“And now you’re at a loose end?”
Only during the day, she explained. And that evening she would be on the island anyway, for the reception.
From behind him, through the tall, open doors into the hall, came the sound of workmen screaming oaths at each other. Massiter winced as if inflicted by a physical pain.
“Then . . . ?” he wondered. “It is rather busy here, my dear. Not that I wouldn’t mind some appealing company.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve always wondered what this place was like close up. I’m studying architecture. This is one of the buildings I’ve read about.”
“A perfect example of how to get things wrong, eh?” he murmured.
“In some ways. That doesn’t mean it can’t be put right.”
Massiter looked sceptical. “You’re not the first to tell me that.” His alert, attentive eyes ran over her, then he said, “Very well. Come in. I was feeling a touch bored and lonely anyway.”
Surprised by the ease with which she’d got through the gate, Emily let him lead her round to the quayside to stand in front of the palazzo in the shadow cast by its towering central section. The sight took her breath away. The Arcangeli’s exhibition hall was unlike any other structure she’d seen in her life, a vast glass monolith, roof curved into the shape of three rising semicircles, vertical walls all glass and wrought iron, encompassing an enormous space some hundred metres wide or more, going back almost as far to the other side of the tiny island. It had “folly” written all over it. The place could have been a theatre or an auditorium—if the glass allowed for good acoustics. Or some kind of crazy horticultural attraction. But it was too large, surely, ever to succeed as an exhibition site for a glass foundry. The space was beyond anything on a modest scale. It needed grandeur, effect.
Close up she could see some of the problems too. The ironwork was warped in some places, as if it were insufficiently robust to take the strain of the windows. Some of the glass panes were dirty, others broken.
“You can come inside if you like,” Massiter suggested.
“Tonight will be enough,” she replied. “I was just being greedy.”
There were more yells from the builders labouring to put some partitions against the bright glass windows.
“I’m not sure you appreciate the true meaning of greed,” Massiter moaned over a sudden outbreak of hammers and drills. “God, I need a rest from this. How about a quick tour? Then, as payment, tea with this tedious old man on his terrace. Agreed?”
She looked up at the largest of the glass structures above them. Sure enough, there was a terrace there, and opaque windows too.
“You’ve an apartment here?”
“I will have. They only let me use it during the day. Until we’ve signed the paperwork . . . The Arcangeli never give away a thing.”
“I’d love to,” Emily said, and meant it.
SHE FOUND HERSELF both amazed and appalled by what followed. For thirty minutes Massiter led her through the ground and first floors of the palace, past rusting ironwork being hastily repainted, past gaudy wall hangings that had no place there at all and hastily painted temporary walls with cheap collapsible tables for that evening’s party. Emily dabbed a finger on the ironwork by the door and wished she’d had a few rudimentary instruments with her. There was decay, no doubt about it.
“You don’t like what’s being done, do you?” Massiter stated.
“What do I know?” She smiled.
“Quite a lot, I suspect. Is it that bad? I’m spending heavily here. Money I can ill afford. People need to be impressed tonight. Venice is a cruel judge. In a short time I’ll either be acclaimed as her saviour or damned as a swindling crook. I deserve to be told the truth.”
“It’s not what I’d recommend, Mr. Massiter.”
“Hugo,” he corrected. “Why?”
She glanced around the vast, airy hall where two large, fussy paintings were now being measured for a couple of dismal screens clothed in scarlet velour.
“This place should be about simplicity. Glass is an odd medium. I can understand why your architect is at a loss what to do with it. This is a real challenge. But it seems to me you have to work with the glass, not against it. He’s trying to hide it, and that’s a sin. This wasn’t just meant to be a container for the exhibition, it was part of the show itself.”
She pointed out some panels in the curved ceiling.
“If I remember the story correctly, this wasn’t designed by an architect. It was a glassmaker. And he was making a point. Some of this glass is transparent, some opaque or reflective. He’s got the colours of the world up there: sun, night, sea, sky. You need to fit in with that, not fight it. This is too much. It’s like . . .” She felt too polite to finish the sentence.
“A bad hotel created for a rich man with no taste?”
“Your words. Not mine.”
“Bugger!” Massiter declared, looking at his watch. It was now close to midday. The heat was intense. That was another problem, Emily thought. The ventilation was poor, and probably always had been. “In that case to hell with the tea, I need a drink. Will you join me? The apartment’s not too foul. I decided what went there. This . . .”—the Englishman waved a hand at the workmen—“ . . . was the price of getting some restoration money from the city. The idiot architect’s someone’s nephew. You understand Italy, Emily?”
“Oh yes,” she answered, following him as he strode rapidly up a winding set of iron steps to the third floor. Massiter unlocked a heavy iron door and ushered her into an altogether different kind of room, one furnished with spartan good taste in a modern, minimalist fashion.
“One day soon, God willing,” Massiter told her, “I’ll be able to abandon that damned yacht of mine and live here full-time. Until then, it’s just my day residence and an office.”
He walked to the front of the long, rectangular room, and threw open two large, semi-opaque, smoke-coloured doors to reveal a small table on the narrow balcony. Then he returned and entered an airy modern kitchen, heading straight for the fridge. Emily walked to the large windows, stepped outside, caught her breath at the height, which was exaggerated by the open iron grating beneath her feet. Thirty metres or so below lay the cobbles of the quay. The dizzying view faced east, out to Sant’ Erasmo and the Lido, with the shining Adriatic beyond.
“This is why I want to buy the place, really,” Massiter announced, arriving with two glasses of pale wine, a plate of olives and some cured cheese. “The view and pure bloody-minded arrogance. The chance to make a little money too, of course. You can see Torcello if you stretch out.”
She looked over the edge of the precipice. It was a long way down, and straight onto stone.
“Here,” he said, extending his arms. “I’ll hold you. It scared me too, first time round.”
She let Massiter place his arms around her waist, then leaned over the edge of the metal balustrade, looking to her left, feeling how he gripped her: firmly, out of a pure practical need. All the same, it was a strange sensation, to be dangling out towards the lagoon in the arms of this odd Englishman. She wondered, for a moment, what Nic would have made of the sight, then reminded herself why she came here.
The tall tower of the distant church at the northern end of the lagoon was just visible in the distance.
“Thanks,” she said, and leaned back, noting the way he relaxed his grip immediately.
Hugo Massiter sat down, a handsome man, not yet past his prime, Emily decided, though perhaps he had a different opinion.
“I think you’d need a degree of arrogance to want to own a place like this,” she observed. “That and a lot of money.”
“Cheers!” He raised his glass. “Plenty of one. Little of the other, I’m afraid. My idea was to put up a little competition for Dame Peggy, once I’d knocked the place into shape.” He nodded towards the city, and, she assumed, the Guggenheim.