City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman Read Free Book Online Page A

indicated to the maid to take a seat too. Barbara perched awkwardly on the edge of a spindly chair; she was not used to sitting in the company of nobles.
    â€˜That is so,’ Arianna said.
    â€˜That was an incredibly dangerous thing to do,’ said Rodolfo.
    â€˜I know,’ said Arianna. ‘And stupid, foolish, selfish, careless – all the other things you are both going to say to me. But I had to go there. You can say whatever you like but you won’t make me regret it.’
    â€˜Or stop you from doing it again,’ said Rodolfo. ‘So next time we must make sure that the deception is better planned.’

Chapter 4
    Double Danger
    Matt got through his homework as quickly as he could that night. He had tried to phone Ayesha about ten times but her mobile went straight to voicemail every time; he left only two messages.
    It was hard to concentrate on Maths problems and web design with his love life in suspense and the thought hanging over him that he might stravagate again that night, without even knowing what that really meant.
    He had decided that if the dream happened again, he would believe that it was real, that he really had travelled in time and space to another world, where Italy was just a bit different.
    â€˜Mum,’ he asked casually when he’d finished the homework. ‘Have we got an atlas?’
    â€˜Of course,’ said Jan, surprised. ‘It’s in the dining room. Right-hand bookcase, bottom shelf.’
    She always knew exactly where every single book was in the house. Matt found it straight away and spread the big atlas out on the dining table. There was a full, two-page spread of Italy, sticking its high-heeled and booted leg out into the Mediterranean. He pored over it, completely unsure where he’d been in the other Italy everyone called Talia. But there was only one place marked that began ‘Pad’ and that was Padua. It was on the mainland, near Venice.
    â€˜You don’t do Geography,’ said Harry accusingly from the doorway.
    â€˜I know I don’t,’ said Matt, stung. ‘But there’s no reason I shouldn’t look at a map if I want, is there? It’s a free country.’
    Harry shrugged. ‘That’s debatable.’
    Most of the time Matt and Harry got on reasonably well but every so often, when his little brother was being deliberately clever, Matt wanted to strangle him.
    â€˜Piss off,’ he said now, turning back to his map.
    â€˜Italy?’ said Harry, looking over his shoulder.
    â€˜Yeah, I’m thinking of taking Ayesha there next summer when the exams are over,’ said Matt, rather pleased with this idea.
    Harry looked at him as if he’d suggested a trip to the moon. ‘But that’s more than nine months away. How do you know you’ll even be together by then?’
    Now Matt thought he really would like to strangle his brother.
    â€˜Why shouldn’t we be?’ he said irritably. ‘Do you know something I don’t?’
    â€˜No,’ said Harry. ‘I was just saying .’
    â€˜Well don’t. Don’t say anything at all unless you’ve got something worth saying.’
    Matt clapped the atlas shut and put it back on the shelf and went to his room in a foul mood. He went over to the computer and Googled ‘Padua’ just to take his mind off Ayesha. The Wikipedia entry told him that the city was called ‘Padova’ in Italian but the Latin name had been ‘Patavia’, which did sound a lot like Padavia. It was forty kilometres west of Venice.
    The article was too long and hard for him to read it all but he noticed there was a link to another one about the University of Padua. He just about managed to read that it was founded in 1222 and was the second oldest university in Italy but there was too much text to scroll through to see if it had a Scriptorium. Matt would have searched under Scriptorium too, but he wasn’t sure how