Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

three times, and you have not answered me. You are staring out the window. All the soldiers are everywhere outside, yet Maria Pia says it is not safe and we must stay indoors. I do not want to stay indoors, and neither does Sophie."
    Nicoletta looked at the courtyard below her. She could see the soldiers swarming over the grounds like ants, searching every possible escape route. But Aljandro was already gone. He had slipped away. She knew it in her heart, a dark dread that remained a shadow in her soul. He was watching from the safety of his hideout, where someone Don Scarletti trusted had aided in secreting him. "I am sorry, Ketsia, but in truth, Maria Pia is right. It is not safe to go out yet. The man who attempted to harm me is not yet captured. And he is a man known to you, Ketsia. It is Aljandro, dressed as a soldier, and he would not want you to identify him should you see his face. When you return to the villaggio, I will have several of the don's guards go with you."
    Why hadn't the bird come to her? Why hadn't she felt Cristano's death? It didn't make sense. How could he have died and she remain so unaware of it?
    "We want to go outside," Sophie persisted, tugging at Nicoletta's skirt.
    Nicoletta bent down to drop a kiss on the child's head. "I am sorry, piccola, but you cannot. If you look out the window, you will see that a thick fog is moving inland from the sea. It is dangerous when it comes in like this. Maria Pia will devise a game for you to play here in the palazzo. The fog may be such that Ketsia will have to spend the night. Wouldn't that be a grand adventure?" She patted both girls absently, turning to go. "I have matters I must attend to now."
    "Nicoletta!" Maria Pia hissed her name, crossing herself as she did so. "You forget yourself. You have no protection while your guards are outside. Do not go wandering around the palazzo by yourself."
    Nicoletta lifted her chin. "This is my home, and I will move about freely within it, or I will have no life at all." She hurried back up the stairs, determined to take a look once more into the room where Maria Pia and Sophie had been sleeping. Why were the scorpions placed in that room? If the soup had been meant for the don, was there another reason for the scorpions, other than a threat to young Sophie? Did someone want Sophie out of the room for different purpose? There was an entrance to the secret passageway in the nursery and in that particular room. Sophie had now been driven from both rooms. As she had been driven from the other room downstairs, the room where she had been so ill. Was there also an entrance to the passageway from that room? Nicoletta wanted to know.

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    As she passed Margerita's room, she heard the young woman's voice raised in a shrill, nasty tone. "I will have you flogged for this. I know you took my jewelry! You are a thief and a soldier's whore. You deliberately tore my gown!"
    To Nicoletta's shock, she recognized the other voice.
    "I tell you, I took nothing from this room. I did not touch the gown." It was the maid, Beatrice, her voice low and quaking with fear. "I would never steal from you or destroy your clothes."
    The door was ajar, and Nicoletta pushed it open farther. "What is going on, Margerita?" She took in the scene: the maid cowering against the wall, Margerita shaking with anger. Items were strewn around the room as if they had been flung in all directions. Nicoletta could well imagine Margerita throwing things in a rage.
    "It is none of your business," Portia's daughter snapped. "She is my maid, and I will deal with the likes of her. Get out of my private bedchamber."
    "She is a worker in my household," Nicoletta corrected firmly. "If there is a problem, I should have been informed at once." She moved into the room to stand beside the maid. "You say she has stolen from you?" As hard as she tried, Nicoletta could not keep the disbelief from her voice.
    Nicoletta's tone only inflamed Margerita more. "Get out!" she growled. "You are nothing but a peasant yourself. What understanding could you possibly have? How could you know what we have to put up with from these ignorant people? They know nothing of being servants. Look at my gown! She tore my gown!"
    Beatrice shook her head. "I did not, Donna Scarletti, and I did not steal from her. I came in to help her dress, and she threw things at me because she could not find a piece of jewelry. I