Page 67 of Thus with a Kiss I Die
I’d given my knife to Orsa to use in the kitchen, and had not yet retrieved it.
CHAPTER35
“My apologies, Lady Rosaline. To startle you was never my intent.” Friar Camillo rose from his knees, his heavy wooden bead rosary in one hand. He’d been praying at the small shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary; he was almost invisible clad in his brown robes and concealed by twilight.
I felt foolish with my hand at my wrist, searching for a knife that wasn’t there, but . . . why was he praying at this shrine? Now? I had too many suspicions floating in my mind to ignore that he was here where he should not be; and for all that he was a monk, he was also a tall, strapping man. I retreated a step. “Friar Camillo, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“Indeed, you did not. I had finished my devotions.” He lowered his hood, and again his youth, strength, and good looks struck me. “On this beautiful autumn evening, may I walk with you?”
Not really.“I didn’t expect to see anyone in the garden.”
He took that as assent, probably because no one refused a monk, and joined me on the path.
“They’re expecting me back as soon as possible.” With suspicion weighing on me, I sensed it was wise to tell him someone inside knew where I’d gone and when I’d be back. As we walked, I asked, “Why are you here?”
“Friar Laurence sent me to do what I could for the prince of Verona’s soldiers.”
“Right.” That explained why he was in the palace; the guards would always grant a holy brother entrance. “How are the men?”
“Much cheered by your good soup. I blessed the healthy going into battle this night and cared for the wounded.” He smiled down at me. “You have made many friends with your clean sweep of the kitchen and your skill with a pot and spoon.”
I may have smirked with self-satisfaction. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“On my way out, I discovered the shrine to the Virgin and took a moment to say a prayer for my own mother. She’s suffering and will soon join our dear Lord in heaven.” He sounded composed, considering the topic.
I crossed myself. “May a choir of angels carry her forth.”
He also crossed himself. “Amen.”
Now I felt thoroughly foolish for suspecting the monk of any ill-doing. He was too young to have taken Elder’s life, Friar Laurence trusted him, and Barnadine had sponsored him at the prince’s table. What more credentials did he need?
“Is your mother in your family home?”
“Indeed, no. She is a holy sister in the convent attached to mine.”
I blinked. It was not unusual for a widow to join a convent rather than remarry, yet his tone indicated there was more to the story.
Indeed, I was right; for without self-consciousness, he confessed. “Unwed, she joined the convent on her sixteenth birthday and there gave birth to me. My future was thus predestined by her past.”
“Your father?”
“Unknown. Nor did I know her for all my boyhood. It was not until I took my vows and began serious work among the poor and ailing that I met her, Sister Agnese.” No wonder he’d been composed; he had known her for a short time, and without the relationship of mother and son.
“Sister Agnese also cares for the poor and ailing?”
“The convent sponsors lodging for those whose lives are ending and have no resources or kin to care for them. A most holy sister, she worked tirelessly to ease their passages into the next life, and so the disease that eats the flesh took her as well. Now Sister Agnese fills a bed in the lodging and there lifts everyone’s spirit with her cheerful acceptance of her impending passage.”
I don’t know that I’d have the strength and the resignation to cheerfully accept what sounded like a painful passing. “When she met you, did she know you?”
“She did, although she said nothing, but eventually I comprehended why we were allowed time together.” He walked with his hands folded and a smile on his handsome face.
The spicy perfume of dianthus recalled me to my duty, and I stopped before the bed of flowers so pink they glowed in the setting sun. “Do you have your eating knife?” It was a question asked while fully recognizing that if my foolish suspicions were not, in fact, foolish, I could be putting my life at risk.
Without hesitation, he pulled the small sharp implement from the scabbard on his belt and handed it to me, hilt first. I thanked him, and with well-hidden relief, I knelt beside the flowers and cut them with one sweep. I placed them in my basket and handed his knife back to him. “Thank you. I’m collecting fragrances to place under Princess Ursula’s nose. In that way, I hope to rouse her.”
“I’d heard she was attacked.” He looked grave.
“By a cruel and brutal villain.” As I spoke, I watched closely and thought I saw a shadow of trouble cross his face.
