Belladonna soter-2

by Fiona Paul

  “I think he liked you,” Siena teased.

  Cass gave her a dark look. That was the last thing she needed—another boy to add to the mix. “I think he just liked my gold,” she said.

  They tried the bakery next. The walls were painted a soothing pink, and the whole place smelled of olive oil and freshly baked bread. A three-tiered pastry platter sat on the countertop, each level filled with a different flavor of tart. The shop was empty except for the baker, who was wrapping up a purchase, and a woman who was arranging her coins on the counter, her back facing the door. She was tall and blonde, with an elaborately braided hairdo.

  Cass froze for a second. Her heart pounded in double time as she approached the woman.

  “Signorina Cass—” Siena had wandered up to the counter to admire the selection of pastries.

  Cass held up a hand and Siena fell quiet. “Excuse me.” Cass gently touched the woman’s shoulder.

  The woman looked up from the counter. “Yes?” she asked with a curious smile.

  Cass’s heart plummeted into her stomach. It wasn’t Hortensa.

  “Mi dispiace,” Cass murmured. “I thought you were someone else.”

  The woman took her purchase from the baker and smiled again as she left the shop. Reluctantly, Siena turned away from the platter of tarts.

  Cass pulled a copper coin from her leather pouch. “Let’s get a couple of pastries, shall we?” she said. “Then the morning won’t be a total loss.”

  She paid the baker, who unfortunately had not heard of the Zanottas, for two pastries and handed the larger one to Siena. They returned to the square to find Madalena clutching a shiny golden box with a scarlet ribbon. “I bought the pearls,” she gushed. “Marco won’t mind. He’s been saying he wanted to take me shopping. This way I did all the work for him.”

  Cass sighed. At least someone was getting something accomplished.

  * * *

  After dinner, Madalena frowned when Cass said she was heading to the piazza. “Again, Cass? I was hoping you might want to come with me to tea,” she said. “Stella’s gotten us an invitation to Palazzo di Alighieri. The signora is descended from the writer Dante.”

  Cass had thoroughly enjoyed La Davina Commedia and would have loved to go to tea with Signora di Alighieri, but Luca had less than three weeks to live. “I really have to go back, Mada,” Cass said. “Luca is depending on me.”

  Madalena frowned, and Cass could tell she wanted to say more. Mada probably thought Cass’s quest to save Luca was insane, and that Cass should just start to accept the reality that her fiancé would be executed.

  She wasn’t ready to do that. She would never be ready.

  So the two girls went their separate ways. Siena dutifully followed Cass out to the square and walked beside her as she continued going from shop to shop, asking the shopkeepers if they knew of Donna Hortensa Zanotta. Both a jeweler and a weaver were familiar with the name, but neither could tell Cass where she lived.

  Feliciana found them at the hottest point of the afternoon. The sun shined down on the dark stones of the piazza, making the heat radiate up through the soles of Cass’s shoes. She fanned herself desperately, almost as warm as she had been the day she visited Luca in the Doge’s prison.

  “The mistress and Madalena have returned from tea and want to know if you’ll be joining us for the evening meal,” Feliciana said. Turning to her sister, she added, “Signora Alioni thought maybe we could help her get caught up on washing the linens. Her washwoman is ill.”

  Cass was starving, but she’d questioned only three-quarters of the shop owners and wanted to speak with all of them before the sun went down. She felt like if she left the piazza, she’d miss her one chance to find out something that could help Luca. Someone had to have seen the donna. “I’m just going to buy some bread from a vendor,” Cass said. “But go ahead, Siena. I’ll be all right.” She didn’t want to keep Siena from a chance to spend time with her sister.

  “But Signorina Cass . . .” Siena flicked her eyes from Feliciana to Cass, her lips twisting into a frown. Finally she followed her sister back toward Palazzo Alioni.

  Cass watched her leave and then returned to the bakery, where she bought a fresh loaf of bread and a crock of honey. Spreading her skirts around her, she sat on the low wall that ran around the periphery of the piazza and watched the people pass before her in all directions. Many of the women wore gloves, but Cass checked all the uncovered hands for rings with the flower insignia. When she finished eating, she tossed the remnants of her crust of bread to the cobblestones for the birds to pick at and resumed quizzing anyone who would listen to her about Hortensa. The sun passed across the sky and started to set, and still, Cass had learned nothing.

