“What do you think I was doing?” she said crossly. “I was spying on Rosabelle and Antonio. You picked a fine time to interrupt me. They were talking about Antonio’s will.”
“I don’t care what they were talking about, Dickce. Your behavior is outrageous,” An’gel said. “What if they had caught you? Think how embarrassing that would be.”
“Rosabelle loves an audience, you know that.” Dickce snickered. “It was quite a performance, let me tell you.” She did feel a tad guilty over her violation of the rules of hospitality, but she wasn’t about to admit it to her sister.
“What goes on between Rosabelle and her husband is no business of ours,” An’gel said.
“Even if it’s pertinent to these attempts on Rosabelle’s life?”
An’gel stared at her for a moment, and Dickce could tell she had hooked her fish. “Pertinent how?” An’gel said.
“If I understood everything correctly,” Dickce said, “Rosabelle evidently gave Antonio a lot of money. His affairs were in a mess, and he had to have the lawyers in Italy get it all sorted out, which they did. He now has control of his inheritance, as he called it. A palazzo in Venice, a factory in Milan, buildings in Rome, and a country estate. I think he might even have tried to change his will to include Rosabelle—but that’s where you interrupted me.”
“I don’t see how it’s all that pertinent,” An’gel said after a few moments’ thought. “Let’s say that Antonio is worth millions, and he includes Rosabelle in his will. He would have to die before her for her to inherit any of it. So why would someone try to kill her before she had a chance to inherit from him? Seems to me he would be the first target.”
“You saw how Wade and Maudine reacted to him,” Dickce said. “They apparently think he’s a gold digger with no money of his own. Once they find out he really is rich, they will feel differently, you can bet on that.”
“I wonder if Antonio is in Rosabelle’s will,” An’gel said. “Oh, what’s the use of all this speculation? I don’t think any of this is helpful.”
“There’s a bit more that you haven’t heard yet,” Dickce said. “I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but you might as well hear it anyway.” She gave her sister a summary of the phone conversation she had overheard.
“You’re sure about the gender of the person on the other end?” An’gel asked.
“He was talking fast,” Dickce said, “but I’m sure I heard it correctly.”
“He was talking to his son, surely,” An’gel said. “But the part about a divorce is certainly interesting. What do you want to bet he latched on to Rosabelle and her money so he could afford to pay the lawyers in Italy to get his inheritance back? Now that he has, he may be planning to divorce her.”
Dickce shrugged. “That’s what it sounds like to me.”
“He’s slick, I’ll give him that.” An’gel sniffed. “He didn’t fool me for a minute, though.”
“No, of course not,” Dickce said, trying hard not to laugh. They had both been charmed by the man at first, no matter what An’gel was claiming now.
Footsteps on marble sounded above them, and Dickce looked up to see Juanita descending the stairs, plates in hand. Dickce started forward to meet her.
“Let me take those,” she said when Juanita reached the bottom.
“I don’t mind taking them to the kitchen,” Juanita said. “I’m going that way anyway. I thought I might have a bit more lunch.”
“Please help yourself,” An’gel said. “Thank you for taking care of all that.”
Juanita smiled as she headed down the hall toward the kitchen.
“I think they’ve had enough time alone,” An’gel said. “Come on, let’s go talk to the happy couple.”
Dickce wondered what her sister had in mind. She shrugged and followed An’gel.
They met Rosabelle and Antonio, arm in arm, coming out of the parlor. “There you are,” Rosabelle said with a slight smile. “I was just coming to find you. Would you be a dear and tell everyone that Antonio and I have news we would like to share with them?”
Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked back into the parlor, taking Antonio with her.
CHAPTER 26
An’gel stared after Rosabelle. “The nerve of that woman.”
“You mean the Contessa di San Lorenzo?” Dickce laughed. “She’ll be worse than ever now. I’ll pass the message to Wade and Junior”—she nodded toward the library—“and you can tell Juanita. Let her go upstairs and spread the news there.”
“Good idea,” An’gel said. She wasn’t about to traipse up and down the stairs at some whim of Rosabelle’s.
She found Juanita in the kitchen chatting with Clementine while the housekeeper supervised her granddaughter and Benjy. Antoinette was snapping green beans, and Benjy was peeling potatoes. They sat at opposite ends of the kitchen table, and Diesel went back and forth between them, chirping and tapping their legs with his paws. An’gel was glad to see that apparently neither one of them was giving in to his pleas for a taste of their efforts. She was sure he had already gained at least a pound from all the tidbits she and Dickce had given him over and above his regular diet. Charlie would probably fuss at them when he returned to find his large cat even larger.
“Juanita, sorry to bother you,” An’gel said, “but your grandmother would like to see all of you in the parlor. Would you mind letting your mother and your aunt know?”
“Sure,” Juanita said. “Did Grandmother say what this is all about?”
“No,” An’gel replied. “She is with her husband, however.”
Juanita looked thoughtful. “I wonder if they’ve made up.” She laughed. “With my grandmother, you never can tell. I’ll go fetch Mother and Aunt Maudine.” She turned to Clementine. “Thank you for your advice on stains. Lipstick is such a pain to get out.”
“You’re surely welcome,” Clementine said.
Benjy brought his bowl of peeled potatoes to the housekeeper. “Are you sure that will be enough? I don’t mind peeling more.”
Clementine took the bowl and set it in the sink. “No, honey, that’s plenty. Thank you for your kind assistance.”
“Glad to help.” Benjy turned to An’gel. “Do you think she means for me to come? To the parlor, I mean, since I’m not really family.”
An’gel frowned. “I’m not sure. Since I don’t know what she plans to say, I have no idea whether it will affect you at all. You might as well be there, though.”
“Okay, then,” Benjy said. “I need to talk to Miss Dickce about something anyway.”
An’gel wondered what that could be but she didn’t pry. Her sister seemed to have established a rapport with the boy, and she saw no need to interfere. At least, not yet. She hoped Dickce wouldn’t get too attached to him, because he would be on his way back to California soon. Along with the rest of them, An’gel hoped. She couldn’t wait for the house to be empty of guests.
Benjy left for the parlor, and An’gel checked with Clementine to be sure that preparations for the evening meal were well in hand.
“Stop worrying,” Clementine told her. “We’re doing fine in here. You go on back to your guests.”
An’gel would far rather have stayed in the kitchen, but duty called. Rosabelle hadn’t said she and Dickce weren’t included, so she might as well go herself. She and Dickce had a right to know what was going on in their own house.
When An’gel walked into the parlor, she saw that everyone was present, including her sister. Rosabelle and Antonio stood before the fireplace, with children and grandchildren occupying the sofas. Dickce and Benjy had claimed two of the nearby chairs, and An’gel took the third.
Rosabelle moved closer to Antonio and slipped her right hand into the crook of his arm. They smiled at each other.