CHAPTER TWOThe Marchese Vittorio di Lucca dressed himself quickly and with an expertise that came from years of being self-sufficient.
He was nearly ready when Princess Leone opened her eyes.
“You are not leaving, Vittorio?” she exclaimed.
“It’s nearly dawn,” the Marchese replied.
The Princess sat up in bed.
She was without doubt one of the most beautiful women that Florence had ever seen.
She had been compared to the pictures for which the Galleries of Florence were famous.
Her admirers had taken her through the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi Gallery and they had pointed out her eyebrows in one picture, her lips in another and her little straight nose in a third.
Now, with her hair falling over her bare shoulders, she could only have been depicted by Leonardo da Vinci or Fra Filippo
