Page 67 of Tempted By the English Marquis
“Could I offer you a refreshment?” asked the mystery woman.
Serafina caught her mother’s side-eyed glance in her direction, after which the contessa gave a heavy sigh. “Who are you?”
The woman’s cheeks turned a bright flaming red. “I. I am Signore Magri’s . . .”
Sister? Cousin? Niece?The possibilities raced through Serafina’s mind. All were perfectly valid reasons for this woman to be in the house, but when the boy they had seen earlier in garden suddenly appeared in the doorway and whimpered, “Mamma,” Serafina’s blood turned to ice.
“And tell me, what do you do for Signore Magri?” asked Donna Francesca in a voice dripping with venom. She turned to the boy. “Come here.”
The woman flinched, and Serafina could just imagine what she was thinking. Her lies might be kept safe, but young children tended to tell the truth.
Donna Francesca bent, brushing her hand softly over the boy’s cheek. “Do you live here?” He nodded. “And who is your father?”
A deathly silence settled over the room. The small child hesitated. If his father was who Serafina suspected he was, the boy had likely been taught from an early age not to tell anyone the truth of his parentage.
“The stablemaster,” replied the lad. He looked to his mother, a hopeful expression on his face.
You have been trained well. But that won’t save you from my mother.
Donna Francesca righted herself. “So, the stablemaster’s wife dresses beautifully and is given free reign over the master’s house. How very interesting. And tell me.” She turned to the woman and fixed her with a withering glare. “After Signore Magri marries, which one of his estates will you and your family be moving to? Because you will not being staying here.”
If the veneer of pretense shattering into a thousand pieces could actually make a sound, this was the moment when it would have been heard.
The small boy burst into tears and clutched at his mother’s skirts. Serafina’s heart went out to him and, strangely, to the woman.
If she did marry Signore Magri, she was going to take this lady’s place. Neither of them would be where they wanted to be or with the man of their heart.
The contessa didn’t wait for her question to be answered. It was clear to all and sundry that it hadn’t been meant as a query—more as a threat. Serafina knew her mother only too well. Donna Francesca was on the verge of exploding into rage.
The loud sobs of the small child tore at her heart. He was an innocent in all of this, another victim of the machinations of men. But she also knew that he and his siblings would one day grow up, and when they did, they would present a whole new world of problems for her and any children she may have. The contessa might seem cruel, but she was a realist.
And a fierce defender of her own blood.
“Perhaps we could speak to the housekeeper,” offered Serafina. This confrontation was beyond awful.
Her mother slowly shifted her gaze from Signore Magri’s mistress and illegitimate child to Serafina. “That won’t be necessary. I am sure she has everything for the supper gathering well in hand. I think it is time we took our leave, Serafina.”
She followed her mother out of the front door; no one showed them out. When they reached the carriage, Donna Francesca spoke briefly to one of the footmen, then climbed aboard.
It was only when they were on their way out of the grounds that Donna Francesca finally turned to Serafina. “You might not think me much of a mother, but I will not have my daughter treated this way. If he thinks he can use you like a brood mare while he beds the help, Giovanni Magri is in for a nasty shock.”
A spark of hope flared. Would her mother now openly oppose the marriage? The encounter with the woman and her son had been ugly, but it might just have delivered Serafina the out she so desperately wanted. “Will you speak to Papa, and tell him the supper is cancelled?”
The contessa shook her head. “No. You don’t understand how this works, but it would help you to start paying close attention from this point on. First thing, your maid Maria is to be replaced and moved to another part of the household. As are your bodyguards.”
Serafina gasped, shocked at her mother’s directive. “Why?”
“Because you need to learn who you can trust, and who you cannot. Maria has loose lips. And while that has served its purpose, now is the time when you need those around you to be discreet. Your bodyguards must be changed, because one of them is her lover. Too much is shared between them about your comings and goings.”
Serafina was confused. This didn’t make sense.
If she isn’t doing this to control me, then what is she up to?
Maria most certainly wouldn’t like it, and neither would the bodyguards, but none of them would dare challenge Donna Francesca’s decision. The contessa had powerful connections both at Palazzo Lazio and the Vatican. The wrong word spoken against Serafina’s mother could well see the servants and their relatives removed from lucrative positions.
“Moving Signore Magri’s mistress and her brood of bastards to the country won’t get them out of your life. The fact that he is happy to have them living under his roof tells me that he has an emotional connection to them. You do not want to find yourself in a position where he has to choose between the two of you. I won’t have my daughter acting as nothing more than the well-dressed housekeeper,” said her mother.
Serafina had heard enough rumors of what happened in Roman society when a man had to deal with a wife and a mistress at war with one another. It never ended well. And more than once it had resulted in the wife being made to retire to a distant rural estate while the other woman remained in Rome.
