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A fter the dinner at the palace, as my family rode through the streets of Verona in the sedan chairs, we heard shouts; and peeking through the curtains, we saw torch light in the distance.

“What is it?” Cesario’s clear voice echoed down the empty street.

Papà hushed him, and said, “The flagellants. Let us not attract their attention.”

The bearers picked up speed, the prince’s bodyguards ran beside us, swords drawn, and we arrived at Casa Montague safely, if much jolted by the pace, and worried as all must be at the disruption of Verona’s fair streets.

Mamma, especially, had been sickened by the movements. Nurse and I put her to bed, while Papà carried the drooping Cesario to his chamber and commanded my sisters to theirs.

Nurse placed a cool, damp cloth on Mamma’s forehead. Tonight the strain of her pregnancy showed, for her long, dark lashes rested on her pale cheeks and she patted her belly as if urging calm on a restless child.

I took Mamma’s limp hand and felt her wrist. “Better now? Can you sleep?” Her heart beat true and strong.

“The nausea recedes. The activity does not.”

I saw a thump of a fist or foot up by her ribs and winced.

Her brown eyes popped open. “But my daughter Rosie, I would know why tonight you shed the chaperonage of your siblings to wander alone with Prince Escalus, then wander the palace alone by yourself, then disappear with Princess Ursula.”

I knew what she wanted; she wanted to know whether and how well I’d obeyed her commands in regard to the prince and our betrothal.

Yet in her current delicate state, I debated what and how much to tell her.

“You know why I allowed the children to disappear.” My gaze followed Nurse as she puttered around the room, her head turned to provide her ears clarity.

I raised my voice to help her. “They had listened to enough of Prince Escalus’s odd enthusiasms. He is my burden to bear, and when Princess Isabella offered them escape, I sent them forth. ”

Mamma nodded, pleased with my answer. “As I come to know Princess Isabella, her resemblance to dear Eleanor grows stronger. I feel as if my friend has requested me to act as mother and guide.” She grimaced and massaged her belly.

“While you were alone with Prince Escalus, did he give your father cause to slaughter him?”

“Before he could do that, he was interrupted.”

“Who would dare?”

“Who, indeed?” I hovered on the edge of confession, unsure if I should mention Elder. If I told Mamma I’d seen him, she would certainly believe me. She knew lying was not my modus operandi. Manipulating and finagling, yes. Lying, no. But would she wonder at my sanity?

While I contemplated, Mamma struggled up onto her elbows, then flopped back on the pillows. “Would you calm down?” She spoke fiercely, and not to me and not to any ghost. She spoke to the coming Montague, and she was as exasperated as any woman carrying a child could be.

Nurse hurried over. “What do you want, my lady?”

“I want to stand up. Or rather, the little tyrant wants to stand up.”

“You should sleep.” Nurse glared at me as if I were keeping Mamma awake.

“He wants me to stand and”—Nurse helped Mamma to her feet—“he wants to be walked.”

I sighed and put away my desire to tell about Elder.

Mamma was burdened enough with a woman’s holy duty nurturing a new life, and while she might deal with equanimity at the news of a haunting, she would most definitely forbid me to seek the villain who’d murdered Elder.

I didn’t blame her, it did seem foolish to the extreme, but I had to keep in mind my reward.

When I succeeded, Elder would owe me, and he’d agreed to guide me into the arms of my One True Love.

More pragmatically, although I’d be leaving Cal without a wife, I’d also be ensuring his safety and the safety of his sister, for they were in danger as long as the assassin remained free.

And if he’d allow me, I’d arrange a more suitable match for Cal.

That obsession that drew us together was powerful, I acknowledge, and he’d proved to me he hid within his undemonstrative facade the means to persuade me to .

. . view his art collection, and with pleasure.

But what would we talk about subsequently? I knit my brow. “Mamma, what do you and Papà talk about in bed? After?” I spoke without forethought, and when Mamma and Nurse turned their amused gazes on me, I wished I’d kept my mouth shut.

