Betrayed by His Kiss
Page 20
‘Isabella,’ he groaned and slowly moved inside her again. Deeper, harder, until there was only pleasure. A wondrous delight that grew and grew like a sparkling cloud, spreading all through her.
She cried out, overcome by the wonder of it. How had she lived all those months without that, without him?
Above her, she felt Orlando’s body go tense, his head arched back. ‘Isabella!’ he shouted out and his voice echoed inside of her, all around her.
And then she exploded, too, consumed by how he made her feel. She clung to him, feeling as if she tumbled down from the sky.
Long moments later, once she could breathe again, she slowly opened her eyes. For an instant, she was startled to find the familiar old room and not some new, enchanted glade. Orlando lay next to her, his arm tight around her waist. His eyes were closed, his body sprawled around hers in the way she remembered so well. Almost as if they had never been apart at all.
She closed her eyes again and fell back down into the sweet, drowning warmth of being near him all over again.
‘Can you truly forgive me, Isabella, for all I have done?’ he said quietly.
She pressed her face to his shoulder and breathed him in deeply. ‘Do you—love me, Orlando?’
His breath caught and for a second she feared she had said too much. Shattered the delicacy of that precious moment. But then he spoke. ‘I love you so much, Isabella. I have since I first saw you. I know I can never be free of it. I am yours, to do with as you will, for always.’
With those wondrous words, she let herself cry at last. They were joyful tears, as everything she had loved and feared came true at last. Orlando was here, alive. And he loved her.
She tilted back her head to smile up at him and he gently cupped her cheek in his hand.
‘As I am yours. I love you, too,’ she said ‘I will forgive you everything, if you will promise never to leave me again.’
‘Never,’ he said firmly. ‘You are bound to me for ever.’
For ever. Surely there were no sweeter words. He kissed her, his lips soft, sweet, hungry, and in that kiss she tasted all that love could truly mean. The pain of the past was gone and all they had was each other.
They belonged together. For ever.
Epilogue
Three months later
‘Is Isabella going to paint a portrait of the king?’
Isabella laughed as she listened to little Maria whisper to Orlando. She sat perched on a coil of rope, her sketchbook balanced on her knees as the ship plunged through the waves. She was sketching her father as he argued with a group of sailors over his volume of Pliny, trying to explain his concept of natural history.
She could hardly believe all that had happened in the last weeks. She and Orlando had married and fetched Maria from her abbey sanctuary. Life at the villa was peaceful enough, an idyll of sunny days together, but the news from Florence grew worse. Lorenzo de Medici had summoned his allies to help him hunt down all the Pazzi conspirators who had fled. There were executions every week and Pazzi houses were destroyed. It would not be safe to remain in Italy for a time.
So Orlando’s kinsman at Fiencosole, along with Botticelli and Signor Salle, gained a commission for Isabella at the English court of King Edward. There she would paint his courtiers for a year and help the world see England as a truly powerful, peaceful place.
To her surprise, her father refused to be left behind. ‘When would I have another chance to meet such strange people as the English?’ he had insisted as he packed his books. ‘I would love to learn the opinion of the philosophers there, if there are any...’
And of course Mena had to come to be nursemaid to Maria, who had become like a daughter to them all.
So Isabella was launched on another adventure, her whole family with her. As she lifted her face to the fresh, cool salt spray, she felt the excitement of a whole new beginning wash over her.
‘Not the king himself, bella, but the people at his court,’ Isabella said with a smile for Maria. ‘Their beautiful clothes, their palaces...’
‘Their jewels?’ Maria cried. ‘You must show their jewels.’
‘Of course I must.’ Isabella held out her arms, and Maria ran into them. She clambered up onto Isabella’s lap, reaching for the sketchbook to study the charcoal images there.
‘I like how you did Grandpapa’s beard there,’ Maria said with a thoughtful frown. ‘But his hair is all wrong...’
‘An artist already!’ Orlando said. He kissed Isabella’s cheek and his arms came around her and the child, holding them safe even on the wide sea. Even in the new world they faced together.
‘She will be a brilliant artist,’ Isabella said, leaning back into his strength and warmth of her husband. ‘And she will love England, I am sure.’
‘We shall all be together there. A new life for us.’
‘So we shall.’ For ever. That was what Isabella kept telling herself as she looked to the horizon. She had her husband, her family, her love, right now. And they were hers. For always.
* * * * *
Author Note
I was first inspired to write Isabella and Orlando’s story when I had a yucky cold and spent the weekend lounging around on the couch, having an epic viewing of all three seasons of The Borgias! The sumptuous costumes, the luxurious palaces, the passion and murder and danger. Not to mention Cesare’s eyes... I’ve always loved the Italian Renaissance, the beauty and intrigue of it. And I loved finding the characters of Isabella and her Orlando among the palazzi and riverbanks of Florence.
The pinnacle of danger in the Renaissance came with the famous Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. It was an attempt by a few members of the ancient Pazzi family, along with some powerful allies including the pope, to displace Lorenzo de Medici as the de facto ruler of Florence. On April 26, 1478, they rose up in the midst of a crowd of ten thousand at Mass in the Duomo to assassinate Lorenzo and his handsome younger brother, Giuliano. Lorenzo escaped; Giuliano did not. The failure of the conspiracy led directly to a two-year war with the papacy that strengthened the power of Lorenzo.
I always love incorporating real historical figures into my fictional stories. Botticelli is one of my favourite artists. I once made a nuisance of myself standing way too long in front of his Primavera, taking in every detail. I was so happy to make him a friend of Isabella! Isabella’s cousins Matteo and Caterina are not real, though Giuliano de Medici certainly might have been in love with the beautiful, fragile Caterina, who is loosely based on his real love, Simonetta Vespucci, who died young of tuberculosis and was the model for many of Botticelli’s paintings. I think my Caterina, though, still has a tale to tell...and love of her own to find! Fiencosole, too, is a fictional town, but based on some of the many walled, beautiful fiefdoms of Renaissance Italy.
Some great sources I found useful in my research were:
CB Schmitt, ed, The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (1988)
Tim Parks, Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence (2005)
James Barter, A Travel Guide to Renaissance Florence (2003)
Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici (2003)
Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (1974)
Pier Luigi De Vecchi and Daniel Arasse, Botticelli: From Lorenzo the Magnificent to Savonarola (2003)
I loved writing Isabella and Orlando’s tale, and I hope you enjoy reading it! For more information on Renaissance Florence, be sure to visit my website at ammandamccabe.com.
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ISBN-13: 9781460340851
BETRAYED BY HIS KISS
Copyright © 2014 by Ammanda McCabe
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