I Won't Bridge an Impossible Gap novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Put It Down

The maid made a small noise.

Every Ruffo captain along the wall had a gun out before she finished it.

"Nobody move," said Domenico, pleasantly, not even raising his voice. "She is my daughter's servant, and she has stolen from my daughter's room. We will take her home."

"She's not going anywhere with that gun on her," said Alessio.

"Then she'll stay here with it."

The guard's knuckles were white around the grip.

The maid's eyes were shut, and tears ran down her chin.

Alessio took one step, and a second Montanari man in the doorway raised his arm and pointed at Alessio's chest.

The hall held.

I put my hand in my coat pocket.

My fingers closed on the little stub of olive wood I had carried since we carved the rings.

I did not know why I had brought it.

I walked out into the aisle between the two rows of chairs, in my black dress, and stopped three feet from the gun.

"Nina," said Alessio. "Get back."

"No."

I did not look at the guard.

I looked at the old men along the wall.

"I stood up in front of you a minute ago," I said. "I told you the worst thing I have ever done. I said it with nothing in my hands."

Nobody answered.

"Domenico has seven armed men in this hall," I said. "He needs one of them to stop a frightened girl from telling you the worst thing he has done."

The guard's arm shook.

It was a small shake, but every man in the hall saw it.

The oldest of the council slowly stood.

"Put it down," he said.

"Signore," said Domenico, "you are a guest in this house."

"I am not a guest in a house where a gun is held on a servant." The old man's voice was dry. "Forty years, Domenico. In forty years nobody has drawn iron on a woman in front of this council."

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