  “The name Zanotta sounds familiar . . .” A tall woman with her hair wrapped into a high cone on her head fiddled with one of her lace cuffs. “A donna, you say? Is she related to the Padua Zanottas?”

  “I’m not certain,” Cass said. “But thank you for your time.” She had just caught sight of a boy with a thick leather sack slung across his chest. A messenger! If anyone knew where to find Hortensa, he would.

  The boy wore a black cap pulled low over his ears and a thin chemise covered by only a doublet hanging open. He pulled a small canteen from his satchel and took a long gulp, wiping his mouth with one hand as he recapped the bottle.

  “Excuse me,” Cass called as she hurried across the piazza. She waved one of her gloved hands in the messenger’s direction, but he didn’t seem to notice her. He turned and headed toward the corner of the piazza.

  Cass swore under her breath. She ran after him, clumsily cutting between the throngs of people. She pushed past a man with a long braided beard who was peddling necklaces made of dark green stones and nearly tripped over a peasant woman who had bent down to tend to her child. Luckily, the messenger stopped to take another swig from his canteen and Cass managed to catch up. She reached out and clamped a hand down on his shoulder.

  He looked up in surprise. “Bongiorno. Do you have a letter you wish to be delivered?”

  Cass paused for a moment to catch her breath. “Actually, I’m looking for someone. Donna Hortensa Zanotta. A Venetian.”

  The messenger frowned. “Palazzo Zanotta. I know it. It is south of the Piazza della Signoria, just north of the Arno. Down one of the side streets. A bit tricky to locate.”

  Cass was so excited, she could have kissed him. She repeated the directions to herself so that she wouldn’t forget. Casting a quick glance back at Palazzo Alioni, Cass decided to pay a visit to Hortensa immediately. She wasn’t convinced she could get the donna to admit to lying, but knew there was a greater chance Hortensa would tell her the truth if Cass went to see her alone. Besides, Siena was probably still doing chores with Feliciana, and Cass didn’t want to steal away her handmaid’s limited time with her sister.

  * * *

  Don Zanotta’s Florentine palazzo wasn’t quite as majestic as his home in Venice, but the walls were painted a smooth gray, and carved stonework decorated the façade. Cass felt her heart start thrumming as she knocked boldly on the front door. What if Hortensa refused to receive her?

  The butler, an older man with gray hair, opened the door. “Yes?” he asked.

  “I am looking for Hortensa Zanotta,” Cass said firmly.

  “The mistress has gone to Santo Stefano,” the butler said, as if Cass were daft and quite possibly a heretic for not being in church herself. He started to close the door.

  Cass quickly put a hand against the door frame. “But there’s no Mass tonight,” she said. If there had been, Madalena likely would have insisted on their attending. She glanced past the butler, but all she could see was a hallway receding into darkness and a set of white marble stairs that led up to the portego. If Hortensa was hiding in the palazzo, Cass would never be able to tell.

  “The mistress and some of the local parishioners have come together to sew banners for the altars and the baptistery,” the butler said. “S
he’s very pious.”

  Right, Cass thought, when she isn’t lying and sending innocent men to their deaths. She smiled demurely. “I do appreciate your time. And sewing banners sounds lovely. I may have to pass by the church and see if they can use another pair of hands. Which church did you say again?”

  “Santo Stefano, just east of the Ponte Vecchio.”

  Cass knew of the Ponte Vecchio, the long enclosed bridge over the Arno, lined on both sides with food stalls and butcher shops. She was only a couple of blocks north of the river—she could smell it. “Grazie,” she called over her shoulder as she returned to the street. She headed toward the water and had no trouble locating the small gray-and-tan church with three sets of wooden doors built into its façade.

