Falcon's Angel
Page 31
Sacha sighed and lifted her feet off the ground. Floating in the gentle breeze, she looked down the hill where summer retreats were scattered like peppermint squares in between faded palaces across the green valley. Parts of the original town wall were still visible.
This time of year, tourists came to bathe in the natural thermal springs on the plains below the town center. Visitors enjoyed fine wines from the vineyards of the castle’s nearest neighbor a mile away on the other side of the hill.
This summer the tourists would attend the classical music festival. She and Armand had organized the event after her tour ended in the spring because there would be no tour this fall. They would stay home and work in the castle’s new recording studio. They would take the rest of the year off to work on her CD, on which Armand played keyboards.
“Mamma mia, why do you play so close to the edge? What if you fall?” The alarmed Italian came from the steps below.
Sacha landed smoothly on her feet. Turning, she waved at Zia Delfina, who was squinting up at her. “I would not allow myself to fall.” She grinned at the look on her mother-in-law’s face and also at how ironic it was that her husband, who had lost his power to remain unharmed and unscarred, was teaching her to control her powers. With the violin in hand, she raised both arms to the sun. “Isn’t it beautiful today?”
“Sì, bellissimo. It is beautiful every day here in the valley. Come down from there. I made zuppa di verdure.” Zia Delfina started climbing the ancient steps up to the terrace walk, apparently not convinced that Sacha was able to make it down on her own.
They had decided not to tell their families about her powers.
She had kept the secret from her parents, the d’Avrils in eighteenth-century France to protect them all in those dark, superstitious times. Still, she had not been able to save them with her powers. What was to be would be. It was better for all of them not to worry about it. Better to lead a normal life. Well, as normal as their lives could be, at any rate.
However, secretly, Sacha liked to think of herself as the family’s guardian angel. All she needed was a little practice.
“I’m coming down.” Sacha put the Colossus in its case and started down the path. She would manage just fine on her own, but if she had to help Zia Delfina back down those steps she was not sure they would make it without incantations. Maybe she should learn a few.
Armand’s mother was a great cook and her vegetable soup was divine, as Granger and Vin could testify, but she enjoyed eating the results of her efforts, and it showed. The only person Sacha had ever seen eat more than Zia Delfina was Granger.
Zia Delfina took her free hand to guide her down the bottom step. “Armand is on his way home.”
“A day early?”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you. It’s a surprise.” Zia Delfina’s smile crinkled her eyes. “He’s bringing bananas.”
“Umm-mm, I’ll have them with the sardines! What about the cannolis?”
“I made you my cannolis.” Zia Delfina chuckled as Sacha wrapped her in a big hug.
“And no shoes. You are crisalide, like a creature of the wood, walking barefoot all the time.” Zia Delfina shook her head and took the violin case from her.
“Maybe I am a fairy,” Sacha was only half-joking. Anything was possible. “You know how I love to feel the strong earth beneath my feet.” She laughed out loud.
Zia Delfina shot her a worried glance and touched her forehead. “Dio Santo. You must have the heatstroke. Come in, out of the sun, my bohemian daughter.”
“The sun had nothing to do with it.” Sacha grinned and this time Zia Delfina laughed with her.
No, it was all Armand’s doing. She had just remembered his promise to her two years ago, something about bare feet. Now, here she was in the fertile valley, hardly able to see her toes that scrunched in this good earth.
The End
About the Author:
If you asked Danita Minnis which is easier, writing songs or writing novels, she would say it was the former. Melodies and rhymes are second nature. What her characters want is another thing entirely. With her debut novel, Falcon’s Angel, Danita learned to listen to her spunky heroine and sinfully confident hero. They’re funny and in danger, and that’s just the way they want it. Lesson learned: don’t try to save them.
When she’s not writing, Danita exercises her lungs at her son’s soccer matches and their favorite theme park, because everyone knows it’s easier on the stomach to scream your way down a roller coaster.
Table of Contents
Falcon’s Angel
Falcon’s Angel
Blurb
Part I
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Part II
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part III
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
About the Author: