For my husband’s remarkable grandmother, who served as the inspiration for Carmelina:

Mildred Jackson, née Carmelina Mansueto, a fiery Sicilian cook who has never (to my knowledge!) cooked for the Pope or defended her virtue from a Borgia prince, but would absolutely threaten to fry your ears in a pan if you committed the sacrilege of breaking the pasta into the pot instead of folding it.

Part One

PART ONE

May–August, 1492

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

Before all else, be armed.

—MACHIAVELLI

Carmelina

W hen I first came to Rome, I had nothing to my name but a tatered bundle of recipes and a mummified hand. One was my shame and the other, with a little luck, was my future. “Santa Marta, don’t fail me now,” I murmured, patting the lumpy little bundle under my skirt, and knocked.

I had to knock four times before the door yanked open, and a serving woman with a face like an angry walnut appeared. “Yes?” she said shortly, looking me up and down. I might be tall, long-faced, and plain at best, and I certainly did not look my best that morning, but she didn’t have to make it quite so clear.

I pinned a smile into place. “I seek Maestro Marco Santini. He is maestro di cucina here?”

“You’re not the only one seeking him. He owe you money? He had to pay the last one in spices, and Madonna Adriana wasn’t happy—”

“He’s my cousin.” All true so far, though anything else I told her would likely be lies.

“Well, he’s not here. Madonna Adriana’s son is to be married, and Madonna Adriana palmed the feast off on that cardinal cousin of hers. Maestro Santini, he’ll be at the Cardinal’s palazzo now with the other servants, making preparations. Dio,” the serving woman muttered, “let him be there.”

“Where?” I felt my smile slipping. I’d crossed half the city already in too-tight secondhand shoes; my feet hurt and sweat collected between my shoulder blades because a late-May morning in Rome was far hotter than it had any right to be. And if this stupid woman kept blocking my way I’d cut off her thumbs and fry them in good olive oil with a little garlic and make her eat them. “It’s very important that I find him, signora.”