Tuscan Time

Tuscan Time Lost in Time – Time Travel SeriesBook 3 Belle Ami © Copyright 2023 by Belle Ami Text by Belle Ami Cover by Dar Albert Dragonblade Publishing, Inc. is an imprint of Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc. P.O. Box 23 Moreno Valley, CA 92556 [email protected] Produced in the United States of America First Edition March 2023 Kindle Edition Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited. All Rights Reserved. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. License Notes: This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook, once purchased, may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. 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CEO, Dragonblade Publishing Additional Dragonblade books by Author Belle Ami The Lost in Time Series London Time (Book 1) Paris Time (Book 2) Tuscan Time (Book 3) Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Publisher’s Note Additional Dragonblade books by Author Belle Ami Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Epilogue About the Author Prologue October 19, 1503 Montalcino, Italy Iris Bellerose chewed her bottom lip as she stared out the window. Everywhere she looked, she felt danger closing in. Though the view was unimaginably beautiful, she was aware of the ephemeral quality that was time. Yesterday, she and Marco had gathered the sunshine-yellow stigma from the purple saffron crocus that bloomed in the garden. The Allegretto family’s cook had prepared her favorite dish, a delightful risotto alla Milanese, which they enjoyed with the sweet moscadello wine produced at the Allegretto vineyard. Candlelight had played across their faces as they dined at a table set before the hearth where a well-fed fire had burnished their skin in gold. Over the next few days, they strolled through the vineyard, inhaling the scent of earth and vine. They picnicked and ate crusty Italian bread and cheese beneath the shade of an old, gnarled oak tree and planned a future that was tentative but hopeful. For a few hours each day, they gifted each other time to spend on their creative endeavors. Iris wrote in her journal, and Marco sketched her. The evenings were reserved for love. Marco had commissioned a wooden tub to be built based on Iris’s description of bathtubs in the future, and they took candlelit baths together, which inevitably ended with them making love, their limbs entwined together beneath white linen sheets. Iris knew that tomorrow she might be hurled through time again and snatched away from the arms of the man she loved. She sighed. There was nothing to be done about the inevitable. Soon she would disappear like the colors of fall when the snows of winter dusted the hillsides. For now, Iris tried to forget the evil woman who coveted Marco and was bent on her destruction to have him. The sorceress, Contessa Catarina di Farnese, would not be dissuaded from her vendetta or her pursuit of Marco’s third painting, Il Letto, from his Three Stages of Love series. Catarina would do anything to get her hands on the painting and its time-travel portal. Having hired bandits to rob Marco of the three paintings La Sedia, Il Divano, and Il Letto, she had found unlimited power falling into her hands. But the magic of the ruby ring given to Marco by the soothsayer had given him the power to cajole two women through his painting’s portal to help Iris recover two of the paintings. Still the contessa was not dissuaded from her goal. She knew that all she needed was possession of Il Letto, and the portals would remain open. With time travel at her fingertips, the contessa would amass even more wealth and power, and her minions would cause chaos, death, and sorrow on an unimaginable scale. For Iris, it would also spell disaster. She would be condemned to being a prisoner of time travel forever—wandering the ages with only short periods of bliss with Marco, or even worse, Caterina would close the portals, forever denying Iris a way back to Marco. Strong arms encircled Iris’s waist, and warm lips pressed to her temple. “Tesoro, perché sei così triste?” “Why do I look so glum?” Iris leaned back against Marco’s broad chest and lifted her hand to his cheek. “Because I’m afraid we will never be free of her.