been able to discover which offending family he was after—over some perceived insult, got turned around, and ended up in Nevenero, which they described as being akin to ending up in one of Dante’s rings of hell. The elements in the Aosta Valley are harsh, to say the least. If the sun doesn’t fry you in the afternoon, the wind will flay you when night falls. The air is thin at this altitude, and it was common for travelers unaccustomed to the lack of oxygen to turn blue and die before they dismounted their horse. That is what happened to the prince: as he arrived at the top of the mountain, he became light-headed and fell from his steed.
“Frederick came out of hiding, revived Amadeo and brought the whole group to the village, where they were given wine, roasted goat, and lodging. When Amadeo recovered, he promised Frederick a reward for saving his life. Frederick, who most likely didn’t believe a word of it, said he’d gladly accept whatever the nobleman offered, and pointed them in the direction of Switzerland.
“One year later, Amadeo returned. He had won his duel in Switzerland and believed that Frederick the goat herder had given him the strength and luck he’d needed. As promised, he brought a reward: a wife with a noble title and a fortune. This prize took the form of Amadeo’s sister, Isabelle, a beautiful girl of sixteen whose pale blue eyes seemed siphoned from the mountain sky. Isabelle was the youngest daughter of Peter I of Savoy. She was intelligent, educated, and undeniably wicked. She had been sentenced to death for some heinous crime—I believe it was murder . . . Let me check.”
Basil stood and dug through one of the boxes until he pulled out a large, thick book, one that appeared—from the loose spine—to have been read many times. On its cover, stamped in gold, were the words The House of Montebianco.
“There was no account of the founding union recorded at the time—we have very few documents from that early period in the family archive—but we do have an account set down by a later Montebianco, Eleanor, Countess of Montebianco, a French noblewoman who married Ambrose, a direct descendant of Isabelle and Frederick. Eleanor wrote this history of the Montebianco family. In my opinion, it is the most interesting account by far.”
He flipped through the pages, looking for a certain passage. “This is the translated version, of course.” He stopped suddenly. “Ah, here it is,” he said, and began to read:
Child of the nobleman Peter I of Savoy, Isabelle, the founding mother of the House of Montebianco, was, by all accounts, wild. The fair Isabelle was beautiful beyond measure, and while beloved by her father, the girl was tainted at the core. She was known to torture cats as a girl and, as a young woman, killed a suitor who had overstepped his bounds, stabbing him with a dagger and letting him bleed to death at her feet. For this, she was banished from the House of Savoy, sent to the treacherous lands of Mont Blanc, her hand given in marriage to Frederick Montebianco, thus beginning the noble line of the Montebianco family.
“So,” Basil continued, again flipping through the book. “Isabelle of Savoy was a murderess. But, because of her family’s power and influence, her sentence was light—exile rather than death.”
“She was sent to Nevenero,” I said, glancing out the window at the blizzard. “That doesn’t seem to be such a light sentence to me.”
“On the one hand, Isabelle was exiled from her home at the Savoy palace, where there was certainly more excitement than could be found in Nevenero. But on the other hand, she found herself free of the restrictions of the highly codified etiquette of her medieval family. And Frederick was not such a bad deal either. There is a painting of him hanging in the portrait gallery. He was quite a handsome man. Very tall for the time. I suggest you go take a look. By all accounts, Isabelle and Frederick were very much in love.” Basil closed the book. “In any case, their union founded a dynasty. This castle was a wedding gift from the House of Savoy to Isabelle and Frederick, as was the coat of arms. Multiple family lines grew from Isabelle and Frederick’s union. As they had four children, the different lines of the Montebianco family can be traced from each of these descendants. Your branch of the family tree, as