Madame Serpent by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online

the restraint of years.
    This was wonderful news brought to her by the most wonderful person in the world. She danced round the room; then collapsed on to her stool. Guido
    jumped on to her lap and started licking her face.
    Ippolito laughed aloud to see them. So this was the little cousin whom, until now, he had thought so plain and solemn. He was delighted that his bit of gossip had been able to bring about this transformation.
    Caterina made her way down to that chamber of mysteries where Bartolo,
    the astrologer, spent most of his nights and days. She ran swiftly and silently down the great staircase; she was afraid that she would meet someone and be called upon to explain her presence in this part of the palace.
    At this hour of the day, Bartolo took his exercise in the palace grounds; solitary he walked, in his flowing black robes, his white hair flying from beneath the round cap he wore. Embroidered on the cap were the signs of the zodiac; the magician’s person carried with it that odour of his magic room― the scent of herbs and blood of animals, musk, verdigris, civet, and the ingredients from which he made perfumes and lotions, potions and poisons. Few dared
    approach Bartolo. If any of the serving men and women saw him walking in the grounds, they would look away quickly, and try to forget that they had seen him.
    But at this hour, Caterina felt she must be safe. Bartolo was not in the magic chamber, but others were. These were the young brothers, Cosmo and Lorenzo Ruggieri, whom Bartolo was training to become seers and astrologers as he was himself. The boys would be there among the charts, the cauldrons, skeletons of various animals, the perfumes, the bottles and powders. They would be awaiting the coming of their little Duchess, and they would have ready for her that which she asked them to prepare for her.
    The staircase narrowed and turned. Now she was in a stone corridor, and she could already smell the sickly sweet odour of the magician’s rooms. She
    reached a door which led to a passage the end of which was another door that would open into the room itself. She knocked.
    ‘Enter!’ said the high-pitched voice of Cosmo Ruggieri.
    She went into the vaulted room on the walls of which hung parchments
    decorated with mysterious characters. She glanced at the big chart of the heavens, at the cauldrons standing among the rushes on the floor, and the skeleton of a cat on the bench.
    The Ruggieri boys bowed low. They were faithful servants of their little
    Duchess. Often they had given her charms to protect from the wrath of her aunt and the sorrow of the Cardinal― and all unknown to old Bartolo. Caterina, whose respect for the occult was one of the greatest emotions in her life, admired these two boys who were learning to be magicians.
    ‘You have it?’ she asked.
    Cosmo said: ‘We have. Get it, Lorenzo.’
    ‘Yes, give it to me quickly,’ said Caterina. ‘It would not do for me to be caught here.’
    Lorenzo took a waxen figure from the pocket of his flowing gown. There
    was no mistaking whom it was meant to represent. The brothers had cunningly reproduced the ugly face and squat figure of Alessandro.
    And he will die within three days?’ asked Caterina.
    ‘Yes, Duchessina , if you pierce the heart at midnight and say: Die, Alessandro! Die! ’
    The lovely dark eyes were opened wide in horror. ‘Cosmo― Lorenzo― it is
    a bad thing to do. I am afraid.’
    ‘There are many in this palace, Lady Duchess,’ said Cosmo, ‘who would say it is a good thing to do.’
    ‘He is going to kill my dog. I know he will― if I do not kill him first.’
    ‘He will surely die if you pierce the heart of this waxen image,’ said
    Lorenzo.
    ‘It is not wrong for me to do this?’ She looked from one to the other.
    ‘It would not be wrong,’ they chanted simultaneously.
    ‘Then I will do it.’ She took the figure and, wrapping it in a kerchief, put it into her pocket.
    ‘ Duchessina ,’ said Lorenzo,