The Outcast Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Read Free Book Online Page B

care had been taken, however, to ensure she was in sound enough mind to know what would happen if she upset Marco.
    She’d done as ordered. Smiled prettily, leant forward so her full breasts swayed inside her gown, leant back, so they jutted skywards. Duke Marco had shown not the slightest interest.
    “My lady, we must accept facts.”
    Duchess Alexa glared at the alchemist.
    So confident was Dr Crow in his position he barely bothered to look contrite. Instead he brushed dirt from his rotting gown. The man could afford new clothes but rarely bothered to buy them. He cared little about appearance. So he said…
    “She is unbedded?”
    “Was and is,” he said brightly. “You could strip her naked, tie her down, leave her here for the rest of the year and she’d remain so.”
    “Then what’s he been doing for the last eight hours?”
    The duchess was happy to arrange bedfellows for her son but drew the line at watching what happened. A surprising delicacy in a woman rumoured to have made the late duke her willing servant with unspeakable bed skills. The rumour was untrue. Theirs had been a love match, surprisingly enough.
    “Well?” Alexa demanded.
    “What his highness always does, my lady. Hums to them, offers them sweetmeats, tells them little stories, brushes their hair.”
    Marco looked over from where he sat up in his bed and smiled. He held a book in his hands. It was upside down.
    “What do you read, my lord?”
    “W-w-words, w-words, words.”
    Dr Crow smiled in return.
    The Jewish girl beside him had her head turned away. Herface was drawn and her lips tight. She knew she’d failed, but was too scared to realise how many others had failed before her.
    “Get the girl up. Get rid of her.”
    Duke Marco’s lips trembled and his eyes brimmed. Opening his mouth, he shut it again and chewed his lip. After a second, he took the young woman’s hand and gripped it tightly. When he squeezed, she locked her fingers into his.
    “Her f-father is a r-rabbit.”
    Alexa sighed.
    “But s-she’s another s-spider.”
    “Give her father money,” Alexa told Dr Crow. “I’ll find her a post in the palace tomorrow.”
    Marco nodded.
    “You should sleep,” Alexa said. “Desdaio is coming later.”
    “D-desdaio,” the duke said happily.
    Alexa had once hoped Desdaio and Marco might marry, making the Millioni, already one of the richest families in Europe, even richer. Unfortunately, her son was an idiot and Desdaio had fallen for Atilo. And anyway, her son showed as little interest in Desdaio in that way as he did in any other girl.
    How could Alexa preserve her husband’s inheritance if Marco wouldn’t produce an heir?
    “Be k-kind to Elizavet,” Marco said suddenly.
    “Elizavet?” His mother was shocked he’d bothered to learn her name… “You like this one?”
    March nodded slyly. “Send her to T-t-tycho. Tell him he’s not to h-hurt her. They can be spiders t-together.”
    Alexa sometimes wondered if he understood more than she thought. And then, as if to prove her thought ridiculous, he’d begin eating the pages of a book to taste the words, or stand naked in a rose bed because he wanted to know how it felt to have thorns, and the doubts would leave her. Her son was the fifth Millioni duke of Venice. A worrying number of Venetians were beginning to say he might be the last.

8
    “We have spies out asking questions.”
    “But no answers?”
    Duchess Alexa flushed. “
Giulietta…
”
    “I could have been killed. You realise that?”
    “Many people were killed.”
    Monks, and they didn’t like me anyway
. Giulietta caught herself in time. It was bad enough even to think of it. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s not just about keeping you safe. You belong here.”
    “I’m Leopold’s widow and I belong at Ca’ Friedland.” Lady Giulietta hoped her voice sounded firm. Truth was, she wasn’t really sure how she felt about living at Leopold’s ramshackle palace on the Grand