soldi in return. Tallow let her benefactors organise her life, satisfied to go where they told her, dine and sleep with whomever she was instructed. They were pleased with her silent compliance, choosing not to question or explore the reasons behind it.
By mid-summer, Signorina Dorata was a regular on the party circuit and her evenings were filled with flirtatious conversations, long, languorous looks across laden dinner tables and sweet vinos, all unfolding against a backdrop of grand salons, exquisitely dressed men and women, the heady strains of music and flickering candles.
Her name spread throughout Serenissima, and sightings of her were reported as eagerly and with as much excitement as the comets that would occasionally arc their way across the firmament. Like the celestial bodies to which she was frequently compared, Tarlo Maleovelli dazzled those with whom she came in contact. Appearing only occasionally during the day, and then always hidden behind a golden mask, she truly shone at night. Wherever she was heading, whichever nobile was enjoying her charms, the path to his casa, whether paved by water or stones, would be lined with the popolani, sighing in pleasure as they glimpsed their city’s newest treasure, or threw favours at her feet, tucked as they were in their impossibly high zoccoli, beneath her glinting dress as she sat straight-backed in the prow of the gondola. She would neither wave nor acknowledge any gesture; her lips remained curled in a fixed position, her eyes modestly lowered, though everyone who saw her swore she smiled for them alone.
It was rumoured that Doge Dandolo kept a room in the palazzo just for his assignations with the mysterious beauty, that even his sons, the Princes, who also enjoyed her favours, were forced to find alternate venues for their encounters. It was said that one night with Signorina Dorata was worth every golden ducat she charged; that she was incomparable in her skills, conversation, and the pleasure she gave. Nobiles went to almost any length to secure her services – offered, spent and exhausted fortunes to be able to say they had spent a night in the golden beauty’s arms.
Would-be lovers penned ardent promises, poems were published describing her charms in metaphors and impossible similes. Artists denied permission to paint her nonetheless used their imagination, and images of her were soon hanging in casas and scuolas around Serenissima.
As friend, lover or enchanting companion, Signorina Dorata’s fame grew and spread, even out to the furthest of Serenissima’s colonies, including newly acquired lands in the Contested Territories of Judea; so too did her price. Some called her an enchantress; others less kind a witch. Men were entranced by her, while to their wives she was the enemy they loathed and to their daughters the woman they longed to be. It was said that even young novitiates from the Convent di Redentore made a pilgrimage to Nobiles’ Rise in the hope they would see her.
Signor Maleovelli and Giaconda basked in Tarlo’s reputation and were modest about the soldi they were acquiring. Colleganzas were struck, debts repaid, and the Maleovellis’ social standing rapidly rose. Whereas once they were remembered mainly for their lost fortune and status and for their absence from many a nobile’s table, now they enjoyed one for business acumen and for possessing an eye for potential.
When Jacopo returned from the Contested Territories and, inexplicably, the Moronisinis forwent any of the profit made in the risky venture in order to enter into a new colleganza with the Maleovellis, many were not surprised. Or, if they were, they did not articulate it. Instead, they watched and waited and hoped that they too would have the opportunity to engage in business with the Maleovellis who, it seemed, God had chosen to bless in abundance.
Thanking God was not beyond the Maleovellis either as they attended services in the Doge’s basilica every week, muttering prayers, using the holy water, listening with rapt attention to the Cardinale’s increasingly fervent sermons, railing against the evils of heresy, of the Estrattore and pagan practices. If the congregation were distracted by the presence of Signorina Dorata rather than the words the Cardinale delivered with passion from the pulpit, well, no-one really minded. Attendance increased until there was standing room only. Collection plates brimmed with soldi and donations to the Church soared. Even the Cardinale overcame his initial disapproval of courtesans as he appreciated what their presence among his flock, especially that of Signorina Dorata, did to his purse. The time he kissed Signorina Dorata’s hand