Tributary (River of Time 3.2 Novella) Read Online Free PDF

the window when the elder Lady Bettarini stirred and sat up, tossing her long braid over her shoulder and rubbing her face. She looked from Rodolfo to the sleeping girl. “How does she fare?”
    “She awakened for a time last night. She seemed more alert.”
    “Might you stay, m’lord, and keep watch over her while I see to my morning toilette? I can send a maid…”
    “A good plan, m’lady,” he said, rising, gesturing to the door. “Until she arrives, I’ll remain right here.”
    She gave him a gentle smile. “Thank you, Rodolfo.” She edged over to Alessandra, laid a gentle hand on her brow, then felt for her pulse at the wrist. She smiled at him again. “I shall return shortly,” she whispered.
    He took the chair and gazed out the window, watching as the sky warmed in color, turning now to peach, until he felt Alessandra’s eyes upon him.
    He glanced down at her, slowly, carefully. She did not blink. He thought she might be only a couple of years younger than he, an age most women were married and with children, unless they had no beau…He refused to back down from her stare, steadily meeting her probing eyes.
    “Why?” she whispered. “Why turn your back on all who had ever loved you, were behind you?”
    He considered her words, grudging in his admiration for her forthright, honest question. “Because not all were as you describe,” he said with a sigh. He cocked his head and leaned forward, forearms on his knees. “I do not expect you to understand, Signorina Alessandra.”
    She waited, unmoving, as if she hoped he’d try to explain.
    “Do you remember when we were children? When Siena and Firenze were at peace?”
    She nodded.
    “My father and Lord Forelli’s father were friends. They traded, in the spring and autumn, both for their own households as well as the surrounding villages. We came here, every year, and in turn, the Forellis came to us six months past. We were two of a number of families who gathered as such, each with sons about our own age. Marcello and I…Luca…” he added, casting a smile over his shoulder, “we were friends too.  And over time, it was almost as if we were brothers. Kin.”
    He let the word settle, knowing she’d remember her own use of it. She closed her eyes as if she felt it as a wave of pain, and turned to her back, staring up at the ceiling. “Go on,” she whispered.
    “We made a pact. A lifelong pact. To serve one another when any of us called. We swore it upon our lives. We swore it as an oath to God.”
    She remained silent and he wondered if he’d said too much. But the brotherhood was no longer a secret. Not since Firenze sent their fiercest knights to track down those they’d discovered and murdered them. Rodolfo’s teeth ground together, remembering.
    “You know as well as I that relations between the republics gradually soured, and escalated swiftly toward ongoing strife. Battle. And what once were boys became men of age, but on opposite sides of the line that had been drawn between us.”
    She let her head fall toward him again, folds of shiny brown hair beneath her face. She was truly beautiful, and at the thought of it, Rodolfo made himself look away, to the window. “It was naught but a boyhood pledge,” she said. “Your loyalty belonged with your fellow Fiorentini.”
    “Nay,” he said, staring back at her. “It was an oath of boys, witnessed by God, who foresaw that we’d grow to manhood, divided. To not honor my oath to them ultimately tore more deeply at me than turning my back on my Fiorentini friends. Make no mistake. I love my city. I loved my life among our people. But long ago, my life became inexorably entwined with those who love Siena.”
    He looked at her, feeling ragged, raw. “And then the Fiorentini…” He shook his head, rubbing his neck. “They committed such heinous acts…Trust me when I say you do not know what lengths some will go to in order to accomplish their goals.”
    “No more than the