Normally, I prefer the beautiful women sitting across from me at dinner to be seen and not heard. Not so with Alexa. I am driven by an urge I cannot identify to know more about her. “For an excellent writer, you just told what could have been an interesting story very poorly.”

Blue eyes sparkle at my teasing. “I don’t know.” She shrugs as if embarrassed. “It was a compulsion. For five days I roamed Florence, it was like out of a dream, everything was better than I ever hoped for.

“On the next to the last day, I’m on a tour through the city. We stop at a small plaque devoted parents put up for a young girl who attempted to help the Medici and was killed. The guide talked about how she did it because she was in love with one of the Medici and hoped to marry him, but she was being used because she was too low born to ever be considered for a wife.

“I couldn’t stop thinking of the girl. I saw the dates of her death and birth, and I realized she was only fifteen. The idea of her loving someone so much she would willingly put her life on the line to help him while her lover was using her really ticked me off. This young girl’s story deserved to be told. I tried to shake it off, though.

“While I loved to read and read most everything, I didn’t read much historical fiction. If I didn’t read it, how the heck would I write it? Only I found myself asking the guide for more information about the girl. He didn’t know much about the girl but was able to tell me more about the Medici man she was helping.

“At the time I was thinking about it, I was of the mindset this guy was a horrible person, and I didn’t want to know more about him. Then I go talk to a librarian in Florence before I leave, and she makes him human. There was all this stuff I didn’t know, didn’t get about the time they lived in that made him just as much a victim of circumstance as the girl. That’s when it hit me about the appeal of historical fiction. It isn’t just the main characters, it’s the history, the time and place is a part of the story too.”

I nod. “For the writers who do it well, the history is as much a third character within the story. You started out hating him, I am surprised, I would have never known. It is a testimony to your skills I was unable to discern your acrimony.”