"I asked you that morning at the lodge if we were happy, and you said you were. Now I would tell you that I am happy too, my lord husband," Francesca admitted shyly.

"Would you mind if I fell in love with you?" he asked her almost boyishly.

"Have you?" she countered as her heart skipped several beats. Love. She hadn't considered marriage would bring her love. She wasn't her elder sister, Bianca, giving up everything she had and knew for a man. She had left those illusions behind her in Venice, when as a silly little girl she had believed herself in love with Prince Enzo. To be loved by one's husband was a wonderful dream.

"I'm considering it," he teased her. "If we lived in your Florence it would be considered very unfashionable, I know, but here in Terreno Boscoso we make our own rules, wife. Yes! I believe I shall fall in love with you, Francesca."

She suddenly felt shy of him again, but she had to admit that the idea of having her handsome husband fall in love with her was a pleasing notion. She stood up and her drying sheet fell away. "I had best get a chemise," she said.

"No," he told her. "We will sleep as G.o.d fashioned us, my love." Drawing back the coverlet of the bed, he invited her into it. Then he said, "Would you mind?"

"Mind what?" she asked him as she slid beneath the coverlet.

"If I fell in love with you," he said softly as he joined her and wrapped an arm about her. Drawing her close, he began caressing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"N . . . no," Francesca answered him as softly. "I would not mind if you fell in love with me, my lord husband."

"Do you think you could love me?" He bent and kissed a nipple.

"Oh yes!" Francesca said, blushing at her own eagerness. To love and to be loved. She was suddenly overwhelmed with a burst of happiness. She could not see the smile that touched his lips at her answer.

"I am glad," Rafaello said. The shadow of Carlo the huntsman was banished now, and he was relieved. She would love him alone, and it was comforting. He was surprised to know how much that meant to him.

During the next few days the young duke considered a way to ferret out the bandits troubling the High Road. It was obvious that their leader was a trifle smarter than most robbers, for he could not be lured by too big a party of travelers, who would be very well guarded. He had not the men for such a venture, and they had not the skills of trained soldiers. The bait would have to be something inviting but not obviously dangerous. He discussed the matter with the old duke.

Listening, Francesca had an idea. "A wedding party," she said. "Wedding parties are not generally considered risky to thieves."

"We could not put some poor girl at risk," Rafaello said.

Francesca laughed. "It doesn't have to be a real wedding party. The bride in her closed litter can be a young man dressed like a woman. The men-at-arms guarding the wedding can appear older than they actually are, which should rea.s.sure the bandits of their superiority. Those accompanying the bride, both male and female relations, will actually be soldiers."

Duke t.i.tus chuckled. "Your d.u.c.h.essa has a devious mind," he approved.

"A Florentine trait," Francesca answered him pertly with a grin.

"What if Bruno and his robbers do not take this very tasty bait that you are suggesting?" Rafaello asked his wife.

"Oh," Francesca answered him, "you cannot simply send your faux wedding party down the High Road without laying your groundwork first," she explained. "First you must go to the innkeeper who brought the complaint about these villains. You have told me he is not trustworthy, for he fears you are not strong enough to root out Bruno and his ilk. He plays both ends against the middle.

"So send Captain Arnaldo to this man. He will be impressed by that. The captain will tell the innkeeper that a wealthy merchant from Milan is bringing his daughter to wed her cousin in France. The captain will tell the innkeeper that your men will do a sweep of the High Road the day before the wedding party is to come. That if he hears that Bruno is near he must let us know. He will, of course, send to the bandit in order to ingratiate himself with him. He will not realize you are on to his dangerous game.

"I guarantee there will be no sign of these robbers when your men patrol the High Road. But the next day when the wedding party goes on its way it is sure to be attacked, especially if we make it tempting enough. The bride is a virgin. She is attended by six pretty maidens. Her dower, which will travel with her is very, very rich. Bruno is a man who violated a n.o.blewoman and took pleasure in the deed. He gave her serving woman to his men. There hasn't been a prize like this wedding party on the High Road in months. It will be too good for him to resist. Gold and women. No bandit could eschew such a treat. Could he?" Francesca asked.

"It is a good plan," Rafaello said, looking at his young wife with growing respect.

"An excellent plan," old Duke t.i.tus agreed. "I liked Francesca from the start for her common sense and her kindness. But when you chose her for your wife, my son, you gained a serious helpmate."

