Fruit of the Golden Vine (2 page)

“Silvana.” The woman strode to stand beside Rafael, who proved perhaps a head taller than her. The resemblance between them was plain—the same light complexions tinted copper by the sun, the same expressive lips and the same dark eyes dancing with secret humor. “I’m this unfortunate man’s sister.” Her voice was low and rhythmic, and goosebumps gathered on Adelina’s arms.

Rafael chuckled. “I can hardly be unfortunate to stand in a household of such beauty.”

A bold impulse entered Adelina’s heart, and she acted before it could escape. “Silvana, I’m pleased to meet you.” She extended her arm. “You may kiss my hand.”

Mirth animated Rafael’s face. Silvana, clearly the more restrained, only smiled a touch more widely.

“Ada, please!” Father tugged his mustache at both ends. “Again, I apologize. She’s a troublesome spirit…”

“It’s quite all right.” Silvana lifted Adelina’s hand to her lips. As the tender warmth of her mouth pressed against Adelina’s knuckles, Adelina trembled, and a prickling heat spread across her face.

Silvana gazed for a moment into Adelina’s eyes before breaking the kiss. “A pleasure to meet you, Adelina.”

Grinning enormously, Rafael turned to Father, who watched with his whiskers trembling. “Take heart, Master Sebastian. In our society, it is quite common for women to greet each other this way.”

Suppressed amusement flickered on Silvana’s lips. Father cleared his throat. “Adelina, go stand by your older sister. Felise, don’t just stand there gawking like a newborn calf, get down these stairs.”

Felise trotted down the staircase and drew herself upright. “I am Felise!”

“Damn it, girl, I’m meant to introduce you!”

Adelina covered her mouth and held her breath. It was too funny not to laugh, but if she did, Father would be furious.

“I’m sorry.” Felise folded her hands over the front of her pale blue cotton dress. “I won’t do it again.”

Father closed his eyes, breathed, and opened them again. “This is Felise, my youngest. A maiden of thirteen. Her hobby is drawing, isn’t that right, darling?”

“I drew a horse once. Father put it on his wall.”

“Well, well,” said Rafael. “A horse! They’re complex creatures to draw, so you must be very talented.”

“I am.” Felise stuck out her tiny hand. “Kiss my hand.”

“I am your humble servant.” Rafael pecked Felise’s knuckles. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Felise. I look forward to seeing your drawings.”

“You should marry me instead of Irena. I’m prettier.”

Silvana snorted and turned away, her shoulders shaking. Father grabbed Felise by the wrist and dragged her to stand beside her sisters. Her lower lip wobbled, and tears gathered on her lashes.

“Don’t bawl, Lise, please,” said Father quietly. He turned his attention back to the visitors. “My dearest Lord Rafael.” An ingratiating note lifted his voice. “Would you like a tour of my estate? I can show you the vineyard.”

Rafael bowed. “That would be most appreciated, Master Sebastian.”

“And your sister, perhaps she would enjoy some refreshments in the drawing room? My daughters will be happy to keep her company with feminine discussion.”

Silvana grimaced. Rafael put his hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, and she muttered an inaudible reply. “She would enjoy that very much,” said Rafael.

“Excellent.” Father clasped his hands. “We can continue our earlier discussion, establish the essentials…I’ve seen the seal, of course, but it would nice to see more, perhaps documentation…”

“I’m sure I can satisfy your curiosity, Master Sebastian.”

“I never doubted it for a moment.” Father ran his finger along his mustache. “Come along, then, my dear baron. Girls, please see to entertaining our other guest.”

“Silvana.” Every trace of amusement had left Silvana’s expression, and her tone was cool. “My name is Silvana, Master Sebastian.”

“Of course. Silvana.” Father put his hand on Rafael’s back and guided him through the open front door. “Perhaps, after dinner, I can take you into the town and you can see the tavern for yourself…” Their voices faded but for a few stray words of Father’s groveling chatter. “…sumptuous…finest in the city…the vintage…”

Silvana puffed out her cheeks. “Well, there they go. Is your father always so hard on you?”

“He’s not hard on us.” Irena played with her lace collar as she spoke. “He just wants to see us grow up to be respectable women.”

“You poor girl.” Silvana swept several stray hairs from her forehead, and that prickling heat spread again across Adelina’s face and neck. “Though perhaps I should be more sorry for my brother.”

