A Daughter of Fair Verona

The first book in the Daughter of Montague series is set in a mythic Renaissance-era Verona where the famous lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet did not die in the tomb. Romeo's poison made him vomit rather than kill him, and Juliet's knife skidded off a gold pendant, merely slashing her chest.

Their eldest daughter, Rosaline ("Rosie"), narrates her story at nearly 20 years old as a practical, sharp-tongued woman who runs the Montague household and works as an apprentice to the Franciscan apothecary Friar Laurence. She has six younger siblings and prides herself on her rational temperament. She has sabotaged four previous betrothals by matching each suitor with another woman, remaining contentedly unmarried.

Her contentment shatters when her parents announce a fifth betrothal: to Duke Leir Stephano of the house of Creppa, his family's noble line. Duke Stephano's third wife, Titania, Rosie's childhood friend, died only two weeks earlier from poisoned eels, and his first two wives also died under suspicious circumstances. Romeo explains that Duke Stephano coerced the match by threatening the family, yet accepted Rosie despite her lack of dowry. Her parents admit they depend on Rosie's intelligence to navigate the danger.

Two nights later at the betrothal ball, Rosie collides with Lysander of the house of Marcketti, a handsome, uninvited young man from a Venetian family traditionally hostile to the Montagues. Rosie experiences the love at first sight she has always mocked. Lysander warns her that Duke Stephano will kill her. Prince Escalus, the podestà (chief magistrate) of Verona, then emerges from a nearby room and catches them unchaperoned. The prince, scarred and limping from torture he endured during a failed coup in his boyhood, defuses the scandal by personally escorting Rosie and Duke Stephano into the ballroom.

The ball turns dangerous. Fabian and Gertrude of the house of Brambilia, Titania's neglectful parents, publicly confront Duke Stephano over gold they paid for their daughter's upkeep. Duke Stephano corners Rosie and reveals his true motive for the marriage: power and revenge. He orders her to meet him at the garden fountain when the bell strikes. In the darkened garden, Rosie stumbles over Duke Stephano's corpse, a knife buried in his chest, his face frozen in terror. Prince Escalus grabs her from behind; he followed after Porcia, a gossipy Veronese widow present at the ball, loudly proclaimed Rosie had gone to the garden armed. The prince guides Rosie inside, and when the body is publicly discovered, he testifies that he intercepted Rosie before she reached the garden and that her carving knife does not match the murder weapon. Despite being cleared, suspicion clings to Rosie.

That night, Lysander climbs the walnut tree outside Rosie's window, echoing her parents' famous balcony scene. They discuss suspects, including Duke Stephano's former mistress Miranda, a once-renowned singer whose throat was reportedly slashed on the duke's orders. As they lean toward a first kiss, the branch cracks and Lysander falls. Rosie's Nurse finds he has been dragged away by an unknown person but later confirms he left on his own legs.

The next day at the apothecary shop, Prince Escalus reveals that Duke Stephano's house of Creppa supported the coup that killed the prince's father. He begins to explain that it is his fault Duke Stephano sought Rosie's hand, but Nurse arrives with news that Porcia has been found dead, poisoned. Miranda accosts Rosie's sedan chair with a frantic warning: By accepting Duke Stephano's suit, Rosie has become the killer's next target. Nurse gives Rosie a knife and leather holster, the first of three weapons she will receive.

The groundskeeper reveals that the walnut tree branch was deliberately sawed through over years, a trap for anyone who sat on it. Lysander returns over the garden wall and straps a second dagger to Rosie's arm, warning that the attacks are aimed at her. That evening, Prince Escalus returns alone through a postern gate and straps his personal stiletto to Rosie's ankle. Rosie flips the dagger, catches it, and sheathes it, revealing her father has taught her blade skills. As the prince leaves, she hears him whisper that her hair is beautiful.