"I will send Captain Arnaldo to the innkeeper in a few days' time, after we prepare our trap for the bandits," the young duke said.

"Let me choose the bride," Francesca said, giggling.

"We will let our captain do that, my love," her husband replied. "The young man chosen will be embarra.s.sed enough."

"And he will fight harder to prove his manhood once the enemy is engaged," Francesca remarked wisely. "But Terza, Rosa, and I must help to dress the ladies of the wedding party, my lord."

"That seems fair," her father-in-law agreed. "After all, my son, this clever plan is Francesca's. She should have some part in it."

Rafaello nodded.

During the next few days they put together the appearance of a prosperous wedding party. Captain Arnaldo visited the innkeeper and told him of its imminent arrival. He watched with half-closed eyes, a mug of the inn's best ale half-empty in his hand as the innkeeper surrept.i.tiously spoke with a stableman whom the captain watched leave the vicinity. He allowed the duplicitous taverner to believe all was well. The next day he and his men swept the road from the inn to the nearby border with France and back with much noise and saber rattling.

"Your bandits appear to have gone," he said to his host on his return. "I shall tell my master the road is safe for this wedding party. It would not do for us to have an incident. You know how sensitive Milan's rulers are right now, even with the peace. They sent to our duke to make certain this bride and her family reached their destination safely." Then with a nod he departed with his men back to the castle.

Reaching his destination, he sought out the young duke. "It's done, my lord. The innkeeper, as we suspected, sent a man off to notify Bruno of the impending riches coming his way in a few days. We traveled the High Road to the border with much noise and flourishing. It was as quiet as a tomb. I saw deer and I saw wildflowers, but not one sign of the bandits. They know how to hide, although I doubt not they were spying on us as we rode the entire way," the captain reported to his master.

"We'll depart in two days' time," Rafaello said.

"Surely you aren't going. Are you?" Francesca asked.

"I am the Duke of Terreno Boscoso," Rafaello replied. "It is my duty to go."

"But there will be fighting!" Francesca cried.

He and Captain Arnaldo both grinned. "Aye, my love," he said. "There will be! And it will be glorious. The rulers of small duchies like this one rarely get to engage in any sort of battle. My father and I kept clear of the altercation between the French king and the Italian states. We showed no partiality to either side but avoided the conflict. This little adventure, rooting out these bandits, will give me an opportunity to use the skills I spent my youth learning."

"Why is it that men never grow up?" Francesca said to no one in particular. Then she looked at Captain Arnaldo. "I charge you with his safety," she said. "If you fail me I will be ruthless in your punishment. Do you understand me?"

"My love," Rafaello chided her, "do not be so harsh."

"You are this duchy's only heir right now, my lord," she reminded him, "and we are but newly wed."

"She is right, my lord," the captain said. Then he turned to Francesca. "I will personally see to his safety, my lady."

While the d.u.c.h.essa and her two serving women had a great deal of fun dressing the soldiers who would pose as the women of the wedding party, they were also careful to see to it that the colorful robes they wore could be quickly and easily discarded to reveal the fighting men. The men involved looked uncomfortable, as Terza and Rosa couldn't resist teasing them, especially the young man who would play the bride, a fresh-faced lad whose head they covered with a b.u.t.terfly headdress-a generous length of transparent linen that was wired and draped to effect the shape of a b.u.t.terfly.

Much hilarity ensued once the head covering had been donned. The red-faced bride was escorted to her open litter.

"I'm almost tempted by such a lovely wench myself," Captain Arnaldo chuckled, seeing the results of the women's labor.

The false wedding party departed the castle. The soldiers that would be shadowing them blended into the landscape, but for a token force escorting the merchant and his family. Traveling slowly along the High Road they pa.s.sed the inn, the innkeeper watching them.

"I wonder who he is more afraid of," Captain Arnaldo murmured to the duke. "You or Bruno."

"I suspect we are equally dangerous," Rafaello replied, "but I am this duchy's ruler. Having complained to me of these bandits our innkeeper friend would have done better to trust in my authority instead of playing both ends against the middle. I will have to punish him when this is over. No one must be allowed to believe that I am not aware of everything happening on my own lands."

"I agree," the captain responded.

The false wedding party moved along. The bride was clearly visible in her open litter.

Half a dozen richly garbed ladies upon their horses surrounded her, escorted by several prosperous-looking gentlemen. There were three carts full of what appeared to be a rich dower, and eight men-at-arms. To anyone seeing the train it appeared to be a wealthy wedding party. Nothing more.