“I beg your pardon?” A slender wrinkle appeared between Irena’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“Never you mind.” Silvana crossed the lobby and stood before an ugly bronze statue of a spearman. “Where did you find these grotesque furnishings?”

“Father brings them back,” said Adelina. “A new horror every day. He considers himself an appreciator of fine art.”

“This little statuette…” Silvana ran her fingers along the arched wings of a jade bird. “It’s a cheap forgery. Aventurine instead of jade.”

“Really?” Adelina laughed. “He paid a fortune for it.”

“I don’t think Felise ought to listen to this,” said Irena. “Lise, why don’t you go to your room and do some drawings for our new guests?”

“Yes.” Felise nodded with as much enthusiasm as if the idea had been her own. “I’ll draw a horse for Rafael.” She traipsed up the staircase, her pale dress flapping at her ankles.

Silvana smiled as Felise’s rapid footsteps receded. “What an entertaining child.”

“She’s a nuisance,” said Irena, and for once, Adelina had no disagreement. “My dear Silvana, would you like to come through to our parlor? I can show you my needlework.”

“To borrow a phrase from your sister, I’d rather die of the plague.”

Irena’s jaw dropped. “Oh.”

“I’d prefer to see your garden. It looked quite beautiful from a distance.”

“We weren’t given permission to take you to the garden.” Irena gnawed on her lower lip. “I’m sorry, but when Father tells us to do something, we mustn’t—”

“Of course we can tour the gardens,” said Adelina. “I’ll show you the fountain.”

“Ada! We can’t!” Irena scurried toward Adelina and caught the sleeve of her dress. “Father told us to take her to the drawing room, remember?”

“To hell with Father. Are you coming or not?”

“No!”

“Then go practice your harpsichord. I’m sure that Rafael will be back later, and he’ll probably pretend to want to hear you play it.”

“You’re so unkind.” Irena exhaled a gloomy breath and left with unhappy steps through one of the high corridor archways.

“You’re a blunt one, aren’t you?” Silvana put a hand on her hip and appraised Adelina, who blushed beneath the inspection. “Well, it seems to just be the two of us, Adelina. Shall we?”

A pleasant spasm leaped through Adelina’s body. Just the two of them! “Yes. This way, come.” Adelina considered, for one breathless moment, whether she ought to take Silvana’s arm. No—not yet. Better to savor that idea and act on it later.

They walked together across the lobby floor, descended the front steps and moved onto the path of crushed stone that circled the manor. The day’s heat settled about Adelina’s shoulders, mitigated by a cool breeze.

“Your father lives a ways out of town.” Silvana shaded her eyes and gazed across the yellow grass to the horizon, where a line of handsome, clay-brick buildings marked the edge of the town. “Isn’t it inconvenient?”

“We don’t travel anywhere except by coach.”

“Do you and your sister visit the town often?”

“Almost never.” The bitterness in Adelina’s voice was palpable, but she was powerless to prevent it. “And when we do, we’re always escorted by his friends.”

“You unfortunate woman.”

Adelina’s pulse raced. Woman! Not girl—woman! “Shall we go to the gardens?”

“Yes, I’d like that.”

The path ran along the manor’s ancient, finely-crafted brick faÇade and beneath its wide, shaded eaves. It met with the low cobblestone fence that bordered the garden, which grew in a wild profusion of colors against the manor’s left flank. Adelina opened the wrought-iron gate and led Silvana beneath the feathered leaves of the trees lining the garden path. As they walked, insects droned, birds cackled from hidden branches and the majestic marble fountain played its watery melody.

“As I thought,” said Silvana. “Beautiful.” They passed beneath an ivy-choked archway, and she gestured to a nearby stone bench shaded by the leaves of a tall, broad-limbed chestnut tree. “Let’s sit a moment.”

“Very well.” Adelina hoped the trembling of her knees wasn’t visible through the fabric of her dress.

Silvana sat without grace, her trousered legs apart and her elbows on her knees, and Adelina perched beside her. Their shoulders touched, and for an exhilarated second, Adelina was unable to think of anything but that slight contact.

“This is much better than tapestry work.” Silvana leaned against the tree’s mottled bark. “Why didn’t you want my brother to kiss your hand?”

Adelina took a moment to settle the shivering of her breath. “Because I didn’t want his grubby lips on my skin.”

Silvana laughed, and Adelina’s heart skipped yet again. She’d never heard a woman laugh with such confidence. “How do you know mine are any less grubby?”

“All men have grubby lips.” Adelina shredded a leaf between her fingers. “Because they talk nothing but horse shit.”

