Poisoned by His Love novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Hall

The hall was one long room with a low ceiling and a table at the far end.

Five old men sat behind it, in black, with their hands folded.

Along both walls stood Orsini men in dark coats, and I counted the bulges under their arms before I looked at anything else.

Sandro's uncle sat at the end of the table in his gray suit, as a witness for the Vasari name.

My father sat in Gianna's kitchen behind four captains, because Savannah's warning had come in time.

Sandro stood alone in the middle of the floor.

His jacket was open and empty, and his hands hung at his sides.

He had not turned when the door opened.

He turned now.

I saw his face change when he saw his mother-in-law on my arm.

"Signora," he said, very low.

"Hush," she said. "I will speak when I speak."

A murmur went through the room.

The oldest of the elders, a man with a face like a walnut, lifted two fingers.

The old woman and I walked up the side of the room and stopped a few feet from Sandro.

I took my place at his right.

I did not look at him.

I felt his shoulder, an inch from mine, go rigid and then still.

Ruggero stood at the head of the floor in the gray overcoat, holding the black notebook.

I knew it by the rubber band.

His eyes went to his mother, and for a moment something frightened crossed his face.

Then he turned back to the elders.

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