Page 21 of Much Ado About Mistletoe

Clearly, this union wouldn’t be easily managed, for Cal was a man unlike any other, a creature of layers and complications, and how was I to see the man behind the masks? I began to speak, to ask him who he really was, but the moment was lost when from the kitchen above, we heard the joyous tumult as Vittoria joined the family.

He looked up as if he longed to join the elated Montague reunion. “I beg you, unite with your family for gifts and celebration. Please beg my pardon of fair Lady Juliet and I promise that, wherever I am, I will attend mass before midnight strikes.” So saying, he took his cape from Holofernes’s waiting hands and was gone.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I was shocked at Cal’s abrupt departure, and more shocked when I realized he had gone out alone into the streets of Verona without his bodyguards. To Holofernes I asked, “Why…?”

Holofernes, the usually cheerful, jesting Holofernes, answered the question, which was more than I expected from Cal’s devoted protector and friend. “When Prince Escalus and I occupied the dungeon…” His voice broke.

I moved closer, put my hand on his arm in a gesture of comfort. This was not, “Rosie, you’re a canary.” This was no ordinary story Holofernes told. This held insight into the prince and the man he was now.

Holofernes cleared his throat and tried again. “When our prince and I occupied the dungeon…you don’t know dark until you’ve been held in a place below ground where not even the slightest ray of sunshine has ever penetrated, where the rock walls seep moisture and the air itself smells as damp and hopeless as your own grave.”

“He told me a little of that.” Not so descriptively. Not in a voice that shook with recalled pain and terror.

“Did he? I’m glad he’s at last able to speak even a little of what happened.” Holofernes took a restorative breath. “We’d been down in the palace dungeons…I didn’t know how long we were down there. I think months. It felt like years. It felt like…eternity.”

“Many, many months.” Although I’d been only nine, I remembered how my parents spoke in hushed tones, how we feared that the Acquasasso family would take control of Verona,and how we worried about the fate of Prince Escalus the Elder, his son, and his wife who had vanished into a convent to bear her child.

We feared for ourselves, too, of course, for we were stout supporters of the Leonardis, and the Acquasassos were known as bullies, famous for their petty grudges and vaulting ambitions. During that fraught time, only Papà and the servants ventured out, well armed, while Mamma and the Montague children remained behind Casa Montague’s stout walls. That time of revolt had reshaped Verona forever…and its young prince, and clearly his even younger bodyguard.

Holofernes continued, “Eleven years ago, on St. Lucy’s Eve, Cal was in the dungeon, suffering from humiliation, pain and despair, and he swore that should God grant him freedom, on that day he would humbly serve the needy, mothers and children.”

Now I knew what I’d seen in the street. A cart full of baskets loaded with gifts, clothing and food, pulled by a little donkey. Cal went out to play the role of St. Lucy for those who suffered deprivation, to bring sustenance and joy to his citizens…although he hadn’t donned the usual St. Lucy costume. No surprise there. “How do I not know this?” Did everyone know? Had I been so willfully ignorant?

“Only he and his bodyguards know,” Holofernes said, “and we’re sworn to silence.”

“You told me.”Brilliant deduction, Rosie.“Did he give you permission?”

Holofernes appeared to suffer as he tried to frame his answer.

I put my hands on my hips. “He didn’t!”

“When the betrothal was made public—”

A polite way of saying,When the torches illuminated you involved in a passionate embrace with the prince.

“He commanded us, Dion, Marcellus and me”—Holofernes gestured toward the shadows where the other two bodyguards had appeared—“to obey you as we would him and to do all within our power to make you happy. Where before we served one master, now we serve two and thus our lives have become a delicate balance between—”

“Got it,” I said crisply. No point in making him struggle for words when I clearly envisioned their dilemma. “Is this why we shopped for toys at Piazza dei Signori? Are they loaded on his cart?”

Nods all around.

I walked to the door and put my hand on the wood. “I should go with him.”

Cesariodashed down the stairs, yelling, “Rosie! Rosie! Come on, we’re exchanging gifts and you and Mamma got the—”

Papà came from behind, clapped his hand overCesario’s mouth, swung him up into his arms and headed back up the stairs. “Make haste, Rosie!” he called. “Make haste,maschi! We have presents for you, too!”

Marcellus shook his head at me. “Nay, Lady Rosaline. Mayhap in the future, you can prevail on PrinceEscalusto allow you to join him in his mission. But for tonight, our prince goes alone.”

“Also,” Dion said, “I believe that tonight there are much anticipated gifts for you and Lady Juliet which you must open together.”

More footsteps pounded on the steps. A feverish-lookingKatherinaandPrincessIsabellaappeared on the balcony over the atrium andKatherinashouted, “Make haste,maschi! Your gifts await. Hurry up. Hurry up! Rosie and—” She looked around. “Where is PrinceEscalus?”

“He’s never around for St. Lucy’s Eve,”PrincessIsabellasaid. “This is so much more fun for me! Make haste!”

“We come,” I called. As I climbed the stairs, I moved between the stillness Cal left behind and toward the lights and kin, happiness and conviviality, and in this place I faced the unknown before me.

He’d selected me from all the maidens of Verona for practical reasons:tettes, babies, blah blah. Yet even when the fortune-teller, and I, expressed doubts about the latter event, he never wavered from his choice.

I had to ask myself why. Perhaps…it was because everyone in Verona believed they knew PrinceEscalus. He made himself accessible. He walked among them, he spoke, he compelled, he judged, he enforced, he showed compassion or impatience as needed.

But no one saw into his depths, into the dark where the loneliness dwelled. I had glimpsed those depths and just begun to realize the challenges before me.

In nine days, we would wed, and all would be revealed between us.