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“Sweet Isabel!” Mariana pleaded with her, already on her knees, grasping at Isabella’s hands and at her skirts like she was the devoutest pilgrim and Isabella the holiest saint. “Will you not kneel with me?”
Her heart was hollow, but as a novice nun, she knew about divine forgiveness for sin and she knew God would not want her to shirk her earthly duties for her own selfish moral failings. Isabella knelt beside Mariana and held up her hands to the Duke. Choking back the tears that threatened to close up her throat, she spoke passionately on Angelo’s behalf as she knew He would want her to do.
She finished her speech, Mariana echoing the last word in a broken cry. The Duke had looked thoughtfully at her the entire time, as though he really was considering every word she said, but he still shook his head. “Your suit’s unprofitable. Stand up, I say.”
They did so, Isabella half lifting Mariana to her feet as the other woman whimpered and wailed most piteously. All the fight seemed to have gone out of her entirely, and there wasn’t even enough energy in her to support herself once they were standing. She still leaned heavily on Isabella. Her hands were shaking terribly, and Isabella reached out and took them in her own, lending her support and strength through the steady embrace. She looked at Angelo, whose face was as white as his new bride’s. But he did not cry out as she did; rather, he watched the proceedings and heard the Duke’s words with a blank and grim face. He had accepted his crimes and was ready to be judged for them, which Isabella thought was brave but a little too late to be of any help. If only he had realized it sooner and held himself back from the temptations of lust and pride.
She had sincerely hoped that the Duke would pardon Angelo, as painful as it was to say it. Though she had censured him harshly moments ago, she had never learned to hold a hateful grudge, and she could not bring herself to wish ill on any man, not even one who had sinned against them all as he had.
The provost went and came back on the Duke’s orders, and when he returned to the street, he brought three others with him. Isabella looked over to see Juliet among their number, clutching her swollen belly as she walked with the other two prisoners and their guard. Her heart broke to think that her brother’s lover would feel his loss as keenly as she did. Though they had not been married when they committed their sin, Isabella knew they had been promised to each other and that only a woman who believed herself to be deeply in love with a man would be so free with herself and discard her honor in such a way. Though they had loved Claudio in very different ways, they alone could understand each other’s heart wrenching grief at his unfortunate end.
The other two men were strange to her. One had clearly been a prisoner for a long time, from the looks of his ragged beard and dirty clothes, but his unconcerned and surly expression showed that he had been brought before the Duke countless times before and had lost all fear of their ruling magistrate. Isabella supposed this was the Barnardine that the provost had just mentioned, the one whom he had reserved rather than sent to his death. For a brief instant, Isabella was filled with sickening jealousy that this unkempt and godless man had been saved rather than her own dear brother, but she quashed that thought instantly. It was a sin to wish for a man’s death, and even more so to wish that his life had been traded for another.
The other man was even more unknown, for his face was wrapped up with a dark cloth and only his shoulders down were visible. He stood very still and silent, and Isabella realized that the cloth was wide enough to prevent him from seeing under the bottom edge. Possibly, he could not speak due to the cloth, which was wrapped around his mouth as well. She did not know why he had to be wrapped up in this way, but it was likely on the Duke’s orders as well, and of course he knew his own reasoning to be sound.
The Duke talked at length with the provost, ultimately pardoning the prisoner and asking Friar Peter to look to his spiritual welfare. Mariana wept even more bitterly when she heard this, and Isabella knew that she too briefly hoped that her own loved one would be spared instead of this other man. The Duke spared them a quick glance, then turned back to the provost and asked the identity of the other, disguised man.
“This is another prisoner that I saved,” the provost answered promptly. “Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; as like almost to Claudio as himself.”
The Duke gestured for him to remove the cloth, and the provost did so with a calm, methodical air, unwinding it round and round. It had been wrapped around the man’s head many times, muffling his face completely, and as he finally pulled it free, Isabella gasped.
The provost was right; he was exactly Claudio’s twin. Her heart wrenched in two at the sight of her brother’s face on another man, haunting her from beyond the grave. But then he looked at her and his eyes opened wide in recognition as he saw her first before all others. “Dear Isabel,” he cried, and took a few steps toward her. “Sweet sister, I am freed!”
It was the tune of Claudio. It was Claudio. The entire assembled crowd stared at her brother with open mouths and widened eyes, except for the Duke who watched their amazement with a knowing smile. Of all the twists and turns and reveals in the last few minutes, this was the most miraculous, and Isabella would have fallen if she wasn’t holding onto Matriana. For a moment, both women supported each other, but then Mariana let out a shrieking gasp and turned to Angelo. Isabella realized it in the same instant; if Claudio was alive, Angelo could not be executed for his death.
Juliet gave a sob and threw her arms about him, and he hugged her tightly, even as the sudden sideways weight made them stagger. Her sudden movement made Isabella start, and she realized that it was really true, her brother was really here, she wasn’t deluding herself out of wishful thinking. Isabella leapt forward and ran to him, and this time tears really did come to her eyes. He saw her coming and released Juliet, barely having time to take a step forward before she was on him.
“Oh, Claudio, Claudio, Claudio!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck as she had done so many times before. He embraced her too, wrapping one arm above her waist and the other around her shoulders. His hand was shaking as he brushed it lightly over her hair, and Isabella realized that she was shaking too. She gripped the back of his coat and ducked her head into his shoulder, something she had done since he had grown taller than her in their youth.
Claudio bowed his head too and, in a low voice meant for her ears only, said, “I spoke much too quickly before, heedless of your wellbeing. I was out of my head with fear, but I see now that I was wrong to ask it of you. Please forgive me.”
Isabella didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded against his shoulder as she wept tears of relief and joy. After a minute of deep breathing, she managed to calm herself enough to pull away. His eyes were dark and sincere, searching her face for a second confirmation, and she nodded again. “Oh, brother, I forgive you, truly. But you must marry at once,” she said firmly, “the two of you.”
“We had always planned to,” Claudio said, looking at his future bride with a smile. “And this alters nothing, except, in truth, it makes me all the more eager for our marriage.”
“And me,” Juliet said, coming to stand beside them. She took Claudio’s hand and beamed up at him, and he raised a hand to her face, gently brushing back a curl of her hair that had come undone during her stay in prison. Then he moved it to her stomach, quite visible through the folds of her dress, and she placed her remaining hand atop his, lacing their fingers together.
“All will be well once He has witnessed your union,” Isabella promised them. “He will forgive your trespasses, and your sinful act shall be forgotten.”
Claudio leaned in to give his Julietta a kiss, and though Isabella would have ordinarily scolded him for showing such open affection in an open street, she found she didn’t have the heart to do so, just this once.