Elisabetta, who up until the time that amulets had been mentioned had been slouched down in her seat, sat up and smiled. She'd always loved amulets; her mother had, in fact, given her one of her old ones, an oval-shaped ruby that had a gold border around it. Elisabetta had tried asking her mother where she'd gotten the amulet, but all Simone Domenici would say was that it had been in her family for years and that it must not leave the family. When the young girl had asked why, Simone had replied peevishly, "Because it has to be that way, now stop asking questions."

Elisabetta had stopped asking any more questions, but her curiosity about the amulet never waned for a moment. She vowed that one day she would discover what it was about it that made it so important, and not even her sometimes-overbearing mother was going to stop her.