Free The Secret Dead by S. J. Parris Page A

I
never learned what became of her; I suppose she was hanged. No one else was
ever found guilty of the crime.
    The following spring, not long after the Feast of Candelora,
as I was crossing Strada del Seggio di Nilo, I saw a young woman moving toward
me through the mass of people, and for a moment my breath stopped in my throat.
She carried a leather satchel across her body; a fall of glossy dark hair
rippled around her shoulders, burnished in the sun, and she walked gracefully,
with an air of self-possession. I withdrew into my hood and turned my face
aside as she approached; I did not want to be recognized. If she saw me, she
gave no sign of it, but as she passed, a splinter of sunlight caught the golden
crucifix locket she wore around her neck, blinding me with a flash of
brilliance. When I looked up again, she had vanished into the dust and crowds
of Naples.
    THE END