“No, he was too panicked to think of anything else. I’m lucky he was so flustered.”
“I stole your grandmother’s best milk cow and five goats. I ransomed them back to her father to buy her hand in marriage.”
Allie laughed and smiled at Don Manca. “That’s so… roguish. And, sweet. I see where he gets his behavior from.” Her eyes drifted to me, and I was caught in their colors.
Mostly, they picked up the pale, earthy green of her dress. My heart drowned out the conversation around us. My senses were tuned solely to her.
The service setting down the tiny servings of cheese and fruit startled me.
“That’s all it took? A stolen car?” The Greek asked.
“No, we… later we attended an opera performance.” Allie’s amusement almost gave her lie away.
“And a masquerade,” I added.
“That mask was so sexy.” Allie traced my face where the half-mask had ended. Her finger drifted down to my lips. “And we kissed.”
“Yes.” The memory of her lips trembling against mine transfixed me, bewitched me. It entangled me in spells I had no defenses for. “That is when I decided to make you my queen.”
“Lovely, but a bit sudden, no? I mean last week your father was in talks with my father to finalize our engagement contract.”
Dianora’s words and the way she rolled her left hand in the air to show off the diamond on her finger silenced one half of the table. They’d traveled far enough that my father cut off his conversation mid-sentence and glared down the expanse. But it didn’t land on her. It landed on Allie and me.
Whispers started up in the background. Little titters built into the glamour of wicked birds who valued gossip over substance.
Allie’s eyes went wide and moisture flooded the edges.
I needed to halt the damage before she bolted. She had that look—one of utter devastation, and terror. I stood up, holding my hand out for hers to hold. Once I was sure of my grip, I spoke loud enough for the entire room could hear my words clearly as I spoke them in English, then repeated in Italian for their benefit. “I am my own man. I do not need my father’s guidance to choose a bride.” To Allie, I spoke more softly, “I have chosen you. There is no other woman for me, for as long as live.”
My grandfather’s voice cut through the tension, “Dio li fa e poi li accopia.” God makes them, then joins them. I was uncertain he meant well by that because it was commonly reserved for ill-fated couples. But the tension broke with laughter, and there were toasts to our union.
In the furor, Dianora’s cousin, Leandro, leaned over her chair, whispered in her ear, then disappeared.
Much later, I snuck Allie up the back stairs so we could retire. As I stepped into the foyer, Leandro rushed from the shadows. But his knife wasn’t aimed at me, he targeted Allie.
When I promised to protect her with my life, I meant it. His arm swept out as I shoved her behind me. It left me vulnerable, but his strike swung wide, still on target for Allie. I blocked the initial thrust and tied up his arm. If this were Ringo, he’d drop the knife into his other hand and I’d have left my back exposed. But Leandro was an amateur. The blow I’d braced for didn’t come.
Another shadow rushed forward. I lost ground quickly as Leandro panicked.
As Loppa crashed into us, a sharp searing pain shot from my wound, and I crumbled to the ground. Luckily, Loppa was almost the same size as Dianora’s hulking cousin, and he was faster. He broke our attacker’s hold almost immediately. Leandro, sensing the odds had shifted drastically, ran toward the main stairs and slid down the rail with Loppa hot on his heels.
It had only been seconds, and I was spent. My breaths were jagged and raw. Between the stars in my vision, Allie stirred.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She groaned a little, but rallied. “I’m fine, just…jostled. Oh my God, are you hurt?” She scrambled to my side and checked me for injury. Her frantic motions stilled as her hand touched the patch of blood soaking into my shirt. “Damn it. I think there’s a small wound dehiscence on this end. Tell me that doctor left his suture kit.”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck!” She pressed harder against my injury. “Where’s Loppa?”
She’d just finished cursing again when he stomped up the stairs. “I lost him, boss.”
“Check on Don Manca.” I gritted out.
“He is well, I was in his room when I heard the struggle.”
“Is there anything I can use to stitch him up again?” Allie held my wound with one hand and unbuttoned my shirt with the other.