Rosie confesses to Romeo that both men visited her unchaperoned. Romeo storms the Marcketti house, brawls with the family, then bonds with them over wine. He visits the palace, where Prince Escalus assures him of Rosie's virtue but pointedly asks that she stop treating him like a stallion to be matched with the proper mare, exposing her matchmaking schemes.

Events accelerate. Orlando, Duke Stephano's brother and heir, is poisoned with a hallucinogen and left raving. He momentarily recognizes Rosie and warns that Duke Stephano's choice of her unleashed something terrible. Rosie discovers Agatha, one of two women who run the Toil and Trouble apothecary, murdered with a dagger in her throat. Agatha's sister identifies Curan, Duke Stephano's head servant, as a regular buyer of poisons. At the Basilica di San Zeno, a heavy stone nearly crushes Rosie, and Nurse is struck by flying shards.

Her suspicion crystallizing, Rosie arms herself with all three daggers and enters the Creppa family tomb. She finds Miranda's corpse on Titania's marble slab. The door slams shut. Rosie turns to face Titania, alive but grotesquely transformed: emaciated, yellow-skinned, with a gaping wound across her cheek stitched with crude black thread, the mark Agatha left before dying.

Titania confesses. Duke Stephano groomed her as a neglected child, and her obsession turned murderous: She poisoned his first two wives using poisons Curan procured. When Duke Stephano tired of her and spoke of wanting Rosie, Titania took a sleeping potion inspired by Juliet's famous ruse, intending to fake her death. The potion, doctored by Curan, went catastrophically wrong, leaving her permanently damaged. She infiltrated the betrothal ball disguised as a veiled old woman and confronted Duke Stephano in the garden, but he laughed and called her hideous. She killed him with his own belt knife, then murdered Porcia, Agatha, Curan, and Miranda, poisoned Orlando, dropped the stone at the basilica, and sawed the walnut tree branch over years out of jealous rage at Romeo for rejecting her childhood infatuation.

Titania draws Duke Stephano's sword. In the ensuing fight, Rosie deliberately feigns submission, kneeling and begging for mercy. As Titania raises the sword, Rosie drives Prince Escalus's stiletto into Titania's heart. She removes the bar from the door and collapses into Nurse's arms.

Putrefaction on the blade causes a severe infection, and Rosie nearly dies. Over weeks she recovers. Her parents vow never to arrange another marriage, calling her the family keepsake. The elder Marckettis approach Romeo about a match with Lysander, but negotiations break down over the modest dowry. Rosie is heartbroken.

When Rosie ventures onto the balcony, Lysander appears in the walnut tree and asks her to use her matchmaking talent on their own behalf. Nurse devises a plan: At an upcoming dinner between Romeo and the elder Marcketti, Rosie and Lysander will be caught in a compromising embrace, forcing a betrothal. On the appointed night, however, a gloved hand beckons Rosie from the dark path. The man kisses her passionately, but when his hand slides past her ankle, she recognizes the touch: the same hand that strapped the stiletto weeks before. Rosie kicks Prince Escalus, then sees torches blazing around them. Romeo, the Marckettis, and prominent Veronese men stand staring. Prince Escalus kneels before Romeo, whose sword is at his throat, and formally requests Rosie's hand. Romeo, calculating the political advantage, agrees. The betrothal between the houses of Montague and Leonardi, Prince Escalus's ruling house, is struck.

In a final conversation, Prince Escalus explains he has watched Rosie for three years, recognizing her diplomatic brilliance. He made a written list of reasons to marry her, which Duke Stephano found; possessing the woman the prince wanted would have given the duke leverage over the podestà. His hesitation led directly to Rosie's danger. He considered stepping aside when she fell for Lysander, but her trust during the crisis and her willingness to tease him, something no one had dared since his family's destruction, changed his mind. He quotes poetry, kisses her palm, and produces the florin from a bet they shared, kept over his heart. Rosie retires to bed, fist pressed where he kissed her, telling Nurse he gave her something to think about.