As the day of her father’s homecoming drew near, Luna returned his copy of The Sand Reckoner to its place on the shelf in his studiolo, not wanting to raise his ire. Her curiosity about the Greek mathematician’s theory of a moving Earth and a stationary Sun did not abate, but it had been disproved by modern astronomy. She found it nowhere in the newer texts. But she kept the Sacrobosco under her pillow, checking on its safe presence before she slept. It had come to represent all the knowledge and joy of learning and the pleasure of star gazing with her father she planned in the future. During the day she moved it under her bed, so it was hidden.

The week that Papa was due home, Mamma Lucrezia watched from the top-floor windows frequently in case he’d made faster progress than expected. ‘No sign of him today,’ she’d tell her daughters, and they shared her impatience. Luna watched from her bedroom window each morning, too, for the sight of Papa’s silhouette on horseback crossing the distant hills. Some mornings she could see all the way to the spiked cypress trees that stood out green against the dry hills of Fiesole as she scoured the hilltops, and she pictured a life in the countryside, with lettuces to tend and broadbeans even, instead of her books. A happy life away from the city and the eyes that judged her every day for being a cripple. She’d lie in an expanse of open grass, just the soft ground beneath and sky above, as wide as the fields. She’d watch the stars like her grandfather had. Yet when she thought of a country life, it didn’t include studying, and as much as she longed for acceptance, she could never give up her books. The future she envisioned for herself of a purposeful life was very different. It did not include managing a country estate or even a city palazzo for a husband, nor the alternative of joining a convent. Luna’s future was one of books and further learning within the walls of Palazzo Fusili, caring for her father as he aged, with his blessing. She was ready to begin the discussion of her studies with Papa again, as soon as he returned.

Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

August 1496