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Fiore’s dark gaze flicked towards him and gleamed with more vigor than Enzo had seen in him in some time. It spurred him to further honesty.
“I’d intended to make it a surprise,” Enzo explained. “But if you’d like, I can show you what I’ve accomplished thus far…?”
“By all means.” Though no smile touched Fiore’s lips, an echo of it shone in his eyes.
Enzo drew the thick, black woolen curtains over the windowed wall. When he took up the hooked pole to do the same to the skylights, however, a strangled sound from Fiore stopped him. He turned to find Fiore glancing nervously from him to the skylights and back again.
“We will not be plunged into darkness,” Enzo promised him.
He wouldn’t at all have blamed Fiore for doubting this proclamation. But Fiore met his gaze and gave his assent with a small, sharp nod.
Enzo drew the curtains over the skylights. Sunlight was banished from the workshop.
And in its absence there came a soft blue-green glow from one of the glass terrariums.
Fiore whipped his head towards the glow the moment it appeared. He stared in wonderment.
Enzo suppressed a smile and went to the case. He withdrew the glowing object and brought it to Fiore.
“Foxfire,” he explained, holding it out for him to take if he so wished. “A luminescent fungus. It feeds on dead wood.”
Indeed, the sample he had grew on a chunk of an olive tree taken from his villa’s groves.
Fiore accepted it from him with an enraptured expression. The myriad fins of emerald green reflected in the dark pools of his eyes.
“Brighter than a candle,” Fiore observed.
Enzo nodded eagerly. “Bright enough to read by. I had thought to make a lantern of it for our chambers.”
Fiore tore his eyes away from the foxfire to meet Enzo’s gaze with furrowed brow. “Our chambers?”
“Instead of a candle or brazier,” Enzo explained. “Something to light the room by night without an open flame.”
Still Fiore stared at him. “But they’reyourchambers, surely.”
Enzo realized his error. “They were. But they’re ours now. Unless—if you’d prefer your own?” Many happily-married couples kept separate suites. And if Enzo had the alchemy workshop as his sanctuary, it seemed only fair that Fiore ought to have a space of his own as well. “It will take some time to create it, but there are plenty of guest rooms lying fallow, and you may have your pick—”
Fiore laid a finger on Enzo’s lips.
Enzo fell into confused silence.
The secret smile shone again in Fiore’s eyes. “I’m happy with our chambers.”
Enzo’s own half-smile caught him by surprise. He supposed it would have to suffice for both of them for now. Though he did wish to return to the matter of Fiore’s sanctuary in the future. He deserved a studio, at the very least.
A knock fell on the workshop door.
Fiore flinched. Enzo, who recognized Carlotta’s distinctive knuckle-rap, laid a hand on his shoulder. It seemed to steady him.
“Enter,” Enzo commanded.
Carlotta did so. “Pardon the interruption, your grace. The Duke of Bluecliffe has arrived.”
Enzo stared at her. Her words made no sense. There was no reason for Giovanna to return to the city now. Unless… “Is she in her own chambers?”
“For the moment,” Carlotta replied.
That would make things a touch easier for him. “Ask her to meet me in the library once she’s settled.”
