5

When Ezio entered the great hall of Mario’s citadel, the shadows of evening were already gathering and servants were beginning to light torches and candles to dispel the gloom. The gloom accorded with Ezio’s increasingly sombre mood as the hour of the meeting approached.

So wrapped up in his own thoughts was he that he didn’t at first notice the person hovering by the massive fireplace, her slight but strong figure dwarfed by the giant caryatids that flanked the chimney. So he was startled when the woman approached him and touched his arm. As soon as he recognized her, his features softened into an expression of pure pleasure.

‘Buonasera, Ezio,’ she said, a little shyly for her, he thought.

‘Buonasera, Caterina,’ he replied, bowing to the Countess of Forli. Their former intimacy was some way in the past, though neither of them had forgotten it, and when she’d touched his arm, both of them, Ezio thought, had felt the chemistry of the moment. ‘Claudia told me you were here, and I have been looking forward to seeing you. But …’ he hesitated. ‘Monteriggioni is far from Forli, and …’

‘You needn’t flatter yourself that I have come all this way just on your account,’ she said with a trace of her former sharpness, though he could see by her smile that she was not entirely serious. It was then he realized he was still drawn to this fiercely independent and dangerous woman.

‘I am always willing to be of service to you, Madonna - in any way I can.’ He meant it.

‘Some ways are harder than others,’ she countered, and now there was a tough note in her voice.

‘What is it?’

‘It is not a simple matter,’ continued Caterina Sforza. ‘I come in search of an alliance.’

‘Tell me more.’

‘I am afraid your work is not over yet, Ezio. The papal armies are marching on Forli. My dominion is small, but fortunately - or unfortunately for me - it lies in an area of the utmost strategic importance to whomever controls it.’