Read Madame Serpent for Free Online Page B

side of the weak against the strong, she cried out: ‘No, Alessandro. Ippolito does not forget that he speaks to the son of a Barbary slave!’
    Alessandro’s face darkened and he stepped towards the little girl. He would have struck her if Ippolito had not quickly stood between them.
    ‘Stand aside!’ growled Alessandro, his dark brows coming down over his
    flashing eyes. His voice rose to a scream: ‘Stand aside, or I’ll kill you. I’ll put out your eyes. I’ll tear your tongue from your mouth. I’ll―’
    ‘You forget,’ said Ippolito, ‘that you are not speaking to those unfortunate slaves of yours.’
    ‘I shall tell His Holiness of this when I am next summoned to his presence.’
    ‘Yes, tell him you tried to strike a little girl. Tell him you teased her and frightened her about her dog.’
    ‘I will kill you!’ yelled Alessandro.
    He turned away suddenly, because he was afraid of his rage and what he
    might be tempted to do either to Ippolito or Caterina; and there would be serious trouble if he harmed one of his family. He would do the wise thing. He would see blood flow for this; but it must not be Medici blood. He would have some of his servants whipped. He would think up new tortures for them to endure. He ran from the room.
    Ippolito laughed aloud; Caterina laughed with him; then she lifted her eyes shyly to the boy’s face. Never had he seemed so attractive as he did now when he had, with his clever words, driven Alessandro from the room. He was very handsome in that rich mulberry velvet that suited his olive skin, his blue-black hair and those flashing dark Medici eyes which were not unlike her own. She felt that she could have worshipped Ippolito as though he were one of the saints.
    He smiled at her very gently. ‘You must not let him frighten you, Caterina.’
    ‘I hate him!’ she cried. ‘The Moorish bastard! I wish he need not be here. I do not believe he is my half-brother.’ She touched the velvet of his sleeve.
    ‘Ippolito, do not go yet. Stay and talk a little while. I am afraid Alessandro will come back.’
    ‘Not he! He is watching one of his slaves being whipped by now. He can
    never leave a spectacle of bloodshed.’
    ‘Do you hate him, Ippolito?’
    ‘I despise him.’
    She felt warmed by their common feeling for Alessandro. ‘I would give
    much,’ she said, ‘to hear that he were not my half-brother. Alas! I have many brothers and sisters in Florence, in Rome, in every town in Italy where my father sojourned. In France also, I have heard.’
    Ippolito looked at her and smiled mischievously. She was quite a charming little girl when she was not prim and silent; he had not thought, until he had seen her exasperated by the Moor that she could be so angry and so delightfully friendly. He wanted to please her, to make those lovely eyes shine with joy.
    ‘There are some, Caterina,’ he said quietly and confidentially, ‘who say
    Alessandro is not your half-brother.’
    ‘But if he were not, why should he be living here?’
    ‘Caterina, can you keep a secret?’
    Why, yes.’ She was overjoyed at the prospect of sharing something with this handsome young man.
    ‘The Pope cares more for Alessandro than for you or for me. It is for that reason that people say he is not your brother, Caterina,’
    Her eyes were big with excitement. ‘But― why , Ippolito?’
    ‘The Pope calls you niece, but the relationship is not as close as that. People say that the relationship of the Pope and Alessandro is very close indeed.’
    ‘You cannot mean―?’
    Ippolito laughed and placed his hands on her shoulders; their faces were
    close and he whispered: ‘The blackamoor is the son of the Holy Father!’
    ‘And his mother?’ whispered Caterina.
    ‘Some low serving-girl.’
    ‘But the Pope himself!’
    ‘Popes are human.’
    ‘But they are said to be holy.’
    Ippolito laughed gaily. ‘But you and I know differently, eh?’
    Caterina was so happy that she threw off completely