“He must be brave.” Frederick’s voice was matter of fact. “To go into Montenegro alone to try to get him back.”
“You wouldn’t do it?”
“I would for you,” Frederick said firmly. “I’d want to take an army, though.”
Me, too, thought Giulietta. And she meant it.
As they rode out towards the mouth of the lagoon, Giulietta told Frederick about Dr Crow and how her own Aunt Alexa abducted her and pretended it was the Mamluks, and how Frederick’s brother really abducted her, how she escaped and how Leopold tracked her down again. How he married her and adopted Leo . . .
Underfoot, the ice changed from marble-white to blue, its surface increasingly laced with cracks like flawed alabaster. When Frederick suggested they turn back, Giulietta agreed. She was proud that she paused, and pretended to consider riding on, rather than simply gasping with relief.
“So stunning,” said Frederick, looking at her city.
He means it, she realised. His tone was wistful, and yet there was more to it than that. He sounded like someone saying hello and goodbye at the same time. Maybe he intended to go home? He turned, and Lady Giulietta expected him to announce he was leaving the next day or at the end of the week, or however long it would take to make arrangements for his return. Instead, he simply stared at the marbled ice stretching around them like God’s own floor and at the snow-covered mountains on the mainland beyond. When he spoke it was softly. “Do you believe the world is ending?”
“Why?” said Giulietta. “Do you?”
He nodded sadly.
“You’re wrong.” Having explained that the world could only end once all the babies were born, Lady Giulietta added that her aunt’s orders instructed that all new pregnancies be reported, and there were more than ever as couples took to their beds against the cold. If the pregnancies did stop . . . Well, he’d still have nine months to repent his sins, which she doubted were huge.
“Alexa’s astrologers worked this out?”
“Marco,” Giulietta said.
“The duke?” Frederick looked surprised, then doubtful, and finally so thoughtful that Giulietta began to suspect that she shouldn’t have said that. He was silent for most of the return journey, only finding his voice when they reached the shore and the brick of the Molo rang under their mounts’ hooves. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For this afternoon. For the ride. For trusting me.”
“Are you going to leave now?” Giulietta hesitated. “I mean . . . Now you know about . . .?” She didn’t have to say what. It was obvious she meant Leo being alive and Tycho having gone to find him. She expected an instant answer, but Frederick was looking beyond her to where guards had opened the Porta della Carta. The duchess was in the doorway, obviously unable to decide whether to be cross or amused.
“No,” Frederick said finally. “I think I’ll stay for a while.”
“I’d better go inside.”
He smiled. “Probably. Here, let me . . .”
Lady Giulietta sat still, while Frederick slid from his saddle and walked round to help her dismount, steadying her as she landed. He’d already told her he’d stable Barrel with his other horses while insisting the fat little pony really was hers.
“One thing,” he said. “If Tycho needs help . . . If you need help getting your son back, tell me. I’ll see what my father can do.” Climbing on to his stallion, Frederick reached for Barrel’s leading rein and turned for the ice. He would use the Grand Canal as his road. Lady Giulietta watched him go.
20
“My lord Tycho.”
Eat, keep the rest, and go . . . Those were the words he wanted to say as he looked at Captain Towler’s weather-beaten face and the rat-faced soldiers behind him. Amelia had returned from a run to say a stag and three hinds had come down to the valley floor from the higher slopes, and were scuffing at the snow looking for vegetation beneath. Tycho sent her out again to stampede the animals back up the slope towards the fort and had Towler’s archer position himself in the shadows of the entrance arch. The man was good with a bow for all he stank, had sly eyes and was Welsh. Tycho didn’t understand why the last of these mattered, but it was the point to which all of the man’s companions eventually returned.