“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.
“Yes you do,” she shot back. “Just make sure you’re being careful.”
7
Gianni
Ialways tried my hardest not to lean too far into happiness and good feelings, because they were fleeting feelings for me. But with me spending more time with my family, being involved in a family business with my father, and getting to spend most of my days with Philippa, it was hard not to smile. Not only that, but I had the promise of the throne and Lucia in my future.
I was feeling good.
"Good morning,Signore," Phillipa's sweet voice sang into the room.
"Good morning," I replied. "Straight to work, huh?"
Philippa giggled. "Iamworking."
"So you are."
I watched with my head against my open hand as she drifted around the room doing everything from changing the bedsheets to dusting the paintings. She had the calmest expression on her face as she worked. My only wish was that Alegna wasn't floating in and out so that we could talk and behave more comfortably.
"What?" Philippa said.
I shook my head. "Nothing."
"Do you require anything else?" she asked.
A frown appeared on my face before I could stop it. "Will you leave if I don't?"
"I suppose," Philippa replied, side-eyeing Alegna who was folding clothes in the closet. "Whatever you wish,Signore."
There was something slightly exciting about hearing it phrased that way. Whenever Philippa spoke traditional Italian, I found myself hypnotized by the sound of it, but tagged alongside 'whatever you wish' gave me a sense of heightened excitement.
Wait. What the hell was I thinking?
Philippa was my most precious friend. I shouldn't be thinking of her in such a way. Besides, my heart still belonged to Lucia, and if I was able to carry out my father's plan, I'd be able to take her hand soon enough, and that was what I wanted.
It was what I'd always wanted.
"I'm okay for now," I said.
Philippa's expression went from light to disappointed in a flash. "Okay. Well, if you require anything else, send for me and I'll get it right away."
"I will. Thank you."
Philippa offered a very formal bow and then walked over to the closet and ducked her head in. She bent at the waist a little to lean in and talk with Alegna, and my eyes immediately zeroed in on her backside. Though she wore the same employee outfit every other staff member wore, something about the way it shaped itself around her was enticingly different.
No.Stop it, Gianni.
I forced my eyes back to the work on my desk and started to scribble anything on the papers there to distract myself. Eventually, Philippa grabbed the sheets she'd pulled off my bed and left the room.
Though I was relieved when she wasn’t in the room any longer so that I wasn’t plagued by ill thoughts, the second she was gone, I missed her. Philippa was the one thing in the Cavetti household that made me truly happy. I begged my brain to stop traveling down the path it was on so that it wouldn’t cost me the one person that meant more to me than anything in the world.
“Mr. Cavetti.” I looked up and Alegna was standing in the doorway of my closet with an empty basket in her hands. “I was instructed to tell you before I departed that the Bonifacios would be visiting today. Both parents, along with all of the siblings apart from the youngest twins. You have been requested at noon promptly for tea with them.”
I was relieved that Philippa was gone from the room before Alegna shared that particular piece of information. Though I told Philippa everything, I’d opted not to let her in on my father’s plan to frame the Bonifacios for my death. I knew it would only worry her, and there was no use getting her all worked up when not even I knew exactly how things were going to shake out as of yet.
“Thank you, Alegna,” I said.
