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“Are you hurt anywhere?” Enzo asked, his voice hushed and urgent.
“No.” Fiore felt better already. His breath came easier. His vision had cleared. He supposed lying down had helped.
“Any pain? Where? Sharp or dull?”
“The only thing wounded is my dignity,” Fiore insisted.
Enzo didn’t quite appear as though he believed him. “Dr. Venier ought to have a look at you all the same.”
Fiore didn’t have the wherewithal to fight that. His thoughts returned to the room he’d stumbled into and the people there gathered. Giovanna and Lucrezia together was certainly unexpected. And as for the other…
“The third woman,” Fiore said, though he had a sinking feeling he already knew the answer. “Who is she?”
Enzo hesitated. “My mother.”
Fiore ought to have known. Carlotta had announced her imminent arrival mere days ago. But he had to be sure. And now he was sure. Likewise he was absolutely certain that he’d made the worst possible impression on the most important person in Enzo’s life. “Did I offend her?”
“No,” Enzo said almost before Fiore had finished speaking. “Not in the least.”
Fiore remained unconvinced. “Should I apologize?”
“You’ve nothing to apologize for.”
A horrible suspicion crawled up Fiore’s throat like a spider. “You don’t want her to see me.”
“You’re not well,” Enzo insisted. “She shouldn’t intrude on you now.”
“But even if I were well—”
“If you were well and you wished to see her, I would be delighted to introduce you. But you’re not—”
“I wish to see her,” Fiore declared.
Enzo stared at him. He bit his lip. “The very instant you feel more yourself, I promise, you will see her. But—”
The arrival of Dr. Venier interrupted both Enzo’s speech and Fiore’s spiraling thoughts. Having his pulse and temperature taken distracted him for a few annoying yet blissful moments.
“Wouldn’t hurt to keep a watch on you,” she told him. “But from what you’ve described it seems like just nerves.”
Fiore could’ve told Enzo that before. Instead of bringing it up now, however, he asked Enzo, “What do they want? The prince and the duke and—”
“Nothing,” Enzo insisted. “We were only discussing family matters.”
Fiore hadn’t ever considered himself part of Enzo’s family. But he’d never felt like more of an outsider than now.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Enzo continued. “I promise. Mother’s just returned from the sea and Lucrezia came to see her. That’s all.”
“Why here?”
“Because Giovanna and I were here already. Two out of her three children, leaving only one to travel and join the rest. Mathematically it’s the only sound choice.”
A wise man would accept that as a perfectly reasonable and logical explanation. Fiore instead replied, “I thought I heard someone say my name.”
Enzo hesitated.
A knock fell on the door.
Enzo turned toward it with undisguised impatience. “Who goes there?”
