Page 23 of Thus with a Kiss I Die
CHAPTER13
Younger grabbed my arm and turned me to face him. “Whatdid you call me?”
“Cal.”
“My parents used to call me Cal.”
“Only your father,” I corrected him smugly. “Your mother called you—”
“Don’t say it!”
“Callie.”
He stared at me with a gratifyingly intent air. “Who told you that?”
I sighed and walked away from him, back toward (I hoped) the dining room. Because I wasn’t kidding, all this arguing had helped me develop an appetite.
He caught up with me at once. “You must see you’re asking me to believe something so unlikely that—”
“I am not asking you to believe anything.” I stopped walking and spoke aloud my wonder. “I don’t even believe it myself. But then, everything that’s happening in the last few days has been . . . I don’t know what happened to my life! I used to be in control. I ran the household. I dealt with the crises. I was the captain of my own ship! Now I’m lost in a storm-tossed dark-wine sea and land is nowhere in sight.” I shook my head, and shook it again. “Andthere’s a ghost.”
For the first time, I saw a real smile on Prince Escalus’s face. It was quizzical and rather one-sided, as if he wasn’t sure how his lips were supposed to create the condition of amusement, but it was a smile.
“I’ve never done this before,” I added. “Seen a ghost. I wonder why it had to be your father. He’s obnoxious, you know.”
Prince Escalus clasped his hands behind his back and paced slowly ahead of me.
I followed. I sensed his turmoil; indeed, any female with half the normal instincts could sense it, but unlike any other female, I was more than usually invested in the results.
“You’re determined on this course? Of investigating my father’s murder?”
“Sir. If you hadn’t unexpectedly come upon me speaking to Elder, I would have never told you of the incident. I know what madness this seems.” I paced slightly behind him. “I assure you, I’m not determined to investigate his murder. If the elder podestà’s murderer is in Verona still, and living”—I gave a nod to Elder’s beliefs—“he, or she, has a willingness to kill, and a wiliness to remain hidden for all these years. That is a dangerous endeavor.”
“Exactly!” Prince Escalus faced me, obviously pleased at my good sense. “So you won’t do it.”
“Until Elder agrees to my terms, no.”
“What are those terms?”
“Myterms. Since apparently I’m the only one who can see and hear him, I’ve got him by the short hairs.” I delivered that idiom triumphantly, for Cal had spoken it during his “proposal” of marriage, and I had not at first understood.
“My father was an old-fashioned man. He would never appreciate a woman who . . . is as independent, stubborn, and firmly spoken as you are. My mother was a sweet gentlewoman, and she loved and adored him. As he loved and adored her.”
I nodded. “Indeed, so he said, and his churlish countenance softened when he spoke her name. I do remember her well. She and my mother used to laugh . . . What?” For Cal’s countenance had developed a diplomatic smoothness, a still sheen.
“People often presume that if they claim a connection to the house of Leonardi, it will increase their consequence. I assure you, your mother need not resort to such subterfuges. I’ve already connected myself to the house of Montague.” He started to walk away from me.
I grabbed him with both hands by the back of his jacket.
The sudden yank brought him stumbling backward.
I shoved him around, clutched a fistful of black linen of his shirtfront, and jerked him toward me. “If you value your life, do not ever speak of my mother to me in such a manner ever again. No!” I pointed my finger in his face. “Do not ever speak of my mother in such a manner at any time, to anyone. Do not even think it!” My finger shook with rage. “You have the effrontery to imagine the Montagues need the connection to the Leonardi family to increase our consequence? Do you knowwhoweare? What our worth is in estates and lands, in wine and grapes, in gold coins and good family—and loyalty to you?” I flung both hands up as if flinging him and his Leonardi consequence to the winds. “Lady Juliet and your mother were best friends throughout my childhood. And your childhood, too, Prince Escalus! If you hadn’t been such a self-righteous, inflated, conceited pee-bladder of a boy-prince, you would have known that!”
My tirade had wiped the smoothness off that fiercely ugly face.
Okay, he wasn’tfiercelyugly, but he was no Lysander of the house of You’reSoBeautiful; and right now, to me, Prince Escalus looked like a troll.
He drew a breath to speak.
