“Don’t prickle, my lady. I didn’t have to give you advance warning of a dozen extra guests at your table, did I, but here I am. Out of kindness to you—and I might advise you begin packing up this sorry excuse for a kitchen with anything you brought from Rome, because I imagine a journey back to the city is imminent. Madonna Adriana is besieging the Bride of Christ in her bower as we speak, and she did not look at all willing to be fobbed off with excuses.” Leonello tilted his head, hazel eyes glittering up at me. “There, doesn’t that earn me a thank-you?”

“Thank you,” I said, grudging. I still didn’t like my mistress’s little bodyguard with his probing eyes and his even more probing questions, but he seemed to have lost interest in tormenting me lately. Not a jibe for weeks—months, even—about what might possibly have brought me fleeing to Rome. Madonna Giulia was the target for his barbs these days, and I would never have wished her pain, but I was grateful to be left alone. I looked down at Leonello and felt almost friendly. “While you’re feeling so helpful, Messer Leonello, perhaps you’ll tell me how many guests will be sitting down to table tonight.”

“I’d say twenty. That party from Venice is large, and they clearly think highly of themselves. Not much dignity in scuttling out of the path of the French like rats, but they’re clinging to the shreds. There’s an archbishop, by the way, who has brought his own cook—doesn’t trust anything that doesn’t come from his own fellow’s hands, so I imagine you’ll be sharing the kitchens this evening.”

“Santa Marta bung me with a spoon,” Bartolomeo groaned.

I whacked him on the shoulder. “No one swears in my kitchen but me. Now, we’ll make a fricassee of those capons I was saving for pranzo tomorrow—go to the storeroom and get them for me. No, wait; first lay hold of that useless steward and tell him to round up any extra maids and servers and carvers and send them down.” Bartolomeo had grown into a very capable assistant this summer, and with his help I could easily turn out a meal for five, but not for twenty. Extra hands would be needed.