Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

heat the soup. Maria Pia did look tired and strained. She was usually so spry, Nicoletta often forgot her advancing age.
    "Stop giving me those worried looks, piccola. I am just tired. I am too old to traipse off to the palazzo with Mirella. She is an old fool, that one."
    Nicoletta hid her smile. All in the villaggio deferred to Maria Pia, with the exception of Mirella. Mirella was older than Maria Pia, and, according to her, she had been the most beautiful and coveted of all the women in her youth. The stories of her romantic conquests seemed to grow with each telling, and Maria Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Pia was exasperated with the tales. "The old fool," Maria Pia repeated. "She was actually flirting with the don."
    Shocked, Nicoletta nearly crumbled the loaf of bread into crumbs. "She what?"
    "Ha! The old fool. I told you her mind was going. But, no, you always laugh, as if she is so entertaining.
    And what are you doing to that bread? Wringing its neck? We have to eat that."
    "Mirella detests the entire famiglia Scarletti. I remember some time ago you said you had to forcibly stop her from speaking to Portia Scarletti in order to protect her. What happened? What could have gotten into her?"
    Maria Pia crossed herself solemnly. "It is the palazzo. It is not right. Evil lurks there. I think she was"—she lowered her voice, looked around, and finally let the word slip out—"possessed." Hastily she rose and shuffled to the shrine to the Madonna in the corner of the hut and lit three candles against any evil she might have invoked with her words. "Nicoletta, perhaps you know strong offerings that, with the Madonna's consent, you might make on our behalf against what I may have wrought."
    Nicoletta gaped at her. Maria Pia was a devout practitioner of her faith. She would never consider doing anything improper unless she felt they were in mortal danger. "Maria Pia?" she said softly. "Come sit down, and tell me exactly what happened. Surely it is not so bad that we cannot make things better." She swept her hair back into a knot before arranging bread and cheese on the older woman's plate, the action steadying her trembling hands. She couldn't bring herself yet to tell Maria Pia about what had taken place at the cove. She needed to know first what had gone on at the palazzo.
    "I tried to protect you, Nicoletta, but I think Mirella told the don things about you. He was asking many questions." Maria Pia left the shrine to make her way slowly, heavily to the crude table.
    Nicoletta poured hot water into a cup and added a mixture of herbs to make a soothing brew. "Start from the beginning. Why did the don command the healer to the palazzo?"
    "He said he wanted to pay me for my services. And he paid us handsomely," Maria Pia said sorrowfully.
    "It was ill to take his payment." She shook her head as Nicoletta placed a steaming bowl of soup in front of her. "I knew he was looking for you. He stared at Mirella as if she were an apparition. I think the old fool thought he was intrigued by her. He asked about you, and I told him you were resting." She glared at Nicoletta. "You were resting." She simultaneously made it a statement and a question.
    "In my way." Nicoletta waved her hands airily and sat across from Maria Pia at the small table. "Please continue."
    "He asked if you knew a great deal about healing. He was speaking so casually, so easily, I was distracted at first, he was so kind. But then a man came in and spoke to him in a whisper, and during that pause I realized I was telling the don things I did not want to tell." She crossed herself again and kissed the crucifix around her neck. "I am sorry, Nicoletta. I got up to leave and would not look at him again, but Mirella simpered and fawned all over him in a terrible display." Maria Pia's faded eyes were watery and could not look at her young friend.
    Nicoletta placed her hand over the old woman's, feeling the papery skin beneath her palm. Maria Pia shook her head and jerked her hand away. "I am as guilty as Mirella. I betrayed you, too. He knows you are the true healer."

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    Nicoletta took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We must eat while the food is hot." She bowed her head over the food to give herself time to think.
    Maria Pia prayed devoutly for some time before signaling it was time to eat. Nicoletta took several cautious sips of