Luna rose swiftly and went to stand by the window. The light was fading. She couldn’t turn around. ‘But my father came back.’ She pushed wide the shutters to let some air into the room.

‘He did, after three years, but I do not know why. By then I was married to Domenico and had begun my wedded life here.’

‘Do you remember much of that time at the Villa Careggi?’

‘I was only there long enough to see you suckling well at Livia’s bosom and to settle the arrangements. Then I accompanied your mother’s body to her family’s estate, where she was buried.’

‘Papa left me for three years?’ Luna whispered, sucking in the ice-cold air.

‘You were happy and healthy. The Medici family took good care of you.’

‘He abandoned me,’ Luna repeated. ‘No mother even to love me.’ With each word it felt like she inhaled horns of ice that spiked her throat.

‘I think that is why he kept you always close afterwards,’ Elisabetta said.

Luna turned then. ‘To prevent me from discovering the truth?’

‘To protect you, my dear.’ She sighed. ‘The dead cannot defend themselves. He tried to make amends by reclaiming you. Try not to judge him harshly.’

The shutters rattled and Luna caught sight of the dark edge of a wing swoop close. ‘I don’t know what to think.’ It felt like everyone she’d ever loved was dying anew, only this time every memory she held dear died with them. ‘Now he’s left me again, just as my mother did.’

‘You know that is unfair.’

‘Forgive me.’ Luna pressed her fingers hard into her temple. She felt as though she were balanced on a lake of ice that had begun to crack. Elisabetta placed a gentle hand upon her knee and the tender gesture laid bare all of Luna’s grief. She sobbed freely.

*