Chapter 10 - Tendresse
"I said, what are you doing?"
"My Lord Capadelli, I only - I -"
But they were interrupted by the sound of chairs scraping across the floor. They ran towards the stairwell like scalded cats but, instead of drawing closer, the sounds within seemed to retreat deeper into the castle.
Finally, after a few moments of silence made it clear that no ambush was imminent, they crept into the room again and, through a smaller corridor, to lord Sforza's study. Francesca gestured to lord Capadelli, inviting him to take his turn watching the couple.
"Perhaps you would like to go home," asked lord Sforza on the other side of the door, "and see your family?"
"No, my Lord."
"No? How surprising. You were certainly very eager to see them not two months ago!" Two steps across the room. "Don't you want to go home, instead of staying in the castle?"
How could he not know that his castle was lady Sforza's home too?
"No. No, my Lord."
"I see. And yet, I think it would be best if you did."
"Why does my Lord want me to go to Rome?"
"Well… because your family will be able to show you the kind of tenderness, the kind of love you are looking for. The kind of love you need. What you asked for just now, when we were eating - I can't give you that."
He had walked right into it. "Can't you, my Lord?" Lady Sforza eagerly asked, sweet notes already beginning to creep into her voice. "You can't be tender? You can't be loving?"
"I don't know how to be like that, my Lady."
"Would you like to know?" Her skirt began to rustle towards him. "Would you like to learn tenderness? And love?"
"How could I ever learn, my Lady?" Lord Sforza managed to sound somewhat firm. "It seems to be very will-of-the-wisp, you either know how to do it, or -"
"By being shown it, my Lord."
The rustling stopped.
"Come, my Lord, come closer to me."
Two slow steps back to the left.
"Come closer, my Lord. Please, don't be afraid."
Another heavy, hesitant step, then a silence.
"Oh, my good Lord Sforza, we'll never get anywhere like this!"
The rustling moved, got louder, louder, then suddenly stopped, and lord Capadelli began to smile. He placed his hand on Francesca's shoulder and drew her to the keyhole - right in time, just a moment later than she would have wanted, but still right in time for her to see lord Sforza reciprocate the young girl's passionate embrace.
After a few moments, lady Sforza stepped back to look her husband in the eye. She kept up her composure and her smile, but she trembled in his arms as she lifted her face closer to his, like a flower in the crests of the dessert sand longing for a drop of water.
"That wasn't so hard, was it, my Lord?"
Lord Sforza didn't respond, didn't make a single move, his arms still lingering around her shoulders. But when his wife moved again to part from him, he drew lady Sforza toward him, and hugged her again.