The Kadin Read Online Free Page A

brother and Rudi’s younger brothers playing a boisterous game nearby had roused her, and she had pulled away, suddenly frightened.
    Rudi had smiled slowly at her. “It is a long time until our wedding day, Gianetta.”
    “I know,” she had sighed, “but father is firm.”
    Reliving that moment in the privacy of her bedchamber, Janet began to wonder if her father weren’t right She loved Rudi terribly, but he had awakened feelings in her she wasn’t sure she was equipped to handle at this moment Perhaps she was too young.
    Maybe, she thought, I shall ask father to move the wedding date, and maybe not I have plenty of time to decide.
    The rain came in a rush and began to beat fiercely on the red-tile roof of the villa. Flopping over on her stomach, Janet allowed the sound of the rain to lull her, and promptly fell asleep.

4
    C HRISTMAS WAS OVER , and the new year of Our Lord, one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, had begun. The holidays, with all their feasting and merriment, had been happy ones. No longer considered a child, but not yet quite a woman, Janet had been expected to take up some of the duties of a future duchess of San Lorenzo. She had appeared with Rudi at all official and church functions, and on Christmas Day had distributed alms to the poor of Arcobaleno. She was feeling very grown up.
    Under her grandmother’s guidance, she gradually began to take over the task of running her father’s house. When she became the reigning duchess of San Lorenzo, It would be her duty to oversee the housekeeping and provisioning of the castle. She would become responsible for seeing that the servants did their work well and for the feeding of the entire household—family, retainers, servants, and soldiers. She must learn how to order the provisions, which meant studying many recipes, and she must learn the difference between ordinary wines and those fit for the palates of the nobility.
    However, the matter of servant discipline was the hardest lesson of all By nature Janet was softhearted, and the servants knew it One day Janet overheard two young kitchenmaids discussing the desire of one of them to go to the carnival with a butcher’s apprentice.
    “Just tell her,” said the first, “that you want to go home to visit your sick mother. She will be all sympathy and will not question you.”
    Janet seethed. She did not like being made a fool, but her anger quickly died, and her good Scots common sense took over. When the kitchenmaid requested leave to visit her ailing mother, Janet was all sympathy. Of course she must go and, continued Janet, she herself would accompany the girl with a basket of delicacies to speed the poor invalid’s recovery.
    The little maid was terrified. Unable to shake her mistress’s good intentions, she finally burst into tears and confessed the deception. Janet sent for the other kitchen-maid and then pronounced punishment
    “You,” she said to the weeping girl, “will receive five lashes for lying to me. It is little punishment but the soreness of your guilt will be greater than the soreness of your back. I know you will not lie to me again. Had you asked to go to the carnival, I should have allowed it provided your work was done.”
    The girl fell to her knees and kissed the hem of her mistress’s dress.
    Janet turned to the instigator of the plot “Your crime is far worse,” she said sternly. “You encouraged your friend to deceive me. You will receive ten lashes at the end of this day’s work. Then you will spend the night in the chapel praying to Our Blessed Lady Mary to help you mend your ways. I will pray with you so you will not be tempted to sleep. If any servant should lie to me again, I will dismiss him or her immediately.”
    The servants learned their lesson well, but so did Janet She never again indulged them Only the blackamoor, Mamud, was spoiled.
    He had turned out to be a wonderful gift His command of Italian increased daily. He kept Adam amused by the hour,