Page 29 of What Dreams May Come
Of course Guglielmo recognized them, and executed a grand obeisance, and threw a kiss to Mamma, which caused Papà to frown and me to hastily intervene. Taking Guglielmo’s arm, I said to them, “This night, I commissioned a sonnet to celebrate your long love affair and this young playwright from Inghilterra has captured the essence of your hearts. I do thank you, Guglielmo, and here’s the other gold piece Ipromised you.”
Guglielmo still stood, staring up at Mamma with a dazzled expression.
Papà’s frown grew more ominous and I didn’t know whether Papà’s tendency to skewer men who fell in love with Mamma hadn’t reached Guglielmo’s ears or he was so bedazzled with Mamma’s celebrated beauty it never occurred to him to cower in prudent apprehension.
Personally, I’m not in favor of blood on the flagstones of our atrium. It’s a bitch to clean off and our staff rightfully objected, so I signaled Tommaso, shoved the promised gold piece into Guglielmo’s one hand, took the scroll from the other, and said, “Thank you, Guglielmo, for your talent, it’s time to exit the stage. Our footman will see you out, go forth and write your play!” I watched as Tommaso firmly marched the sputtering fool toward the entry. When I heard the front door shut firmly behind him, I changed my mien and smiled up at my parents. “Buongiorno,i miei genitori.I trust this sunrise finds you well.”
“Do you indeed, Lady Rosaline?” Mamma had blossomed with the advance of her pregnancy, and tonight I realized she’d reached the stage of, shall we say, irritability, for in her large, doe-like eyes I saw not a hint of warmth toward her wayward daughter. Thatis to say, me.
One couldn’t blame her, of course. She was also at the stage of needing more sleep, and I was depriving her. In a miffed tone she said, “Daughter, it would seem from your attire and that recitation, we slept too well.”
Papà focused on me, observed my masquerade in boy’s clothing, patted my mother on the shoulder and said, “AmateJuliet, I present the opportunity to speak to Rosie about her betrothal, as you wished.She’s all yours.” He left as if a charging bull was after him. When it came to disciplining his daughters, he was arampant coward.
She glared after him, then turned her glower onto me and tapped her foot.
I advanced across the atrium to stand below her. I curtsied, an awkward motion when done in tights. “Mamma, ’tis true, I have been on an adventure which you in all parental wisdom should chide and scold. Yet I beg you to shrug it aside, for I’ve righted a wrong and saved a friend, and”—I lifted the scroll that contained the imagined dialogue between Romeo and Juliet—“paid honor to the love between you and Papà with all the gratitude of a child who recognizes the happiness of the home you’ve built together against all odds.”
I knew I’d said the right thing when she asked without rancor, “What if the prince should discoveryour exploits?”
“He already has.” I wished to clarify before I said too much. “I suppose Papà told you all that happened last evening in the garden between Prince Escalus and me? That we were caught and now I must marry...him?”
“He did, and your Papà is dazzled by your cleverness in catching the prince.” She gave me a wise smile that bonded us in knowing. “He believes you didit on purpose.”
At this juncture, I thought it wise not tocommit myself.
“It is true, isn’t it, Rosie? That you were in the garden on purpose? Tomeet Lysander?”
I nodded, thin-lipped.
“Somehow the manipulator was manipulated?”
I nodded again. The night’s exploits had managed to push the mortification to the back of my mind, but Mamma recapped the events ruthlessly and, I knew, deliberately.
“And? What have you gleaned from your adventures you so blithely tellme to ignore?”
“Prince Escalus continues to favor me with his intentions.” I chose my words meticulously, for because while Mamma had been impetuous in her early passion for Papà, she cast an all the more vigilant eye upon her daughters’ virtue.
“Despite your wild adventures—”
“Not so wild, Mamma!” Although some might believe visiting a theater, a house of pleasure and a masquerade all in one night constituteswild.(Let us not discuss the fountain courtyard and garden intervals.)
“—Prince Escalus will have you. Do you understand exactly what that signifies for you?”
I wasn’t sure what she sought in the way of an answer, so Ishook my head.
“You’ll be our princess and will deal well with yournew position.”
“Yes, Mamma. I will, Mamma.”Whether or not I like it, Mamma.I promptly quashed the thought. One did not sass Lady Juliet with any expectation of surviving with character intact.
“But you’re a woman who has sought the passions your Papà and I have shown every dayof your life.”
“I wouldn’t say that!” I’d spent my life attempting to remain a spinster.
“You set eyes on handsome, clever Lysander andfell in love.”
Sturdily I said, “That’s ofno moment now.”
“No, and sadly, the prince is as cool and temperate as a breeze offthe Adriatic.”
