Renaissance Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

course,“ she amended with a superior
    smile, „when it came to poor Battista’s business affairs. There was no logic to the way you criticized her. But you were
    every bit as hard and ruthless in your remarks as Francesco seems to have been!“
    „Probably because I’d feel as strongly as he did about the seemingly endless supply of men she found to fill those
    literary salons of hers!“
    „She certainly didn’t sleep with everyone who came to the salons! A good portion of her income came from the
    admission fees, and those attending expected and received nothing more than a fine intellectual afternoon or evening.
    She only took as lovers the pick of the lot! That was the way all the grand courtesans operated. They were queens of
    society!“
    „We seem to be straying from the subject,“ Jared interposed mildly.
    Alina’s eyes narrowed. „As far as I’m concerned, discussing Francesco and discussing you are one and the same
    exercise!“
    „Ah!“ There was a wealth of understanding in the single utterance.
    Alina winced as she realized how much of her image of him she had revealed. „It was only natural I should come to
    see you very much as I saw Francesco. I mean, you always argued his case as if you were he!“
    „Go on,“ he coaxed quite gently, a smile in his eyes. „Tell me exactly how you see Francesco and me.“
    „There’s not much more to tell, is there? Quiet, hard, ruthless, interested in making money through the most
    pragmatic means available; as a condottiere in his case, as a Wall Street tycoon in yours.“ She broke off reflectively,
    remembering all the other impressions she had garnered from the letters. „We may never know how Francesco
    invested the money he must have received from his Medici employers, but the odds are he did the same as you and
    put it into art or rare books. It was. common practice men, as now, for men. to use such things as a safeguard against
    inflation.“
    „Quiet, hard, ruthless,“ he repeated thoughtfully, turning the words over on his tongue. „Anything else?“
    She hesitated, not wanting to reveal what little remained The last impression had been too fleeting, too intangible,
    and not very important, anyway.
    „Tell me,“ he murmured, leaning back in the chair and stretching his expensively clad legs out in front of him.
    „It’s nothing…. Probably highly inaccurate!“ she muttered.
    „Please?“
    She wondered at the gentle insistence. „Well, if you must know, I had the feeling you were a little… isolated,“ she
    finally said quietly.
    „Lonely?“ he guessed, using the more accurate term.
    „Perhaps.“ She looked out toward the darkened garden beyond the French doors.
    „Is that why you maintained the correspondence?“ he asked a little abruptly. She heard the probing need to know.
    „Because you felt sorry for me?“
    „No,“ Alina replied quite honestly. „I figured that if you were lonely it was from choice. I didn’t continue to write to
    you out of sympathy! I wrote because you were so damn stubborn about admitting Francesco was a bastard!“
    He laughed and Alina heard the echo of released tension in the sound. As if her answer had pleased him. „Does it
    occur to you that we seem to have taken a lot of other things for granted about each other?“ He leaned forward,
    resting his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands loosely.
    „Such as?“ she demanded haughtily, irked at having let the conversation become so personal but unsure how to
    stop it He did have a legitimate reason for being here after what she’d done by misrepresenting him to Molina.
    „You knew I wasn’t married, didn’t you?“ he asked shrewdly.
    She blinked and then nodded slowly. „I guessed you weren’t“
    „Just as I knew you weren’t There was too much energy and passion in the letters. Did you realize that?“ he asked
    wistfully.
    „Nonsense!“
    „It’s true. I knew from the first that there was no particular man in your life. But