Page 25 of What Dreams May Come
“Nurse honks like a goose,” Katherina declared.
“No one else heard her.” I knew this because otherwise the plan would not have been set into motion at all. My parents would have seen to that.
“I may have been standing close to the open door,” she conceded.
Isabella used a light finger to touch the diamond, not with longing but with reverence. “You’re in truth my sister. Legally, in all ways, my sister.” She hugged Katherina. “And you! We are family. I’ve always wanted to be part of a large family, and yours is so merry and loving and loud!”
“Wait until we get the Montagues and the Capulets together,” I warned her. “You’ll long for silence.”
Isabella disregarded that; such a genteel princess could not be expected to comprehend the volumes and the controversies that our families generated. She asked, “The ring—does it fit you?”
“It’s a little tight.” I flexed my fingers. “Then again, it’s supposed to cut off my circulation,” I jested, but my voice cracked and betrayed mytrue sentiment.
That convinced Katherina as nothing else could. “No, oh Rosie, no,” she said again, but softer, more tenderly. “Love star-crossed and marriage bound by duty.It’s not fair!”
“Not fair.” I laughed a little, although my humor was lacking. “You know what Mamma says aboutnot fair.”
“‘Justice and life seldom walk hand in hand,’” Katherina repeated grudgingly. Of all of Mamma’s bromides, we children hated that one the most. “But it’snotfair,” she repeated.
“No.” I took another bite of bread, but it was dry in my mouth, and Icast it aside.
Katherina’s eyes widened and she sat straight up. “The play! The playwright! We paid Guglielmo to write the sonnet for youand Lysander!”
Isabella gasped in horror. “They performed it tonight—”
“I caught them in time,” I assured the girls. “Instead, now he’s writing a sonnet exalting Papà and Mamma. He imagines Romeo and Juliet could become a splendid play, too.” I left off the part about Guglielmo writing it as a tragedy; one did not tempt the Fates.
“Er...may I ask, how did it happen that Escalus was in the right place at the right time?”Isabella began.
“It must have been an accident!”Katherina said.
“No.” Princess Isabella was firm. “Accidents don’t happen to my brother. He plans and plots everything, especially something as important as his marriage. I should have known when he urged me to visit you. He’s so protective but he seems to think...well, not that you’re not part of one of the foremost families in Verona, and he’s commented that everybody shouts...” Under the combined focus of both Katherina and me—I hesitate to call them glares—she started to look a little panicked. “I...I should have suspected he had...” She whispered, “Ulterior motivations.”
“He could not have developed his resolve so long ago as that!” Katherina objected.
“Most definitely,” Isabella and I answered together.
I added, “When it comes to long-term strategizing, the prince of Verona casts his shadow lightly but inescapably.”
Katherina’s eyes grew round inawe. “Zoinks!”
“Don’t swear, dear,” I said. That was for me.
In a worried tone, Isabella asked, “Does he know what I did?”
“Not for certain, but he has suspicions.” I took the damp towel and wiped my face again. “Think carefully before you answer his queries.”
She lifted her chin in a regal movement. “I’ll tell him the truth.It’s my duty.”
“Nay nay.” Katherina flopped back on the bed, her forearmover her eyes.
Isabella stared at her as if confused. “What?”
Katherina lifted her arm andlooked at her.
Isabella contemplated her friend, then looked at me. “Will...do you think Katherina will get in troublewith Escalus?”
“He is, as you said, a stodgy man who takes his duty as prince very seriously.” I chose my words carefully. “Ifconfrontedwith the evidence of misbehavior, he may feel he must take action, and what would follow wouldn’t reflect well on...any of us.”
