Free Belladonna by Fiona Paul Page A

her bedroom window. Only blackness peeked back at her through the broken shutter. What she ought to do was just wait until tomorrow, to find the pages in the light of day. But Cass couldn’t stop thinking about them. Was there a side to her mother that she didn’t know about? Secrets hidden within the folds of parchment? Cass had to know.
    The wall clock said it was almost nine. Was it late enough to sneak out of the villa undetected? She got up from the dressing table and went to the doorway. A soft glow of light came from the direction of the portego. Agnese didn’t spend much time out of her bedroom after dinner. It was probably Narissa or one of the other servants, doing some mending.
    Cass decided to pay a visit to Feliciana before venturing out into the graveyard. If anyone caught her sneaking out, Agnese would have her head. Besides, Feliciana was probably hungry.
    Concealing a small bundle of meat and cheese she had saved from dinner, Cass lit a candle and made her way to the portego. Sure enough, Narissa sat in a chair by the window, her knobby fingers working a needle and thread through one of Agnese’s fraying chemises.
    “I’m just going down to the kitchen for a snack.” Cass held her arm tightly to her side, hoping Narissa would assume she was carrying her journal, as always. That would be a difficult trick to pull off if the napkin decided to unfold and spill food scraps all over the floor.
    In the bobbing candlelight, Narissa’s face was a mix of sharp angles and deep lines. “All right, but stay inside.” Her voice softened. “I understand why you can’t sleep, Signorina Cass, but remember your aunt doesn’t like you wandering by yourself at night.”
    Finally: something Cass and Agnese could agree on. Just the thought of venturing out into the quiet blackness made her heart start thrumming in her chest. She couldn’t believe some of the wild adventures she’d had with Falco. Traipsing around the Rialto in the dead of night unarmed—they were lucky they hadn’t ended up stabbed or worse.
    It occurred to her that in only a few short weeks she’d become someone different, someone who wouldn’t even walk the grounds of her family’s private estate after sunset anymore. What would Falco think of the Cass who jumped at shadows and was afraid to venture beyond her villa door?
    She reminded herself that he wasn’t there, to witness or to judge—he had chosen to leave. She knew it was selfish, almost outrageously so, for her to wish Falco had stayed in Venice to fight for her. Still, wasn’t love about sacrifice? Luca had put his studies on hold to spend time with her, after all.
    Did that mean Luca loved her more than Falco did? It didn’t matter. Falco made her come alive in a way she didn’t think Luca ever would. But there was that moment at the Palazzo Ducale, when she had felt compelled to kiss Luca. It was just the drama, she decided. The clandestine meeting. The swell of emotions. Plus, Luca had risked his life for her, repeatedly. Even as he sat in prison awaiting his execution, his main concern was still for Cass’s safety and happiness. She loved him for that, but not in the way she loved Falco. Still, Luca had saved her, and now she had to save him. Everything else would come later, in time.
    Glancing back over her shoulder to make sure Narissa wasn’t eyeing her, Cass crept down the shadowy first-floor hallway that led to the storage area where Feliciana was hiding.
    She knocked twice, so softly that she figured it was unlikely that Feliciana even heard her, but the door creaked open and Siena’s sister peeked out warily. She’d been at the villa for only two days, but already her face seemed less hollow, her eyes less sunken, as though she were a corpse that Cass and Siena were slowly bringing back from the dead.
    “I brought you dinner.” Cass slipped inside and closed the door behind her. She handed the wrapped bundle of food to Feliciana, who unfolded it