The Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato [94]
`There is but one thing you can do to secure her safety. If you do this, she will be unharmed and may live out her days in peace in the Pieta or in marriage!
`What? Dear God, what, anything.'
`We are aware, of course, that you have passed on somewhat of your specialist knowledge to an apprentice. He, of course, will be taken care of.'
Jesu, not Jacques too. He was young; at least Giacomo had been old. A sorry pair of men, at either end of life's journey, who shared a name, a way with the glass, and a friendship for me - the man who has murdered them both.
`What must I do?' Now, almost a scream. Corradino looked savagely in the mirror, tired of the charade.
The Ambassador steepled his hands before his face and blinked his hooded eyes. `You must go back.'
CHAPTER 35
Pity
Alessandro had no clear plan. He walked down the Riva degli Schiavoni in a daze, through the colourful crowds. He did not know if he was angry or sad or sorry or all these things. He didn't know whether to go back to Leonora or just see her back at her flat later. He didn't know whether to go back at all.
He needed peace to soothe his aching head. As he stumbled along in the direction of the Arsenale a dark door welcomed him. He fell through it.
Dark, peace and cool respite from the sun. A church. He was alone at last save for a single sacristan lighting candles for mass in the Lady chapel. A smell of incense that recalled the childhood masses at which he served as an altar boy. Alessandro had not been one for church since. But as he sank into the cool wooden pew he realized he had been to this church before. For over his head, looming from the dark, was an exquisite chandelier. A veritable cathedral of spider-spun silk, which he remembered from times past.
The Pieta.
Alessandro smiled at the irony. He had come here to escape Corradino, and yet his work was all around. And yet, Alessandro too had history here - for it was here that he had first seen Leonora. In that moment he knew he would go back, knew he couldn't be without her. She was stubborn and wrongheaded, but he loved her. Baby or no baby, he would go back.
A baby. Corradino had had a child too. Another Leonora. With a jolt, Alessandro recalled what his Leonora had said: `But she didn't die ... she lived happily ever after.' The fairytale phrase revolved in his head, to be joined by another.
Once upon a time Corradino's daughter had lived here.
All at once, like a revelation, Alessandro saw how it had been. He saw in his mind the literal, pictorial definition of the Pieta, seen a thousand times repeated as a favoured motif of the Renaissance artists. The embodiment of pity; the Virgin Mary cradling the dead, crucified Jesus. But what Alessandro saw now in his mind's eye was the inversion of this trope. He and his unborn baby, and Corradino holding his daughter in his arms. His baby. Alessandro rose like one who had witnessed a miracle. Corradino could not leave his child behind for ever any more than Alessandro could. Leonora was right - he must have saved her. He would cross oceans, weather storms, fight dragons for the flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood. Corradino may have been an artist and a genius but he was still a man, and they shared this common bond. Just men after all. Alessandro moved through the pews on respectful feet and approached the sacristan who was lighting the flames, and as he asked what he had to ask he felt the first flicker of humanity, the first warmth of fellowship, for Corradino Manin.
CHAPTER 36
Mercury
Jacques waited for Corradino in the secret furnace room at Versailles. He was not concerned by his master's lateness, although it was, 'tis true, the first time he had been there before Corradino. Jacques knew his master had the most exalted of protectors