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By Root 346 0

grew like a water drop. Quickly she twisted off the bulb and began to marver it with her borselle tongs, making the creased depression between the two ears of the heart. But it was too late - the interior bubble had collapsed and separated, the lugs were different sizes. Leonora cooled the heart, and dropped it into a bucket at her feet, to be re-melted later. She began again.This time, she breathed the parison quickly, like a gasp, and had better success, but still this second heart joined the first in the bucket. She worked on, for perhaps an hour, oblivious to the sounds of the staff leaving the showroom, to sounds of cashing up, locking up. She was genuinely startled at a tap on her shoulder.

It was Adelino. `Leonora mia, it is time for me to go home, therefore I'm damned sure it's time for you to go home' He spoke in his usual, half-gruff, half-affectionate tones.

But his voice warmed as he saw the task she had set herself. `Ah, the elusive glass heart. Molto dile, vero?'

Leonora nodded ruefully. Adelino crouched and began to sort through her bucket of rejects - now full. `Yes, as you see, very difficult. But these are not bad. What did you find wanting about this one?' He held up her last attempt. It seemed to him perfect, but Leonora had seen some anomaly in it. It was strange - with Alessandro, she wanted to believe that all was right; endlessly she made excuses and allowances to preserve her hopes. At the fornace she sought perfection and accepted no less. Even if everything looked in order, but her eyes were seeking hidden fissures, imperfect reflections, skewed illumination.

`It's not right,' she said stubbornly.

Adelino smiled, and stood. `Always the perfectionist, eh? Actually, I'm glad you're here. I wanted to show you this.' He proffered a glossy photo. `It's the first press ad. It's due to run on Monday.' Leonora, with studied nonchalance, closed the Porno door and turned off the gas feed. Mentally she was preparing herself for the image - the picture that would launch her on the public. She took the print and perused it carefully. It wasn't bad. Ironically, they had gone with a Titian image first - a mock-up of herself dressed as Titian's famous Woman with a Mirror. One hand clasped a bundle of her flowing hair and the other held a glass orb. The image in the mirror showed the busy fornace, with her modern self stooping over the furnace. She looked at the picture for a long moment. Adelino took her silence for disapproval.

`Leonora,' he seemed to hesitate. `I'm not a bad man. This is a tasteful, classy, campaign. It will benefit all of us. And besides,' she met his eyes at last `I think you are ready to be a maestra. I think you are ready to make the pieces that we sell.'

Leonora felt numb, searching his eyes to detect a joke. She had been here a mere four months. Surely that was too soon to metamorphose from apprentice to maestra.

`Adelino, how much of this is to do with the Manin campaign? I want to earn promotion on my merits, not on the back of these ads.'

Adelino took back the picture. `Look. Obviously it helps the campaign if you are a maestra here and not just a servente. But I wouldn't be offering you the chance unless I thought you were worthy. If these past few weeks have taught you anything about me, you'll know that I prize the reputation of my business above anything. I wouldn't let substandard glass be sold from this foundry.' Adelino bent to pick from the bucket the last heart she had made. `This is true, and clear. It's good. Don't be so grudging. It's an excellent chance for you.'

Leonora relented. `I am grateful. Thank you. I won't let you down.' As she turned to pick up her jacket Adelino surreptitiously put the heart she had made in his pocket.

`Now, please, clean up this God-awful mess. And clear off, so I can lock up' They shared a smile at his affected gruffness.

His secret rescue had come just in time. For Leonora, before she shut the last firehole door, threw the bucket of imperfect hearts onto the dying heat of the coals, to melt down for gather the next day. She grabbed