Filippo’s voice carried upstairs and Luna went to see him. He was in the main hall, lying on a settle beneath a thick cover, though from the looks of it, he was ready to get up and play. Luna slipped into the room quietly, making sure to close the door behind her so that they did not hear the men talking in the courtyard below. The afternoon activity of business negotiations and discussions of politics stopped for nothing. She bobbed a curtsey to her step-mamma then bent to kiss Pippo on the smooth, broad forehead she’d washed so many times. Her lips pinched at the memory of the monk’s treatment of him but when she rose it was with clear eyes and a smile.

‘How do you feel, my brave little warrior?’

‘A bit sore,’ he answered, ‘and bored.’

‘You’ll soon be up and running around again, thanks be to God.’ She crossed herself and had to smile at her brother’s scowl. It was good to see his spirits revived. She took the chair beside her step-mamma and sat. How still and alert Mamma Lucrezia was, like a mother bird watching her nest for danger.

After a lengthy silence, Mamma Lucrezia rose, took Luna’s arm and walked with her across to the windows that overlooked the piazza. ‘You shamed us all again,’ she said when they were out of earshot of Pippo. ‘Scrapping like an alley cat. What were you thinking, Leonarda? To insult so important a family!’

Luna didn’t reply at first. She should have guessed her step-mamma would have heard about the incident in the cathedral; gossip in Florence never stopped. Still, she’d not expected her to speak of it here, sat with Pippo as they were. ‘I don’t know, Mamma. Forgive me,’ she said eventually.

‘Your father will be fearfully angry when he gets home.’

‘I will go to him and apologise, but the man was …’ She couldn’t finish the sentence. Her words felt loose and inadequate.

‘I expected better of you, especially after the last time you got into trouble at Mass. It does not seem you’re able to control your own wilfulness and now your father must deal with Signore Palagio.’

Luna stared at Mamma Lucrezia. ‘I don’t understand. I wasn’t rude to Signore Palagio?’

‘What do you expect, child? He is shocked by your indecorum, so shocked he is not sure that Maria is a good match for his son.’

‘Why would Signore Palagio care so much about my behaviour?’ Luna said. ‘Truly, Mamma, I am sorry for my actions, but Signore Palagio’s reaction seems excessive.’ A rising heat flared in Luna’s chest. It threatened to burn her shame to charred anger. ‘If he judges Maria by my actions, then it is better she doesn’t marry his son.’

Her step-mamma looked at her with cold eyes and her chin lifted in judgement.