Color Song (A Passion Blue Novel) by Strauss Victoria

Author:Strauss, Victoria [Strauss, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Publisher: Skyscape
Published: 2014-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

BERNARDO

On the day Bernardo left her in the Campo San Lio, Giulia had put him out of her mind. She’d been certain she would never see him again—or Sofia either, for she did not plan ever to call upon the aid Sofia had promised her.

I’m starting a new life, she had told herself. A life where no one in the world knows who or what I am. From this moment, the old Giulia does not exist.

But four days after she’d become part of the workshop, she had answered a knock at the door and found Bernardo standing on the threshold. She’d been so astonished that for a moment she could not speak.

“Good day,” he said, unsmiling. Then, in his dry way, “Close your mouth, you look like a fish.”

“What are you doing here?” she blurted out.

“That’s a pleasant greeting.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t . . . I’m just . . . surprised.”

He shrugged. “Thank my mother. She wants to be sure you are well settled.”

“Oh.” Giulia hated how flustered she felt. But the response that had jolted her in the Campo San Lio—the sudden, surprising current of physical attraction—had overwhelmed her again the instant she saw his face. “I’m settled very well indeed. How did you find me?”

“I did bring you most of the way, if you remember. I needed only to ask for the house of Ferraldi the painter. Will you let me in?”

Giulia hesitated. “I have work to do.”

“You can spare a moment, can you not?”

He brushed past her into the storeroom. Its clutter was more starkly visible than usual, for she’d been carrying slop buckets downstairs to empty into the rio and had left the water door open.

“This is the workshop?” There was distaste in his voice.

“The workshop is upstairs. This is the storeroom.”

He glanced at the buckets, which she’d set down when he knocked. “Don’t let me interrupt you.”

He poked around the storeroom as she emptied the buckets, inspecting supplies, kicking at the rubbish on the floor. She went upstairs for more slops, taking her time, hoping that when she came down again he would be gone. But as she descended, she saw he was still there.

“Someone sleeps down here?” He pointed to her sleeping area—still makeshift, but thanks to Sofia’s purse, better furnished than on the first night, with a straw mattress, a pillow, and a privacy curtain rigged from lengths of linen.

“I do.”

“In the storeroom?” His eyebrows flew up so high they nearly disappeared into his bangs. “This is how your master treats his apprentices?”

“It’s quite comfortable.” The involuntary thrill of his presence had vanished; all Giulia felt now was annoyance.

“Comfortable? You’re practically on the water. The air is noxious. I wouldn’t keep my scullion in such conditions.”

“It’s not so bad.” Giulia wanted to smack him for his arrogance. “It’s temporary, in any case, just until there’s space upstairs. And now I really should get back to work. Please thank clarissima Sofia for me, and tell her I am well. She needn’t trouble herself further.

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