They were at least two miles past the inn when the bandits struck, rising from the side of the High Road, weapons in hand. The travelers stopped, the false ladies shrieking as it was expected that women surprised by robbers would do. The man chosen to play the bride's father shouted in an outraged voice.

"How dare you stop us? Move aside!"

The bandit chief called Bruno stepped forward. "That is a fine horse you are riding, sir. I will have it! And I will have your pretty daughter for myself, while your ladies entertain my men. As for you and your gentlemen, you are all dead men!"

It was then that the duke and his men appeared, surrounding the bandits from behind.

"I think not," Rafaello said in a hard voice. "It is you who has earned a quick trip to h.e.l.l! You are sentenced to death for the kidnapping and rape of Aceline du Barry last year, and for your boldness in impersonating me while you used the poor woman."

Bruno's mouth fell open with his surprise, but, recovering quickly, he lunged at the duke, who was still ahorse. Rafaello Cesare was an excellent horseman. His stallion responded to the rein and reared up, knocking the bandit to the ground. The duke then jumped from the animal's back, dagger in hand, flung himself atop the robber, and slit his throat. Standing up he told his men, "Hang the rest of them, and leave them hanging as a lesson to any who would steal from travelers along this road." Then, turning to Captain Arnaldo, he said, "We have an innkeeper to punish."

The two men rode back to the inn, where they found the innkeeper in his taproom. The man looked up, surprised, as the duke and his captain entered. "My lord!" he exclaimed, and hurried to bring them wine.

The duke waved his hospitality aside. "You came to me for justice, and then you betrayed me," he said without any preamble. "Know that Bruno is dead and his men as well. The High Road will be kept safe where it runs through Terreno Boscoso as long as I am this duchy's ruler. The wedding party that pa.s.sed by your inn several hours ago was a trap conceived to draw Bruno and his men out into the open. When we realized your duplicity we knew if we told you of such a rich prize you would be certain to get word to the bandits. You did not disappoint me. Bruno and his men have paid for their crimes with their lives. Now I must decide how to punish you."

"My lord, have mercy!" the innkeeper begged him.

"Are you aware that your bandit friend kidnapped and a.s.saulted a young n.o.blewoman who had been a guest of my father's last summer as she traveled home to France? She bore his child, and the horrendous experience rendered her mad. She now resides in a convent with her b.a.s.t.a.r.d, being cared for by the nuns."

"My lord, I did not know!" the innkeeper babbled.

"No, you did not. But you did know this bandit and his men would ruin your trade if word got out that the High Road was not safe. So you came to me, and I promised you that I would take care of the matter. Yet before I might, you betrayed me by going to the bandits. Why?"

"My lord, my stableman is kin to Bruno. He told the robber of my complaint to you. Bruno came and threatened to burn my inn to the ground and slay me if I did not cooperate with him. I had no other choice!"

"Aye, you did," the duke said. "You might have sent to me again telling me of this threat, but you did not. I would have protected you. What if I had not sent this decoy wedding party along the High Road to trap this man? What if they had been a real group of travelers? The men in the group would have been killed and the women violated. You must accept a certain responsibility for this, innkeeper."

"No harm was actually done," the man whined.

"Find his cache," the duke told Captain Arnaldo. "And confiscate it."

"No, my lord!" The innkeeper's eye went to the fireplace in his taproom.

Seeing it the duke said, "Check the fireplace wall for loose stones. His cache will be there. Let us see what he had hidden away."

Captain Arnaldo quickly found the innkeeper's hiding place, and drew forth three small chamois bags. They held a variety of coins including gold, silver, and copper.

"Take them," the duke said.

"My lord, 'tis all I have!" the innkeeper cried. "It has taken me years to save these coins! How will I survive in my old age?"

"You are young enough yet to save more. I do not want what I take from you this day. I shall send it to the convent that shelters Bruno's child, so that when the boy is grown he will have a small inheritance. He did not ask to be born under such circ.u.mstances as he was. Whether he becomes a priest or a soldier he will have your coins to give him a start.

"I will not burn down your inn around your ears, nor will I slay you, innkeeper. I will leave you with your livelihood and with your life," the duke said. "I am generous. Another man might not be. You should be grateful. If the Frenchman whose daughter was so brutalized knew of your a.s.sociation with Bruno, he would have slain you without a qualm. But should you ever be disloyal to me again you will suffer long and painfully." Rafaello looked sharply at the now-shaking man. "Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes, my lord! Yes!" the innkeeper said. His face was drained of almost all color in his fear.

