Page 5 of Vengeance in Venice
“Didyouconsider her when you abducted me? How isthatcompatible with respect while fetching me a safe means of transport is not? I owe younoconsideration, and neither does my husband—who, if he lives, must be searching frantically for me!”
His eye twitched. But he said only, “Everything I do is for my wife. I have apologized for my mistake. Let me send you in my own boat—with a maidservant for your comfort and respectability. She and the boatman will stay with you until you are returned to your husband. I can only apologize once more for the rough treatment of my men, who are indeed imbeciles.”
It was the best offer she was likely to get. And considering what she had feared during her journey here, she should thank God fasting he was letting her go at all.
Part of her wanted to refuse and rail and threaten him with the police and the British consul and the full prosecution of the law. But she had no cards to play here except his apparent goodwill, which was bizarre in the circumstances and could easily change.
Sense prevailed. She said, “Then lend me your boat and your servants.”
Chapter Two
Although Solomon’s overridingconcern was his wife’s safety, he rather relished Giusti’s plan of fighting their way into her abductor’s palazzo, tossing any guards into the canal. A rare, savage part of him wanted to punch and punish for what had been done to Constance, even though his thinking self knew it would not compensate her for her fear, for whatever pain had been inflicted…
He could not bear that he had left her unprotected. And the red mists of shame and fury would not save her.
Never had it been so hard to summon his much-vaunted self-discipline.
“That is the back door to the Palazzo Savelli,” Giusti murmured in his ear. They were gliding unlit, close in to the side of the waterway. “The wide one there. Wait, it is opening!”
Alvise stilled the boat. The palazzo door opened almost directly onto the canal, and from the sudden lights emanating from it, Solomon could make out hooks in the wall used as moorings. Two boats were already tied up there. The man who emerged stepped nonchalantly into one of them.
Solomon’s fists clenched. “Savelli?” he whispered.
Giusti shook his head. “One of his boatmen.”
A woman emerged, and Solomon’s heart leapt.
Giusti drew a sharp breath. “Is that her?”
“No.” She was not Constance shaped. She did not move like Constance, even an injured Constance, and the boatman handed her into the vessel much too familiarly.
“Maidservant,” Giusti pronounced as Alvise pushed them onward, gently, casually nearer. “Perhaps Signora Savelli is going out secretly.”
The canal was not a particularly wide one, but even so, Alvise guided their boat down the middle in an unthreatening manner that clearly did not disturb the Savelli boatman. He slowed, allowing them to peer through the wide-open door.
“Stop,” Solomon said, for it was Constance who stood framed in the doorway, her head held high, her posture rigid. Her bright hair glowed like burned gold in the blaze of lights. Behind her, a man hovered.
Solomon gripped the side of the boat. Alvise swung sharply toward the first of the mooring rings, and Constance turned her head from the other boat to his. Her lips parted.
The man moved out from behind her.
“Savelli,” breathed Giusti.
Savelli gestured toward the vessel containing the maid and his own boatman. Constance did not even look at him. Her gaze was locked on Solomon’s face. She lifted her arms, curiously like a child, and his heart threatened to break. He reached up for her and she stepped into his hold.
“Go,” Solomon told Alvise.
Giusti seemed about to object, but Alvise obeyed. Solomon held his wife to his heart, absorbing her fear, her relief, and his own. Over her shoulder, he met the gaze of the man responsible.
“He let me go,” Constance mumbled, almost reluctantly.
He took you in the first place. This is not over.
But it was for now. She was safe in his arms as their boat sped down the canal, past Savelli and his vessel, and through themagic of Venice by night. As if nothing had happened to disturb the city’s serenity.
“He was sending me home,” Constance said, clutching the fabric of Solomon’s coat. “How did you find me?”
“Signor Giusti here knew where you would be.”
