Heart of Glass (12 page)

“I lived there for many years, incarcerated as a nun.” I wait for the words to settle, to see how he’ll react. He pockets the knife in a practiced move and brings his focus back to me.

“Incarcerated?” he repeats. “You did not dedicate yourself to your God?”

I incline my head. “It’s not uncommon in Venice for second daughters to be sent to convents, if they are in danger of being a financial burden on their family. I was one of many.”

“But still …” Halim’s words fade away as he glances at the small windows.

I point to one set high in the wall. “For five years, that small room was my home.”

Halim looks at me, then back at the window, as if unbelieving. “Five years?”

“And every day the same.”

We drift beneath the shadow of the monastery in silence. “But surely you received visitors. Your father? Your sister? You say you were a second daughter.”

“It was forbidden,” I tell him. “Visitors take away the mind’s focus, or so the Abbess used to say.” I won’t say her full name out loud. She belongs to the past.

“My sister used to keep a pet bird in a cage,” says Halim. “It was the most beautiful thing, and it used to sing every evening. I thought it very cruel that it was locked up like that.”

“We were allowed to sing,” I tell him, glancing upwards, “but only at prayer.” I’m in danger of becoming maudlin.

Halim reaches across and places a hand on my arm. His skin has the shade of varnished olive wood and there’s a scattering of dark hairs across his wrist. “How did you get out?”

“My sister died.” The truth, but only a fraction of it, like a painting made up of a million brushstrokes seen only from a distance. It is so simple when said like that. My voice does nothing to betray the pain I felt, looking into her coffin. He cannot understand.

Our talk turns to other things—the love that Faustina has shown me, the return of my brother with his new wife, the happy times. Halim listens quietly, nodding, smiling. The boat drifts on. It is as if we’re on our very own island of intimacy, the sun rising higher and higher above our heads.
The sounds of the city have fallen away. Only the occasional slap of paddle on water reminds me the gondola is still with us.

“What about you?” I say eventually. “What was your childhood like as a prince? No barred windows for you, I’m sure!”

Halim shakes himself as though waking from a dream. “Maybe not, but there were other … constraints. My father …” He hesitates.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I say.

“He was very strict,” Halim continues. His dark eyes cloud over. “For many years, my life wasn’t my own.”

I think back to my own father, either drunk at the dinner table or ensconced in his library or toadying up to the Doge and his Council. But always, always telling me what to do for the good of the family.

“I know all about strict fathers,” I say gently. “Why do you think I ended up in a convent?”

“But you escaped!” Halim says, his eyes brightening again. His hands grip the sides of the gondola. “You had it in you to forge your own path. Look at you now! That’s what I want too. I’ve emerged from the shadow my father cast—it was a long one. But now it’s time for me to make my own mark.” Color has rushed to his cheeks. He looks almost feverish.

“Are you feeling well?” I ask.

“Of course!” He grins at me. “Never better. Gondolier! Moor here, please!”

16

We pull up to the
side
of the canal and I glance over my shoulder to ensure that our sudden stop won’t cause a collision with the gondolas behind us, carrying the guards. But the other boats have disappeared down another canal.

“Your security …,” I manage to say. “The men have gone.”

“Never mind that.” Halim is already standing on the dock and reaches out a hand to me. I take it and brace my foot against the side of the canal. My corset constricts my breathing and I find myself panting slightly. I hop onto the bank and move apart from Halim, pulling my hand out of his grasp—I don’t want him to see how flustered I am.

“Aren’t they meant to be guarding us?”

Halim gives me a boyish smile and holds out the crook of his arm. “I dismissed them. I want to walk these streets like a normal person. All the pomp and ceremony becomes fatiguing after a while. Have no fear—I will protect you.”

“That wasn’t really my concern,” I say. “We shouldn’t be seen without a chaperone.”

Halim’s face takes on an exaggerated crestfallen look. “Don’t you trust me?”

I don’t want to hurt his feelings. I find myself slipping my arm through his. “Of course,” I say weakly. I glance around one last time. I am alone with a prince.

We enter the cool of the church of St. Mary of the Friars and approach the high altar, where Titian’s
Assumption
adorns the wall. The church is empty but for an old man on a ladder replacing candles.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” I say.

“It is,” he replies. I see his lips are slightly parted as he takes in the rich reds and golds of Mary’s ascent to heaven. “Christ’s mother is a sacred figure to Muslims too,” he replies, “but we have nothing as beautiful as … I wish my sister could see this.”

“Perhaps one day she will.” I take his arm again and together we walk along the nave. “It could be dangerous for us to be alone together,” I murmur.

“You mean, for our reputations?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No, for our lives. Venice is full of assassins. Surely you know that.”

I don’t have to look at Halim to know that he is smiling. I’m teasing him, just a little bit.

“Then let’s live dangerously. I’ll run the risk of being killed. Will you?”

“I’m taking my life in my hands, you know, just being here.”

We turn to face each other, then begin to walk back down the center aisle.

“How reckless we both are,” he says.

We step out into the sun and for a moment I squint into the harsh light. Out of nowhere, five shapes resolve. Five men, all looking at us with cold expressions, and spread in a fan to block our route. They aren’t constables of the city; that much is clear from their ragged clothes. Two hold cudgels and two have knives. The fifth man has a sword at his side.

“What do you want?” I say.

