Chapter 23: Nobody Shoots at Roses

Livia's POV

We spread the map of the estate across Ettore's desk.

We weighted its corners with his ink pot, his stick and the brass key.

Three captains stood around it.

They had been with him for thirty years, and he trusted them with his life.

Adriano stood at my left shoulder with his sleeves rolled up.

"Draw it," Ettore told me. "Where they come in."

I took his pen.

"The east wall, below the orchard," I said. "That's where the rota is thin. Two men fewer than the north gate."

"We know that," said the oldest captain.

"Then they'll know it too. So we leave it thin."

All three looked at me.

"Two men on the wall in plain sight," I said. "Forty behind the orchard hedge, in the dark, with long guns."

"They come through where they think it's open. We close it behind them."

"And the dinner?"

"Same time, same table, same music. Nobody in the house changes anything they can be seen changing."

The captain frowned. "You think like a man who's done this."

"I think like a woman who's watched a leak," I said.

Adriano didn't move, but his shoulder touched mine.

"The wounded," I said. "Where do they go?"

"The cellar," said a captain.

"The cellar has one door. I want the greenhouse for triage. It has glass walls, running water, and two exits."

"A glass house," the captain said. "In a gunfight."

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