Free The Scarletti Curse by Christine Feehan

working on the plants. "Your shoes! I left your shoes! Maria Pia
will lecture me!"
    Nicoletta burst out laughing. "We cannot have that."
    Ketsia giggled, her world right again. She skipped after Nicoletta, chatting
and happy, completely unaware of Nicoletta's silence. It had grown dark by the
time they made their way to the village. When Ketsia saw Maria Pia, she tugged
at Nicoletta's skirt. "She is frowning at you," she whispered, surreptitiously
tapping the shoes against Nicoletta's leg.
"Presto,
put them on
before she sees."
    Nicoletta ruffled the child's hair as she took the shoes. "She sees
everything, Ketsia. Do not worry. She frowns, but she does not bite."
    Ketsia's mother took the child off after exchanging all the endless gossip
of the day with Nicoletta, who pasted on an appropriate smile.
    Maria Pia evidently felt the same impatience. She clutched at Nicoletta's
arm tugged. "We must eat. I am sagging without food."
    Nicoletta followed her quickly into the small hut they shared. "You
look tired. Allow me to fix you something to eat while you rest." Gently
she helped the older woman into the one good chair they had beside the
fireplace. Curbing her curiosity, she built a fire and began to heat the soup.
Maria Pia did look tired and strained. She was usually so spry, Nicoletta often
forgot her advancing age.
    "Stop giving me those worried looks,
piccola.
I am just tired. I
am too old to traipse off to the palazzo with Mirella. She is an old fool, that
one."
    Nicoletta hid her smile. All in the
villaggio
deferred to Maria Pia,
with the exception of Mirella. Mirella was older than Maria Pia, and, according
to her, she had been the most beautiful and coveted of all the women in her
youth. The stories of her romantic conquests seemed to grow with each telling,
and Maria Pia was exasperated with the tales. "The old fool," Maria
Pia repeated. "She was actually flirting with the don."
    Shocked, Nicoletta nearly crumbled the loaf of bread into crumbs. "She
what?"
    "Ha! The old fool. I told you her mind was going. But, no, you always
laugh, as if she is so entertaining. And what are you doing to that bread?
Wringing its neck? We have to eat that."
    "Mirella detests the entire
famiglia
Scarletti. I remember some time ago you said you had to forcibly stop
her from speaking to Portia Scarletti in order to protect her. What happened?
What could have gotten into her?"
    Maria Pia crossed herself solemnly. "It is the palazzo. It is not
right. Evil lurks there. I think she was"—she lowered her voice, looked
around, and finally let the word slip out—"possessed." Hastily she
rose and shuffled to the shrine to the Madonna in the corner of the hut and lit
three candles against any evil she might have invoked with her words. "Nicoletta,
perhaps you know strong offerings that, with the Madonna's consent, you might
make on our behalf against what I may have wrought."
    Nicoletta gaped at her. Maria Pia was a devout practitioner of her faith.
She would never consider doing anything improper unless she felt they were in
mortal danger. "Maria Pia?" she said softly. "Come sit down, and
tell me exactly what happened. Surely it is not so bad that we cannot make
things better." She swept her hair back into a knot before
arranging
bread and cheese on the older
woman's plate, the action steadying her
trembling hands. She couldn't bring herself yet to tell Maria Pia about what
had taken place at the cove. She needed to know first what had gone on at the
palazzo.
    "I tried to protect you, Nicoletta, but I think Mirella told the don
things about you. He was asking many questions." Maria Pia left the shrine
to make her way slowly, heavily to the crude table.
    Nicoletta poured hot water into a cup and added a mixture of herbs to make a
soothing brew. "Start from the beginning. Why did the don command the
healer to the palazzo?"
    "He said he wanted to pay me for my services. And he paid us
handsomely," Maria Pia said sorrowfully. "It was ill to take