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Y ounger grabbed my arm and turned me to face him. “ What did you call me?”

“Cal.”

“My parents used to call me Cal.”

“Only your father,” I corrected him smugly. “Your mother called you—”

“Don’t say it!”

“Callie.”

He stared at me with a gratifyingly intent air. “Who told you that?”

I sighed and walked away from him, back toward (I hoped) the dining room. Because I wasn’t kidding, all this arguing had helped me develop an appetite.

He caught up with me at once. “You must see you’re asking me to believe something so unlikely that—”

“I am not asking you to believe anything.” I stopped walking and spoke aloud my wonder.

“I don’t even believe it myself. But then, everything that’s happening in the last few days has been .

. . I don’t know what happened to my life!

I used to be in control. I ran the household.

I dealt with the crises. I was the captain of my own ship!

Now I’m lost in a storm-tossed dark-wine sea and land is nowhere in sight.

” I shook my head, and shook it again. “ And there’s a ghost.”

For the first time, I saw a real smile on Prince Escalus’s face. It was quizzical and rather one-sided, as if he wasn’t sure how his lips were supposed to create the condition of amusement, but it was a smile.

“I’ve never done this before,” I added. “Seen a ghost. I wonder why it had to be your father. He’s obnoxious, you know.”

Prince Escalus clasped his hands behind his back and paced slowly ahead of me.

I followed. I sensed his turmoil; indeed, any female with half the normal instincts could sense it, but unlike any other female, I was more than usually invested in the results.

“You’re determined on this course? Of investigating my father’s murder?”

“Sir. If you hadn’t unexpectedly come upon me speaking to Elder, I would have never told you of the incident.

I know what madness this seems.” I paced slightly behind him.

“I assure you, I’m not determined to investigate his murder.

If the elder podestà’s murderer is in Verona still, and living”—I gave a nod to Elder’s beliefs—“he, or she, has a willingness to kill, and a wiliness to remain hidden for all these years. That is a dangerous endeavor.”

“Exactly!” Prince Escalus faced me, obviously pleased at my good sense. “So you won’t do it.”

“Until Elder agrees to my terms, no.”

“What are those terms?”

“ My terms. Since apparently I’m the only one who can see and hear him, I’ve got him by the short hairs.” I delivered that idiom triumphantly, for Cal had spoken it during his “proposal” of marriage, and I had not at first understood.

“My father was an old-fashioned man. He would never appreciate a woman who . . . is as independent, stubborn, and firmly spoken as you are. My mother was a sweet gentlewoman, and she loved and adored him. As he loved and adored her.”

I nodded. “Indeed, so he said, and his churlish countenance softened when he spoke her name. I do remember her well. She and my mother used to laugh . . . What?” For Cal’s countenance had developed a diplomatic smoothness, a still sheen.

“People often presume that if they claim a connection to the house of Leonardi, it will increase their consequence. I assure you, your mother need not resort to such subterfuges. I’ve already connected myself to the house of Montague.” He started to walk away from me.

I grabbed him with both hands by the back of his jacket.

The sudden yank brought him stumbling backward.

I shoved him around, clutched a fistful of black linen of his shirtfront, and jerked him toward me.

“If you value your life, do not ever speak of my mother to me in such a manner ever again. No!” I pointed my finger in his face.

“Do not ever speak of my mother in such a manner at any time, to anyone. Do not even think it!” My finger shook with rage.

“You have the effrontery to imagine the Montagues need the connection to the Leonardi family to increase our consequence? Do you know who we are ? What our worth is in estates and lands, in wine and grapes, in gold coins and good family—and loyalty to you?” I flung both hands up as if flinging him and his Leonardi consequence to the winds.

“Lady Juliet and your mother were best friends throughout my childhood. And your childhood, too, Prince Escalus! If you hadn’t been such a self-righteous, inflated, conceited pee-bladder of a boy-prince, you would have known that! ”

My tirade had wiped the smoothness off that fiercely ugly face.

Okay, he wasn’t fiercely ugly, but he was no Lysander of the house of You’reSoBeautiful; and right now, to me, Prince Escalus looked like a troll.

He drew a breath to speak.

I wasn’t done with him. “I’ll still marry you. I’ll make the sacrifice because you so carefully ruined me, and for the sake of my family’s reputation, and I hope you’re happy with the icy temperature of your marriage bed.” I turned to storm away.

Elder popped out of the air in front of me.

I shrieked, and without knowing how, I found myself standing next to my betrothed. Pretty sure I jumped. “Don’t do that!” I told Elder.

He pointed at me. “You have your deal.”

“What?”

“You win. Your tirade was so loud it pulled me from the depths of cold stone to agree to your deal.”

“My tirade ?” I gestured up and down at Prince Escalus. “Did you hear what he said ?”

“Yes.” Elder wore that same smooth expression his son had worn; I guess I knew where Younger had learned it. “It was unworthy of him.”

This conversation did nothing to improve my rage. “But he’s your son and a man, so you’re giving him a pass?”

“I’d speak to him if he could hear me, about the courtesy owed to Lady Juliet and your family.

