Page 21 of Thus with a Kiss I Die

“As you wish. I’m a ghost, not a wishing well!”

“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it. If I’m going to put my life in peril searching for a killer who—for what? eleven years?—has eluded capture, I want something in return.”

“There might be no danger. He might be dead.” Elder groped to give me reassurance, then thought it through and shook his head. “Although if there’s no chance for justice—”

“You wouldn’t have returned.” I had to agree.

“Yes. He’s out there . . . somewhere.”

“Stop being such a misogynist. The killer might be a woman.”

Elder honked like an angry gander. “Women are, by nature, gentle, sweet, and unfit for dangerous pursuits.”

“Yet you want me to find the person who stuck a knife in your chest and stopped your heart.”

“Yes!”

I folded my hands in my lap. “I can’t. I’m, ‘by nature, gentle, sweet, and unfit for dangerous pursuits.’ ”

Elder had talked himself into a corner. He knew it. I knew it. We stared at each other, him in scowling frustration and me in smug triumph.

Then from the stairwell, I heard a now-familiar voice. “To whom are you speaking?”

I stood and faced my betrothed, Prince Escalus.

CHAPTER12

Ilooked between Prince Escalus the younger and Prince Escalus the elder. “To your father.”

Younger looked around, past the elder, then focused again on me. “My father is dead.”

“He can’t see me,” Elder said in my ear.

“Obviously!” I was talking to Elder.

But Prince Escalus answered me. “Therefore, he’s not here.”

“Or hear me,” Elder said.

“Obviously! Now would you go away?”

“I came to find you for dinner.” Younger spoke slowly and carefully. “Don’t you want to eat with our families?”

“Yes, I’m starving.” Sparring with Elder had given me an appetite. “But I’m about to set my seal on this pact.”

“ ‘This pact’?” Younger said.

“With your father! He wants me to find his murderer.”

Prince Escalus walked over to me, took my face in his hands, and pressed his lips to my forehead. “No fever. Do you feel quite all right?”

I pulled myself back. “Yes. I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You were recently very ill.”

“Why were you very ill?” Elder asked.

Younger grew stern. “Is this pretense because of your success in discovering the dreadful killer of Duke Stephano and all the others?”