“The heart of that dog,” says the central man, pointing his blade at Halim.

He throws himself at the prince, and I don’t realize what has happened until he sinks to the ground, clutching his stomach. His knife rattles on the stone as blood gurgles through his clasped fingers. Halim’s blade is bloody and his eyes are wild. “Run!” he shouts, shoving me aside.

I stumble as the men advance. Halim backs off in a crouch, moving towards the steps of the church, his blade turned over so it lies against the inside of his wrist. I hardly think before snatching at the hilt of the sword in the attacker’s scabbard and drawing it out.

“Hey!” he shouts, spinning around.

I level the blade. “Get away from him!” I warn.

Though he looks gobsmacked, one of his companions—the leader who spoke before—merely grins and raises his club. “Don’t make me smash your skull, woman,” he says. The other men have paused, suddenly unsure.

“Don’t, Laura!” says Halim.

I watch the man with the cudgel moving around to my left, but I keep my sword trained on the fellow in front. “Unless you want me to run your friend through,” I say, “I’d lower your weapon.”

The club-wielder scoffs. “You overestimate my loyalty,” he says.

He lunges to strike, but suddenly stops and clutches his throat, where a gold hilt protrudes. His legs give way and he collapses. Halim’s arm is still extended from the throw and he snatches up his first victim’s fallen dagger.

“Three against two,” he says to the remaining men. “Do you fancy yourselves our match?”

The leader of the attackers has breathed his last at my feet. Blood runs in rivulets between the paving slabs.

The remaining thugs look at each other but the fight has left their eyes. They’re scared. One makes a sudden break, heading for an alley.

“The odds get better,” I say.

“Who ordered you here?” Halim asks. “Tell me and you can keep your paltry lives.”

The two men are silent, so Halim tosses the blade over in his hand, ready to throw again. I press the point of the sword firmly into the ribs of my man and he gasps in pain. “Tell us!” I say.

“I can’t!” says the man. “Please, don’t kill me. I have children.” He throws his cudgel to the ground and then his companion lets go of his own dagger. “We’re unarmed.”

Running footsteps sound from the alley, and four more men rush into view. Reinforcements. Halim’s eyes meet mine. No point fighting now. I nod and we run.

“Catch them!” comes a shout.

We dart around the side of the church and into a small alley that twists and forks. The pounding feet of our pursuers never seem far behind. I grab Halim’s arm and we switch back around a deserted sculptor’s yard. Half-finished
blocks of marble, faces emerging from stone, watch us impassively.

“There!” I hiss, and we run towards a pile of swollen wooden barrels, their metal rings red with rust. We duck behind them, kneeling in piles of dried leaves and cobwebs.

I can feel my heart hammering in my chest, my sides hurting from the constraints of my corset. We peer through spy holes from behind the barrels and wait. Halim pants beside me, his skin slick with sweat. The heat from his body seeps through my gown.

Shouts echo, but in the distance. No one else approaches the yard. Our breathing slows, and after a few long moments, Halim grunts.

“We’ve lost them,” I say.

He stands and pulls me to my feet, my joints stiff. I realize I’m still holding the sword, which he pries gently from my fingers. “No need for that, now,” he says, dropping it to the ground. I see his hand and wrist are covered in blood.

“You’re hurt,” I say, touching his arm lightly.

“It’s not mine.”

Neither of us says what we both must be thinking:
We could easily be dead right now
.

There’s a sound of shuffling steps and I tense. But it’s only an old woman, chasing a cat, her back stooped over nearly double.

“Come back here, you toothless wretch!” she calls after her pet. Halim and I laugh with relief as we watch her hobble after the ancient, skinny animal.

“Let’s get back to our boat,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ve seen enough of Venice for one day.”

I follow the prince out of the square.

17

When we arrive back at the gondola, Halim’s men have mysteriously reappeared. How could Halim possibly have gotten a message to them? But he ignores them and stoops to clean the drying blood from his forearm. This time, he doesn’t hold his hand out to help me, and one of the guards steadies me as I climb down. Halim has thrown himself back on the velvet seat, his hand to his chin. He is deep in thought, his eyes not seeing the waters of Venice that lie before him. I sit quietly by his side.

But as the boat moves out into the canal, he speaks.

“These happy times you were telling me about earlier. Do they involve a suitor?”

I’m startled by the line of questioning, so soon after we barely escaped with our lives.

“You want to talk about love and romance at a time like this?” The question’s out before I can stop it.

“Of course!” Halim says, sweeping an arm across the vista. “How could we not in a city as beautiful as this?”

I roll my eyes. “You can drop that act now. We can both
stop pretending that we’re on a sightseeing tour. Those people tried to kill us!”

The Turkish prince folds his arms, the shot silk glistening. “That’s not quite true, Laura. Those men tried to kill me. You just got in the way.”

Is that supposed to make me feel small? As if I don’t count? Is he so full of self-importance that, that … “How do you know that?” I ask, ashamed at how high and squeaky my voice emerges.

Halim allows his gaze to travel down my body. It feels like a scorching bolt of lightning, and my arms move protectively around my waist. “How could anyone kill a creature as beautiful as you?” he murmurs. “Now, please answer my question. Lovers? Suitors? Would-be husbands? Will one hand be enough to count them?” He holds up a hand and pretends he’s about to list off my love interests.