Read Duchessina - A Novel of Catherine de' Medici for Free Online

you can. If you must, tell them she’ll come out soon.” Then Clarissa turned to a groom who had pledged his loyalty. “We’ll need a cart and a donkey,” she told him. “Throw some straw in it and a few sacks of grain. A little dung, too, but not too much. Do you understand me?”
    The groom bowed. “
Si, signora.
”
    Clarissa led me up the stairs to my apartment. I obeyed, not daring to question her. Betta followed, wringing her hands. “Signora Strozzi,” she said in a breaking voice, “where are you going?”
    â€œTo Poggio a Caiano,” my aunt replied, mentioning the Medici villa in the hills outside of Florence. “Caterina should be safe enough there.”
    â€œShe maybe safe once she’s there,” Betta said. “But the journey out of the city won’t be safe for either of you unless you’re disguised.” Betta suddenly became calm and businesslike. “Allow me to find you both suitable clothing and to accompany you. I’m sure you’ll find me very useful.”
    The furor beyond the palazzo walls was growing more intense. Fists pounded on the main portal. I shivered and fought back a sob. “All right,” Clarissa agreed. “Hurry.”
    â€œAm I to come as well,
signora
?” asked Minna.
    My aunt opened her mouth to reply, but Betta interrupted. “There is no way that country folk would have a black slave,” Betta bluntly told my aunt. “And no way I can disguise her.”
    Clarissa thought a moment. “You must return to Palazzo Strozzi,” she instructed. “And tell Signor Strozzi I’ve gone to Poggio a Caiano with
la duchessina.
Assure him that I’ll return as soon as it’s safe.”
    Betta helped my aunt exchange her fine clothing for one of Betta’s plain smocks. If I hadn’t been so frightened, I might have laughed at her transformation from noble lady to peasant woman. Betta disappeared to the servants’ quarters while Clarissa packed a canvas bag with her silk gown and a few items for me. I clutched the little
cassone
in which I kept my mother’s ruby cross and my father’s gold ring.
    My nurse reappeared, bringing a boy’s tunic, trunk hose, and well-worn cloth cap. “You’ll travel as a boy,” Betta said. “They won’t be looking for a boy.”
    With my hair pinned up under the cap, I was no longer recognizable as
la duchessina,
and I was so pleased with the disguise that I felt less afraid. The three of us hurried down to the stables. The groom had harnessed a donkey to a cart used for hauling everything from refuse headed for the dump to live pigs destined for the spit. I wrinkled my nose from the smell. I saw my aunt swallow hard. Betta, unperturbed, announced that she would drive the donkey.
    Clarissa and I climbed into the cart and allowed the groom to pack baskets and sacks around us and buried the
cassone
deep in the straw. The groom flung open the door to the street and spoke up loudly enough for anyone around to hear.
    â€œGet on with you now,” he said gruffly, “and don’t be wasting any time or I’ll make sure the master hears about it!”
    â€œAh, shut your mouth!” Betta retorted.
    I was shocked to hear them speaking so rudely to each other, until I realized this was part of the disguise. Betta slapped the reins on the donkey’s back, and we started off.
    But not quickly enough. Several members of the mob saw the donkey cart and surrounded it. “Where do you think you’re going, old hag?” one of the men shouted, his red face shoved close to Betta’s.
    Betta hurled back an insult, and I raised my fist and made a gesture that I had seen the servant boys make when they didn’t know I was present. I had no notion what it meant, but the red-faced man did. He bellowed something, spit flying from his lips. Betta goaded the donkey into a brisk trot. Soon we were