Of course, I also constantly wished I was more adept at keeping my mouth shut. It seemed as if maturity should have cured me of that unhappy attribute. But nope. Twenty years old and still as mouthy as ever.

“After. Hm. Generally, while I loll in a lovely golden glow, your father proudly announces he taught Emilia how to spit through her two missing front teeth. I chide him. He asks if I think it’s time we purchase a new sedan chair, and when I cast a sardonic look upon him, for I know what he’s up to, he cites as his reasoning the new addition.

” Mamma put her hands under her belly and adjusted as if she could move the babe into a more comfortable position.

“Then he wonders if we could manage to keep a pony in the garden, which he knows I won’t allow, but he thinks by suggesting something I vehemently oppose, I’ll be more likely to yield to his wish of a new sedan chair. Then—”

By now, I was laughing, and hurrying to her side, I helped Nurse lower her into a cushioned chair.

As I leaned over her, she cupped my cheek. “It’s simply life, Rosie. It goes on with its great griefs and its marvelous joys and all the day-to-day bits and pieces and irritations, and love is the oil that gives it traction.”

“I wasn’t talking about love, Mamma.”

“I know.” Mamma caught at her belly. “A foot,” she told me, “and another foot.” She followed up by saying, “Passion is the lemon zest that gives the pudding of life flavor.”

I laughed again. “If I must only have lemon zest . . . well, that won’t be so bad.”

Mamma nodded and smiled, but mostly she kneaded her belly.

Katherina stuck her head in the door. “Can I come in?”

Nurse clucked like a disapproving hen.

Mamma looked up with a smile. “Of course, child. Why are you awake?”

“I went to ask Rosie what happened between her and the prince tonight,” Katherina explained.

Nurse put her hands to her hips. “Are all the girls awake?”

“I waited until the others fell asleep. Then when I went to Rosie’s room, she wasn’t abed, and I determined that I would find her before she wandered into the garden seeking another tryst.” Katherina glared.

I yelped in indignation. “When did my younger sister become my arbiter of propriety?”

Katherina pointed her finger at me. “Your outrageous actions have made Emilia replace you as the sensible one. Or me! I’m not happy about it, and neither is she.”

I argued, “I hardly think one little—”

“It was more than one, and it was huge!”

“Some of the events of recent days aren’t my lone responsibility.” I threaded my fingers at my chin. “Isn’t that right, Mamma?”

Mamma made a motion meant to pacify. “My children . . .”

Katherina’s eyes sparked. “Mamma, it’s Rosie’s eyebrows, isn’t it? Satan’s eyebrows?”

I sparked right back. “If that’s what it is, it took long enough for Satan to gain ascendency over me, and Papà is still without the evil one’s influence!”

“Papà has his moments!” Katherina snapped.

“Katherina!” Mamma said in that shocked and disappointed tone that always brought us to heel.

Katherina’s gaze fell to the floor, and she mumbled, “I’m sorry, Mamma.”

“You should be. Your papà is a good man, if a little too quick with his wit and unable to see that he might offend. Your sister is a good woman, wayward sometimes—”

“One crummy tryst!” I said.

“You couldn’t even rendezvous with the right tomcat!” Katherina shot back.

“Maybe if I had more practice, I’d get better at it!” The bell clanged in my head. Wrong. Wrong! See above about my mouthiness. “I didn’t mean that,” I added into the following outcry. “But really, am I never going to hear the end of this?”

“No!” Nurse and Katherina yelled.

Mamma murmured calming words to her belly, then called Katherina and me over.

“You girls rub him for a while, and no more shouting.” As she knew it would, having Katherina and me kneel together and care for her child calmed us all.

Nurse joined in by rubbing Mamma’s shoulders, and as we patted and caressed, the child visibly slowed its thrashing.

