Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

to do things she had never once considered. Nicoletta longed for her mother's counsel and comfort.
    Somewhere behind her she heard Portia's voice raised in anger. A softer voice answered in an indistinct murmur but with enough of a jarring note that Nicoletta was pulled out of her reverie. She turned her head and saw that a door only a short distance from her was ajar. The two women arguing must have sought refuge from prying eyes behind it. Nicoletta knelt uncertainly in the alcove with her head bowed reverently. The candles she had lit in memory of her mother were flickering, throwing dancing light onto the walls. She had no thought of eavesdropping, but she felt cornered, afraid that if she walked away now her presence might prove humiliating to the two women.
    She could hear Portia's voice, shrill and angry, much more distinctly now. "I do not care what you think.
    You are a callow, selfish girl and far too young and silly to hold the attention of a man like him! What were you thinking of, Margerita? I raised you to marry well, not ruin yourself trying to entrap a man like him." Scorn and contempt laced Portia's voice, so much so that Nicoletta found herself wincing under its cutting whip. "He beds silly cows like you, little innocents who have no hope of keeping him happy, but you are mere sport for him. Do you not realize he would laugh at one such as you with the figure of a man and the face of a dull ewe? You have nothing to offer but your innocence. Have you no sense? How do you expect to marry well if you are so stupid as to sully yourself with him?" There was a loud crack as Portia obviously slapped her daughter hard.
    Nicoletta hunched over, attempting to make herself smaller. Fortunately, she had never known harsh words and physical punishment. Her mother and Maria Pia had always been gentle and kind and understanding. Her father, known also as a good man, was dead and gone before she was even of an age to remember him. Maria Pia had slapped her hand now and again, but always in gentle reprimand, a threat, not a real blow. Nicoletta's heart went out to Margerita.
    "He loves me!" Margerita cried out, her young voice filled with pain. "You do not know. Ask him. Ask him. He wants to be with me. He will marry me."
    "He will never marry you." Portia spat the words at her daughter, filled with a venomous fury. There was the sound of another blow. "Have you lain with him?" The voice rose higher, poisonous and angry. "Tell me, you ungrateful little whore!" Portia was obviously shaking her daughter in her fury. "I should throw you out, tell the world what you are. You have been with him—I see it in your face." Her voice rose into a strangled scream.
    "He wanted me!" Margerita shouted back, a defensive child trying to convince an adult of something she didn't believe herself. "He will marry me! He will!"
    "Stupid, stupid girl." Portia sounded as if she was grieving now, her voice cracked and broken, a bitter, sad tone that soon turned to weeping. "Go away from me. Get out where I can no longer see you. Get out!"
    "Madre," Margerita tried again, "he will offer for me, and Zio Giovanni will give me a generous dowry Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    and allow the match. It will come right."
    "Get out!" Portia snapped.
    Nicoletta remained quite still as she heard heavy footsteps hurry toward the room where the two women argued.
    "What is going on in here?" It was Vincente's voice this time.
    There was a rustle of material as Margerita evidently rushed at him, bursting into tears. "Go now, Margerita," he instructed softly. "I will talk with Portia."
    The girl fled the room, running past Nicoletta, her sobs of shame filling the corridor. Portia howled in anguish, her fury and sorrow so great she couldn't speak. Vincente caught her flying figure as she lashed out at him, unable to contain her anger. She was weeping hard.
    Nicoletta rose in silence, turning to make her way quietly out of the alcove. She saw Vincente and Portia struggling ferociously, and then Vincente wrapped his arms around Portia, locking her to him, his mouth descending on hers almost like an assault.
    Shocked and embarrassed, Nicoletta shrank back into the shadows. She should have guessed they had more than a cousinly relationship. Portia always clung to Vincente, and he seemed to rely on her for advice. Portia was only five or six years older than Vincente. It had never occurred to Nicoletta that cold,