She came upon a large, shaggy wolf with golden eyes. Ulrika followed them, feeling moonlight brush her bare shoulders. She saw tracks-big paw prints in the snow, leading into the woods. In the dream, tall pines grew all around her, instead of the fruit trees behind her villa, a forest instead of an orchard, and clouds whispered across the face of a winter moon. Just past the midnight hour, Ulrika had dreamed that she gotten out of bed, crossed to her window, climbed out, and landed barefoot in snow. She had visited friends, browsed in bookshops, spent time at her loom-the typical day of a young woman of her class and breeding. Now, as she was carried through the noisy streets of Rome in a curtained chair, she wondered what had caused her uneasiness. When the inexplicable uneasiness did not go away, she decided to visit the Street of Fortune-Tellers, where seers and mystics, astrologers and soothsayers promised solutions to life's mysteries. The feeling had grown while she had bathed and dressed, and her slaves had bound up her hair and tied sandals to her feet, and brought her a breakfast of wheat porridge and goat's milk. Nineteen-year-old Ulrika had awoken that morning with the feeling that something was wrong.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dataġ. Young women–Fiction. National Gallery, London, UK/ The Bridgeman Art Library Catherine of Alexandria, 1507-8 (oil on panel)by Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino) (1483-1520) Although some events and people in this book are based on historical fact, others are the products of the author's imagination.Ĭover image: St. The Divining is a work of historical fiction. This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. –Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent MeansĬopyright © 2012 Barbara Wood. " never fails to leave the reader enthralled." "Wood creates genuine, engaging characters whose stories are fascinating."
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