Page 60 (1/2)

Prologue

Florence, 1290

The poet dropped the note to the floor with a shaking hand He sat for severalof teeth, he stood to his feet and swept agitatedly through the house, ignoring tables and fragile ite the other inhabitants of his home

There was only one person whom he wished to see

He strode quickly through the city streets, al into a run on his way to the river He stood at the end of the bridge, their bridge, histhe adjacent riverbank for the barest glimpse of his beloved

She was nowhere to be found

She would never return

His beloved Beatrice was gone

Quote

“And of that second kingdo

Wherein the hue itself,

And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy”

-Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, Canto I004-006

Chapter 1

Professor Gabriel E La Nazione, the Florentine newspaper He’d awoken early in the Palazzo Vecchio penthouse of the Gallery Hotel Art and ordered roo to bed to watch the young wo softly, a dia on her ear Her cheeks were pink from the warmth of the room as their bed was bathed in sunshine fro s

The bed covers were deliciously ruli, dark hair As he turned back to his newspaper, she shifted slightly and moaned Concerned, he tossed the paper aside

She brought her knees up to her chest, curling into a ball Low s came from her lips, and Gabriel leaned closer so he could decipher what she was saying But he couldn’t

All of a sudden, her body twisted and she let out a heart-wrenching cry Her arms flailed as she wrestled with the sheet that shrouded her

“Julianne?” He placed a gentle hand on her bare shoulder, but she cringed away from him

She began ressively more panicked

“Julia, I’ain, she sat bolt upright, gasping for air

“Are you all right?” Gabriel e to touch her She was breathing roughly, and under his watchful gaze, she fanned a shaking hand over her eyes

“Julia?”

After a long, tense minute, she looked at him, eyes wide

He frowned “What happened?”

She sed loudly “A nightmare”

“What was it about?”

“I was in the woods behind your parents’ house, back in Selinsgrove”

Gabriel’s eyebrows knit together behind his dark-rilasses “Why would you dream about that?”

She inhaled, drawing the sheet over her exposed brsts and up to her chin The linen was full and white, sing her petite fra cloudlike over the mattress She reminded him of an Athenian statue

He ran his fingers gently over her skin “Julianne, talk to me”

She squiro “The dreaan beautifully We made love under the stars, and I fell asleep in your arone”

“You dreamed I made love to you, then abandoned you?” His tone cooled to mask his discomfort

“I woke up in the orchard without you once,” she reproached him softly