It was a small thing. No one else had noticed.
But a prickle of awareness coated Fortuna’s skin. The little human wasn’t immune to Saturnino. Far from it. The sculptress might detest her reaction to his physical beauty, but the girl was painfully aware of her brother.
How adorable, howconvenient.
“That girl has too much personality for my tastes,” Signora Luni said.
Her father drained the wine. “She only needs a firm hand.”
“That’s Saturnino’s job,” Marco added, dismissive. “The human is properly afraid of him. Didn’t you speak to her family? What did they tell you about her?”
“She’s a creature of habits and rules,” Saturnino said. “No sweetheart to speak of, and a handful of good friends, some she lost during the battle. Very close to her siblings. Evidently she all but runs the family inn. Dedicated to the business and to sculpting whenever she has time. Which she does in a shack behind the inn.”
“Shame she won’t be able to help them anymore,” Fortuna said with a cold smile. “Oh dear, how will they survive without her?”
Marco sniggered.
Signora Luni frowned at them. “We need someone we can easily control.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Signor Luni said. “We got more than we bargained for with this human.”
“No, we didn’t,” Saturnino said flatly.
“Rein in your arrogance,” their mother said. “Don’t underestimate her temper. In a human, anger can lead to impulsive and rash behavior.”
Saturnino gave their mother a courteous nod. But Fortuna knew her brother—when he deigned to be polite, it was only for show. There was always a subtle hint of mockery in his manners.
Even now, he seemed bored with the conversation, itching to leave them. But she had to make him understand. There was too much at stake for anything to go wrong, and as far as she was concerned, something already had.
They had chosen a girl with too much spirit.
Saturnino was confident he could break it, but Fortuna wasn’t so sure.
“We ought to keep her in the dungeon and be done with it,” Marco said. “Saturnino can manage her.”
Saturnino reached for his goblet of wine and lifted it toward their brother in salute. Again, in mockery. “As always, Marco, I enjoy your riveting contributions to our conversations.” He downed his drink, set it back onto the table, and disappeared out the door.
Marco glowered in Saturnino’s direction, that restless energy curling around him. He was more at home out in the field with a battle axe, a jousting lance, a blunt sword he could use to run someone through. Fortuna knew it galled her brother that it was Saturnino who would become the duke if everything went according to plan. Things were as they should be. Marco was a brute witha sword, while Saturnino thought things through before he acted or spoke.
But sometimes, it was hard to know whose side he was on.
Which reminded her…
The contessa stood and followed Saturnino out into the night.
By the time she caught up with him, he had wandered to the side of the inn, off the main path. Aimless, looking up at the stars like the romantic he wasn’t. Saturnino heard her approach, and he glanced at her from over his shoulder. Moonlight cut his face in half, one part lit in silver, the other in shadow.
“I need a word with you,” she said as she drew next to him. “Several.”
He flicked a cool glance at her. “What is it?”
With his own sister he was never charming. Or remotely friendly. The family was a unit, or could be, if Saturnino could accept the roles they all needed to play, hand-picked a century earlier.
“This was all your idea,” Fortuna reminded him. “And you said that once we found the sculptor, you’d have everything in hand. That everything would go according to plan.Yourplan.”
Saturnino turned to look at her fully. “Has my performance been lacking?”
Fortuna cared deeply about many things. Fine wine, power that was hard earned and ruthlessly kept, luxurious fabric, her private garden where she grew all manner of deadly eccentricities, and a particular shade of rouge only her maid seemed to know how to make. She used connections and gossip the same way people spent and enjoyed currency. But she also cared about the outcome of their plot, and she would not see it crumble because of Saturnino.