Silvana laughed again and with such force that a flock of startled birds fled the branches above them. “Hardly the words of a respectable young woman.”

“Ira’s the respectable one, not me.”

Silvana continued to chuckle, her eyes slitted.

“Why do you carry a sword?” asked Adelina when Silvana’s amusement had subsided.

“To protect myself from bandits.” Silvana tapped her sword’s dented hilt. “Rafael and I have been traveling a great deal.”

“I don’t know much about you two, except that Mother thinks Irena’s going to marry your brother. Where are you from?”

“It’s a long story.” Silvana brushed a leaf from her shirt, a loose, dark green garment that suggested the outline of her small breasts. “I’ll tell you the short version. My brother and I are from Weldhaim. Do you know where that is?”

“Yes. To the north.”

“Quite a distance. We have a manor there, left to us by our father, which is attached to a small village that also belongs to us. Lately, however, we’ve let the steward run it while we travel and explore the world. Rafael met your father recently, and he learned of Irena’s availability. He’s here to try his hand.”

“I see.”

A rabbit leaped from a bush and wandered toward the herb garden, where it sat with its nose amid the leaves. Adelina watched until it wriggled back into hiding. Her distraction gone, she turned her attention to Silvana’s profile. That high-bridged nose, those pouting lips, that strange tracing on her cheek, the way it gleamed in the sunlight…Adelina took an unsteady breath. “How old are you?”

“Older than you.”

“That’s no answer. Are you older than Irena?”

“Quite a bit.” Silvana’s lips formed the knowing, slanted smile that had so enraptured Adelina earlier. “Old enough that I’d rather not say.”

“Twenty-eight?”

“Older.”

Adelina scrunched her forehead. “Thirty?”

“Older, I’m afraid.”

“Thirty-four?”

“Younger.” Silvana raised her hand. “No, no more guesses! Just use your imagination from there.”

“What’s that beautiful design on your face?” Impelled by daring, Adelina placed her fingertip against Silvana’s cheek—the soft skin set her heart skittering again—and traced the branching lines. Her fingers trembled as they moved. “It’s like a tree.”

Silvana tilted her head, allowing Adelina to run her fingers toward her neck. “It’s a custom of our family.” Adelina’s caress reached the delicate shape of Silvana’s collarbone, where the branching lines faded, and Adelina lifted her shaking hand away. An unfamiliar fire burned low in her body, and her heart seemed to have lost sense of its usual rhythm.

“You’re blushing.” Silvana smiled, and the scalding heat in Adelina’s skin spread to the top of her chest and tips of her ears. “Oh, and now you’re really blushing.”

Adelina turned her head away. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you like that. It was impolite.”

“Don’t fear, Adelina. I enjoy being touched.” Silvana’s low laughter set Adelina tingling. “And I like your impoliteness. As far as I’m concerned, it speaks well of your character.”

“Tell me, are you thirsty?” Adelina managed to return her attention to Silvana’s face. The moment their eyes met again, her stomach fell into convulsions. “Um. We can go back to the manor and have some lunch.”

“I’d like that. Perhaps we can have it in the parlor, to appease your poor sister.”

“She’ll show you her tapestries if we do. There’s no stopping her.”

“I’ll survive. Especially if you can sneak me some wine.”

“Just wait until dinner. My father will practically bathe you in it.” Adelina stood and brushed the seat of her dress. “And if my mother decides to start a conversation with you, you’ll need every drop. She wasn’t well enough to greet you, and she’ll be impatient to make up for lost time.”

Silvana rose and crooked her arm. “Shall we?”

Her heart no longer obeying any orderly tempo, Adelina slipped her arm through Silvana’s. As their bodies drew closer, Adelina shivered as if every nerve in her body had decided to sing at once. Hopefully Silvana hadn’t noticed. “Let’s walk by the fountain again as we leave,” Adelina said. “Irena likes to throw coins in there and make wishes. I come along later and fish them out.”

“You’re a demon, Adelina.”

“Ada.” Adelina tried to smile, but her face had frozen. “My friends call me Ada.”

A subtle light gleamed behind Silvana’s dark lashes. “Ada it is.”

“If you look here, you can see where I made a mistake in the stitching.” Irena pointed to a pattern on the embroidered handkerchief. “It was very late, and my eyes were pinched shut from weariness.”

“I don’t see the mistake.” Silvana peered closer at the handkerchief. “Sorry.”