Free The Painted War by Imogen Rossi Page B

a table stacked with rolls of fabric and carved bone buttons.
    Bianca had expected that he would head straight for some dingy parlour where he’d meet his secret accomplices, or perhaps he’d hide in plain sight, casually dropping some message into a hiding place in the Piazza del Fiero. They passed through the Piazza del Fiero, but the Baron did nothing apart from pausing to smile up at the cat-sized statues of firebreathing dragons that lined the roof of one of the houses and taking a deep sniff at a stall selling spiced apple cakes.
    â€˜So  … ’ Marco said, while they were far enough away from the Baron to have a conversation without him hearing them, ‘what do you think? Could your father really be the old Duke of La Luminosa?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Bianca said, ‘but I suppose it must have been someone my mother met and fell in love with when she visited La Luminosa.’ Bianca hesitated, sending up a brief prayer.
Please let her be all right.
‘Perhaps it was someone else at court – one of the other courtiers or something.’
    Marco gave Bianca an intense look and Bianca drew back.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Just trying to see if I can think of any courtiers that look a bit like you,’ he said. A mischievous light glinted in his eyes. ‘What if your father is Secretary Franco?’
    Bianca gasped and gave Marco a playful, but quite hard, punch on the arm. ‘I’m nothing like Franco! Shut up and watch the Baron.’
    She didn’t really need to remind Marco – the Baron was walking at a gentle pace just a little way ahead and hadn’t done anything remotely suspicious.
    â€˜Oh God, I don’t look like Franco, do I?’
    Marco rolled his eyes at her.
    â€˜Good.’
    They followed the Baron all the way to the Museum of Art and trailed him from painting to statue to painting. Bianca revised her guess – she was sure he was looking for a particular painting. He would do something to it, leave some signal to tell the Oscuritan soldiers which painting to invade through. But he didn’t try to touch any of the paintings. He didn’t do anything except sit on one of the marble benches at the feet of the giant statue of Grand Duchess Angelica that loomed in the centre of the great hall, and look around as if he really had missed the sight of all these works of art.
    â€˜I didn’t think he cared so much about art,’ Marco muttered, peering around the Grand Duchess’s skirts.
    But Bianca’s thoughts were elsewhere. ‘You know, my mother was supposed to be thinking about marrying the Duke,’ she whispered. ‘They spent all that time together. It does seem the most logical choice.’
    â€˜But then they didn’t get married,’ Marco reminded her. ‘Don’t you think they would have, if they’d found out she was having a baby? You.’
    â€˜Maybe he didn’t know until it was too late and Edita had captured her! Maybe Duchess Catriona and I really are sisters.’ Bianca found herself smiling at the thought. It was huge, and terrifying  …  and yet there certainly wasn’t anyone she’d rather have as a big sister than Catriona. ‘Wouldn’t that be great?’
    Marco didn’t answer. He pulled a face, and then stepped away from her before she could ask what the face had meant. The Baron had stood up, and they followed him out of the museum. He walked for about twenty more minutes before suddenly turning back towards the palace. Bianca and Marco dodged into a doorway and pretended to be very interested in a piece of scrawled graffiti they found there. When the Baron had passed them by, Bianca let out a frustrated groan.
    â€˜There’s
no way
he’s really just sightseeing,’ she said. ‘There’s got to be
something!
’
    â€˜Come on.’ Marco linked his arm through hers and they set off after the Baron