  And sure enough, when Cass slipped quietly inside the entrance hall and peeked into the main room of Santo Stefano, she saw three women gathered in the front of the church, one of them holding up a swatch of fabric. Maybe there was more to Hortensa’s story. Maybe Dubois had coerced her into giving false testimony and she was working through her guilt by spending extra time in church.

  If that were the case, Cass might have a real chance at getting her to confess. The donna had left Venice so quickly, she probably didn’t even know that her words were going to send Luca to the gallows. Cass felt her pulse quicken at her throat. Hortensa wouldn’t want an innocent man to die, would she?

  One of the girls suddenly burst into laughter, and Cass watched as Hortensa flung the swatch of fabric around her waist. Cass’s eyes widened. It wasn’t fabric to cut and sew for banners—it was a skirt. A brilliant, scarlet top skirt.

  She crept a little closer and realized that the women weren’t sewing at all. They had taken refuge inside the little church to change their clothing. Their gowns hadn’t initially seemed out of place, but that was because Cass was from Venice, where jewel-toned fabrics and scandalously plunging necklines were the fashion. Here in Florence, Hortensa and her friends were going to raise many an eyebrow in their low-cut bodices.

  What were they getting so dressed up for? Where were they going?

  Hortensa pulled a tiny pot of lip stain out of her pocket while her friends arranged her cloak so that it covered her dress. She rubbed some on her lips and turned to one of the other women.

  The woman dabbed at Hortensa’s mouth with one finger and then nodded her approval. She tossed her hair, glancing toward the back of the church at the same time. Cass quickly let the door fall shut. Ducking around the side of the church, she secured her own cloak and waited for the main portal of Santo Stefano to swing open.

  The women emerged a few minutes later, their vibrant gowns tucked safely beneath black cloaks. Cass followed them across the far side of the church campo.

  The donna and her friends walked west along the Arno River. The water was flowing quickly, the moonlight reflecting off pockets of white-tipped current. Cass hurried after the women. They moved almost as if they were a single entity, navigating the darkened streets without a lantern or a candle. A right, and then a left. Then another right. Cass tried to remember the turns so she’d be able to find her way home. The women passed through a narrow alley and then paused in front of a palazzo made of black marble with threads of white stone running through it. The green-shuttered windows were all pulled closed, except for a single second-floor window where six tiny candle flames danced in the night.

  Cass ducked between two buildings, watching as the trio of women went around the side of the palazzo, toward the servants’ entrance in back. She pulled her bonnet low. She didn’t want Hortensa to recognize her. Not yet. Not while they were in the streets and the donna could escape.

  She followed the path Hortensa and her friends had taken. As she came around the house, she saw the back door shutting, and a brief burst of laughter was quickly quelled as the door clicked once again into place.

  She approached the door and paused with her hand on the knob. It was made of bronze and shaped like a coiled serpent, with two bright green stones for eyes. Had the women knocked to gain admittance? Cass wasn’t certain. Just as she was going to try the door, the knob turned beneath her fingers. A blonde woman a few years older than her pulled open the door.

  The woman wore a plain white dress and had her hair fashioned into a high bun. “Are you just going to stand there?” she asked crossly. “Or are you going to come in and join the party?”

  thirteen

  “The art of coercion lies not in seizing control, but in determining a person’s needs and sating them.”

  —THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE

  S-sorry,” Cass stuttered, but the woman had already faded into the dark. As she closed the door behind her, Cass realized she was in a small kitchen. The room was bare except for an oven and a long wooden table. Masks of various sizes littered the table. Apparently she had stumbled into a masquerade party. What luck! Cass could sneak up on Hortensa without any danger of being recognized. She chose a mask at random, turning the strip of velvet over in her hands. It was simple and unadorned, different from the style she was accustomed to in Venice.

  Readjusting her bonnet, Cass tied the mask securely over her eyes, feeling slightly braver now that her face was partially concealed.

  Past the kitchen was a dark corridor. The air smelled sweet, like rosewater and lilies mixed with some type of smoke. A pair of flickering candles sat on a side table, casting undulating shadows upon the wall.

