saying …,” she comments, smoothing down her apron and pretending to be affronted.
A bell rings, and Bianca leans out of the window to peer down at the villa’s front steps. “It’s a messenger,” she tells us over her shoulder. “I’ll go down.”
Faustina is still sulking as we listen to the sound of subdued voices. Then there’s the clatter of feet and Bianca steps back into the room, holding out a note to me. I break the seal and read, aware of the others watching me.
You are needed later this evening. Come to us.
I recognize Grazia’s handwriting. The Segreta are summoning me. Good—now more than ever I need answers.
I roll the note back up and hold it to a candle flame so that it catches and quickly turns into burning flakes of ash that fall into the saucer. The bitter scent of smoke fills the room.
“You may leave me,” I tell Faustina and Bianca. When I look back up at them, their faces are full of questions. Questions that I won’t answer. I walk down the steps and find that the messenger boy is still standing in the doorway.
“Is there a reply that you want me to carry?” he asks, hopeful of earning a few coins.
I shake my head. “No reply.”
I’ll go to the Segreta in person. In times like these, I need to be among my own kind—with the other women who weave Venice’s tapestry of secrets.
The threads must be untangled if the bloodshed is to stop.
20
The sun sits low, just over the city’s many spires. Soon, it will dip below Venice’s skyline and we will all be forced to stay indoors, under the rules of the new curfew. I walk down a cobbled street with three other women—Allegreza, Grazia and a young woman called Sophia.
Four Venetian women, our faces hidden behind fans.
Four members of the Segreta, secrets hidden in our hearts.
The city is quiet—quieter than I’ve ever known it. A lace seller lounges on a stone bench beside her wares, looking sad and bored. Soon, I’m sure, she’ll disappear indoors to eat an evening meal alone. Perhaps even she has been touched by the news of Nicolo’s death.
We turn a corner and travel down a path lined on one side with a series of stone archways. Above each arch is carved a trefoil knot of three overlapping rings. They cast distorted circles of light and shade on the wall opposite. Sophia and I are honored to be among these two, selected for this private discussion, but thus far we have yet to touch upon the topic closest to my heart.
As Allegreza details the plan for dealing with Teresa’s husband, Silvio—a plan simple and direct—I’m thinking about the best way of opening the subject of Roberto and Aysim, Halim’s poor dead sister. For she must have been the girl I was sent to meet on Murano.
“By the time that monster leaves, he’ll have sworn never to raise his hand to a woman again,” Grazia says, her voice rich with satisfaction.
“Teresa’s not the only person in Venice who needs help,” I say. “Roberto may be out of his stinking jail cell, but he still stands accused of murder.”
“Everything in due course,” says Allegreza. “Are you sure you’re clear on the plan for Silvio?”
“Yes, yes,” I say, growing impatient. “But you said Aysim was coming here to meet us? There must be a clue, something …”
Allegreza raises a hand to halt my speech. “When the time is right, we will turn to these matters. Laura—you brought Teresa to us. Small plights are as important as big intrigues.”
I hold back the scream that wants to come. Roberto’s fate is more than an intrigue to me—my life is caught up with his. Can’t these women understand that? Are they so heartless? I think, then immediately feel guilty. Allegreza and Grazia are two of the most important women in the Segreta, and therefore in all of Venice, and have done more than anybody to change countless lives. I should not be so ungrateful; I should remember the patience I was taught at the convent.
Allegreza gives me a sympathetic glance as though she can read every thought. She leads us to a bench inside the archways. “Let us sit.”
Alleys stretch out in every direction, curving out of sight and into the unknown. This city is as convoluted as any intrigue.
After a pause to make sure no one is approaching, Allegreza begins talking. “Aysim risked a great deal coming to us.”
Grazia nods. So she too knows more