Summary

In “Somewhere in the Darkness”, Lucrezia wakes up violently ill. Alfonso is no longer in her bedchamber and when she cries for help there is no maid servant to answer. She wretches as she stands, overcome by the awareness that she could die.

On Lucrezia’s wedding day, in “The Duchess Lucrezia on Her Wedding Day”, the protagonist’s chamber is filled with people. The flowers on the mantel have bloomed and the wedding dress, that was initially made for Maria, waits on the bed. Her maid servants help her don the gown before she is ushered into a carriage to the cathedral. In the church, Lucrezia stands next to Alfonso, and attempts to reconcile that she will no longer have the name or the home she had heretofore called her own. At the altar...