Free Francesca by Bertrice Small Page B

need help with the preparations for tonight’s announcement. Our mistresses are part of this too.”
    “But it is my beautiful mistress who this duke’s son will choose,” Oriel said smugly. “Be careful, girl, with that undergown!” she called out sharply to a little maid. Do you wish to iron it again?”
    “Put the undergown there across the chair,” Terza instructed the nervous girl. “Then go help Elda with
Signorina
Louisa.”
    When Oriel began to protest, Terza silenced the older Frenchwoman with a hard look and a sharp word. “Enough! I do not care which of them is chosen, but the other two will have the opportunity to look their best.”
    “Your mistress has the finest clothes,” Oriel whined. “And the little Genoese may be born on the wrong side of the blanket, but her mother is loved and respected by her duke. They will have other chances for marriage. This may be my mistress’s only opportunity.”
    “I have heard it said among the other servants that you bragged a wealthy nobleman awaits your mistress’s return, and her father has promised him the girl if the duke’s son does not choose her.”
    Oriel flushed at this reminder of her indiscretion. “But the Comte du Lyonnais is not a duke with his own kingdom,” she said.
    “How unfortunate for your mistress,” Terza said sarcastically.
    Her confident attitude made Oriel afraid. “What do you know?” she demanded of Terza. “You must tell me what you know!”
    “No more than you,” Terza replied, a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “I know nothing. We shall all learn the young lord’s decision together. Perhaps he finds none of the candidates worthy or compatible to his hand.” Terza then walked away, leaving the older woman in a quandary.
    Francesca was just exiting her bath when Terza reached her apartments. She had been helped by two little maidservants and the two young nuns. There was much laughter coming from the bedchamber when she entered it. “You have time to take a brief nap before you must dress,” she said to her mistress, who was being thoroughly toweled dry by the maidservants.
    “Is it true he will make his decision tonight?” Sister Annunziata asked Terza.
    “That is the rumor going about,” Terza answered her. “It’s time. They have had two and a half months to become acquainted. Autumn is almost upon us, and if we are to return home to Florence, we will have to depart soon.”
    “We are returning home to Florence,” Francesca broke in.
    “But what if the duke’s son chooses you?” the trusting Sister Benigna wondered.
    “He won’t,” Francesca said. “Louisa is in love with Valiant, and Rafaello knows it. He will pick the French girl. Her pedigree matches his, and she is beautiful. She’ll quickly do her duty, give him several heirs, grow a bit thicker in the waist, and in five years settle down to spend his money quite happily. He’ll find a mistress to keep him happy and satisfied. A perfect ending, eh?”
    All the women laughed at her analysis of the situation. There was nothing outrageous about it. It was how many marriages were begun and eventually settled.
    “But what will happen to you?” Sister Benigna asked.
    “Well,” Francesca said, “I shall not join you at Santa Maria della Fiore.”
    There was more laughter when Sister Annunziata said, “To be honest, I believe the good Reverend Mother Baptista will find that a mighty relief.”
    “But what will you do?” Sister Benigna persisted.
    “I shall become the daughter who remains at home to care for her parents in their old age. Perhaps I shall learn something of the silk trade. I shall do as I please and as long as I cause no scandal I shall be allowed to do it,” Francesca said.
    “But what of love?” one of the little maids, a girl who looked no older than twelve, asked softly. “Don’t you want to be loved,
signorina
?”
    “I don’t know if what is called love actually exists. And what exactly is