The duke turned away from the man and strode from the inn. He would see that a sharp eye was kept on the innkeeper, for the man's inn was the only one between the castle and the French border. And then a smile touched his lips as he swung himself into the saddle. A chuckle escaped him.

"What is it, my lord?" Captain Arnaldo asked him.

"I have had an idea how to keep our innkeeper friend honest and on the straight-and-narrow path," the duke told his companion. "The man has no compet.i.tion. I shall commission another inn to be built along the High Road. Then I shall hire some of Alonza's family to manage it." He chuckled again.

"Who is Alonza?" Captain Arnaldo asked his master.

"She is the woman my father hired to run the little winter inn he built in the forest so his huntsmen might have a place to shelter in the cold months," the duke said.

The captain nodded. The old duke had a kind heart, he thought.

Returning to the castle they found Francesca waiting for them in the courtyard.

"Has he been injured in any way?" she demanded of the captain. "Remember, you promised to keep him safe for me."

"There is not a scratch on me, my love," the duke a.s.sured his wife. "It was all rather anticlimactic, with virtually no fighting once I had killed Bruno. Then we hung the rest of them, leaving their bodies for the crows and as a warning to any who might consider taking up where Bruno left off."

Francesca suddenly shrieked and pointed at him. "There is blood on your doublet!" she cried. "You have been injured!" She turned on Captain Arnaldo. "You swore to keep him from harm!"

"Madam, the blood is Bruno's, not the duke's," the soldier a.s.sured her. "Your husband cleverly used his horse to knock the bandit to the ground, then quickly jumped down and cut his throat. Considering the thickness of the man's neck it was masterfully done, my lady, but it is difficult to avoid blood after a kill," Captain Arnaldo explained.

"The doublet is ruined," Francesca said to no one in particular. Relief was pouring through her at the knowledge Rafaello was safe and had not been hurt.

The duke felt a rush of warmth fill him. She loved him! Oh, she had not admitted to it in so many words. But would she have been so concerned if she didn't love him? Putting an arm about her waist, he suggested, "Let us go into the hall and tell my father of our success in clearing the High Road of the bandits." Then, turning to Captain Arnaldo, he said, "See that all the men return safely and that they have an extra measure of wine tonight for their trouble."

In the hall the old duke was delighted to see his son had safely returned, and even more pleased to learn the task of clearing the bandits had been easier than antic.i.p.ated. When Rafaello suggested building another inn along the High Road, Duke t.i.tus concurred. "An excellent idea, my son. Yes! A bit of compet.i.tion will be good for that villain who now runs the only inn along the road."

"You must write to the Comte du Barry and tell him his daughter's honor has been avenged," Francesca said. "He should know that you personally killed the bandit chief. It will not return his daughter to him or make her child legitimate, but the Frenchman must know that Terreno Boscoso did not take this matter lightly. Shall we pay him an indemnity?"

"No," her husband said. "Aceline du Barry was returned to her father's house as she had come. It was the comte who was too tight with a coin to provide his daughter with a proper escort. She arrived safely. It was to be expected she would return safely. We had no knowledge of the bandits early last autumn when she left us."

Francesca nodded. "I understand," she said.

"To pay the Comte du Barry an indemnity would suggest that we were aware of the danger on the High Road and allowed Aceline to go anyway. We did not know. If we had we would have sent her home another way and provided her with a stronger escort," the duke explained to his wife. "When the comte returns from Florence I will tell him what transpired. A letter might not reach him for I doubt he will remain there. He will want to return to France as quickly as possible."

Again Francesca nodded. "Nothing can change what has happened, but at least your actions in punishing those who so cruelly harmed the comte's daughter may ease his pain."

Chapter 13.

Raoul, Comte du Barry, returned from Florence alone. He thanked the young d.u.c.h.essa for her kindness in suggesting the convent of Santa Maria del Fiori as a shelter for his mad daughter and her b.a.s.t.a.r.d child. The nuns, he said, had been very kind, and he had left his daughter's dower portion in gold for her care with them. He looked relieved of the burden of Aceline, but sad as well.

Francesca recalled that Aceline had said her father had little interest in her. He would see her well married because her late mother would have wanted it; but he found his current wife more intriguing than his only daughter. But more interesting to Francesca was all the news the Frenchman brought of what was going on in the world outside of Terreno Boscoso.