“She was very beautiful,” I tell him. She still is, I think. “I can see why you fight for her honor.”
If he knows the victim wasn’t his sister, why is he pretending? Unless …
“I would lay down my life for yours too,” he says.
Hastily, I get to my feet, feeling a little unsteady. Halim leaps up to help me. Whatever intimacy I felt is gone, but I must keep up a pretense. I take his hand and press my lips against them. A chaste kiss.
“Will you think about what I said?” he asks as I give him his pendant back.
“I will, of course.”
He strokes a hand down my face. “I’ll come for you once all this is over. I hope you understand, Laura. I have to do what I came here to do.”
“I understand,” I say. “I understand everything.”
40
I ignore the ship’s crew and disembark with quick, sure steps.
My mind is swirling. A street entertainer wearing a harlequin’s outfit prances before me, hoping to earn a few coins. I shake my head and storm past him, nearly oblivious to the low curses he sends after me.
I find myself in a small piazza and sit on a fountain ledge to think. I imagine that Allegreza is by my side, probing me with questions to tease out the truth and its significance.
Perhaps he was mistaken?
But no. I remember the sight of my own poor sister in her coffin. Despite the ravages of death, I still knew her face. There’s no way Halim could have made such an error. He was so sure. And why did he ask to see the body in the first place, unless he already had an idea about what he would find? How is it that no one wondered about this before? The implications are almost too horrifying to contemplate. It would mean that all he’s said is part of a ruse. He’s not declaring war on Venice in the name of Aysim’s honor—he’s doing it to suit his own ends. He’s trying to sow discord among his enemy by blaming an innocent man. When I think how carefully the Doge has tried to placate him, how the whole of Venice has been besmirched by his claims that we are a heartless nation, how Roberto has fled and politicians have flourished. How I … how I allowed myself … And Massimo and the rebels are playing into his hands—
“Laura!”
I swivel round and see Paulina. She’s much changed since our encounter in the church. She’s freshened herself up and tidied her hair and it looks as though she has managed to eat something, judging by the color in her cheeks. I’m glad—but confused to see her here. As we sat in the chapel, she seemed terrified of all that was afoot in Venice and keen to hide away, even to cut herself free of the Segreta.
“I’m glad to see you looking so well,” I tell her.
“Did I see you coming from Halim’s ship?” she asks.
I nod. “I was hoping to dissuade him from his plans.” Guiltily, I rearrange the ribbons on my dress, covering myself up. But Paulina doesn’t seem to notice. She shakes her head bitterly.
“Sometimes I think Venice deserves to suffer for all its pride.”
Her words startle me. Partly because they could be construed as treasonous in these times, but also …
“I have to be going,” she says. “My mother is expecting me at home. Take care of yourself, Laura.”
As I watch her leave, stepping out of the square, her words still echo within me. I realize why they’ve left me ice-cold.
I’ve heard them before.
That, and her polished appearance, are making my pulse quicken. And why is she heading the wrong way? Her mother’s home is in the northwest of the city, while she took the eastern path.
In an instant, I decide to follow her.
Yes, those words—Venice and her pride. Carina said something similar—months ago—just before she tried to kill me on the boat.
It could be a coincidence, but it could be something far worse.…
A traitor in the Segreta.
Paulina picks up her pace as she winds through the streets and alleys, and I move after her, pausing at turnings to give her space. This is definitely not the direction of Paulina’s home. As we travel farther from the harbor, the cobbles become loose, and paint peels at the shuttered windows. Rats chase each other down the open drains. We’re entering the poorer part of the city—a place where young noblewomen are advised not to travel