In Fair Verona where we set our scene
In the kitchen of Casa Montague
“The child is hellbent on destruction, Madame.” Nurse stomped into the top floor kitchen bustling with scullery boys and sous chefs, smelling like drying herbs and bubbling broth, and overly warm from the cooking fire that heated the great iron skillet. She planted her broad fists on her broad hips, and stared grimly at Lady Juliet. “Again.”
Juliet looked up from the lemon she was slicing. “Which child?” She had seven children; nevertheless she had a good idea who Nurse was talking about.
“Rosaline. Rosaline, your eldest daughter! Who continues to plan and scheme to live her life as she wishes it to be, rather than listen to the wisdom of her parents.”
Juliet laughed. “Or you?”
“Yes!” Nurse threw her arms in the air.
Juliet didn’t have to be here, standing at the broad wooden table, but in the last year Cook had grown increasingly fragile and crippled with the joint disease…and while Juliet didn’t manage the household well—Rosie did that—and didn’t manage the accounts well—Rosie did that—Juliet loved to prepare food for her family. For her, the kitchen was the heart of their home. She knew she was a lucky woman; she surrounded herself with love and all the gentler emotions, and her Romeo indulged her by adoring her as she adored him.
“It’s all very well for you to laugh.” Nurse pushed a stool under Juliet’s bottom and hefted her up on it; she did not approve of her mistress standing when she could be sitting. “You’re not in charge of maintaining the girl’s purity in the face of so many men who wish to take it from her!”
Juliet slanted a glance at Nurse.
“Yes, I know. As her mother, you are, but I do the day-to-day work of guarding her like a dragon. Men pant after her, because she looks like you, my lady, with your curves and your sweet face, but Lady Rosaline’s sweet face is a lie. She’s an ungoverned demon!” Nurse looked around, found one of the whole plucked chickens, dragged it toward her and pulled her knife from her sleeve.
Cook sighed mightily.
Nurse shook her knife at her. “I know how to cut a chicken!”
“You do indeed. I’ve seen many of your chicken pieces.”
Juliet discerned the double meaning in that, although the never-subtle Nurse did not.
“What I need done is”—Cook pointed at the breasts piled up in quantities large enough to feed the Montague family—“debone those and slice them in into thin broad pieces.”
“Why would I do that?” Nurse was always belligerent if she couldn’t readily discern a reason.
Because I told you to. Juliet could see it hover on Cook’s lips. She was, after all, the commander of her kitchen.
Cook and Nurse had clashed before, it was always loud, and would disrupt the low hum of the kitchen business as they prepared dinner for the Montague family and household.
So Cook chose the peaceful explanation. “It’s summer. It is warm outside and hot inside. I want cutlets that cook quickly on the griddle. After you slice the breasts, you cover them in a towel and pound them with a mallet.” She pointed at that implement on the copper rack.
“Then what?” Nurse demanded.
“Then I create a masterpiece.” Cook finished her explanations, and turned to Juliet. “My lady, you’ve cut sufficient lemon slices. If you wish, you may stem and chop the parsley leaves.”
Juliet said, “I’m at your disposal,” and pulled the large bunch of washed parsley toward her. She knew, as did Cook, that if she obeyed Cook’s orders without argument, Nurse would be so inclined. Also, it was best to change the subject. “Nurse, what has Rosaline done now?”
“She can’t see what is as plain as the nose on my face!”
Nurse’s nose was an edifice created to sniff out the smallest lies among her charges, so that was saying something.
“She refuses to fall in love as is proper!” Nurse deboned and sliced the chicken breast with skillful zeal. The woman had a well-deserved reputation for knife-work, and not always in the kitchen or at the table. The last man on the Verona streets who tried to rob Nurse no longer had the gonadi to create further bambinas.
“Rosie was never a sentimental child,” Juliet said. “Remember when she was seven and we let her hold her newborn sister to introduce her to the household—”
Nurse started to chortle.
Cook asked, “Which sister was that?”
“Katherina,” Nurse said.
“—and Katherina took that first, massive baby poop?”
“It leaked through her wraps and onto Rosie’s new sleeves, the ones I made her to convince her another baby in the family was worthy of celebration.” Nurse rocked back and forth as she laughed.
“She handed that baby to me and in a tone of such lofty, adult disgust, she announced, “Mamma, I do not know why you and Papà continue to produce such ill-mannered beasts as these.’” Juliet grimaced. “I should have known then what her future would hold.”
“What woman doesn’t want babies?” Nurse demanded.
“What woman wants baby poop?” Cook returned with prosaic good sense. — READ MORE of this bonus Daughter of Montague story (click Bonus Content! See phone and computer screenshots.)
I call this A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA bonus How Do You Solve a Problem Like…? (Any Sound of Music fans out there?) And yes! You’re welcome read the bonus even if you haven’t yet read the novel. Enjoy!
August Between the Chapters Book Club pick!
Remember to drop into the Between the Chapters book club on Facebook or GoodReads to discuss their August pick, A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA. (More details.) We’re having a great time, and you can enter to win these great prizes!
Two flower dagger bookmarks and…
A custom neon “Library” sign (as in, customized with your name or the name of a reader you really love and want to gift with this great prize.)
If you want to get prepared before you join (it’s not necessary, but some of us like to cram the study questions 🥴,) check out the Readers’ Guide at the back of the book or here on my Daughter of Montague website.
You can see all the available Readers’ Guides here on my Christina Dodd website. Please remember, if you want to pop between the two websites, look on the menu bar and click!
Honored to Be a Subscription Bookbox Pick for Shelves Bookstore!
Shelves Bookstore (online and brick and mortar in Charlotte NC) runs a Subscription Bookbox service and they picked A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA as one of their choices for August! I got to chat with Abbigail, the owner, and some of the readers about how I got the idea (my daughter did,) my research, the reviews/reactions to the story, and what’s upcoming for Rosie, Romeo and Juliet, and the whole Montague family.
They were so smart, outspoken, and generous I came away glowing. If you’d like to sign up for a subscription box and order A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA from Shelves Bookstore, mention that you heard it from my newsletter and you’ll get 20% off!
Finally, read the Rosie bonus story, sign up for Between the Chapters and the prizes, check out Shelves Bookstore and their subscription boxes, and until next time, may all your summer reads be beach reads!
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
New York Times bestseller
Printable/downloadable booklist sorted by genre, series and in order.
Books by Series with covers and links.
Organized people are too lazy to look for things. (Susan Mallery would so mock me for that!)
