were all smiling,
as if, as Antonia had said, they had come only for a bit of pleasure.
But the tumult downstairs, shaking the house more than the thunder,
belied that.

John spoke to the woman and she called to Rachel. "Signore John must go
to Perugia." Her Italian was strangely accented. "He wishes you to come
with him. He will give you many costly gifts."

Rachel took a step backward into her room. "No. I do not want to go."

Not now. Not when Sophia had just come to tell her they were going to
take her south with them. South to Manfred's kingdom, where Jews were
treated like everyone else. Where she might yet find a place for herself
and forget that she had sold her body.

John and the woman advanced down the corridor, their guards with them.
Some of the swarthy men pushed open the doors of the rooms they passed
and looked in. The doors could not be barred from the inside. Tilia had
always insisted on that, so no client could lock himself in with a woman
and harm her. The men with the daggers grinned at one another and talked
in a strange language.

"No, I don't want to go!" Rachel screamed. She darted into her room and
slammed the door. Frantically, she looked around for something to hold
it shut.

The door started to open, and she threw herself against it. It closed
for a moment. Then she was hurled away from it as it swung inward, John
behind it. She screamed in fear.

The Tartar, who was not much taller than Rachel, strode into the room.
He walked with what appeared to be a swagger because he was slightly
bowlegged. He was talking rapidly in his language, advancing on Rachel
and smiling. He held out his arms. The stout woman stood in the doorway,
watching without expression.

Rachel backed away from them, her body rigid.

"You must come with him now. He is in a great hurry. An army of the
pope's enemies is less that a day from Orvieto, and they want to take
Signore John and Signore Philip prisoner."

"Then let him escape," Rachel cried. "I do not want to go with him." She
was standing before her bed now. The woman spoke to John and he answered
quickly, still smiling.

"He says you are precious to him and he cannot leave you," she said
tonelessly.

She had to get away now, or be John's prisoner for the rest of her life.

Panting more from fury than from exertion, Rachel made a sudden jump to
her right, and when John stepped in that direction to grab her, she
darted to the left and ran out the do