10-21-2013, 05:15 PM
Nazario chuckled and had a drink from his wineskin. "Excellent. We'll give Lord Gabrielli a whole winter to get good and scared while we find the culprit and take his place... and then we'll fleece him properly. I might even get a sainthood out of this!"
Marisa shuddered at Nazario's irreverence and gathered her things, pausing only to retie the laces that held on her worn slippers. It seemed hardly worthwhile, though. They were almost as much hole as shoe, and often seemed to serve only as a method for picking up pebbles. The pair hidden in her bundle weren't really better, though. Castoffs from a maid who had gotten them from a lady's maid who had in turn gotten them when the lady was weary of them, they looked nicer than the ones she was wearing but were too large and had soles thin as parchment that would fall apart from hard travel. She smiled bravely at Marzio and stepped out toward the road.
Autumn sunlight shone through the windows of the grand bedroom, bringing a rich glow to the polished mahogany bed and finding strands of metallic gold in the touseled hair of its occupant. Lord Luciano Gabrielli stretched luxuriously in the warmth of the sunbeam and cracked open one crystal blue eye. From the angle of the sun on the wall the maid would be here soon with the breakfast tray, which meant he should cherish these last few precious moments of relaxation. He closed his eye and snuggled deeper into the pillows with a sigh of contentment.
The instant the sigh passed his lips there was a scream and a resounding crash from the hallway. Luciano rolled out of the bed and dashed to the door, jerking it open on the third awful scene this week. The maid was standing in the middle of the hallway, the wreckage of the breakfast tray at her feet. She didn't seem to be aware of the tray, or of anything except the walls of the hallway and her need to scream. Luciano followed her gaze and crossed himself at the sight of the bloody words splashed across the wall. 'Get out.'
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