urself." The friar laughed. "But it is
a most Godly time of night. The fact is, I would have had to get up soon
to say the first part of my office. Were I living with my brother
Franciscans--as I wish I were--I would be up chanting lauds with them.
But I fear the cardinal will be neither willing nor able to talk to us
if we go to him now."

"So much damage has been done, Friar Mathieu. The contessa is furious. I
could not begin to reason with her. She went on and on, talking about
murderers of babies. I would not be surprised if tomorrow morning she
ordered us to leave her palazzo."

The old man raised a hand. "Pope Urban would not let her do that. It
would be an insult to the ambassadors."

"Cardinal le Gros told me the pope looked pale and shaken when he left.
He might not care whether the ambassadors are insulted. We can have no
more of de Verceuil's blundering."

_Or mine._

Friar Mathieu shook a finger at him. "What happened tonight is not the
cardinal's doing. None of this is accidental. What happened tonight
shows that Ugolini will do everything in his power to block this
alliance."

"But Ugolini did nothing tonight. It was all that man from Trebizond."

"That is like saying that the axe chops the tree down, and not the
woodsman wielding it. Ugolini brought David to the contessa's reception.
He brought David's servant, an accomplished gambler as well as a
recruiter of brigosi. And he brought his niece, Sophia."

At the mention of Sophia a sharp pain went through Simon's chest.

_Sophia cannot be part of it. Not when I have just found her._

Was it possible that the passion she had showed in their time together
in the atrium was a sham? That would be too cruel. And yet, how could he
prove that she was innocent?

"It is just a coincidence that Sophia is here in Orvieto now," he said.
"She is as undecided about this matter of the Tartars as the pope
himself is."

_But is the pope still undecided_, Simon wondered as he spoke.

The wrinkles around Friar Mathieu's faded blue eyes deepened a little.
"Well, I would not expect you to say otherwise. A knight does not doubt
the honor of a lady he has kissed."

Simon sensed Friar Mathieu's skepticism, but he could not bring himself
to believe that Sophia had knowingly been the cardinal's agent. This
woman had made Italy a place of enchantment for him.

Friar Mathieu went on. "We both agree, do we not, that the luring of
Cardinal de Verceuil by David's man,