Suicide Kings Read Online Free PDF Page A

or likely to take fists to a woman. You must consider what you are to do with your life. You can’t remain in my household forever.”
    “I could study medicine at Salerno. I’ve heard that they’ve taken a few women as students.”
    Her father drew back in shock, a rare display of emotion. “Certainly not! Even if what you say is true, it is not for women of good moral fiber to enter the trades. You’re a Savrano, for the sake of the Virgin Mary, not a common washerwoman.”
    “Medicine is a trade, true, but it is a trade held in some repute. In our own city, the physician’s guild is held in the highest standing. Was not Hippocrates a physician, and Galen—”
    “Enough,” her father said with a wave of his hand, having regained his composure. “Next you’ll say you wish to enter the profession of law.”
    “Will you at least think on it, Father?”
    He looked up at the ceiling as if seeking the hosts of angels painted in elaborate colors there for strength, “If I make you promises you will only get your hopes strengthened for nothing. Medicine is not a woman’s work.” He went back to his papers, evidently considering the matter closed.
    Diana groaned and made a big show of pushing away from the table and stomping out of the room, all of which her father ignored. She huffed her way up the carpeted stairs and threw open the door to her room. Slamming it behind her she let out a scream.
    “A poor start to the morning, lady?” inquired a voice from the corner.
    Diana spun around to find a young woman off to the side folding linens. Looking the woman over, Diana decided that she needed to improve her powers of observation, for the woman was hardly difficult to perceive. Her age must surely be near to Diana’s own, perhaps a year or two younger. She dressed in the formal attire of the household attendees. She would have blended in, had her hair not been a blazing orange-red, cascading down over her shoulders and back without the usual tie or bun the other household women used. Her face was freckled and her skin pale to the point of near transparency, nearly opposite in shade to Diana’s own healthy olive sheen. This must be the new handmaid her father had told her about. Clearly, she was not from Roma, as her father had led her to believe.
    “You startled me. I wasn’t expecting you,” Diana explained the obvious, catching her breath.
    “I am Siobhan Biern and I am at your service.” The girl curtseyed. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling though, a disarmingly informal expression that unnerved Diana. She already wasn’t sure how the Orsini had recommended her so highly. Perhaps they sought to fob her off on the Savrano family, although that admittedly was not characteristic of them. The girl must have some charms. “I’ve already seen to organizing your room, lady. I’ve only a bit more to do. Do you have any other instructions for me?”
    Diana edged closer to her, as if observing a potentially threatening and unfamiliar beast. “Where are you from, exactly?”
    The girl’s knowledge of the Toscana dialect was superb, although the accent grated, like listening to someone pluck the hairs out of a cat’s tail. “My father was a sailor from Ireland. When my mum died, he took me with him to Naples, where work could be had. Sadly he died some years back and left me on my own.” She shrugged, the silly smile never leaving her lips.
    “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve just lost my mother.”
    Finally the smile vanished and the girl’s eyes hit the floor. “Yes, your father mentioned so. I’m very sorry to hear about your loss. I know how it is to lose a parent.” She touched Diana on the arm. More of that instantaneous familiarity. The girl had no boundaries.
    “You’ve got a very nice home,” Siobhan intoned, neck craned, staring at the ceiling.
    Although it was her own bedroom, Diana couldn’t help herself but to look up as well. On the ceiling was painted a scene from Greek antiquity,