123
" Remember. Silenzio,” she said, slowly opening the door and allowing Falco to pass into the house in front of her. She followed him into the kitchen.
Her breath caught in her chest as a form materialized from the shadows, lunging at Falco and Cass, knocking them both to the stone floor. There was a metallic clatter and a quick shout. Someone’s knee, or maybe elbow, smacked into her breastbone. She gasped, unable to scream. The dark was a shroud, a tomb; she couldn’t see her fingers in front of her eyes. All she could hear was an occasional grunt as Falco wrestled with the mysterious figure. Cass threw herself at what she hoped was the attacker. Her fingers closed around a handful of hair. Long, silky, women’s hair. It felt suspiciously like…
“Siena?” Cass gaped as the moon emerged from a tangle of clouds, illuminating the face of her lady’s maid. “What are you doing?”
“Protecting you from an intruder.” The lady’s maid scrambled to her feet and then bent low to pull Cass off the ground with surprising strength. Siena’s keen blue eyes looked Cass over from head to toe. “Are you all right?”
“Is this how you always welcome your guests, Cassandra?” Falco said ruefully, rubbing his head. He stood just behind Siena. A steel saucepan lay at his feet. Evidently Siena had clocked him with it. Cass fought back the urge to giggle. So her lady’s maid wasn’t as docile and frail as Cass had always imagined. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
124
" Luca reached toward Cass’s face and she flinched. But he didn’t seem to notice. He was in his own world, in the grip of emotions Cass didn’t understand. Pain and fear and regret--all of it swirled behind his eyes.
His warm fingers brushed the side of her face. Cass felt hot all over.
“If anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself,” he said, tracing his hand from her cheekbone to her chin.
“Luca,” she croaked out, trying to swim up through the haziness of her own confused feelings. “What--”
“Just please stay in the crowd,” Luca said. He bent close to her, and for a second Cass thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he pulled a curling tendril of hair from the corner of her mouth. “Stay with your aunt. Don’t go anywhere alone.”
“But I don’t--”
“Just promise me.”
His urgency frightened Cass. She didn’t know what he was talking about; had he seen something at the exhibition? “I promise,” she said.
“Thank you.” Luca brushed his lips across her forehead. Then he took her hand and the two of them headed back to the main street. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
127
" We should tell her,” Cass whispered, once Siena had disappeared.
“What reason do we have to tell anyone? I’m still wishing you hadn’t told me.”
“She might be able to help,” Cass said in a low voice. “When it comes to the goings-on of Venice, the servants know almost as much as the Senate. Maybe more.” She craned her neck to peer through the doorway. The dark had seemingly swallowed Siena whole. “And, if we don’t tell her, she’s going to think you and I are…”
Falco smirked. “We couldn’t have that now, could we? Lord knows I don’t want to give the woman reason to attack me again.” He touched the crown of his head gingerly and winced. “But what makes you think we can trust her?”
Cass had to look away when Falco took God’s name in vain. How could he do that so casually? Her fingers went to her waist, but she’d already removed her rosary for the night. She’d say a prayer for him later, she decided. “She covered for me last night. She didn’t tell Agnese I’d snuck out.”
A smile played at Falco’s lips. He brushed an unruly lock of Cass’s hair back from the left side of her face. “How did you manage to get caught in the first place?” he asked.
“Long story.” Cass still hadn’t found his nude drawing, and she didn’t want to confess to having lost it. She hoped it would turn up before Agnese got back. If the old woman found it, she might keel over on the spot. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
129
" Too late she realized the boys weren’t motioning to her at all. They were looking past her, shouting at someone behind her. She had just started to turn around when a boy slammed into her with the force of a bull.
“Accidempoli!” Cass hit the cobbled ground hard, her back landing in a dirty puddle, the palm of her left glove ripping on the rough stone street. Miraculously, she had not hit her head.
Cass felt warm breath against her chin. She had clenched her eyes shut, but opened them now to find herself pinned underneath a boy a couple of years older than she was. She could feel his body radiating heat into hers. The boy wore a thin smock spattered with paint. Dots of blood red and bright yellow swam before Cass’s eyes. She struggled to focus.
He had dark brown hair that curled under at the ends and eyes as blue as the Adriatic. His smile tilted a little to the right. It was the smile of someone who loved getting into trouble.
“Molte scuse!” He hopped back onto his feet. “I didn’t see you at all, bella signorina.” He bowed, then reached out a hand and yanked Cass off the ground unceremoniously. She felt a little dizzy as she stood. “Though I can’t say it wasn’t a pleasure running into you.” Letting go of her hand, he brushed a droplet of dirty water from the side of her face. He leaned in close to murmur in her ear. “You should be more careful, you know.”
Cass opened her mouth but no words came out. Again, she felt her stays crushing down on her chest. “Careful?” she managed to croak. “You’re the one who knocked me over.”
“I couldn’t resist,” he said, and he actually had the nerve to wink at her. “It’s not often I get the chance to put my hands on such a beautiful woman.”
Cass stared at him, speechless. Without another word, he turned away and followed the group of laughing artists into a crowded campo, his muscular form disappearing among merchants’ sacks of cabbages and potatoes. The scene blurred a little, like a painting, and for a second Cass wondered if maybe she had hit her head and had imagined the whole exchange. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
130
" What is Signor Dubois doing here?”
