l gasped. "Where?" And how did she
escape them and come to Orvieto and grow so rich and fat?

Tilia looked away. "Never mind. It would take too long to tell you."
Rachel sensed that there was something here Tilia did not want to talk
about. But she resolved to pry the story out of her one day.

Tilia's head swung back to face her. "Have I told you what you are
getting this night for giving this man this proud moment of possessing a
virgin?"

"I--I do not remember." Tilia had named a figure, but it had been so
outrageous and Rachel had been so frightened by the prospect that she
had promptly forgotten it.

"By the five wounds of Jesus, you truly are a child, not to remember
something so important! Well, fix it in your mind this time, and think
of it when you are wondering whether you are doing right. Five hundred
golden florins. Five hundred, newly minted in Florence. That is your
share. That is half of what he is paying. The other half is mine, as is
only just. Think of it. He pays the price of a palazzo for you because
you are a very young, beautiful virgin, and that is what he most
desperately desires. Compare that with what most women get when they let
a man have them for the first time."

_That is far more money than Angelo ever saw in his whole life. Who is
this man who will pay so much to have me?_ Rachel supposed Tilia would
tell her who the man was if she asked, but she had decided it was better
not to know anything about him ahead of time. That way she could imagine
that he would be someone kind and gentle.

"I do not know what I will do with all that money," Rachel said softly.

_If I lose it, all this will have been for nothing._

Tilia's wide mouth stretched even wider in a grin. "I will show you how
to plant it."

"Plant it?"

"Yes, and then watch it grow. There are many, many fields in which to
plant money. You can place it with the Templars or certain Lombards or
men I know among your own Jews, and they use it, and when they give it
back to you there is more. Miracolo! Or you can buy beautiful and
valuable things with it, whose worth increases as they get older. Or you
can buy shares in a ship of Venice or Pisa, or even"--she spat--"Genoa,
or a German caravan, and when the caravan or the ship comes back, if it
comes back, you get your money back tenfold. That is risky, but it is
the quickest way to great wealth."

Rachel felt a momentary excitement. Then she remembered how she was
going to g