Page 82 of Thus with a Kiss I Die

“Unless he killed your father.”

“He fought valiantly with my father and valiantly at my side these last days, while in great pain. Does he really seem to you to be an assassin?”

“If so, I can’t discern why.”

Cal inclined his head in agreement. “Who else?”

Simultaneously we heard a crunching sound and turned to see Cesario standing behind Cal, looking curiously at us both and eating a crust of bread. Seeing that we’d noticed him, he came around to stand between us, forehead puckered, and examine us.

“Cesario, what are you doing?” Cal asked.

“Papà said I should come in here and see if you were canoodling with Rosie.”

CHAPTER45

Cal had wanted me for my family.

I hoped we were everything he’d ever imagined.

“I can’t tell,” Cesario said. “Are you? Canoodling?”

Cal sighed mightily. “I vowed I would not, and I am not.”

“Papà says he’s made vows like that, but then Mamma smiles at him and he forgets all but the pleasure of her company.” Cesario grinned. “Then we have babies!”

“In the future, if we could have them one at a time, that would be less strenuous,” I suggested.

“Papà said twins are efficient.”

Cal put his head down to hide his . . . yes, his grin.

In exasperation, I replied, “Having an entire litter at one time would be even more efficient, but Papà is not the one who has to give birth!”

Katherina stuck her head in the door. “Cesario, Mamma says you are to come out of Rosie’s bedchamber.”

Cesario said, “Papà said I was to stay and watch for canoodling.”

Katherina shot Cal and me a glance that showed a fair amount of curiosity. “Who are you going to listen to, Papà or Mamma?”

Cesario dragged his feet toward the door. Katherina put her arm around his shoulder and they disappeared toward Mamma’s bedchamber.

Cal and I ate more, slowing as we filled, and gathered our thoughts, then returned to our investigation.

“Could my father’s assassination and the attack on Nonna Ursula be separate?” he proposed. “Not linked?”

I contemplated a slice of apple and that idea. “With the timing, it seems unlikely. But perhaps . . . if that is the case, what about Nonna Ursula’s serving maids? Could one of them have been bribed to leave the room and allow an intruder to steal what he wished, and Nonna caught the intruder in the act?”

“Which maid? Old Maria, who has been with Nonna forever, or Pasqueta, who owes her everything?”

“Pasqueta has disappeared. Or at least, when I left last night, Old Maria assumed she’d gone off for some frivolous reason.”

“Well. Old Maria.” His tone indicated dismissal. “She’s been jealous of Pasqueta since the day Nonna Ursula brought her to the palace.”

“I spoke with Pasqueta when we were sitting by Nonna Ursula’s bedside because I thought her timing—leaving Nonna Ursula alone in time for the attack—did seem suspicious. She confessed to seeing Elder’s ghost leaving the chamber.”

Cal leaned forward. “What did she do?”

“She fled in fear.”