Heart of Glass (14 page)

“Fight me,” Halim demands. He looks close to tears now, his anger transformed into something else. Despite everything, I feel a wave of sympathy for him. It is grief that has brought him to this.

Roberto shakes his head. He keeps his face neutral, neither mocking nor full of pity. There’s a flicker to one side
and I glance over to see a woman whispering into someone’s ear. Already this scene has become gossip. Halim must notice too, and something passes behind his eyes. All of a sudden the anger has returned. He shoves Roberto hard in the chest with his hand and draws back his sword, ready to strike.

“No!” I shout. The servant who rescued Roberto’s sword stands beside me and I snatch it from him. My hand slides around the hilt and my feet slap against marble as I rush forward. Ringing metal echoes as my blade parries Halim’s.

“Get back!” Roberto hisses to me. I don’t respond. My eyes are trained on Halim’s. There’s respect there, but confusion too, as if he doesn’t understand my gesture.

“Step away,” I urge him, my muscles straining as I hold back the weight of his blade.

“My sister’s spirit watches,” he tells me. “
You
step away!”

I shake my head. “There’s been enough killing today.”

“Laura,” the Doge protests. It is the first time he’s said anything. But it’s too late.

Halim gives a sudden twist of the wrist, bringing his sword beneath mine. Another jerk and my weapon goes clattering to the floor and I stagger sideways. Halim raises his sword into the air and steps towards Roberto, his face implacable. Roberto jerks sideways to avoid a lunge. Halim swipes and just misses his throat.

“He’s unarmed!” The shout comes from Nicolo, who throws himself forward, panic twisting his features. His eyes lock onto Halim’s face, widening in recognition. I drop my glance to his chest and see what everyone else has already witnessed: Halim’s blade between his ribs.

Nicolo sinks to his knees as blood trickles down the curved metal, spattering in fat droplets on the floor. Howls of shock and sudden grief fill the room. Nicolo’s mouth hangs open, and scarlet rivulets run between his fingers. I hear a scream and realize it’s my own.

19

With a grunt, Halim pulls his blade free, and Nicolo tips forward to fall facedown on the marble, his blood spreading quickly in a crimson pool. The Ottoman prince stares at him, an appalled expression on his face. He looks up at Faruk, as though seeking guidance. But the older man gives nothing away. He closes his eyes and lowers his head, murmuring under his breath. A prayer, I suppose.

My first thought is for Paulina. My friend is too young to be a widow.
This will kill her
.

Roberto pushes past us and kneels beside Nicolo, gently cupping a hand behind his brother’s head. A woman throws herself down beside him, murmuring reassurances. I recognize her as one of the Duchess’s closest servants. The Duchess! How will she find the strength to bear this?

People are crowding round now, leaving me standing alone on the outskirts.

“Get back! Give him some air.” Roberto’s voice cuts through the wails.

“Leave us!” calls the Doge.

Slowly, the courtiers seep away, casting horrified glances as they retreat. Roberto turns Nicolo onto his back, and his brother’s head hangs awkwardly to one side, blood frothing at his mouth. I hear a ragged breath. Nicolo gazes at his brother, eating up the sight of him as Roberto brushes a damp lock of hair out of his eyes.

“My brave brother,” Roberto murmurs.

Nicolo attempts a smile but it quickly disappears in a grimace of pain. A woman muffles a sob and turns to hide her face in her companion’s shoulder. Nicolo seems to be forming his mouth around a word. Roberto bends his head closer. “Paulina,” Nicolo gasps. Then his head lolls back.

Carefully, Roberto lays his body flat on the floor. He brushes his palm over his brother’s eyelids to close them. The Duchess’s servant lifts a crucifix that hangs from her neck and kisses the tiny figure of Christ, beginning a prayer under her breath.

Halim is still watching, his sword now on the floor at his feet. He shakes his head, over and over, but doesn’t utter a word. When he finally looks up, his eyes meet mine. I’m not sure what I see there. Hostility? Regret? Fear? He turns sharply on his heel and marches from the room. The rest of the Ottoman party scurries after him. Only Faruk glances over his shoulder as he leaves.

