He thought of Luna, his dark-haired, curious child, who would have become an orphan the day she was born if he’d not arrived when he did. He’d lost his wife, but he’d saved his baby. He was sending her to a convent now though, so was there any difference between his decision and the fate Giulia had chosen for their crippled firstborn? He drank more wine. Luna had brought this upon herself, he reasoned, and he must think of the rest of his family and their future. There was naught else he could do. He would send books to sustain Luna and Lucrezia would undoubtedly send sweets.

He raised his glass to his little moon and swallowed the final drops. He’d make sure they shared a few more evenings reading together before she left; he’d miss her delivery of Petrarch’s Canzoniere, nuanced to perfection. He’d not further her interest in astronomy; that would only serve to make her more disaffected and it would go more easily for her if she entered the order with a calm mind.

Perhaps he could afford her one last intellectual pleasure. The discussion of Ptolemy’s Almagest was only days away. Vincenzio sat up straighter as an idea formed: he’d take her with him. If he disguised her as a boy she’d be able to accompany him without fear of judgement. He slapped his thigh and laughed. The sound felt good in his throat and he chuckled again. What fun it would be to sneak her in and what delight to hear her rhetoric in public one last time. Then he could unveil his companion as not a boy but in fact his daughter. Ha! That would shock and impress his fellow humanists—and without the sting of judgement, for she was sworn to the convent now. He thought back to those years when the revered gentlemen scholars of Florence crowded into his hall to hear the Fusili child prodigy’s public orations. Those gatherings had been of his making, as was Luna’s intellect. She was an illustration of his talents, after all. It was disappointing that she’d become arrogant and impudent in her womanhood, but it would not hurt to remind the members of the Academy that he remained the same dedicated scholar the Academy had first admitted.

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN