“And there’s a garden in the castello too, of course. Herbs for the kitchens, but I want to have it planted with flowers.” My husband’s blue eyes rested on me more easily now, and his voice was firmer than its previous nervous fits and starts. A young man now instead of a boy; handsome in his best doublet, which had just been brushed, and his boots, which had just been shined. A man come wooing, only Orsino was paying court to his own wife. That had touched me very much the past few days. “Do you like roses, Giulia?” he asked me, still enlarging on his plans for the castello garden.

“It is generally safe to assume that women like roses!” I teased him. I could see that little garden: just the kind of sunny place where the chatelaine of the castello might sit with her sun hat, reviewing the daily tasks with the steward and keeping watch over her children.

Orsino was talking about his horses now, and the good hunting to be had around the castello. Another night I would have been happy to listen as he rambled, but time was short this evening. Cena would be laid soon, and we would have an extra guest at table tonight: my mother-in-law had arrived by coach an hour ago. She’d been all correct courtesies in the hall, where I’d offered my greetings and escorted her to her own chamber to wash the travel dust away, but I didn’t in the least imagine that she’d wait until cena was done to come chide me, or her son, or both.

“—herons and ducks in the lake for hawking,” Orsino was saying. “I could get you a little merlin if you wanted to learn—”

“Husband,” I interrupted gently. “Perhaps you should just say it.”

He cleared his throat. “Say what?”

I set my own cup down, waving back Pantisilea and her pricked ears as she edged closer. “What you came to Capodimonte to ask me.”

He rotated his goblet between his hands. “You know what I want . . .”

“Yes, but I want you to say it.” Firmly. “Women are like that, I’m afraid.”

He gulped and took the plunge. “I want you to come back with me to Carbognano.” He even managed to look me in the eye. “It’s a good place to live, Giulia. I’d have to rejoin my men at Bassanello first, but I’d come back to you once the fighting was done.” A shy smile. “You know I want you there.”