Emily was finally pulled from the uneasy sleep she had fallen into by a sudden, urgent knock at her chamber door.
She woke with a start.
For one terrifying moment, her mind immediately turned to Montoni and Count Morano. Her heart raced, and she remained silent, listening carefully.
Then she recognized Annette’s voice outside.
Relieved, though still trembling, Emily rose and opened the door.
“What brings you here so early?” Emily asked, her voice shaking.
She was so weak from fear and exhaustion that she could not remain standing. She sank onto the edge of the bed.
“Dear ma’amselle!” Annette cried. “Do not look so pale! You frighten me. Something extraordinary is happening downstairs.”
“What is happening?” Emily asked anxiously.
“All the servants are running everywhere,” Annette said. “Everyone is rushing about, and nobody knows why. Such confusion I have never seen before.”
“Who is downstairs besides the servants?” Emily asked quickly. “Annette, do not play with me.”
“Play with you? Never, ma’amselle!” Annette replied. “I would never dare. But one cannot help noticing things. The Signor is more agitated than I have ever seen him. He has sent me to tell you that you must prepare yourself immediately.”
“God help me!” Emily cried, nearly fainting. “Count Morano is here, then?”
“No, ma’amselle, not that I know of,” Annette answered. “His Excellency only ordered me to tell you that you must get ready at once because we are leaving Venice. The gondolas will be waiting at the canal steps within a few minutes.”
“Leaving Venice?” Emily repeated in amazement.
“Yes, ma’am. I must hurry back to my lady, though. She is completely overwhelmed and does not know what to do first.”
“Annette, explain this to me before you go,” Emily begged. “What does it mean?”
She was so overcome with surprise and a sudden, fragile hope that she could barely speak.
“I cannot explain it, ma’amselle,” Annette replied. “I truly do not know. I only know that the Signor came home in a terrible mood. He woke everyone and ordered us all to leave Venice immediately.”
“Is Count Morano going with us?” Emily asked. “Where are we going?”
“I cannot say for certain,” Annette replied. “But I heard Ludovico mention that after we reach the mainland, we may go to the Signor’s castle somewhere in the mountains.”
“The Apennines!” Emily exclaimed.
Her brief hope disappeared.
“Oh, then I have little to hope for.”
“That is the place, ma’am,” Annette said. “But please do not lose courage. Think how little time we have to prepare and how impatient the Signor is.”
Suddenly she stopped.
“Holy Saint Mark! I hear the oars!”
She rushed toward the window.
“They are coming closer. They are stopping at the steps below. It must be the gondola.”
Annette hurried away.
Emily began preparing for the unexpected journey as quickly as her trembling hands allowed. Yet she could not imagine that her situation could become worse than it already was.
She quickly placed her books and clothing into her travelling trunk.
Before she had finished, another message arrived.
She was summoned downstairs to her aunt’s dressing room.
There she found Montoni impatiently criticizing his wife for delaying their departure.
Soon afterward, he left to give further instructions to the servants.
Emily immediately turned to Madame Montoni.
“Do you know why we are leaving so suddenly?”
Her aunt looked just as confused as Emily herself.
“I know nothing about it,” Madame Montoni replied. “And I am no more pleased about this journey than you are.”
At last, the family went down to the gondolas.
Emily looked around anxiously.
Neither Count Morano nor Cavigni was among them.
A small feeling of relief returned to her heart.
As the gondoliers pushed away from the steps of the palace and their oars struck the water, Emily felt like a prisoner who had unexpectedly received a short delay before punishment.
Her spirits lifted even more when they passed from the narrow canals into the open sea.
They moved beyond the walls of Saint Mark’s without stopping.
Count Morano was not there.
The danger she feared most had not followed them.
The dawn slowly began to brighten the horizon.
The first light touched the shores of the Adriatic.
Emily did not dare question Montoni.
He sat in dark silence for a long time.
Then he wrapped himself in his cloak and appeared ready to sleep.
Madame Montoni did the same.
But Emily could not sleep.
She gently moved aside one of the small curtains of the gondola and looked out at the sea.
The morning light gradually revealed the mountain peaks of Friuli.
Their lower slopes remained hidden in shadow, and the distant waves still appeared dark beneath them.
Emily sat quietly, filled with a deep and sorrowful calm.
She watched the light spread across the ocean.
Slowly, Venice appeared behind them.
The islands emerged from the mist.
The Italian coast became visible.
Small boats with their sharp Latin sails began moving across the water.
The gondoliers were often called out to by market people travelling toward Venice at that early hour.
Soon the lagoon became lively with countless small boats carrying supplies from the mainland.
Emily looked back one final time at the magnificent city she was leaving.
But her thoughts were no longer fixed on Venice.
Instead, she wondered what awaited her in the unknown place where she was being taken.
She tried to understand why Montoni had suddenly decided to leave.
After calmer reflection, she reached a painful conclusion.
Perhaps he was taking her to his remote castle because there he would have a better chance of forcing her into obedience.
Perhaps, if fear could not break her resistance, he intended to arrange her marriage with Count Morano there, secretly and away from the eyes of the world.
The small hope that had briefly returned to her began to disappear.
By the time she reached the shore, her heart had fallen back into despair.
Montoni did not travel by boat along the Brenta.
Instead, he continued by carriage across the countryside toward the Apennines.
During the journey, his treatment of Emily was so harsh and distant that it seemed to confirm all her fears.
She could no longer appreciate the beauty of the land around her.
Sometimes Annette’s innocent comments about the scenery forced a faint smile from her.
But often a beautiful landscape only reminded her of Valancourt.
He was rarely absent from her thoughts.
Yet she knew she might never hear from him again in the lonely place toward which she was travelling.
At last, the travellers began climbing into the Apennine Mountains.
The enormous pine forests that once covered those mountains surrounded the road.
The trees blocked almost every view except the towering cliffs above them.
Only occasionally did an opening in the dark forest allow Emily a brief glimpse of the distant land below.
The deep shadows of the woods.
The silence of the mountains.
The sound of the wind passing over the treetops.
The frightening cliffs rising around the road.
Everything combined to fill Emily’s heart with solemn fear.
Everywhere she looked, she saw images of darkness and overwhelming greatness.
Her imagination created even more terrifying visions.
She was travelling she knew not where, under the control of a man whose cruel authority she had already experienced.
Perhaps she would be forced to marry a man she neither loved nor respected.
Perhaps she would suffer some terrible punishment, far away from anyone who could help her.
The more she considered Montoni’s possible motives, the more certain she became that this journey was meant to complete her marriage with Count Morano in secret.
As the road carried them deeper into the mountains, Emily felt her courage failing.
The thought of the mysterious castle she had heard about filled her with dread.
Why should the idea of a distant castle frighten her so deeply?
Because she already knew that a person’s surroundings could add new fears to existing suffering.
And soon she would discover whether those fears were justified.