He entered the room tentatively, the candle in his hand casting wavery shadows. His neck looked skinny above his fine nightshirt, and his fair hair was mussed. He was chewing the inside of his cheek nervously, until he caught sight of me sitting in the big bed with my hair all around me, and then he just stared. He had a slight squint, I saw, but hardly noticeable when he dropped his eyes and blushed as he was doing now.

I brushed my hair back away from my bare shoulders and smiled at him. “Orsino,” I started, and didn’t really know what to say next, so I just laughed softly. Look at the pair of us—I think he was more nervous than I was.

Never mind. We’d figure it out together.

I lifted my hand with a smile and held it out to him. “Come to bed, husband.”

He stared at me a long moment. Just stared, and then he gave a resigned little sigh. “Excuse me,” he mumbled. “I wish—I’m very sorry, believe me, but I’m not allowed.” And he turned away with his candle and rushed out of the room. The click of the door closing seemed very loud.

I gazed at the door, stupefied.

Don’t expect too much, Madonna Adriana had told me.

Whatever I’d expected of my wedding night, it certainly wasn’t this.

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

For those destined to dominate others, the rules of life are turned upside down.

—RODRIGO BORGIA

Carmelina

I t’s a bit tricky, knowing what to send up to the bride’s chamber the morning after her wedding. If you don’t know the bride (and as busy as I’d been yesterday, I hadn’t gotten one glimpse of Madonna Giulia Farnese), then your best course is to deputize a maid to tiptoe up to the chamber door and have a nice long listen through the lock. If you hear weeping, then prepare a nice bracing hot posset with red wine and strong spices, something her mother-in-law can carry in to her along with a lot of soothing words about how marriage isn’t really so bad. If you hear giggling and whispering through the door, then you send up something light that can be eaten by two, preferably fed to each other with the fingers while making a great deal of mess that can be kissed away with more giggles. A hot sop with morello cherries works well—strips of butter-fried bread and a dipping sauce of cherries and sugared wine always goes down a treat with hungry young lovers, and the small joke of cherries plucked and eaten is sure to make them giggle.