  A stone staircase spiraled upward into the piano nobile. Cass heard laughter from above as she crept quietly up the steps. The room was dimly lit, its crimson walls pulsing with darkness. Everyone’s face was hidden: the women in half masks, the men in smaller ones that obscured only their eyes. Most of the guests had shucked off their cloaks. Cass unfastened hers and added it to a stack of outergarments piled on a divan in the corner.

  Serving women dressed in simple white chemises moved through the crowd with trays of wine goblets. Someone was playing a harp, and masked figures swayed to the music. A few appeared to be dancing all alone, their bodies moving strangely, like puppets on strings.

  Cass could no longer see Hortensa and her friends. She stood and made her way into the portego. Thin fingers of smoke, emanating from a ring of red and black candles that lined the perimeter of the room, wafted through the air. It made her think of Venice, of the lacy mists that coated everything.

  A man caught her eye from the far side of the portego. Cass’s heart leapt into her throat when she saw his dark hair—almost the color of Falco’s. He moved like a cat, coming toward her stealthily. But it wasn’t Falco, of course not. She turned away, pushing through the crowd, determined to find Hortensa. Unfortunately, several of the women wore scarlet dresses. With her distinctive scarred cheek covered by a mask, the donna could be anywhere. Or anyone.

  The dark-haired man reached her side. “Bella,” he said, slightly out of breath. His hand grazed her lower back. “It is poor form to make a man chase after you, do you not know that?”

  Cass moved just out of his reach. “Mi dispiace,” she said coolly. “I am looking for someone.”

  “I, too, have been looking for someone.” He tossed a curtain of hair back from his face. “And I have found her.”

  “You must be mistaken,” Cass said, taking another step back. “I don’t know you.” There was something disconcerting about the man’s piercing gaze. His eyes were too big, too dark.

  He reached out toward her, and Cass’s whole body went rigid. “I wasn’t looking for a friend. I was looking for the most beautiful woman in the room.”

  Cass began to turn away from him when she noticed he was wearing a ring—a six-petaled flower inscribed in a circle. Blood began to pound in her ears. Finally: the symbol of the Order of the Eternal Rose.

  She tucked her shaking hands into the folds of her gown. She couldn’t just ask about the ring. It might make the man suspicious. She cleared her throat and forced a smile. “My friends dragged me along tonight,” she said. It was, to
a certain extent, true, although Donna Zanotta was certainly not a friend. “I do not even know who is hosting this party.”

  His eyes lit up. “You’re not familiar with Palazzo della Notte? Then perhaps you will let me show you around, Signorina . . . ?”

  “Livi,” Cass said. Her dead friend’s name had just come to her. She wasn’t even sure why she had lied. “And your name is?”

  “Piero Basso.” The way he smiled, and the clump of dark hair that fell forward over his masked eyes, once again reminded Cass of Falco. An ache bloomed inside of her.

  “I know that look,” Piero said.

  “Oh?” Cass scanned the room behind Piero, studying each masked woman in an attempt to locate Hortensa.

  “It is the face of a woman who deeply desires something.” He moved closer to let a pair of guests slide behind him, his hand reaching out to casually touch her arm. “Something I can give to you.”

  Cass wished it were that easy, that Piero could become Falco just because she wanted him to. She imagined his hand moving from her arm to her waist to her back, his other hand ripping off her bonnet and twining itself in her hair.

  Piero’s lips twitched, like he could read her mind. He signaled a woman in white. The woman floated over and curtsied. She handed him two glasses of a dark muddy liquid. Piero offered one to Cass.

  “I insist,” he said, pressing the glass into her hand. “It helps with the anxiety.”

  “Do I seem anxious?” Cass asked. She sampled the liquid hesitantly. It had a surprisingly sweet taste.

  Piero tucked a tendril of hair behind her left ear. “You seem enchanting.” His hand lingered at the area where her jaw became her neck. His fingertips were points of cool pressure against her flushed skin.

  “But you can’t even see my face,” Cass protested. She wanted to turn the conversation away from herself and onto Piero’s ring, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t think. She was losing control.

  Piero caressed the back of her neck. “Beauty isn’t simply one’s face. It’s much more than that.” He leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “I see all of you.” His lips grazed her earlobe and she trembled.