3 - Cruel Music Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’s cleverer than that boyish face would suggest.”
    As Benito winked to let me know that he had reached the same conclusion, a sail unfurled with the sudden crack of a pistol shot and Lenci’s heavy traveling boots stumbled into a coil of rope that was rapidly unwinding. The hemp slithered around his ankle like a malevolent yellow snake. A pair of sailors elbowed each other in anticipation of an abate swinging from the rigging, but Lenci was quick on his feet. He freed himself with an acrobatic leap and inserted himself on the railing between Benito and me.
    “Why so gloomy, Signor Amato?” Lenci had a honeyed baritone. “We are bound for the most exciting city in the world.”
    “Before your uncle’s men invaded my home last night, excitement was the last thing on my mind.”
    Lenci’s mouth pulled to one side in a knowing grimace. “You’d best find out early, the senator seldom fails to get what he wants. I wanted to travel and see the world…perhaps inspect the wine fields of France and bring some new ideas back to our farm. But my uncle the senator hatched a different plan. When I turned sixteen, Zio Antonio pressed my mother to have me inducted into the church so I could serve my uncle the cardinal. I was less than keen, and Papa protested, but…” He wiped a hand over his mouth.
    Did I detect a rebellious sneer?
    “Before the year was out,” he continued, “I received minor orders and was made an abate. I’ve been at the end of the senator’s leash ever since.”
    “The senator must have a long leash, to stretch all the way from Venice to Rome.”
    “So he does, Signore. Zio Antonio is the head of our family. He may be harsh, but he knows what’s best and keeps us on course…one way or another.” He fixed me with a pointed look. “As you have seen.”
    An oath rose to my lips, but I cleared my throat instead. “Do you live at the Embassy?”
    “Yes, unless I’m away from Rome on some errand, I stay at the ambassador’s palace on the Piazza Venezia. They keep me close the better to run me off my feet. Zio Stefano…I mean, my uncle the cardinal takes a lot of looking after. But really, the palace isn’t so bad. It’s absolutely at the center of all the action in Rome—especially at carnival time. When they run a horse race on the Corso, the beasts finish right under our windows. We’re so close we can see their hooves striking sparks from the pavement.”
    I had to smile at his burst of enthusiasm. “If your uncles have their way, you will be moving to an even grander palace.”
    Lenci wrinkled his brow. “Leave the Embassy?” he asked slowly.
    “For the Quirinal,” I answered, naming the palace favored by recent occupants of the papal throne. “If the Cardinal Ambassador is elected pope, won’t you be serving him at the Quirinal instead of the Embassy?”
    Abate Lenci removed his oversize tricorne and ran his hand over the curls that trailed down into a plait buried beneath the collars of his greatcoat. He studied the watery patterns created by the ship’s wake. “Of course,” he finally whispered. “Zio Stefano as pope…I suppose it really could happen…if he doesn’t blow himself up first.”
    He sent me a sidelong glance, grinning at the confusion he saw in my expression. “My uncle the cardinal fancies himself a natural philosopher, you see. If he’s not on the roof peering at the stars through his telescope, he’s in his workroom making a big stink and noise. He calls it ‘experimentation.’”
    “That seems an odd pastime for a churchman. The priests in Venice never stop fuming over this new fad for exploring nature’s mysteries.”
    He shrugged. “I doubt that my uncle the cardinal will be unraveling much of God’s handiwork. He subscribes to journals from the Royal Society in London and its counterpart in Paris. He gets very excited about duplicating the experiments they record. But being Zio Stefano, he thinks he’s ever so much more intelligent than