The crowd's mood shifted, fed by Gianna's words, turning hostile toward me. People always resented the powerful. Now that someone had made this about Family wealth versus the common street, they were all too eager to see the privileged brought low.
Gianna wiped her tears again and spoke. "Now that the three years of mourning are complete, Gianna finally dares to come before my lady and beg entry into the household. The heir's firstborn son cannot be born outside these walls. If he were, the child's legitimacy would forever be questioned. Surely that would only invite ridicule."
Heads nodded throughout the crowd.
Rosa looked ready to breathe fire. "What a shameless little fox! My lady, say the word and I'll drag her out of here. She can't even find the right house to grovel at, and here she is running her filthy mouth." Her right hand had already drifted to her hip, fingers pressing against the shape beneath her coat.
I motioned for Rosa to pull the window shade aside fully. My face, half-veiled behind gauze, appeared before the onlookers.
I stepped down from the sedan, slow and deliberate, and came to a stop before her on the compound's flagstone drive. Nana Agata took one look at the veil covering my face and let a sneer curl across her lips. "So that's why the lady of the house won't let our mistress through the door. Afraid that once a younger beauty moves in, she'll steal whatever affection the heir has left for you."
"You are a few years older than our mistress, after all. Men prefer a pretty young thing in their bed. That's just the way of the world. Every household has its share of wives and women on the side. Why cling so stubbornly to something you've already lost?"
Gianna shuffled forward on her knees until she was right at my feet. She tilted her face upward, lovely as carved jade, and gazed at me. "I beg my lady's mercy."
The moment the words left her lips, she tugged the hem of my skirt from an angle no one else could see, then threw herself backward. Her hands flew to her stomach and she screamed, "My lady, please, spare my child! Don't kick my stomach!"
Agony twisted her features. She crumpled to the ground, both hands pressed tight over her belly, tears streaming down her face.
Nana Agata shrieked. "Mistress! What happened to you?!" The rosary beads rattled against her collarbone as she lurched forward.