“In many ways a churchman is a mountebank,” he said, unruffled. “You know how many stage tricks we use at Mass? Don’t go crossing yourself; I suspect a girl who can laugh at the elevation of the Host without fearing for her immortal soul already has a fine appreciation for theatre.”

He touched a curl by my cheek with one fingertip. I scowled, lifting a hand in warning, and he shook his head at me benignly. “You get one slap for free, my dear, but not two.”

I lowered my hand, swallowing around the thickness in my throat. “So you saw me, you wanted me, you decided to have me? It’s so simple as that, Your Eminence?”

“Desire is the simplest thing on earth,” he returned. “Every man in the church wanted you after you ran out on that sneezing priest. I was the only one bold enough to try.”

“Oh?” I gave him my sister Gerolama’s superb sneer. “And how did you do that?”

“You have a mouth like a pearl, did you know that? Small, but perfect. I made inquiries with my good cousin, Adriana da Mila, and she found your brothers were searching about for a husband for you. One meeting was enough for Adriana to tell me you had a sweet nature to match that sweet face—”

“You had her vet my temperament?” I couldn’t help exploding. “Like a horse? ‘She has pretty gaits but does she kick when she’s put to the saddle—’”

“Of course I had your temperament vetted! You know how many beautiful faces hide foul tempers? But Adriana assured me it was quite the opposite with you, and accordingly, her son Orsino was supplied to your family as a prospective husband. And as for Orsino,” the Cardinal added, “if you’re wondering, he agreed to the proposition. He understood my patronage would bring him considerable compensation. Favors, posts, commissions, and so forth. Well worth the loan of a wife.”

“He couldn’t have agreed to that.” I sat down very suddenly on a marble bench beside the fountain. The stone nymph gamboled in the water, laughing at me. “He wouldn’t have.”

“It’s a common enough arrangement.” Amusement still laced the Cardinal’s deep voice, but he sounded gentler, as though no longer smiling. I didn’t know; I couldn’t bear to look at him. “My last mistress had three husbands in succession, each more compliant than the last. They profited from my patronage, she had respectability—and the children she bore me had protection.”

“Children?” My voice was a stupid echo; I gazed at the arch where the rude boy Juan had disappeared. Of course. A cardinal who didn’t blink at propositioning a wife of one day certainly wouldn’t balk at producing bastards.