Soon, the room is empty, barring myself, Roberto and the Doge. A starling sings outside the window, breaking the silence.

“What now?” I ask.

“Now we arrest Prince Halim!” a voice calls from the doorway. We turn, and I see Julius standing there—
Carina’s father and Grazia’s estranged husband. How it must cut his pride, to see the Doge’s son laid out, blood pouring from a sword wound.

But the Doge shakes his head. “We cannot.”

“He killed your son.”

“Ambassadors are protected by Venetian law,” Roberto says, bending to smooth Nicolo’s tunic. “Diplomacy must rule, even now.” He looks up at his father, and the Doge nods in agreement.

“But surely, in circumstances such as these …” Julius begins to protest. “Laura, tell them!” He must be desperate, if he is appealing to me.

I can barely look at Nicolo’s body—I’ve already seen too many corpses in my short life. “We must do as the Doge wishes,” I say quietly.

Servants have started to file back into the room. The Doge speaks without looking at them. “Take my son from this place,” he commands. “He must be laid out.”

The servants crowd closer, uncertain how best to proceed. It takes Roberto to organize them.

“You, at the head. You, come here and take the weight of his torso. One man at each leg and arm.” On Roberto’s count, they lift Nicolo. He sags heavily—all that light youth turned to meat. His skin is already fading to white, and as he is raised up, we see the sticky blood pooled on the marble beneath him. It’s too much to bear.

The Doge stands beside me, his face unreadable. Roberto’s eyes watch vacantly as the servants turn out of the doorway, and the body is gone. We stand at the three corners of an invisible triangle. Then the inevitable comes. A screech of agony as the Duchess’s voice rings out.

This morning, she celebrated the partial liberation of her eldest son. Now, she mourns the death of her youngest. My own eyes are dry as her cries fill the palace. My fingernails dig into the palms of my hands to stop the tears, and my mind turns to someone else.

Where is poor Paulina?

After a long while, I make my way back home. I’ve done my best to comfort the Duchess, but my words seemed empty even to me, and I left her maid giving her a sleeping draught as she lay on tear-soaked pillows. I am exhausted in body and spirit.

Faustina enters the room with none of her customary bustle. Bianca follows, clutching a pile of laundry.

“They’ve called a curfew from sundown,” Faustina whispers. “All across the city.” She sits beside me on the window seat and we look out over Venice. She places a hot hand over mine and muffles a sob. “To think it has come to this! Nicolo dead at the hand of an evil foreigner. I knew we should never have welcomed them into the city.” She shakes her head bitterly.

“Prince Halim is not to blame,” I say. Bianca is folding clothes over by the bed, and pauses in her work.

“That’s not what they’re saying on the streets,” she tells me. “A rug stall was burned to the ground this afternoon—the owner wasn’t even Turkish! I’m glad we have to stay housebound. It’s dangerous out there.” She brings a lace shawl and Faustina takes it from her to wrap around my shoulders.

“Why do you defend the prince?” Faustina asks. “He tried to kill Roberto and then slaughtered Nicolo. How does he deserve your pardon?”

“I was there,” I say. “I saw the grief in his face. He wasn’t thinking.…” I draw the shawl tighter around me. “You could say that this is all
my
fault. If I hadn’t got involved in the duel, Nicolo wouldn’t have come to my defense!”

The two servants watch my face with wide eyes. Bianca looks as though she could burst into tears at any moment.

“Now, now,” scolds Faustina. “Enough of that. It’s not your fault that angry men were holding swords.”

I know she’s right, of course. But it doesn’t make me feel any better.

“I hear that Halim has fled Venice,” Bianca says. She sits on the floor at my feet.

“I hear the same,” Faustina adds. “He’s taken his sister’s body to the mainland for burial. Good riddance, I say!”

I jump up from the window seat. “Stop it,” I say. “The poor man is mourning his sister. We all know how that is, don’t we?” I glare at my servants, daring them to remember Beatrice’s coffin.

Bianca’s face colors, but Faustina stares back at me stubbornly. “I’m only 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.”