The Devil in Music (44 page)

Lucia
rounded on him. "You keep the hell out of this! I can fight my
own battles!"

"Softly,
softly!" said Carlo. "My dear little girl, let me look at
you. What a beautiful woman you've grown!"

"Thank
you, Excellency," she said more gently, and curtsied. Julian
realized that she and Carlo must remember each other from the days
when the villa was his, and her father was his gardener.

Carlo
turned to Grimani. "Signor Commissario, it's absurd to speak of
this girl as Orfeo's accomplice. We know she had nothing to do with
my brother's murder. She was at the castle all that night, looking
after a sick maidservant."

"That
doesn't prevent her being an accessory after the fact," said
Grimani. "She resisted giving information about Orfeo after the
murder, and last night she ran away sooner than help the police
identify him." He bent a hard, intent gaze on Lucia. "You
are in serious trouble. If you are charged as an accessory, you
could spend your

youth,
perhaps your life, behind prison walls. But you are young, and
obviously were in love with this scoundrel you protected so
foolishly. So I'll give you a chance to atone. Tell all you know
about Orfeo, and I can save you. Conceal anything, and you are
lost."

"Oh,
yes," said Lucia quietly, "I'll tell you about Orfeo. I'll
tell you all you need to know."

Julian
drew a long breath. The marchesa hardly seemed to breathe at all.
Grimani smiled his tight, cold smile and said to the sergeant of
gendarmes, "Remove her handcuffs."

The
sergeant obeyed. Lucia flexed her wrists in relief, then began, "I
met Orfeo when Marchese Malvezzi brought him and Maestro Donati to
live at the villa." She looked at Donati, who was seated a
little way away. "It's good to see you again, Maestro."

"And
to hear your voice, little Lucia," Donati said.

"Go
on," ordered Grimani.

"Orfeo
was stuck at the villa all day, with no young people to talk to but
Tonio and me. Tonio was a cur and a lout, and no sort of friend for
him, so there was only me. He would walk with me in the garden, or
fetch and carry things for me about the house. He was always wanting
to help me with my work, even when it wasn't fit for a gentleman. It
was partly that he was kind, and partly that he was bored. He worked
hard at his music, but it couldn't take up every minute of every
day."

"What
did you and he talk about?" asked Grimani.

"He
would talk to me about singing, or ask me about things I knew more
about than he did, like gardening and fishing. But oftentimes we
wouldn't talk at all."

Grimani's
lip curled.

She
lifted her chin. "I know what you're thinking, but you're
wrong. He never touched me. Oh, sometimes he looked at me and
thought of it. A girl knows when a man is thinking that way. But I
was very young and had never known a man, so he was careful of me.
You wouldn't understand. We were friends, so far as a peasant girl
can be friends with a man of his quality. He called me Barbarina."

"Barbarina?"
said MacGregor, who had been following her peasant's Milanese with
great difficulty.

"Barbarina
is the gardener's daughter in The Marriage of Figaro," said
Julian in English.

Lucia
whirled toward him. "What is he saying? Signor, what did you
say just then?"

Julian
repeated it in Milanese.

"I
don't trust you," she muttered, glaring at him. "You might
try to trick me by talking your language behind my back. If you do
it again, I won't say a word more not to you, not to anyone."

"You
will speak when I require it," Grimani told her, "and to
me, not to Signer Kestrel. Did Orfeo ever talk to you about
politics?"

"No,
Signor Commissario."

"Did
he ever express any feelings toward Marchese Malvezzi?"

She
lowered her eyes. "In words, only gratitude."

"How
do you mean, 'in words'?"

"His
eyes showed he had other feelings. How could he help it? Maestro
Donati loved him, called him 'my son." But to the marchese, he
was only a voice. He felt that. It was one of the things he had
dark thoughts about."

"One
of the things? What were the others?"

"I
don't know, Signor Commissario. I only know he had dark thoughts,
and sang to keep them away."

"This
is all fancy," said Grimani. "Tell me about his fight with
Tonio in the grottos. It was you who found them fighting and
summoned your father to stop them."

"I
didn't find them fighting. I was there from the beginning. The
fight was about me."

The
others exchanged startled glances. Donati said in amazement, "About
you, Lucia?"

"Yes,
Maestro. Tonio had been wanting me for a long time. He never spoke
of it, but I knew by the way he stared at me followed me with his
eyes. And Orfeo knew. He wanted me to keep away from Tonio, and on
no account to be alone with him. But I didn't pay enough heed to his
warning. I thought so little of Tonio, I couldn't be bothered to be
afraid of him.

"On
the day the marchese died, God rest his soul, I went to the grottos
to fetch some wine. Tonio followed me and came down after me. At
first he was tongue-tied and more afraid of me than I was of him.
But when he realized he had me trapped down there, he grew bolder and
bolder. He grabbed me, and I couldn't get away.

"Orfeo
came. He'd known I was going to the grottos, and when he couldn't
find Tonio, he got worried. He pulled Tonio away from me, and they
went down grappling and punching and beating each other's heads on
the floor. Orfeo was faster and smarter, but Tonio was much bigger,
and he was furious. I ran for help. Thank the blessed Madonna, I
found my father nearby, and he came and broke up the fight."

"Orfeo
and Tonio told Marchese Malvezzi they were fighting over a game of
cards," Grimani objected.

"Orfeo
made that up on the spur of moment," said Lucia. "It was
for my sake. He knew it would look bad for me if people found out
two young men had been fighting over me in the grottos. Everyone
would think I was the mistress of one or the other."

"But
why did Tonio hold his tongue and let Orfeo lie about the cause of
the fight?" asked Carlo.

