*1*
Many novels start with a funeral and end with a wedding. This one begins with everything at the same timea robbery, a proposal of marriage, and a murder.
Schoolgirls streamed out of the Scuola di Nostra Signora della Consolazione. They gathered in clots and clusters and hurried away, chattering and laughing. The last to come out was a little fat girl. She lingered until the others were gone, then started home by herself. "Ursula!" Sister Maddalena stood in the doorway, calling after her.
The child turned around with a blank face.
Sister Maddalena frowned. "Ursula, did you take money out of my cash box? Let me see your backpack."
Without a word the little girl untangled herself from the straps and handed the backpack to Sister Maddalena.
"Humph," said Sister Maddalena, groping inside it. "I'm sorry to accuse you, Ursula, but you remember that I caught you stealing before."
Ursula hunched herself into her pack again and walked out of the schoolyard without a word.
The shop was on the way home. Ursula took the money out of the pocket of her school uniform and set it on the counter, plink, plink, and pointed to the one she wanted.
The man behind the counter looked at the coins. The child must have known it wasn't enough, she had bought so many before. "Ah, well, it will do. This one is a little chipped."
*2*
Dottoressa Lucia Costanza walked along the Molo from the San Marco vaporetto stop, edging past throngs of tourists and flocks of pigeons. Turning left onto the Piazzetta she strode past the Ducal Palace and the west front of San Marco, not bothering to glance at its fanciful domes and gilded pinnacles. Instead she looked up at the clock tower, where the winged lion of Saint Mark displayed his famous book with its angelic blessing, PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS. On the top of the tower she could clearly see the bronze bellringers in the metal bearskins that did not quite conceal their private parts.
The big clock told her she was late on her first morning as a newly hired member of the Procuratori di San Marco. Quickening her steps, she turned into the Piazzetta dei Leoncini, whirled past the north side of the basilica, hurried into the Palazzo Patriarcale, sped through the first courtyard, nodded at a stranger loitering at the foot of the stairs, and ran up to her new office.
It was a beautiful office, and Lucia was anxious to deserve it. Closing the door, she went quickly to the window to relish again the view of the second courtyard, with its crazed miscellany of architectural fragments plastered around the imbedded buttress of the basilica.
"Buongiorno, Dottoressa."
Lucia twirled around in surprise to see her assistant, Tommaso Bernardi, bowing with formal courtesy.
"Oh, buongiorno, Signor Bernardi. I didn't see you." She smiled at him, wondering if his bow was ironic. She knew that he had been a candidate himself for the opening on this prestigious board. He must be disappointed at not becoming the latest in the long line of citizen procurators, stretching back for a thousand years. In the days of the Republic they had worn robes of red silk with velvet stoles. The robes were gone now, and so was the necessity upon investiture to distribute bread to the poor and wine to the gondoliers. But the distinction remained. Lucia hoped Bernardi would not feel a grudge against her, because she needed his advice. He was an old hand. He could teach her the ways of the place.
"Signor Bernardi, I hope you will call me Lucia."
He looked shocked. He did not suggest that she call him Tommaso. He came forward, holding a card between finger and thumb as if it were an oily rag, and dropped it on her desk. "A person wishes to see you."
Lucia glanced at the card. At once she recognized the name. Dottor Samuele Bell was a famous personage in the city, celebrated for his scholarship and for his important position in the Library of Saint Mark.
"Of course, of course. Tell him to come right up." Lucia jumped out of her chair. "I'll tell him myself."
Dismayed, Signor Bernardi stood out of the way as she ran past him. She was halfway down the stairs when her visitor appeared below her, ascending slowly. Lucia hurried down with her hand out. For the rest of his life Sam Bell would remember the broad smile and the welcoming hand.
"I hope," said Lucia, "that the curator of rare books in the Biblioteca Marciana will become a friend and colleague. I'm going to need your help. I need everyone's help. I don't know anything yet."
Sam's tongue failed him. It was hard to believe that this majestic woman could be ignorant of anything. As she turned and walked up with him the rest of the way she said impulsively, "Your exhibition, I'm so eager to see it. Am I too late to apply for the conference? "
"'Oh, Dottoressa Costanza, you don't need to apply. You will be our honored guest. And I hope you'll let me give you a tour of the exhibition." He beamed at her, then smiled with less conviction at Signor Bernardi as Lucia introduced him.