XXII

Lucia skipped rapidly down the stairs from her tower chamber, unaware that she was being watched closely. She was late for lunch. Again. The handmaiden had already called her twice and told her the Duke and Duchess would not be pleased if she did not hurry, but she was not in a mood to be nagged by the handmaiden. She had been wearing leather breeches and practicing climbing on the inside walls of her chamber with Lorenzo’s metal gloves. She was amazed at how much strength they gave her. She had flexed her fingers and felt the strong metal bend easily. Then she tested them by thrusting the sharp ends into a gap in the stonework of her wall. It held fast and she lifted herself gently off the ground. Then she clamped on the feet claws and felt them become her feet. She flexed her toes and then thrust them into cracks in the stonework, too, and then carefully climbed the wall of her room to the ceiling. She could never have imagined having the strength to do this. It felt like magic, though she knew it to be science. She would ask Lorenzo to explain to her how it worked when she next saw him.

Perched on the wall, she had a sudden feeling of what Lorenzo had felt climbing up to her. A mix of fear and anticipation. It made her a little giddy and she lowered herself to the floor. She waited until the feeling had passed and then climbed the wall again, upwards and then sideways, wondering how much practice she would need to be able to climb all the way down her tower to the street below.

Then she had taken the gloves off and hidden them in a cupboard in her room. She fussed over her gown and hair, as if Lorenzo would be there at the evening meal to see her, while the handmaiden knocked on her door again. “I am coming, I am coming,” Lucia said. And now she was following the dull girl down the curve of the stairs, her feet stepping lightly over the well-trodden stones, one hand sliding around the centre pillar, as she hurried downwards, her long crimson skirts dancing around her feet.

So easy to descend these stairs, she thought, but when each step depended on finding a firm grip between the stones it would be a different matter. If it were dark tonight, she would try it, though. She would wear her leather breeches and a dark shirt that made her look like a shadow. The guards would be on the lookout for anyone approaching the house, but not for anyone leaving it. She felt a rush of excitement fill her at just the idea of what she was going to do. She would then hurry to the Medici household and if she revealed her identity to the guards there, and told them that she had a message for Cosimo Medici, they would surely let her in. Or perhaps it would be better to ask for Galileo, for whom Lorenzo worked. That might be safer. It was going to be dangerous, but she had to try it.

A soft voice hissed behind her and she paused. She turned around, but there was nobody there. “Hello?” she said.

There was no answer. She took another step forward and then heard it again. “Lucia!” It sounded muffled. Could it be Lorenzo? He had found a way back into the house. She turned around and climbed three steps back up the tower. “Lorenzo?” she asked in a soft voice. “Is it you? I am here.”

There was no answer. She took three more steps back to the last landing she had passed and pressed one hand to her heart. She was certain she would be able to feel him if he were close to her. “Hello?” she said again.

“Lucia?” the muffled voice replied. It was coming from behind the wall. How could that be?

“Where are you?” she asked.

“I am here,” the muffled voice said.

“Where?” she asked. She paused and tried to feel the butterfly growing in her chest, but was too impatient to wait for it. There were hidden chambers all through the house, she knew, as there were in most of the larger houses of the Walled City. Lorenzo was clever enough to have found his way into the house through one of them. He must have been there for hours, peeping through one of the chinks onto the stairwell, waiting for her to pass alone. The brave boy. He would be cramped and cold and hungry. She would find a way to sneak him some food and drink. But she would find him first.

She placed her hands on the stone walls ahead of her, as if she might be able to feel his presence there. “Can you see me?” she asked. “I am right here.” There was no reply for a moment and she moved her hands further along the wall.

“Lucia?” the voice said again, further away.

“No. I’m here,” she said. “Don’t go.”

“Lucia?” the voice said again, even further away.

“No,” she said. “I’m here.” She banged her fists on the wall, wanting to find a way through to the chamber inside. Wanting to find a way to reach him. “Lorenzo!” she called. She didn’t hear the hidden door open slowly behind her and the dark figure step out. The gloved hand clamped around her mouth and pulled her backwards into the space between the walls, and she heard the door close with a soft click, and then there was only darkness.