Such Sweet Sorrow by Jenny Trout Read Free Book Online

should not feel the smallest amount of shame at being drawn in, should you ultimately prove false and murder me.”
    If Hamlet had been anyone else in the word, he would have had a stiletto in his gut already for accusing them of being spies and insulting Romeo’s honor. But looking into the prince’s eyes, Romeo saw a mad desperation he could not help but pity. Whatever had happened to this young man, it had been severe enough that he would invite two suspected assassins into his quarters for…
    What had he called them here for?
    “You said you could help us,” Laurence reminded Hamlet, his gentle voice a thunderclap that broke the quiet tension of the room. “Perhaps you could tell us how? And why on earth you would wish to?”
    “I wish to,” Hamlet began, slowly straightening, “because I have recently been called upon to avenge a murder, and to protect a doorway separating the land of the living from the realm of the dead. I’m not entirely sure how factual either of those statements are, as they were told to me by the ghost of my father.”
    Romeo’s heart thundered against his ribs so furiously he was certain his bones would break. “A doorway—”
    “Between the land of the living and the realm of the dead,” Hamlet repeated wearily. “I understand how mad it sounds. I wasn’t sure I could trust the apparition that came to me in my father’s face. I was told—as was all of Denmark—that King Hamlet had been bitten by a viper and died. Then my father’s ghost appeared to me and warned that he had been murdered by his own brother, Claudius, who sits on my throne in my stead.”
    “You want to be king?” Romeo wondered how much of this story was false, and his doubt turned to shame. The prince had believed a tale of witches and convoluted suicide. Romeo owed it to him to take him at his word.
    “No! That would be horrible. Far too much responsibility. What I want is for my father to be king. As I can’t have that, though, I must either accept his murderer on his throne, or take on the crown myself.” Neither choice sounded appealing, the way the prince spoke of them.
    “That still doesn’t answer my question, your highness,” Laurence reminded them both. “With deepest respect, I must ask… why would you help Romeo seek his beloved?”
    “Because I don’t know what’s beyond the doorway.” Hamlet shrugged as though it were perfectly clear, and he was astounded at the foolishness of the strangers before him. “I’m supposed to protect it, and that’s all very well. But I don’t know what it is, and I’m not certain how I can protect it without that knowledge. I can take you to it, you can go through, save your Juliet, bring her back through the portal and report back to me.”
    “How do you know it works that way?” Horatio asked. He had been silent for a long time, and it occurred to Romeo that the prince’s companion rarely spoke, unless it was to impart something crucial. He went on, “You’ve never been through the portal. How do you know Romeo can come back? How do you know he could bring back the girl?”
    “I stuck my head in,” Hamlet argued. “It came out again. And my father’s ghost was able to traverse the corpseway. I see no reason that it might not work exactly as I’ve described.”
    All the while they had traveled on this quest, Romeo had desperately wished to hear just such an offer laid out so neatly for him that it would be impossible to resist. But considering the source, the slightly mad source…
    Laurence had asked him where he would put his faith once he lost it again. It seemed he had only one choice; this strange prince who’d spoken at length about spirits and death in an alehouse, and who now offered help so nonchalantly in matters of raising the dead.
    Anything to save Juliet.
    Hamlet’s voice lowered, and his posture became very severe indeed. “You must swear a vow of secrecy, upon your very heart’s blood. You must swear that you will