"The heir isn't in the city. You think you can pull this kind of stunt and walk away clean? You don't think he'll come back and settle the score?"
Settle the score with me? If he didn't come looking for me first, I'd be looking for him. Keeping a secret mistress. Dragging the Moretti name through the gutter. The acting underboss of the Moretti Family, stooping to something this disgraceful.
Rosa charged forward and slapped Nana Agata clean across the face. The crack rang out sharp and loud, cutting through the murmur of the crowd like a gunshot. "Insolent old hag! How dare you speak to my lady that way. How dare you slander her."
Nana Agata shrieked, one hand flying to the rosary at her neck, the beads clicking together as her fingers closed around them. "You dare strike me? Mistress, you must stand up for this old servant! Have the heir throw this vicious woman out!"
"Otherwise, once you enter the household, who knows what torments she'll put you through."
I let out a cold laugh. "Have the heir cast me out? My status is not something the heir has the authority to revoke."
My thumb pressed against the underside of my wedding band and turned it once. Slow. Deliberate. Because this girl and her nursemaid had no idea what they were playing at.
Gianna bit her lip and stared at me. "If my lady wishes to beat or kill someone, direct it at me. Why strike my nursemaid? Are you truly not afraid the heir will punish you when he returns?"
"Cruel as you are, the marriage may have been brokered by the Commission itself, but if you harm the heir's child, he can still dissolve the alliance all the same."
I smiled. "Miss Valenti puts on quite the performance. Perhaps she should take it to the Southside dinner theater."
"If the heir wants to champion your cause, by all means, send him to me. I won't run from it."
The crowd of onlookers grew indignant. "You've gone too far! Just because her station is lower than yours, she deserves to be humiliated?"
"Exactly! She's seven or eight months along, about to give birth. A kick like that could kill her!"
"She knows the Commission's ruling protects her from being cast aside, so she acts without fear."
Gianna straightened up, trembling, both hands pressing over her pregnant belly as though it were the only thing keeping her upright. She looked at me through her tears. "I know my station is lowly. I came specifically to beg my lady's mercy. I never imagined she would try to end my life."
"The heir told me that while he was away from the city, no matter what I had to do, I was to protect myself at all costs. Even if it meant overstepping."
"Since that's how it is, my lady, don't blame me."
Gianna rose to her feet with Nana Agata's help and shouted, "Guards!"
Several armed soldiers emerged from behind her. They moved the way Moretti men moved, hands already positioned near their waistbands, shoulders squared, faces emptied of anything resembling hesitation. Gianna pointed at me. "Bind her. I want to see whether the heir, once he learns his own wife tried to murder his child, will dissolve the marriage or not."
I jabbed a finger at my own chest. "Dissolve the marriage? Does the heir have the nerve? Tell him to try."
The lead soldier approached with a stony face. "My lady, why must you bully a helpless woman?"
"The heir gave orders. No one, not even his wife, is to mistreat his woman. Forgive the offense."
He moved to seize me.
Rosa threw herself in front of me, her right hand dropping to her hip where the folding knife sat beneath her coat. "You wouldn't dare! Do you have any idea who my lady is?"
The soldier shoved Rosa aside. She hit the cobblestones hard but was already scrambling back up. "Doesn't matter who she is. She's wronged the heir's woman, and she'll kneel and apologize for it."
Nana Agata clutched her swollen, reddened cheek and screeched, "Guard! This vicious woman can't bear children yet still clings to the position of the Don's wife, tormenting our mistress!"
"Once the mistress delivers the heir's firstborn son, she'll surely be elevated. Then it's the mistress who'll be the true lady of the house!"
"A barren woman like her should be thrown out of the compound. Go on, hit her! The mistress will answer for it."
Gianna spoke in that soft, fragile voice of hers. "My lady, even someone as high and mighty as you must own up to her wrongs. Just apologize to Nana, and we can put this behind us."
I let out a cold laugh. "Apologize to her? You think either of you are worthy of that?"
Gianna sighed. "If that's how you want it, I can't help you." She shot Nana Agata a look. The old woman's fingers released the rosary. She lunged forward and struck me hard across the face.
"Forgive me, my lady. This old servant is petty by nature. You don't beat the dog without checking who its master is. Since you hit me first, it's only fair I return the favor."
