If I live to be a hundred, I don't think I could ever face down a mob like that.
Tilia turned to Riccardo, whose broad shoulders beside her had lent force to her words. "Drive on."
The cart rolled forward, and the people fell back, squeezing against the housefronts to let it by. Sophia, devastated, sagged back against a great earthenware olive oil jar. She was too worn out even to cry anymore.
LVI
Now, at last, this is the end, thought Daoud as the door of the chamber of torment rasped open. He had been preparing himself for death, praying, commending himself to God. Now he hoped that without much more pain, God would take him.
Erculio, who had been sitting with his back to the wall, pushed himself to his feet and scuttled forward.
D'Ucello entered, followed by two guards in yellow and blue.
"Welcome back, Signore," Erculio cried. "Shall we now roast this stubborn fellow's ballocks?"
Erculio, Daoud sensed, enjoyed feigning the gleeful torturer precisely because it was a way of tormenting d'Ucello himself.