‘I suppose that’s true,’ she murmured, looking through some of the female masks. ‘Being able to choose would make all the difference.’
She began to try them on, starting with one that was made like a cat, and that covered her face completely.
‘This might be a good one to hide behind,’ she mused.
‘But a mask isn’t always to hide behind,’ Pietro said, coming to join them. ‘Sometimes it can reveal what you never knew before about yourself.’
‘That would be the time to beware,’ Ruth said. ‘You wouldn’t know what you were also revealing to other people. They might see you in a way you never dreamed of, and then where would you be?’
‘Among friends,’ Pietro told her softly. ‘And it might be their insight that sets you free.’
Poor Mario looked blankly from one to the other, until rescue came in the form of a customer. Mario hastened to his assistance, but found himself in trouble again. The newcomer was German, speaking no Italian and very little English. Soon there was chaos. Pietro groaned.
‘Don’t worry,’ Ruth told him. ‘This is your lucky day.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you have me,’ she said, and walked away before he could reply.
It took her only a few minutes to sort things out, translating the visitor’s enquiry, then Mario’s response, to the desperate relief of both.
When the satisfied customer had departed, her two companions were loud in their praise.
‘My lucky day indeed!’ Pietro said. ‘Now I remember you said you were a language teacher. And you sold him our most expensive package.’
‘Mario did that. I was just the conduit.’
‘Thank heavens for conduits,’ Mario said fervently, and they all laughed.
‘We do have an assistant who speaks German,’ Mario added, ‘but she’s only part-time, and not here yet.’
‘I think that’s worth a coffee and cream cake,’ Pietro said. ‘Come on.’
They went along the covered passage to the Café Florian, its elegant interior still reflecting the style of the eighteenth century, when it had first opened.
‘Did Gino ever bring you here?’ Pietro asked.
‘Oh, yes, he told me about Casanova coming here.’
Pietro suppressed the wry comment that this was just what he would have expected. Casanova, the infamous eighteenth-century lover of a thousand women, a man who’d flirted with the church as a career but also flirted with witchcraft. Imprisoned for debt and devil worship, he’d escaped and travelled Europe, pursued by scandal, finally ending his days as a respectable librarian in an obscure castle in Bohemia.
Like many other young men Gino had passed over the respectable part, and used the rest to his advantage.
‘He said Casanova came to Florian’s because it was the only café in Venice that allowed women inside,’ Ruth remembered now.
‘Did he say anything else?’
She nodded. ‘Lots of things. Some of them were just to make me laugh. Some of them-’ She shrugged, with a little sad smile. Then she tensed suddenly. ‘No! No!’
‘What is it?’ he asked urgently.
She was pressing her hands to her forehead, whispering desperately, ‘No!’ while Pietro watched her in concern.
Suddenly she gave an exasperated sigh, and dropped her hands.
‘It’s no good. It’s gone. That happens all the time.’
‘But it doesn’t mean anything. Nobody remembers every detail.’
‘I know. I try to tell myself that everyone goes blank sometimes, even normal people.’
‘Ruth, you’re perfectly normal.’
‘No, I’m not. Normal people don’t go do-lally in the middle of a conversation.’
‘I forbid you to talk like that,’ he said in a tight voice.
‘All right, not another word, I promise.’
But her easy compliance made him rightly suspicious.
‘And I forbid you to think it either,’ he snapped. ‘That’s an order.’
‘Hey, you’re really used to being obeyed, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, and I expect to be obeyed this time. Don’t you ever dare call yourself abnormal again.’
Ruth suddenly understood that he was really angry, not just with the exasperated indignation of the day before, but in a mysterious, inexplicable rage.
‘Don’t you understand why you mustn’t think in such a way?’ he demanded in a calmer voice.
‘I suppose so. But after a while it’s natural.’
‘Then you’ve got to stop. I’m going to make you stop.’
‘Pietro, it’s not the same as ordinary forgetfulness. One minute the memories are running through my head, the next-darkness descends. If only I-’ She made a helpless gesture.
‘Don’t try to force it,’ he advised her.
‘But I’m so close-if I can just-’
‘No,’ he said, taking her hands in his. ‘Let it go. If you fight, it’ll fight back. Think of something else-anything else. Find something good and hang on to it.’
There was only him to hang on to, she thought, feeling the warmth of his hands clasping hers. She closed her eyes, willing him to keep her safe, as he was doing now.
‘All right?’ he asked when she finally looked up.
‘Yes, I’m all right now.’
‘Did you find something?’
She smiled. ‘Yes, I found just what I needed.’
Suddenly her face brightened and she cried, ‘Giovanni Soranzo!’ in such a voice of triumph that people stared at her.
‘Excuse me?’ Pietro said.
‘You must have heard of him-Doge of Venice, early fourteenth century.’
‘Yes, I’ve heard of him. I’m descended from him.’
‘And so is Gino. He told me all about it. That’s what I was trying to remember. You were right. When I stopped thinking about it, it came back.’
‘Then we’ve made progress already. Can you remember anything else he said?’
‘The Doges ruled Venice for twelve centuries, and were immensely powerful. Gino was so proud of being descended from one of them. He showed me the portrait you keep in the palazzo.’
‘We’ll have another look at it some time.’
‘When we’ve finished lunch I’d like to wander around a bit on my own.’
‘No,’ he said at once.
‘Yes,’ she replied firmly. ‘I’m not going to run away again, I promise.’
‘You might get lost.’
‘You can’t get lost in Venice. If you take a wrong turn you just come to the edge and fall into the water. You climb out, soaking wet and cursing horribly, and retrace your steps. You must teach me some of those fine Venetian curses. Gino said they’re the best in the world.’
He was forced to laugh at her determined humour.
‘I’m safe now, honestly,’ she continued. ‘I’ll come back to the shop later, and if you’re not there I’ll make my own way home.’
He agreed but reluctantly, and when they left Florian’s his eyes followed her across St Mark’s Piazza until she vanished.
It was as well that he returned to the shop, for his part-time assistant didn’t show up, and it was a busy afternoon. Late in the day Ruth slipped quietly inside. To his relief she looked calm and cheerful.
He called the palazzo, giving Minna the night off preparing his meal, and on the way home he stopped in several food shops buying fresh meat and vegetables.
‘Tonight I do the cooking,’ he told Ruth. ‘And if that doesn’t scare you, nothing will.’
‘But Gino said you were a wonderful cook.’
‘Compared to him, I was. I enjoy it. And I enjoy surprising people who don’t expect me to be able to do it.’
Toni came to meet them as soon as they entered, paying particular attention to Ruth, whom he seemed to consider his particular concern after having guarded her on the first night.
There was a note from Minna on the table, to say that she had taken Toni for a walk and seen him settled before going out for the evening.