“I will speak to my brother. Besides, having once accepted you as my lover—even the Sicilian custom would give me the right. There is no jilting by men in Sicily, so that is not provided for in our customs.”
“Princess,” said Will, “there is nothing in all the Two Sicilies I value like this permission of yours. But I am strangely sensitive about codes, and your brother and I have fought—and he has generously taken me back into his friendship.”
“You gave him his life.”
“That is true; but that only wiped out the debt I had already incurred. All that he has done since is a free gift, which leaves me much again in his debt.”
“What do you wish me to do, then?” she asked almost petulantly.
“I wish your brother to repeat your offer to me.”
She made a charming figure as she stepped lightly and quickly across the dark polished floor, gleaming with the reflection of the countless wax-lights, to where, at the far end of the room from the Queen and her ladies, her brother was talking to a group of noblemen and State functionaries. The light shining above and the dark shining below made just the right foils for the soft white satin of the gown that hung in graceful folds from her shoulders, which, like her small well-shaped head, were thrown slightly back. She went up to her brother with a look which bespoke sisterly confidence and affection, mingled with respect for the head of the house, but quite unembarrassed. And she had not spoken with him above a minute or two when they came to where Will was standing.
“I shall leave you to Ruggiero,” she said, preparing to trip away.
“Please don’t,” he said. “I mean, please don’t leave us. We are not quarrelling, are we, your Highness?”
“Hardly quarrelling,” replied the Prince: “I have come to repeat what my sister said. As you have been engaged, our Sicilian customs permit of it, and I would trust your honour before my own. You are already my friend, and you can be my sister’s friend, as you would be the friend of an Englishwoman. She has told me what you both take that to mean, and, if any one chooses to misinterpret it, I have a sword.”