Chapter 3The night before the wedding, Noemi hardly slept at all. Her mind kept circling through worries, hopes, and questions. Besides, her bedroom was full of overexcited cousins, equal parts delighted for Noemi and devastated that she was leaving them.
Noemi had cried and clung to them as hard as they to her. As thrilling an adventure as this was, it also meant leaving her family for the first time in her life—and so soon after losing Pietro! Ordinarily, a bride would take some attendant with her to a new court, but in poor Brinza Noemi and her girl cousins mostly attended each other. Perhaps in a year or so, Alessandra would be old enough to join her in Cassavelas.
At a different time of year, the wedding would not have been so rushed. But due to the repeated delays—the lateness of t
