Starling (40 page)

there and let them do things to you.”
“Do things?” Cass asked hesitantly.
Seraphina burst out laughing. “Aren’t you quite the innocent one
for having taken a lover who was not your betrothed?”
Mannaggia.
Cass had forgotten all about her alleged infidelities.
“What I meant was—”
Seraphina waved her off. “I’ve seen it before. He’s the one who’s
taken a lover, isn’t he? He cast you out because he prefers her, and
you’re here trying to learn how to win him back.”
Cass had no idea how to respond to this, but luckily Seraphina
kept talking.
“You needn’t be embarrassed. If you like, I could find a peasant
boy or a street artist who might let us practice on him.” She grinned
wickedly. “The young men of Venice do enjoy assisting us in this
manner.”
Cass imagined Seraphina strolling out into the streets of Fondamenta delle Tette and returning with a willing Falco. Was
that
how
he had paid girls’ modeling fees? “No, I get the idea,” she said
quickly.
“If you’re scared or unsure, you can always follow their lead,”
Seraphina said. “But sometimes they’ve no idea what it is that they
want.”
The back door of Palazzo Dolce creaked open and an old woman
with snowy white hair and a stooped back entered the courtyard. She
wore deep burgundy skirts and a velvet hat crowned with a pair of
peacock feathers. She walked with a cane, one of her legs moving
stiffly beneath her wide skirts.
Cass rose from her bench to offer the old woman her seat, trying
not to stare at her misshapen fingers or the translucent folds of skin
that hung from her chin. It was clear from her high cheekbones and
delicate frame that she had been beautiful once, but those days were
long past. “What a lovely bracelet,” Cass said. The woman was wearing a circle of carved coral adorned with pearl and abalone that bore
a striking similarity to one of the bracelets in Agnese’s storage room.
The woman’s wrist was so frail that Cass swore she could see every
bone in her hand. The iridescent parts of the abalone glinted like
miniature rainbows in the sun.
“Hello, girls,” the woman said, motioning for Cass to sit back
down. “This bracelet was a gift from Paolo Veronese. One of my
favorite tokens of affection.”
Paolo Veronese had died when Cass was very young, but he had
been a very famous artist, and his works still decorated churches and
palazzos around the city. This woman must have been one of the
city’s top courtesans to have won his attentions when she was younger.
“Octavia sent me out here to see how you were getting along,” she
continued. “She’d like to speak with you both when you have a moment.” The woman gave Cass a long look, and Cass immediately
began to worry that she had somehow been recognized again.
“Where are my manners?” Seraphina said. “This is Capricia.
She’s staying at the palazzo for a day or two, though I’m trying to
persuade her to stay on longer.” She turned to Cass. “Rosannah is
one of our most experienced courtesans.”
“Capricia.” The name rolled off Rosannah’s tongue. “Forgive me
for staring, but you look a bit like a friend of mine from when I was a
girl.”
“Tell Octavia we’ll come around to visit her in a little while,”