She smiled and shook her head at him. “No, you are not in the least remote.”
Indeed, she thought, in the past three weeks he had been unflaggingly kind and solicitous to her. He still teased her companionably, and berated her if he thought she was over-taxing herself, but he asked nothing of her save her company. He made it easy for her to be content simply to be with him, to allow him to care for her and keep the outside world at bay. He seemed to sense her desire not to confront anything for the present, what had happened to her or the future, but merely to exist and to mend in the comfort he provided for her.