Page 43 of Blood and Roses

"Child rearing?" Balthasar turned her shoulders to better face the mirror. "I don't know what perfidious person told you this lie, but name them, and I shall have them killed immediately."

"Have you got a pen? There's quite a list," Rosa laughed, wondering if he was serious.

"Well, allow me to set the record straight," he said as he stepped back to his canvas and then moved the mirror once more. "Your body is built for seduction, not child rearing. Anyone who says otherwise should have their eyes removed and their tongue torn out."

"I never know if you are joking, and it drives me crazy," Rosa replied as she tried not to blush.

"I never joke about beautiful women or eye gouging," he said as he moved her shoulders once more. "Now, I need you to remain very still so that modesty of yours is protected as I arrange your robe. Do you permit me?"

He was so cool and professional, almost in the manner of a doctor that Rosa found herself nodding. He eased the robe slowly off her shoulders, letting it pool around her hips. In the reflection of the mirror, she watched his frown of concentration deepen as he unclipped her long hair and arranged it. Rosa stilled as his fingers drifted through it and on the soft skin of her back.

Breathe Rosa.

"Now, I need you looking in the mirror towards me so that I can get your reflection right," he said as he stepped backward and went to stand near the canvas. Rosa saw him run his hands through his dark hair irritably before he drank some of her neglected wine.

"Are you always this fidgety before you paint?" she asked innocently.

"It's my process. Don't move."

"I'm not moving," Rosa promised, fighting the urge to laugh at the strangeness of the moment. "And to think a week ago, I was intent on hating you."

"You said as much when you were drunk. You also called me Bertha, but I didn't take it personally," he replied as he started mixing paints.

"That sounds like me. In my defense, if Eli had told me that the Wylts were descendants of his queen and he was trying to watch out for us, then I probably wouldn't have taken it all so personally."

"I did try to tell him that you were far too clever not to work it out." From the reflection, she watched him begin putting paint to canvas with remarkable speed.

"How long have you been painting for?" Rosa asked, wanting to take the conversation away from her drunken rants.

"Since the fifteenth century," Balthasar answered. "I was taught in Florence before I threw my painting career away to become the leader of a street gang. I had my heart set on becoming a pirate. I just needed to raise enough money for a boat."

"I could see you as a pirate. This is before you were turned by Eli?"

"Yes. He was living as an advisor of sorts to the Medici and learned of one of Cosimo's unknown bastard sons living on the streets. He claimed afterward that he could smell theMedici blood in me if you can believe that. I have a theory he was hunting me and instead became attached to my charming antics."

"Charming antics? You are capable of those?" she asked innocently.

"I set up a painting studio in your lounge room when you were in the shower. I believe that classifies as a charming antic."

"If you say so," Rosa said. "Eli found you and decided to turn you? Just like that?"

"The night I met Eli, I had been ambushed and stabbed four times. He picked me up in the street and gave me a new life. After that, I was introduced to Lily, and we were a family."

"How do Saul and Pearl fit in? During our drinking session, Saul told me he was in the Russian court."

"Saul was turned in the 1850s while Eli was a guest at the court of Alexander II. I had left Eli at this stage, and I was fighting in the Crimean War. I don't believe Eli saw Saul as a replacement for me. Lily is the eldest, and she took over my responsibilities. Saul was young, charming, and good-natured. A lover, not a fighter, the complete opposite of me."

"He has a sunny personality for a Russian. He doesn't even have an accent anymore."

"They left Russia not long after he was turned, and time took care of the accent."

"So what about Pearl?"

"Lily met Pearl during the Blitz and fell in love with her. I had met up with my brother and sister in London before going to fight in France. Pearl was a singer at a club that we liked. Lily was smitten. Pearl was badly treated by her husband and perhaps like attracted like. I find her barely tolerable at the best of times. She is spoiled, quick-tempered, passionate, and base. When Eli refused to turn her, Lily did it herself. I thought that Eli would have killed her rather than let even his diluted bloodpass down to her, but he didn't raise a finger against her. I think he felt guilty or that he owed my sister something. She was his firstborn, but he chose me as his heir."

"I bet she took that well."

"She accepted that she didn't have the capacity to rule alone. She has always followed Eli's decisions except when it comes to Pearl."

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