” Then, as if I must need clarification, he enunciated clearly, “He can’t hear me.

” More briskly he added, “Anyway, you did a fine job of stripping him of pretension. You’d be a good wife to him.

But you wouldn’t be a merry wife, so again I say—you have your deal.

When you discover my killer, I’ll deliver you to your One True Love. ”

Wisely, I was not without suspicion. “Why do you care whether I’m a merry wife?”

Elder quoted the old adage. “ ‘Merry wife, have no strife.’ My son deserves a pliant wife who adores him.”

“As do all men, no doubt. What do women deserve in a husband?”

Puzzled, he frowned. “I don’t comprehend the question.”

“Of course, you don’t.” I nodded to him. “So it shall be done.”

Elder popped away as suddenly as he’d come.

In a neutral tone, my betrothed asked, “My father returned? For what reason?”

“He believes you deserve a ‘pliant wife’ who ‘adores’ you.”

“I want you. ”

That was funny, in its way, and telling, but I was on a rampage. “You’ve got a damned funny way of showing it!” I drew breath. “I have four given names, did you know that?”

“No.” He was cautious, for not even his most royal and exalted self bore no more than one name and the name of his house.

“My name is Rosaline Hortensa Magdelina . . . Eleanor. My father chose Rosaline in the hopes his baby daughter would be chaste and worthy. Hortensa and Magdelina are my grandmothers, and necessary to keep the tenuous peace between the families. Eleanor was the name my mother chose. Perhaps even you can discern her intention to honor her friend.” I flounced away from Prince Escalus.

He hurried after me and touched my arm.

I swung on him. “What?”

“If we wish to go to dinner, it’s back that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction.

“Of course. I’m off course.” Spinning again, I stalked toward the candlelight that spilled from a broad opening.

He murmured something I knew I didn’t want to hear and followed me.

As I passed, I glimpsed movement off to the side. Once more from behind the drapes, I saw the thin, pale, sad face. Orsa of the kitchen. Not a girl as I’d first thought, but a woman, peering pitifully at me, and when I looked right at her, she dropped the brocade to cover herself.

As I advanced toward the dining room, I could hear the ever-increasing murmur of conversation, and I knew a vast relief that I was about to join the families and a vast perturbation that despite all vows, I’d lost my temper.

Not frequently, but more than once. Yes, definitely it could be described as more than once, but not frequently. More frequently than I had for years, and more vigorously, but—

Prince Escalus gently gripped my shoulder.

I stopped, but did not face him.

“I must beg your pardon, Lady Rosaline, and that of your beloved mother. You’re right.”

You’re right? That got my attention. I didn’t know if I’d ever before heard a male use those two words together.

“I was a pompous youth with no interest in my mother’s life or any female not available to me as a .

. . dance partner. With shame, I do remember my youthful behavior, and regret my neglect of my own dear mother, a regret sharpened by the realization I can never again speak with her, feel her loving embrace, see her sweet face.

I confess to jealousy of even her memory, and it sat ill with me to know that Lady Juliet knew her as I never will.

I most humbly beg your forgiveness for my arrogance, and humbly beg that you not inform Lady Juliet of my .

. .” He hesitated, unable to choose an adequate description.

I’m always eager to offer a suggestion. “Assholeyness?”

His solemnity did not break. “Precisely. I fear my outburst would grieve her. I also fear the sharp point of Lord Romeo’s sword.” At this last, the shadow on his face lightened. He did now perhaps feel protected by bounds of family.

I didn’t spare him. “You’re wise to worry about my father.

He’s a good man who easily takes offense and remedies his perturbation with violence.

He doesn’t kill as many men as he used to, not for lack of irascibility but because of the tempering influence of my mother.

However, he did once use the point of his sword to remove a lord’s clothes, leaving him naked on one of Verona’s streets.

The fool had to go into exile, and I hear even as far away as Geneva, mockery follows him. ”

“Will you pardon and protect me from such a fate?”

I examined my fiancé, my podestà, and my prince. He did look as humble as that man could look, which was not at all, but he managed to seem anxious and as if my response mattered to him, and what else could a woman expect?

“I’ll pardon you on your understanding that should you ever again speak ill of my beloved parents or of my siblings, aggravating as they can be, I’ll serve your oysters as paté on toast.”

His half an eyebrow, deformed by the torture he’d suffered, rose. “Have I noted that your colorful way of speaking fills me with delight?”

“It is not colorful when it is truthful.”

Prince Escalus crooked his neck as if easing a tension therein. “Noted. If you would do me the honor of going in to dinner with me?” He presented his arm.

I stared at it, knew that while Elder might be sincere in his decision to help me marry my One True Love, I didn’t trust the ghost, or a politician, and most especially not the ghost of a politician, much less the father who must want only the best for his son.

As Prince Escalus and I agreed, searching for Elder’s killer would be a perilous endeavor and by no means would I come out unharmed, or even alive.

“We arrive together for the comfort it will give my family.” I hovered my fingertips above his forearm.

Again he noted the separation between us, but he did nothing to force my compliance.

We entered the brightly lit dining room together.