“For Katharina’s freedom I would tell the duke everything—my resolution to ignore the gossip when the marriage was arranged, my fury when he thrashed me, my humiliation when I heard Nora’s laughter. I would tell him of Messer Bernardo’s sinister suggestions and how they had flowered into my own secret determination to find the truth and use it as a weapon to protect myself. I would tell him what I had learned at the Monastero del Corpus Domini and what Elisabetta Bellinceno had revealed to me. I... would ask him only one more question, face-to-face, without reservations and without pretty words: Did you murder your first wife? When that was asked and answered truthfully, whatever that truth might be, I would swear to him I would meddle no more in the matter, and I would mean it. For Katharina’s freedom. And because I myself could lie no more. Was it determination or terror that made my stomach roil and my knees shake as I stood for Domenica and Nicoletta to wash me and dress me and do up my hair with sapphires?MoreLessRead More Read Less
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