CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 19

Istood, my hand holding the pestle, frozen in shock.

Prince Escalus gripped my shoulder as if to hold me in place or give me support.

Behind me, something heavy hit the floor, rattling the glass bottles and bringing down sprinkles of dust. Turning, I saw Friar Laurence's limp and mighty bulk sprawled, arms and legs akimbo. I rushed to his side, felt his pulse in his neck. He was alive—but his eyeballs had rolled back in his head and his breathing was shallow. "Spiced wine." I held out my hand, in command without caring who obeyed.

Nurse thrust a cup in my hand.

Prince Escalus helped me lift Friar Laurence's lolling head off the floor.

I passed the wine under the good friar's nose, which twitched. He roused slowly, his eyelids fluttering, and stared into my face in confusion. With a mighty gasp, he pushed himself into a sitting position, and only quick action on my part saved the wine. He fixed his gaze on Nurse. "Porcia . . . was poisoned?"

"There is no doubt," she told him.

He put his hand on his chest, closed his eyes, and breathed.

"Do you have a pain?" I asked.

"Yes, but not such a pain as mere medicines can cure." When I moved to take the wine away, he plucked it from my grasp. "Nevertheless . . ." He drank deeply and put the cup aside.

In a neutral tone, Prince Escalus asked, "Did you sell someone poison who you fear would have murdered Porcia?"

"No, my prince. I sell poison judiciously, to those who use it to control the pests that plague us all." To Nurse and I, Friar Laurence said, "Help me up."

When we would have obeyed, Prince Escalus brushed us aside and with his arms under Friar Laurence's armpits, he hauled him to his feet.

Friar Laurence staggered a little, put a hand on the counter to steady himself, and sat on the stool Nurse had so recently abandoned. When Prince Escalus began to speak again, Friar Laurence raised a hand. "Do not ask. I'm a friar. I cannot divulge what I hear in confession."

Prince Escalus pressed him nonetheless. "You do know something?"

"I know nothing, and what I suspect doesn't bear thinking about."

I could see Prince Escalus wanted to insist. He wanted to bring to bear his authority as podestà. But against the greater weight of God and Church, he had no tools.

Friar Laurence heaved himself up. "With the memory of Porcia's accusations against you, Rosie, it would be safer if you immediately returned to the Montague compound."

"When my man returns with my sedan chair, she'll go at once." Prince Escalus turned to my nurse. "You, too, will ride inside. As Friar Laurence said, Porcia's accusations against Rosie will spark malicious gossip and possibly civil unrest. You'll both stay out of sight behind the curtains, as proper and modest women should. If there's trouble, my carriers will protect you."

"Yes, my prince." Nurse curtsied.

I did the same and replied the same, but I wondered at his intensity. Was insurrection so close that Porcia's poisoning coming on the heels of Duke Stephano's stabbing could in fact cause fighting in the streets? Or during his walk through Verona, had he heard more than he admitted?

"I go now." He swept a glance across us all, then focused on me. "Until you arrive home, speak to no one. Obey me, Rosie."

As I do always, podestà of Verona.

I hear and obey, Prince Escalus.

Both would have been quiet, proper replies. Instead I snapped, "I'm not stupid!"

Nurse and Friar Laurence gave identical sighs.

Prince Escalus shook his head. "Not stupid, but unseeing and unhearing. Good day." And he was gone.

"Really," I said out loud. "Unseeing and unhearing I am not. He's the one who . . . who . . . didn't tell me why it was his fault Duke Stephano asked for my hand in marriage."

"What?" Nurse was clearly bewildered.

"Prince Escalus. He said it was his fault Duke Stephano applied to marry me. He was going to tell me why and somehow, he did not." I glared at the others, and jumped at a firm rap at the door.

A man dressed in a gentleman's finery stuck his head into the shop. I knew him, Marcellus of the critical gaze. "Lady Rosaline." He bowed. "The prince's sedan chair awaits. Prince Escalus asked me to stand guard over you as you travel through the Veronese streets. It's my privilege to do so. We leave at once." He disappeared again.

I began, "Does every man in the world think—"

"Yes, he does. I don't know why you even bother to ask!" Nurse said.

While Friar Laurence put the medicine and tonic in my basket, Nurse took my cloak off the hook and threw it over my shoulders, and we stepped into the street. The sedan chair stood close against the door. The attendants held the curtains open, protecting us from unfriendly eyes while keeping theirs averted. The wooden steps had been placed on the ground. Nurse and I climbed in. I sat on the forward-facing seat. She sat on the backward-facing seat. The basket rested on the floor between us and our knees almost touched, yet when compared to all others, this sedan chair was spacious indeed. The attendants shut the curtains and lifted us, and we moved toward the end of the alley. At least, I think we did. We sat totally surrounded by drapes and wood and ornaments that glittered. I smelled sandalwood and leather and flowers and . . . wow. Even in the near dark of total enclosure, this was opulent. I was stroking the soft leather cushions of the sedan chair when someone ripped back the curtains and screamed, "Beware, Lady Rosaline! He marked you when you accepted his suit!"

