OK, I am going to post the next bit sorry I couldnt post straight away - we had no power. I'd just loaded the site when it shut off. Turns out some stupid idiot reversed into the telegraph pole.
Ah well its back on again now!
“My dear, I have to go and do the investigating I came to do. Do you want to stay here?”<br>Arianna nodded, then watched as Rodolfo walked towards the burnt out house. She tried to gather the courage to go with him, to find out, but she failed. Arianna turned to go when she heard a scream. Georgia was standing there, looking with horror at what used to be Paolo’s house. Arianna felt an instant pang of her old dislike but swallowed it down. She ran across to support Georgia before she fell.
Georgia desperately tried to hold on to her consciousness, for if she fainted she would have to go home, and she didn’t think she could bring herself to stravagate again. But the shock overwhelmed her and she was falling… until someone gripped her and managed to pull her upright. She breathed deeply until she was in control again, then she looked up to see who had helped. Georgia nearly fainted all over again when she saw the face of the Duchessa Of Bellezza. She let herself be guided to a bench, and then turned to Arianna.
“What happened! Are they dead? I only came to say goodbye…” and Georgia began to cry, not noticing the tears on Arianna’s cheeks.
“I don’t know… they’re trying to find out. They think it was an internal fire, but Rodolfo and I know better… Why are you here?”<br>“I never said goodbye to Cesare and Paolo and Theresa properly and I kept putting it off but I decided now to come one last time. They were probably wondering why I didn’t come again.”<br>“Oh. Well, you see,” Arianna took a breath, “Luciano was there too. We don’t know if he’s alive either.”<br>It was then Georgia noticed Arianna’s tears.
“Oh… I’m sorry.” She said, simply.
Arianna was a little surprised that Georgia was not more upset. But she shook away the feeling, and took Georgia to find Rodolfo.
******
Luciano was getting desperate. They’d been at the house three days. For two of those days he had had no way of getting a message to Bellezza to say he was all right. He had known that Arianna was probably distraught and he was not much better. Then, yesterday evening, he had heard that the Duchessa Of Bellezza and her Regent had come to Remora. Straight away he had gone to Paolo, but he had been firmly forbidden to find her.
“We cannot take risks!” he had said.
And now Luciano had snuck out of the house and was standing in one of the busy streets of the Lady. He pushed his way through the crowds, trying to keep as low as possible. When he was in the back alley which led to the house he ran as fast as he could. He was shocked when he reached the house. Only a few days ago it had been a lovely homely house, now it was just ashes. He made his way round, and came to the stables. They had not been touched by the fire, but the horses had been severely frightened and traumatised. He looked around the corner and saw Arianna standing with Rodolfo looking at the house, making him catch his breath. Rodolfo walked forward to the house, and Luciano was about to try to catch her attention, when a scream came. Georgia walked from the other end of the stables and caught sight of the house. Arianna went running. He kicked the stable wall, then felt bad as Georgia had been really upset. He made one last frantic attempt to catch her attention, then seeing a Remoran coming, fled back to the house before anyone saw him.
*****
Rosalina stirred, and immediatly groaned: she had the mother of all headaches.
"Shut up." said a voice. A nasty one.
Rosalina tried to move her hands, and then her feet but they were tied.
"Yes, that's right," said the voice, "you're not going anywhere. Not now your precious brother has got you."
"What do you mean?" Rosalina forced out through her gag.
"Don't you know your brother when you see him? He was the one who brought you out of the house! You owe him your life." the voice smirked.
Rosalina felt as though she had been slapped in the face. And as for saving her life! Yeah right. He had captured her, not saved her. She lay still, trying to remember all the fuzzy details of last night. She'd gone back for her necklace...
"Where is it? My necklace!"
"Why? Is it something... important?" the voice teased. "Why I do believe Master Alessandro has it. Maybe he'll give it back to you if you ask nicely." it laughed unpleasantly.
Rosalina wished her hands were free so she could strangle him. She'd never met someone so annoying, if you counted this as meeting. She did not move, desparately searching in her head for a way out of this mess. Only one way seemed possible: Alessandro.
*******
"What's this?" Rodolfo asked, astonished. He took a step back and looked at the girl in front of him.
"It really is Georgia!"
Georgia nodded miserably.
"I never said good bye to Cesare and his family... I kept putting it off, because I didn't want to come back here. I don't know why, I just didn't. I finally got the courage to come here and I found..." she gestured speechlessly at the house.
"It's all right. I'm sure he's here somewhere."
Georgia's face suddenly lit up.
"Maybe if we work together we can locate Luciano and communicate with him, using our connections as stravagante. He may be too far away for one of us to contact him, but two..."
"Excellent! All right, let's try it straight away. Oh, if only Dethridge could have come it would have been easier still. If we get no response it either means he's too far away or... so don't be too worried if we don't get anything."
Georgia nodded and they began.
******
Luciano dropped his fork with a clatter. Everyone, nervous and jumpy, glared at him, but he didn't notice. He was getting a faint feeling, as if someone was trying to contact him. He was almost certain it was Rodolfo, when a person sent you a message, you knew instantly who it was. And someone else... someone familiar.
"Georgia!" he said aloud. "What's she doing here?"
Then he realised everyone was looking at him like he was crazy.
"Sorry," he said, "I've got a message from Rodolfo and Georgia!"
They all looked at him expectantly
"I'm going to try and go back to the house, I can't get any meaning from it here. It works best if we're in a circle or close by. Otherwise we use mirrors. All right, hopefully I won't be long."
Paolo nodded. "Go now, and quickly."
Luciano bolted for the door.
********
Arianna stood in the back alley of the house with Rodolfo and Georgia, waiting. Rodolfo and Georgia were exhausted with the effort of trying to contact Luciano, and though they obviously weren't sure if it had worked, they kept insisting that he would come. Arianna turned and looked at the house; even though it was a horrible sight it was better than just looking at the street, waiting for him to come around the corner. She turned back to Rodolfo and Georgia, saying:
"He's not coming! He'd have come by now!"
But they weren't paying any attention to her. They were staring at someone coming up the street.
Luciano put his arms around Arianna and she just held him and cried.