Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

you will be so good as to take Nicoletta away from this farm, I will be indebted to you." His hand moved down the back of Nicoletta's silky hair, a small, comforting gesture.
    Nicoletta couldn't look at him, or at Aljandro. She was trembling, so many emotions swamping her that she wanted to run to the highest cliff and shout her anger at the gods. She hugged Maria Pia, more to comfort the older woman than herself, but she couldn't suppress the rage building in her until she thought she might burst if she didn't take physical action. She tore herself out of Maria Pia's arms and ran as she Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    had run the night they brought her dead mother home.
    There was no sound in the heavy fog, no sight as she ran blindly along the paths leading to the cliffs. She knew the trail as well as did any wild animal. She had roamed the hills her entire life, night or day; she knew every path, every trail. Behind her, the two soldiers did their best to keep up with her, but they didn't have her knowledge of the terrain, and the fog impeded their progress. They lost her in the bushes and groves of trees. They listened, trying to locate her through sound, but the fog muffled every noise.
    They had no chance of hearing her bare feet on the earthen path. But on the way back to Aljandro's to report their failure, they did hear the horse bearing down on them, steam flaring from the animal's nostrils as steed and rider flashed by them in the blinding mist.
    Nicoletta ran along the top of the cliffs until she neared the very edge, heedless of the crumbling bluff.
    She hurtled her anger and defiance out over the raging seas as below her the waves pounded the rocks and foam sprayed high into the air. The wind howled at her, tugging at her clothing so that her skirt billowed out and her hair flew in all directions. Her fingers curled into fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. She lifted her face to the tearing wind, and its howl blended with her own wild grief, carrying all sound away from her.
    Below her the sea raged as her heart raged. Wildly. Passionately. Inconsolably. She couldn't contain her fury or her anguish. It exploded out of her like the turbulent waves crashing into high white plumes. She screamed her hatred of Aljandro and all men like him. She shouted her defiance of the deities that would allow a delicate, lonely young girl to die without a loving husband. She cried until she was hoarse, her throat as raw and ragged and torn as her heart.
    Giovanni dismounted some distance from the small figure raging on the bluffs. His heart was in his throat.
    She was so close to the edge of the cliff, her grief so deep she couldn't bear it, and he was afraid for her.
    He didn't dare take his horse to the edge of the crumbling bluffs, so he tethered the animal to a tree and approached on foot, wary of startling her. She looked wild and untamed, an elusive, mysterious creature of the night.
    Nicoletta was, indeed, not the type of woman to cast herself into the sea, but her grief ran deep, her passionate nature equal to the sea raging below them. She seemed unaware of the peril she had placed herself in. Heedless. Reckless. His heart ached for her. He fixed his black gaze on her, as if he could hold her with his will alone, keep her safe from the ferocity of the greedy waves reaching higher and higher toward her.
    Giovanni slowly moved closer to her, silently stalking her, prepared to leap forward should there be need. She looked so passionate, there on the very edge of disaster with the foaming sea before her and the wind whipping her silken hair and the fog around her like gossamer veils. He had her then, his arms curling around her, dragging her back from the precipice.
    She turned on him, fighting like a wildcat, blindly, instinctively, as if she feared his intention was to hurtle her over the edge instead of to protect her. She made no sound, and there was no recognition in her dark, terror-stricken eyes. He pinned her wrists together with one hand and dragged her into the shelter of his body. She was ice-cold, shivering uncontrollably yet seemingly unaware of it.
    "Nicoletta." Giovanni stilled her struggles with his superior strength. "You are so cold. Allow me to warm you. No one can hurt you now. No one. You are safe with me." He murmured the words in a gentle, almost tender voice, holding her still to try to warm her with the heat of his own body.
    She