I caught a glimpse of wild black hair, wild green eyes, a scarred throat, and black clothing torn into floating wings that fluttered as she waved her arms—this was Miranda, the darling of the trovatori, the singer of great renown who had been Duke Stephano's mistress.

Nurse leaped up, hit her head on the roof, fell onto her knees in front of me, her arms spread defensively wide and her knife in one hand.

The sedan chair swayed as the bearers thumped it to the ground.

"He was a lover like no other, inflicting pain and passion in equal parts, and you were going to be his wife. Do you know what that means?" I caught a gust of sour wine on her breath. "The other wives have returned for you and you're surrounded by their essence, their malice, embodied into—"

"Jezebel!" Marcellus grabbed her from behind. "How dare you attack the Lady Rosaline."

She turned and shrieked into his face. "I do not attack! I warn! Lady Rosaline is in danger. Death stalks her and seeks to enclose her in a cold embrace." She was a talented soprano, and her projection and volume, as well as the high, pure notes she hit, forced Marcellus to stagger backward, hands over his ears. One of the bearers tackled her from behind. The others wrestled her to the ground.

These guys were more than bearers. They were protectors, defenders, guards under Marcellus's command.

Yet Miranda fought, and sang with the strength of a madwoman. "Doomed! Doomed unless you learn to search out the dead ones before they take you into their tomb to suffer restless death!"

When the guards finally lashed her arms together, they stood her up. She looked at me, her face so sorrowful that I commanded, "Let her speak."

In a soft, kind voice, quite unlike her previous soprano cries, she said, "I've seen my own doom. I have no chance. You have been chosen. Only you can contain this plague, or you and all those around you will die." As they dragged her away, she wailed, "Beware . . . !"

The curtains fell, closing us in.

Nurse dropped her outspread arms. Her prosaic words contrasted strongly with the previous melodrama. "Her wits have turned like fish in the sun." With a grunt, she got up off the floor. "My knees aren't meant for this."

She seated herself. The bearers picked up the sedan chair. We started on our way again.

I didn't know what to think. Miranda might be mad, but she believed what she said. "The trouble—" I began.

"I know the trouble. She might be mad, but Duke Stephano is stabbed. Porcia is poisoned."

"Yes, and that woman is tossed on the wild seas of love's grief."

"Or merely afloat on the wine barrels of our waterfront innkeepers." Nurse waved her hand in front of her face to ward off the odor.

"That, too, but her grief and concern seem genuine." The bearers moved so smoothly through the streets, the usual affliction of motion sickness did not take me, yet still my contemplations left me ill with worry. If Miranda thought her warnings to be sincere, and if my betrothal to Duke Stephano had caused a threat to me, well and good, I would take the risk. But to my family? To my brother and sisters? To Romeo and Juliet themselves? No, that could not be borne. "What do we tell my parents?"

"About Porcia? About Miranda's assault on the street? The truth, else someone else tells them. The prince, for instance."

"There's telling them, and there's breaking the news gently." When Nurse hesitated, I said, "How much shouting can you stand in one day?"

She sighed in exasperation. "Yes, all right. We'll do what we can to mitigate the damage. Here. I was going to give it to you when we got home, but just . . . here." She handed me a long, narrow package wrapped in paper. "You must have it before you have need of it."

In my lap, the paper fell away and in the dim light, I saw a leather holster and the hilt of a knife. I looked up at her.

Briskly she unlaced my cuff and pushed up my sleeve. She looked at the wrap around the two small wounds and tsked. "We're doing this none too soon," she said, and used leather straps to tie on the holster. "You pull the knife when you're threatened. Give it a try."

I slid my hand up my sleeve, grasped the hilt, and pulled the knife free.

"There you go. Try not to accidentally hurt yourself, and anyone who attacks you will be surprised when you are a warrior rather than a maiden to be raped and murdered." She looked into my eyes and with emphasis on every word, she said, "Before you pull it, you must be prepared to defend yourself, and at once. Otherwise it could be used against you."

"I know. Papà taught me that when he showed me how to use a sword."

Of course Nurse knew that, and had faithfully kept it from Mamma. "I depend on his training to give you the element of surprise."

"Yes. Thank you, dear Nurse. This is exactly what I desired." Although last night, I hadn't imagined I would want it quite this much.