Page 66 of The Man with the Violet Eyes

Balduin rocked his head from side to side. “I suppose. It happens to every man from time to time.”

“Then…”

Balduin’s eyes narrowed. “Let me handle it.”

“Of course, Highness,” I answered, starting to feel relief but not sure if I should.

“Then you do still plan to complete your commission?”

I nodded. “Of course, Your Highness.”

At that moment, I didn’t know what I was going to do. My head was so filled with conflicting thoughts and feelings; my attraction to Nicolo doing battle against the disgust in which I sometimes held the things he did and the company he kept. But, right then, I would have said anything to get out of that bedroom.

“You want to know, don’t you?”

I paused. I thought I could guess what he was talking about and, damn it, I did want to know.

Balduin grinned as I turned back. “You want to know how I can kill Nicolo without dying myself.”

He beckoned. Heart in my mouth, I followed him to the wall where he turned a candle sconce with a grating sound. A secret door swung open in the wall and he passed through it, into the candle-lit space beyond.

The room was small, warm and stank of waste, excrement.

“It doesn’t get cleaned often,” Balduin recognized the look on my face, “because I have to kill the maid afterwards and doing so becomes suspicious after a while. The secret must be kept, but I’ve beendyingto share it with someone.”

From the ceiling, a large cage swung. Crouched within it was a boy. He might have been nine or ten but it was hard to be sure because he was so malnourished. He looked up as I entered and a tremor went up my spine.

His eyes were the same as Nicolo’s; bright violet.