"What
would you have had him say, Excellency? "Excuse me, but it
wasn't a card game. I was trying to attack the virtue of this girl,
and Signor Orfeo prevented me." That wouldn't have helped him."

"Her
story does have the ring of truth," said Carlo to Grimani.

"It's
exactly like Orfeo," Donati put in.

"It's
a drama out of some opera or ballad," Grimani scoffed. "You
expect me to believe that, with political rebellion threatening on
all sides, and only hours before he killed Marchese Malvezzi in cold
blood, Orfeo was rushing about rescuing damsels like some trumpery
Tancred?"

"I
only know he rescued me. I was never so afraid in all my life as I
was down there in the dark, with Tonio slobbering on me and pushing
me against the wall and forcing his hand up my skirt. Orfeo came and
saved me, at the risk of his own life because Tonio was so angry, he
might have killed him." She lifted her head and looked Grimani
straight in the eyes. "And that is why I will never tell you
what Orfeo looked like, or anything about him that might help you
find him. I have a right to protect him, as he protected me! If he
were here, he would understand."

"If
he would let any harm come to you on his account," said Julian,
"he wouldn't be worth protecting."

"No
harm has come to me yet, signer," she urged. "There would
be time enough for Orfeo to interfere if I were really in danger. In
the meantime, he wouldn't break my heart by giving himself up for
nothing."

"He
will never give himself up for you or anyone else." Grimani
advanced on her, his words clear and cutting as glass. "Like
every foolish peasant girl tumbled by a gentleman, you cling to the
benighted notion that your lover is a hero. But your lover is a
murderer probably a Carbonaro as well who made use of you and forgot
you, and would laugh up his sleeve if he knew of the sacrifice you
wish to make for him. I shall give you a taste of just how great a
sacrifice it is. Sergeant, put on her handcuffs again, and attach a
rope

to
drag her by. We'll exhibit her to the village, and then lock her in
the gaol."

"That
won't make me talk!" Lucia flung up her head defiantly, though
her voice trembled.

"Listen
to me," said Grimani softly, his face close to hers. "Before
I am finished with you, you will wish you were back in the grotto
with Tonio."

Julian
stepped between them. "Signor Commissario, this has gone far
enough "

"Wait."
Marchesa Malvezzi glided among them. "You're too harsh with
her, Signor Commissario." She turned Lucia gently to face her.
"You know that my husband was murdered, don't you, Lucia?"

"Yes,
Your Ladyship."

"Can
you conceive what a grief it is to me that he died in the prime of
life, un shriven with all his sins upon him?"

Lucia
stared in horror and crossed herself. "I'm sorry for it, Your
Ladyship, with all my heart!"

"You
must see that the one thing we can do for him now is to avenge his
murder. And you may be the only person in the world who can help
us."

"But
Your Ladyship, that's just what I can't do," Lucia pleaded. "I
don't know anything about His Excellency's murder, except that Orfeo
didn't do it. He never would have! Please believe me."

"My
dear, I believe that you believe it." The marchesa turned to
Grimani. "Grant me this favour, Signor Commissario. Give Lucia
a few days to reflect quietly on the course she's chosen. Her own
good sense and conscience will do more to persuade her than all your
threats and punishments."

"You
expect me simply to let her go?" said Grimani. "She'll
only run away again, and my men will have to bring her back."

"I'm
not suggesting that you let her go," said the marchesa. "I
only wish you to find a more comfortable lodging for her than the
gaol. Signor Ruga has the largest house in Solaggio I'm sure he could
spare a room for her, and would guard her well, if only out of fear
of you. And Don Cristoforo could come and pray with her and remind
her of her duty under man's law and God's."

Grimani
looked from Lucia to the marchesa and back again. "Very well.
I'll give you three days to repent of your obstinacy. But if at
sundown on Wednesday you still refuse to help the police identify
Orfeo, it will be worse for you than if I had never given you this
respite. Do you understand?"

"Yes,
Signer Commissario." Lucia turned gratefully to the mar-chesa
and curtsied. "Your Ladyship has been so good to me! Thank
you."

"Don't
thank me, Lucia," the marchesa said kindly. "Only consider
whether you can find it in your heart to help me."

"I
only wish I knew something that could help Your Ladyship. If I did,
I would tell it. I swear by all the saints!"

Lucia
was taken inside the villa to wait while Grimani sent a soldier to
summon Ruga from Solaggio. Julian turned to the marchesa. "Thank
you for intervening as you did. You may have prevented another
murder."

"Another
murder?" she said, startled. "Do you mean that Orfeo
would have killed to protect her?"

"I
mean that I was within an ace of strangling Grimani."

"Oh."
She smiled. "Grimani uses the weapons he knows. He lacks
imagination, as I told you from the first. The last thing to do with
a girl of her spirit is to make her a martyr she'll glory in the
role. What was it you said? some people will confide in a friend
more readily than they will submit to an enemy. So I've become
Lucia's protector. We'll see whether a gentle tapping may not open
her heart more quickly than a battering ram."

"Do
you feel nothing for her?" Julian asked.

"I
feel for her," the marchesa said seriously. "I think she
loved Orfeo, that she was another victim " She stopped. "And
I feel for you," she went on, smiling. "I could see that
you were outraged to the depths of your chivalrous English soul by
Grimani's methods." She looked gravely toward the door through
which Lucia had disappeared. "She had better make good use of
the next three days to wean herself of her loyalty to Orfeo. Grimani
accedes to my wishes in small matters, because it suits his Austrian
masters to show respect for Italians of my rank, but I have no power
over him. And neither for your sake nor for mine will he spare her,
after those three days."