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Enzo slipped into the antechamber and shut the door behind him lest their voices wake Fiore. “I was just thinking of you.”
Giovanna wore a smile. But it was the smile of someone who wished to feel like smiling rather than someone who had the genuine urge to smile. “Mother is here.”
Enzo blinked. “You mean her ship has been sighted in the lagoon.”
“No,” said Giovanna. “I mean she’s here.”
Enzo stared. “In the villa.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Giovanna’s smile grew wistful. “You always were her favorite.”
It sounded no less absurd from his sister’s lips than it had from his lover’s. There had to be a more practical reason. Enzo supposed his mother’s decision to divert her course would make it easier to navigate the quarantine. Rather than spending a fortnight aboard her ship on the city’s docks, she could spend a fortnight ashore at her son’s estate, within Halcyon’s territory and thus exempt from the quarantine once she moved on to the city proper.
“She wants to see you,” Giovanna said, jolting Enzo out of his feverish logical puzzling.
“Now?” Enzo blurted.
A hint of exasperation leaked into Giovanna’s manner. “She hasn’t seen you in almost five years.”
“Yes, but—still.” Enzo glanced back at the door leading into the bedchamber, beyond which Fiore now slumbered. He would probably be fine without Enzo for a few moments. The prospect gnawed at Enzo’s nerves regardless. “Let me fetch Dr. Venier first.”
“Oh, Carlotta may do that.” Giovanna caught him by the arm.
Against all his better instincts, Enzo allowed her to draw him out of the antechamber and downstairs to the southwest withdrawing room.
Were it not for his sister, Enzo might’ve paused on the threshold. As matters stood she all but thrust him over it.
And there was his mother.
Her sailing uniform, black as the day she’d first donned her widow’s weeds. Her dark hair drawn into a low queue with silver streaks at her temples. Her strong jaw—like his own—anchoring her round face—like Giovanna’s—and her severe brows—like Lucrezia’s. Her gaze swept over him in frank appraisal.
She appeared precisely as he remembered. Which made him all too aware of how he himself had changed. The scars alone must shock her.
And yet she smiled to see him.
Enzo hardly felt brave enough to return it. A ghostly echo tugged at his lips nonetheless.
The lines of wisdom in her face deepened with her evident joy. She held out her arms to him.
Three strides saw him swept up in her embrace.
And over her shoulder he beheld Lucrezia.
~
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“How?” Enzo demanded, releasing his mother.
Lucrezia didn’t even blink. “Mother’s vessel was sighted by lighthouses on the lagoon’s perimeter the day after you departed. Word reached me within the hour. The moment I realized her course would take her not into the city proper but to your dukedom, I made arrangements for a brief absence and set out to intercept her. I think I’ve done rather well despite the overland delay.”
An intellect like Lucrezia’s demanded careful forethought to meet and match. Instead, Enzo blurted, “Why?”
Enzo had done everything she’d asked. He’d left the city for the season and taken Fiore with him. They could create no further scandal whilst sequestered in the countryside. What more she could want from them, Enzo couldn’t fathom.
