DELUGE Read Online Free Page A

in place, hoping they wouldn’t cut off circulation. If need be, I’d slip into the privy and take my knife to them.
    Giacinta set a stool before the mirror and combed through my hair again as I pouted at my reflection.
    “I’m a sausage stuffed in too tight a casing,” I muttered.
    “Nonsense,” she said, a tiny smile on her bow of lips. “You are radiant. Glowing.”
    “Give me another few months. I’ll have to stay in these rooms and not come out until the baby is born, or all will talk of the She-Wolf becoming a giant She-Cow.”
    “Somehow, I doubt that,” she said, winding a coil of hair backward and pinning it at the nape of my neck. “Besides, I thought you were fervently against people making assumptions of others simply because of how they appeared.”
    “Yes, yes,” I groaned, wincing as she pinned a second and then third coil. This is why her hair-dos stayed and mine did not. She did not mind inflicting pain on me. I, on the other hand, avoided it at all costs. With three more deft moves, she wound the separate coils into one knot and added a few more pins. All told, I had enough ebony pins in my hair to outfit a walrus with false teeth. You know, a black walrus with black teeth, not ivory. The Darth Vader of walruses.
    Where do these hair pins come from, exactly? I had to find out.
    “Giacinta, I saw Isabella snitching cakes from Cook’s shelves yesterday.” The image of the round-cheeked, sweet girl with hair as red as her mama’s made me smile. She’d actually lifted a small finger to her lips, sealing me into a wordless secret. And I’d laughed. The girl was all of four years old and as bold as her young mother.
    “What?” she said, staring at my reflection with dismay.
    “I did,” I said ruefully. “I’ve seen Cook take a switch to the squires for doing the same. I thought you’d wish to warn her. No doubt the girl has simply learned from the other children.”
    “I’ll take a switch to her myself, the little imp,” she said, shaking her head as she worked to attach the net to my tapestry cap, worn on the top, back side of my scalp. I winced as she tugged and the hair pulled. “Forgive me,” she muttered, pulling anew. I wasn’t fooled. She didn’t feel a bit sorry. She took pride in the fact that she seemed to be the only one in Castello Forelli who could tame the lady’s hair and was gunning to keep that glory. Whereas most days I opted for a quick braid I could do myself, I knew I’d be subjected to this several more times in the next week as the feast came and went, and dignitaries and neighbors came to visit.
    “There,” she said at last, standing back, hands on hips.
    “ Grazie mille ,” I said, turning to one side and then the next, viewing with satisfaction the neat coils, knowing they’d stay for a while. A thousand thanks. I rose and smoothed my skirts, casting one more anxious glance to my swelling form.
    Marcello came in then and caught me staring. “Ah, my Gabriella,” he said, coming over and taking me into his arms from behind. Giacinta left without a word. He bent and kissed my bare neck, from behind. “The best part about Giacinta seeing to your hair in this fashion,” he said, kissing upward, sending shivers down my shoulders and arms, “is your throat covered, and yet all this delightful skin at the nape of your neck…”
    I squirmed away from him, turned, then wrapped my arms around him, bringing him close for a kiss. “Thank you, husband,” I said. Just when I was feeling fat…
    “For bestowing the finest of kisses?” he said, quirking a brow.
    “For being you,” I said. I gave him a quick peck on the lips and pushed him away when he tried to pull me closer for something more. “Nay, nay,” I said, with mock chastising. “If you continue, we’re more apt to end up undressed instead of ready for our journey.”
    “Would that be so awful?” he asked, pulling at my hips and giving me a sultry look. “I could send Luca to give