Page 166 of Peasants and Kings
“Oh?” Luca asked, his cheeks suddenly flushed in the dim light of the sanctuary.
“Yes.Youwill marry her,” Angelo said. “It will keep the Borgia from retaliating.”
Luca stared at his father and for the first time since I’d known him, I felt like I was seeing who Luca really was. Hadrian’s words about my cousin came back to me.
A flash of anger and hatred burned in Luca’s eyes but disappeared just as quickly.
“Do I have a choice in the matter?” Luca asked, his voice tight.
“It’s past time you marry and do your duty in producing a Moretti heir.”
Father and son never took their eyes off one another. Finally, Luca raised his glass in the air. “To my future wife.”
Tor glanced at his brother, but then he drank the rest of his port in commiseration of his brother’s toast.
Luca finished his drink. “You’ll see to the arrangements? You’ll let me know when to put the call out to our men?”
Angelo nodded.
“Fine.” Luca stood and with a chin nod at me, he left the room. Tor also rose, and without so much as a fare-thee-well, stalked after his brother.
“That was sneaky and rotten of you,” I said.
“I do what has to be done for the family,” Angelo said, peering into the fire.
“Right, the family,” I said. I leaned my head against the chair in sudden exhaustion.
“You’re a Moretti. Whether you want to be or not. Even when you marry Hadrian, you will still be a Moretti. You willalwaysbe a Moretti.”
“And therefore a pawn in your elaborate chess game? I reject the burden that comes with the Moretti name.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want. Blood is blood.”
“Did you love my mother?” I asked suddenly.
“Of course I loved her. She was impossible not to love.”
“And yet her happiness was never a thought, never considered.”
“Myhappiness was never a thought, never considered.” His eyes darkened. “I had an arranged marriage. The only happiness that came from that union were my children. That’s all Moretti—or any of the five families—can hope for.”
I shook my head. “Sad. So incredibly sad. Lives wasted. And for what? Arranged marriages, unions that breed only hatred.”
“You won’t change our ways, Sterling.”
“I know,” I said.
“Then what is it you want?”
“I’m lost to you,” I said. “I want Hadrian, and he wants me.”
“That’s already been decided,” Angelo stated.
“I’m carrying his baby. You have no claim on my child. If I bear a son, he will not become a Moretti mercenary. If I bear a daughter, she will not be a pawn to marry off.”
Angelo didn’t reply right away. Finally, he said, “All right. This child, and any other you bear, will be in control of their own lives.”
“Why should I trust you?”
