Page 53 of Thus with a Kiss I Die
Old Maria stared back at her, and although she couldn’t know what we’d been discussing, her malevolent gaze gave her opinion of her rival.
“Where will you go?” I asked.
“I can’t leave here. I have nowhere to go and . . . and Princess Ursula saved me. I’m loyal to her.” Pasqueta took a long breath. “I’ll be brave. I’ll protect her, no matter the horrors waiting around every corner.”
“You’ve helped by telling me about the man’s figure you saw. It was a man?”
She looked startled at the idea a woman could be so perfidious. “Of course!” When I studied her, she said, “I saw him come out of the door. He was tall.” With her hand, she indicated a height above her head.
“What else did you observe?”
Her eyes drooped as she tried to recall. “He’d pulled the hood up on his cloak, so I didn’t see his hair. He wore gloves. I heard boots on the floor.”
So definitely not a ghost. “How did he move? Did he walk in fury? Was he running away?”
Her eyes popped wide. “He moaned. That’s why I thought he was a ghost. He put his hand to his face and moaned like someone facing an eternity of damnation.”
“If he fears eternity, he’s a man.” Remembering the bag containing Yorick’s skull, I asked, “Was he carrying anything?”
“Not that I remember or saw.”
“Did you or Old Maria remove the”—how to describe it?—“bag from the table and put it away for the princess?”
“I didn’t. Old Maria is ruthless in her pursuit of tidiness. I’m sure she did.”
I nodded. “Pasqueta, thank you, you’ve helped so much. Now . . . trust no one. Tell no one. If you do, you could be in danger.”
Pasqueta crept away, weeping in fear and sorrow, and I returned to my care of Nonna Ursula, updating her with the newest information.
Justice must be served for Elder . . . and for her.
When Friar Laurence returned, he dismissed me and Tommaso, commanding we find food and drink. I rose from my chair to find the cook had prepared an unappetizing spread for me, and if I hadn’t been so weary at heart, I would have gone up and created such a havoc in the palace kitchens they would have trembled before me. Instead I pushed the plate toward Tommaso—that child of the streets didn’t disdain food, no matter how unappetizing—and climbed the stairs to the tower where I’d first met Prince Escalus the elder. Where had he been? What had he seen?
Where was his son and my papà?
But when I arrived, I saw not Elder floating slightly above the floor, but rather Lysander of the house of Gorgeous standing on a ladder, next to the column that held the city’s night candle, and muttering like a madman.
May I remind you, gentle reader, it was four stories to the ground.
CHAPTER29
Lysander placed one firm foot on the rail.
My heart leaped in my bosom. “Lysander,” I called softly, for I didn’t want to frighten him. “Don’t jump!”
His muttering ceased, he looked around in surprise, and in a completely normal tone, he said, “Rosie! What are you doing here?”
I rushed toward him.
He did jump, off the rail and onto the floor of the tower before me. “Never mind. You’re betrothed to the prince. I trow you can visit the palace whenever you wish. My lady.” His voice held the tang of bitter.
I didn’t care. I stood with my hand on my heart. “I thought you were going to—”
He looked over the edge, four stories down, and laughed. “No. Not even for the lack of your love, Rosie.”
Frazzled and piqued, I said, “That’s not what . . .”Don’t say that!“What areyoudoing here?”
“I came on commission from Prince Escalus.” He gestured, and I realized he wore a workman’s rough garb, and leather bags, tools, and paraphernalia littered the floor. “Word went out to all of the Veneto that he wishes to light the city towers at night with a flame that does not extinguish in wind or rain, so I went home to Venice, to the island of Murano, and spoke with the great glassmaker, Marietta Barovier. I designed a lamp, she created the clear glasscristalloto fit within the dimension.” He lifted a large lamp of dark metal that contrasted with the milky glass. “When I presented it to Prince Escalus, he declared himself my patron and is financing a great many lamps to be installed on all the palace towers and eventually on the city walls.”