Siena shrugged. “Personal business with your aunt, I imagine.” She lifted her chin daintily. “I am not privy to Signora Querini’s affairs.”
Cass elbowed Siena in the ribs. “I am not privy to Signora Querini’s affairs,” she mimicked. “Come on, Siena. I know those ears hear everything.”
Siena dropped her glance to the floor and Cass immediately felt guilty. She hadn’t meant to imply that the girl’s ears were too big, only that the servants always seemed to be hovering just out of sight. Siena put the silver hairbrush back on the dressing table and picked up a hair ornament carved from sea coral and adorned with pearls. She began to twist Cass’s hair into a tight bun. “If I heard anything, it was purely accidental,” she said, shooting Cass’s reflection a warning look. “And only as a result of the normal course of my duties.”
Cass winked at Siena in the mirror, amazed at the sleek topknot the girl had created. “Fine. What did you accidentally hear while you were responsibly completing your duties?”
Siena pinned the pearl ornament around Cass’s hair and pursed her lips. She liberated a couple of strands from the bun and nodded as they curled naturally around Cass’s face. “I may have heard Dubois say he saw you in unsavory company at his masquerade ball last evening. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
132
" He had his back to Cass, his face resting against a carved cherub as he absentmindedly plucked various strings. Cass stared, watching the movement of his neck and back and shoulders: pieces of motion that were discrete, yet interconnected. She remembered his words from the graveyard. The human form, it’s a symphony. Tiny interlocking movements that join together in song.
“It’s about time,” he said, without turning around.
He turned slowly, then. The blue eyes. The crooked grin. Cass started to greet him, but her voice stuck in her throat. She reached out for the curlicue bottom of the stairway banister, gripping the bronze for a second, reminding herself that there were no feelings. No. Feelings. She flicked her eyes back up at him, felt her lips forming a smile independent of any command by her brain.
Falco cocked an eyebrow. “A beautiful woman who doesn’t speak. Every man’s dream.”
“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable,” Cass shot back. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight.” Or ever.
“I’d thought you might have learned that with me, you must expect the unexpected.” Falco got up from his seat in front of Agnese’s harp, and it was Cass’s turn to raise an eyebrow. Falco was wearing a flowing white chemise overlaid with an embroidered black and silver doublet and knee-length breeches. His hair still curled forward toward his face, but it looked sleeker than usual, as if he had attempted to tame it with some kind of paste.
“Why are you dressed like that?” she asked. “Are you going to Mass?” Not likely since Falco professed not to even believe in God. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
136
" My Dearest Cassandra,
Bonjour, ma chérie. I think of you often. I hope you are not growing lonely and bored being stuck in the villa with your aunt. My colleagues drag me out for a meal occasionally, but I spend the majority of my time studying. Are you also concentrating hard on your lessons? I can only imagine how beautiful you’ve become since I saw you last, and I should hope there aren’t too many men trying to court you in my absence. I know that you see the best in people, but remember, most men are not to be trusted.
Cass refolded the letter in disgust. If she had read it on the ride over, she might have tossed it straight into the lagoon. They were engaged, and yet Luca persisted in being threatened by imaginary suitors vying for her. As if she could just break her engagement and run off with some other man.
No matter how much she might want to. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
138
" Tell her what you want to tell her then, Cass.”
Cass gave Siena a quick summary of what she and Falco had discovered at the graveyard. The maid’s eyes got bigger and bigger as Cass relayed finding the open crypt door and the body, and then receiving the note. “But Signorina Cass, you might be in danger!”
“That’s why we’re going to figure out who’s responsible,” Cass said, with more confidence than she felt.
“Speaking of which…” Falco nodded at the costume bag, which Cass had completely forgotten. A silky garment, trimmed with lace and beaded elaborately, had fallen out during the scuffle.
Siena looked down, and even in the flickering light, Cass could see that her pale skin went bright pink. The lady’s maid knelt to retrieve the outfit, a low-cut satin chemise. She pressed the clothing into Cass’s hands without meeting her eyes.
Cass felt her own face get red. “It’s--it’s just a costume. We’re going to try to locate some of the dead girl’s patrons.”
“You mean you’re going to masquerade as a…” The shy maid couldn’t choke out the rest.
“Hired woman,” Cass confirmed, wondering if it would have been easier just to let Siena believe that she and Falco had met up for a tryst. She wasn’t sure which would have been more scandalizing. “I know it’s dangerous, but it’s more dangerous to do nothing while a madman plots against me. And Falco will be by my side the whole time. Please don’t tell my aunt.”
Siena didn’t say anything for a minute. She looked back and forth from Cass to Falco. Finally, she nodded. And then, to Cass’s amazement, her red face lit up with a huge smile. “You’ll need me to do your hair, Signorina.”
“Hair?” Cass wasn’t sure she had heard correctly. “What are you talking about?”
“Your hair and your makeup.” Siena reached out to stroke Cass’s thick hair. “Otherwise, no one will believe you are anything other than a noblewoman. I’ll put the sides in braids, and twist the back into a knot.”
Falco nodded approvingly at Siena. “Excellent idea. We want to make sure everyone can see that beautiful face tonight.”
Cass thought her skin might turn permanently red if she continued blushing. "
― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)
