If she denied that she
knew any such thing, then his quarry had escaped him.

"So, he put David of Trebizond up to baiting the Tartars while you and I
were so delightfully engaged? Wicked uncle! To think I almost lost you
on his account." She clenched a pretty fist that looked as if it had
been chiseled in marble. On one finger her small garnet ring glittered
in the candlelight.

"I believe he brought David of Trebizond and his servant Giancarlo here
to Orvieto, as well as that Hungarian knight, Sire Cosmas, who spoke at
the pope's council, to discredit the Tartars." Simon wondered whether he
should tell Sophia about the bravos Giancarlo was recruiting. No, if he
told her what he knew about them, he would have to require her to keep
it a secret, and that might make her feel disloyal to Ugolini.

She nodded. "Now I understand why he spends so much time closeted with
that silk merchant, talking about--who is Fra Tomasso di--di--?"

_God's robe!_

"Fra Tomasso d'Aquino?"

She nodded. "That was the name. He sent David to see this Fra Tomasso,
and when David came back I overheard my uncle joyfully shouting, 'Fra
Tomasso is with us!' over and over again. Is he an important man, this
Fra Tomasso?"

Simon tried to keep his face calm, but he was horrified. Simon recalled
now that the d'Aquino family were from southern Italy, the kingdom of
Manfred the unbeliever, as was Ugolini. And were not the d'Aquinos even
related to the Hohenstaufens? Something must be done about this at once.
How far had the plotters--that was what they were, plotters--gotten with
d'Aquino?

How much further dare he pursue this subject before Sophia grew
suspicious of him? And how much further before he began to feel that he
was degrading their love?

_Our love? But she has not said she loves me._

The realization was like a thunderclap in his mind.

What he really wanted to know was whether she loved him or not. To come
right out and ask her was not the way of courtly love. He must wait for
her to say. But she would never speak of love as long as they went on
about the Tartars and Ugolini.

_To the devil with Ugolini and David of Trebizond and Fra Tomasso and
the Tartars!_

He had learned enough anyway, he decided. She had confirmed his
suspicion that Ugolini was the ringleader of the forces in Orvieto
arrayed against the Tartars. She had let him know that they had drawn
Fra Tomasso d'Aquino into their conspiracy.

Of one thing he felt