City of Swords by Mary Hoffman

it in the palm of her hand, then took off a ring from her own finger and placed them side by side on a small inlaid table. The only difference was the size.
    ‘Jacopo married me with that ring,’ said Carolina. ‘Twenty-five years ago. How old are you?’
    ‘I was twenty-four last November, Your Highness,’ said Ludo.
    ‘I have wondered if I would have gone through with my wedding if I had known you were on the way,’ she said.
    ‘Your Highness,’ said Ludo, his eyes cast down, ‘I cannot be sure, but I think that my mother never told him.’
    ‘And she too is dead, you say?’
    ‘Last summer,’ he said.
    ‘Then perhaps they are reunited in the afterlife,’ said Carolina.
    Ludo cast a desperate look at the young princesses.
    Laura looked at them too and thought, They are his half-sisters. Their mother and I are the only ones in the room not related to him.
    Lucia was speaking. ‘You should have come to us privately,’ she said. ‘It was cruel to tell your story in public, with no warning.’
    ‘And would you have welcomed me and called me brother?’ he asked.
    ‘I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘Perhaps not. Maybe you should have come when my – our – father was still alive.’
    ‘I intended to,’ said Ludo. ‘I didn’t know he was dying till I arrived here. I was too late.’
    ‘Well, it doesn’t matter now,’ said Princess Carolina, getting up. She put her ring back on and left Ludo’s on the table. ‘There is a third ring like this on my husband’s finger, in his coffin. A new one was going to be made for Lucia but perhaps it won’t be necessary.’
    ‘Mamma!’ said Bianca.
    ‘I see that you are telling the truth,’ said Carolina. ‘You are the son I could not give him.’
    ‘Please believe me. I did not mean to distress you,’ said Ludo. ‘Only to claim my birthright.’
    ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ said Carolina. ‘It is over. Come, girls, back to the castle. We should consider what to do with the rest of our lives, which I doubt in my case will be long.’
    She swept out of the room, giving her daughters no choice but to follow.
    None of them had said a word to Laura or seemed to register her presence.
    Ludo sank down with his head in his hands and wept. ‘What have I done?’ he said.
    And Laura couldn’t help herself; she went and put her arms round him.

 
    Chapter 5
    A New Ruler
     
     
     
     
     
    The scarlet and silver barcone was pulled slowly through the water by a crew of Bellezza’s best mandoliers. As a special privilege, Marco, the Duchessa’s favourite footman, was allowed to be one of their number. It was not long since he had been a mandolier himself and had helped the old Duchessa escape assassination on the lagoon.
    The young Duchessa stood on the prow of her barge as the strong arms of the rowers brought the vessel steadily in to shore at the Island of Sant’Andrea. She was dressed all in violet, the colour of her eyes, and her chestnut hair was interlaced with violet ribbons and deep amethyst jewels.
    Her mask was of silver satin, embroidered with purple silks and trimmed with purple-dyed feathers.
    ‘This is the last time I’ll have to do this with a mask on,’ Arianna muttered to her attendant. Barbara was recently married to Marco the footman and was looking down fondly at her sweating husband.
    ‘Indeed, milady,’ said Barbara. ‘By Ascension Day next year you will be married to the Cavaliere and can discard all your masks.’
    Barbara was enjoying her view of Marco’s well-muscled arms, unobscured by any mask on her face.
    ‘Maybe I’ll have a bonfire of them after the wedding,’ said Arianna, who had always hated even the idea of wearing one.
    The High Priest was waiting to greet her on the shore, flanked by the two strong young men who would lower the young Duchessa into the lagoon’s waves, up to her hips.
    ‘Barbarous custom,’ said Arianna, when she was safely back on board her barcone , unconsciously echoing something her