The Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato [90]
Leonora's mouth was dry. `What was it?'
'A letter. The last letter written by his ancestor Giacomo del Piero, as he was dying in the Piombi.'
They both turned as one to look through the loggia arches at the dark barred windows of the watery prison. Alessandro went on. `I didn't tell you any of this because the letter is pretty conclusive. He denounces Corradino as a traitor.'
Leonora tried to order her thoughts. `Then why did Roberto not simply have the contents of the letter published?'
`Because the end of the letter shows Giacomo in a pretty bad light. He reveals the existence of Corradino's daughter, and her whereabouts.!
'The Pietd.X
'Yes. I imagine Roberto was as precious about his ancestor's reputation as you are about yours. Denouncing an apprentice who has betrayed you is one thing, but condemning an innocent orphan girl to death is quite another!
'But she didn't die. She survived, and married, and lived happily ever after.'
`Well, Roberto must not have known that. And anyway, it's the denunciation itself which makes Giacomo look so bad.'
Leonora nodded. `Why didn't you tell me you were looking into all this for me? Why have you been so distant?'
`How could I be intimate with you when you weren't honest with me? You held Corradino to yourself, even when the ad campaigns and the article made him so public. You thought that because I was away from Venice I wouldn't know. You thought that somehow I would like you less if you were the descendant of a traitor rather than the maestro you had boasted of. How could I tell you that someone that mattered so much to you mattered nothing to me? It's you I love and you have to find yourself first, before I can find you.' He turned back to the canal. `And now, you are putting your obsession with a distant ancestor above the wellbeing of your own child. You're crazy. You should be thinking of him.'
`I'm doing this for him! I have to know before he is born! That's why I have to go to France. Don't you see? If Giacomo revealed Leonora's existence to The Ten and yet she lived then Corradino must have saved her somehow. I have to know.' Leonora clutched her glass heart for reassurance.
Alessandro caught the gesture and turned on her. `Why? So you can boast about him at dinner parties? Is your own life not enough? Do you need Corradino to define you? Why can you not simply say, I'm Leonora, I am a glassblower?'
`But I'm not! I'm not any more! That's why I have to clear his name. My job depends on his reputation. If he is redeemed then the Manin line will sell again and my family's profession is mine again.'
`Why must you rely on Corradino, and that stupid talisman you wear? Why can't you rely on me?'
Before Leonora could stop him he snatched the heart from her throat and threw it into the canal. It flew as far as the Bridge of Sighs, winking once as it disappeared into the arching shadow. They only heard, but did not see, the brief splash as the heart disappeared.
They both froze in shock at what had happened. At how much they could hurt one another. The glass heart, gone, meant they had reached a place from which there was no return. In this new insane universe where the centuries had telescoped, Alessandro faced the truth.
Corradino had become his rival.
Eyes shining with tears, Alessandro left her, pushing through the crowd and stumbling towards the Arsenale.
Leonora tried to call out, to tell him that he was right, as she knew he was. That she would not go to France. But she could make no sound. She tried to move but her feet were lead. Only when his black curls had completely disappeared from sight did she realize what was happening, as a band of pain wound tight around her belly, strong enough to make her gasp and clasp the balustrade. Concerned hands fluttered at her back, bystanders stopped to ask if she was alright. But she was not alright.
I am in labour.
CHAPTER 33
The Phantom
Giacomo didn't know how long he had been in the cell. From the length