Verona in Autumn: What next for Romeo and Juliet? by Tom Lloyd

Author:Tom Lloyd [Lloyd, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SRL Publishing
Published: 2023-04-10T22:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

‘How could this happen?’

Juliet stands in the middle of their chamber, hands raised to the heavens as she looms over her seated husband. By contrast Romeo is calm, strangely accepting of what has transpired. When she receives no answer she turns her glower upon Francesco instead.

‘How did you allow this, my Lord Governor?’

He blinks. ‘They gave me no choice!’

‘No choice? You are governor of the city! You have troops at your disposal and the full authority of the duke of Milan.’

Under the weight of her fury he feels himself edging back and is forced to rally his spirit. ‘Had I warning of your husband’s intent to surrender, I would have never offered battle! I did not expect them to be in agreement, my Lady – Montague and Capulet perhaps, but Romeo was co-conspirator in this deed.’

‘Did they trick you? My heart, why did you agree to such a thing?’

Finally Romeo turns and looks from Francesco to his wife. ‘It was my duty,’ he says at last. ‘Our goal is peace in Verona, an end to the feud that plagues it.’

‘So you offer your own life for the sins of all others? Husband of mine, king of my heart – you take on a burden no mortal man could bear! You cannot undo the past, that is in God’s hands alone. You wish a better future for all Verona, this I understand, but you will not find it on the sword-tips of your enemies. Why then do you cast yourself upon them?’

‘I do not.’

‘Do you have then some cunning stratagem? Devised in the moments between leaving my side and passing through that gate?’ Juliet knees at his side and takes her husband’s hand. ‘Romeo, please tell me why. A crown of thorns ill suits you, my heart. After all we have risked, all we have survived, why would you deliver yourself into their hands?’

‘Because I must,’ he says firmly. He looks up at his wife, his face strangely serene.

‘Because Verona is greater than you or I. Because my children and my wife are what I care about above all things. My actions twenty years ago have caused such hurt and so many problems they cannot be ignored. No – hush your words, my love. I do not willingly scale the gibbet here. I intend to defend myself and trust to the justice of man and God’s mercy both.’

‘But the risk?’

He shakes his head. ‘The risk must be embraced. We are here to change Verona’s future, but you cannot alter course by words alone. A ship does not obey the tiller perfectly and here, the tide is against us, my love. If we ignore that we shall break it and be left adrift to the vagaries of a cold and uncaring sea. My deeds have hung above us all for too long. We must remove that sword of Damocles before there can be any change in Verona.’

‘You do not remove it, Romeo, by sawing at the thread that holds it!’

‘No, my love, you do not.

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