Mamma told Katherina, “This evening, I was helping Rosie understand the joys and duties of a wife, and she was telling me—”

“About Nonna Ursula and the séance.” One glance proved I’d successfully diverted Mamma and Katherina from any further discussion of Cal’s passions, and for the moment, at least, no whisper of Elder would cross my lips.

“Nonna Ursula bade me tell you—while she should be enjoying the closing moments of her life, she is instead disturbed in her mind about the fugitive assassin who slayed her son.”

“Poor woman.” Sympathetic tears welled in Mamma’s eyes.

“She fears what we all fear, that he walks among us and he’ll strike again. To bring the villain out of hiding, she suggests we conduct a séance to reach to the other side and ask for the truth from those who have gone before.”

Imogene bounced into the room from the doorway. “How cool! Can I come?”

Mamma seemed not at all surprised. Did she always pay attention to who listened at the door? “Honey, you’re awfully young. I think if we limit the attendance to Rosie and me—”

“You’re not to attend,” I said to Mamma.

At the same time, Katherina said, “I’m coming, too!”

“No. No!” This was not at all what I intended. “I wasn’t issuing an invitation, simply explaining what—”

“You can’t imagine I’d let you go into a séance alone?

” Mamma sounded shocked and insulted. “Indeed, I’d forbid such a nefarious undertaking, but Nonna Ursula had a reputation in the past for communing with the spirits for good.

Her intervention gave dear Lady Alba the assurance that her little child had joined the angels, and Lady Alba was at last able to leave mourning behind and live again. ”

Katherina clasped her hands in supplication.

Mamma sighed and nodded at her. “So it shall be.”

“It’s not fair,” Imogene whined. “I wanna go. I wanna talk to Zuann!”

“What do I tell you?” Mamma used her reproving voice.

Imogene’s lip trembled. “ ‘Justice and life seldom walk hand in hand.’ ”

“What does that mean?” Mamma asked.

“ ‘Life ain’t fair.’ ” Imogene’s eyes filled with tears.

I couldn’t stand it. She was such a dear sister, hounded by the oncoming and inevitable baggage-train wreck of adolescence, and she’d be miserable at home.

I beckoned her over and put her hand on Mamma’s belly.

As she rubbed, I saw her tears subside, and I smiled.

“Mamma, if we’re going en masse . . . the more the merrier. ”

“Not Emilia!” Nurse said sharply.

“No, and not Cesario.” Mamma gave Imogene consent without words, and my dear wayward sister lit up like an overfilled oil lantern.

“In the morning, I’ll write a note to Nonna Ursula,” I decided. “So she won’t be surprised.”

“We won’t tell Papà, will we?” Mamma requested. “We’ll keep this our secret?”

“Tell me what?” Papà asked from the door.

“Girl stuff,” Mamma said airily.

“I beg you, don’t tell me.” Papà came over and lifted us, one by one, to our feet. “It’s been a big night and you should all be abed. Nurse, will you take them?” He knelt beside his Juliet, gently pressed both his hands on her belly, and called, “Imogene, is it still a boy?”

Imogene laughed out loud. “So much boy!” She raced down the galley toward the girls’ room.

Katherina sighed in exasperation, then raced after her.

Nurse stepped out, glared at me as if it was my fault, and followed me into the corridor.

I glanced back as I exited to see Mamma murmuring to Papà, showing him where to touch, then using both her own hands to press on the babe, and they both had such expressions on their faces that I had never seen. I stopped in place. “Mamma, are you well? Is the babe? Do you need me?”

She looked up. “Are you still here, child?” For a woman so attuned to her children, her surprise seemed, well, surprising.

Papà stood and walked toward me. “Leave me to take care of your mamma. In this matter, little apprentice, my experience is more extensive than yours.”

Gently he urged me out the door and shut it behind me. I felt as if I’d missed some secret communication between them—which wasn’t that usual. But . . . huh. They really had both looked quite peculiar.