The Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato [89]
Excellency, if your humble servant may be so bold, I urge you to make such necessary enquiries of the Murano community, of any absence among their number - even a death.
For my own part I will take further steps to bring the identity of this man into the light.
Make haste, Excellency, I beg of you, else our monopoly is lost.
Your servant,
Baldasar Guilini, Venetian Ambassador to the Court of France.
CHAPTER 32
The Lost Heart
The letter fluttered in Alessandro's fingers.The breeze stirred their costumes as they stood, on the Riva bridge, facing the Bridge of Sighs, their gondola ride over. The sun was hot at their backs, and Leonora turned to warns the baby. She was silent - she did not want to say it. Alessandro spoke first. `It's him.'
It was still a shock to hear it like that.
`It has to be - the age, description, everything. And the date - it's written just a few months after Corradino's "death"!
Leonora nodded. `I know'
She turned back to lean on the parapet with him.
`I have to go to France.!
'Yes'
`I have to find out for sure. Professore Padovani has some contacts at the Sorbonne. They'll have more records there:
Alessandro nodded. `Next year, when the baby can travel, we'll all go. I can take leave, and ...'
`I have to go now.'
Alessandro shut his eyes.When he opened them his voice was level.
`Leonora, you are eight months pregnant. You cannot possibly travel now You can't fly, for one thing.'
`I can go by train - or by boat like Corradino.'
`Fuck Corradino!' The explosion shocked them both. The silence that followed seemed to still the very revelers themselves. Alessandro tempered his voice. `Any journey at this stage will put you under enormous stress. And what if you go into labour on the train? Or in France? Our baby should be born here, in Venice, as I was and as you were. Not in some hospital in Paris. I won't allow it.'
`You won't allow it?' Leonora was stung - she knew he spoke the truth, that she was losing the battle, but she perversely resented Alessandro's propriatorial tone.
`You're carrying my child.'
`Then act like it!' Leonora clutched at the glass heart and lost her head. All her resolutions, to be measured and dispassionate, faded away as her rage boiled. `Why don't you commit to me? Why can't you be in my life all the time, instead of coming and going like the tide? Is it because of Vittoria?'
`What?ff
'Yes, you think I don't know, but your own cousin told me what you wouldn't. You're still seeing her aren't you? Last night, in fact, when you were "working late"?'
Her voice had risen, and passers by were looking on with curiosity at this piece of street theatre. Alessandro drew her below the loggia and forced her to sit on one of the cool marble benches.
`Sit down. You're getting far too agitated for someone of your condition.'
`I like your sudden concern.'
His voice was measured. `Leonora, whether you know it or not, you and this child are the most important people in my life.'
`And Vittoria?' she spat. The woman that tied me in knots, and rubbished me in public for all to read? Why are you still seeing her if you are so loyal?'
`Listen.' He sighed. `It's true I asked to see her. Wait,' as Leonora cried out. `I knew all about Corradino, and the article. You didn't tell me, couldn't share your inner life with me.You let me think that you were looking for your father, but I knew of the real object of your interest. I went to see Roberto after Vittoria's article, to see if I could find out the truth with my new "official" status.' He sketched inverted commas in the air. `But it seems he has emigrated, to France of all places, taking his secrets with him. That only left Vittoria.' He turned to look at Leonora full in the face. `Last night was the one and only time that I've seen her. I asked her to show me