Amazingly, Cass managed to smile. "Thank you," she said, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. "For saving me. I don't know what would have happened if-if you hadn't..."

Luca looked down at her, his light brown eyes soft with emotion. "That was quick thinking with the lantern. I think you saved me too." He removed her hand from her neck, entwining his fingers in hers. "We make a good team."

Cass felt a rush of warmth. She rested her head against his chest for a moment. His heart thudded quickly beneath the fabric of his tunic. Cass stretched up on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "Thank you," she whispered again.

Luca reddened. "Come," he said. "We should see that you're attended to."

He escorted Cass up the stairs to the main level of the palazzo. The portego, abuzz with whispering and murmuring, went dead silent as the two of them appeared on the landing. Cass caught a glimpse of her reflection in a large mirror hanging just inside the door. Her dress was tattered and soiled, the bloodstained collar hanging at a weird angle. Her thick hair was tangled, her lower lip swollen from where Cristian had bitten her. An angry red welt burned on her skin where she'd been cut.

Someone let out a strangled cry; various people made the sign of the cross. A woman Cass didn't know approached her. "Is she all right?" she asked, bending low to examine the blood on Cass's throat.

Other wedding guests came forward, pressing around her, a storm of hands and voices. The room began to spin. Cass's knees buckled.

"Please, everyone." Luca held up one hand, supporting Cass with his other arm. "Come on, Cass," he said in a low voice. He led her up a second set of stairs. Cass had never seen the palazzo alive with so many people. And yet, she had never felt so alone. A gray-clad servant slipped past her, dark hair knotted on top of her head in a sleek bun.

"Scusi," Luca said. "Please-get us a glass of wine."

"Of course, Signore." The servant curtsied and then returned to the main floor.

Luca pushed Cass toward an open door. "Rest there while I fetch the doctor," he said. "Don't say anything to anyone. Tell them you don't remember what happened."

"No. Not Dottor de Gradi-" Cass tried to protest, but Luca had already disappeared. Maybe it would be all right. Falco seemed to trust him.

Cass wandered dizzily into the plain room and practically collapsed on a divan situated next to a thick glass window. She raised a hand to her chest, to the area where the dagger had embedded itself in a thin ridge of whalebone. Her heart still raced, just beneath her fingers. Saved by undergarments, Cass thought. Suddenly all those days of struggling to breathe beneath the oppressive stays didn't seem so bad.

She inhaled deeply, willing down the desire to cry, or scream. From here, she could see the small courtyard garden. A couple of guests had found their way to the Venus fountain and were now perched on the circle of stones that ringed it. The brilliant sunny day had turned overcast; threads of gray mist hung in the air.

"Your wine, Signorina?"

That voice.

Cass spun around and struggled to her feet. Falco stood in the doorway of the study, dressed in a green and gold servant's uniform. Cass took in the lopsided smile, the hair that curled slightly away from his face. Tears pricked up in her eyes, and Falco began to blur. But he didn't disappear.

She had to restrain herself from running into his arms. Instead, she stood pressed against the window. "How-how did you get in?"

Falco crossed the room to her, pausing just long enough to set a glass of wine down on the desk. "Doors are quite useful, I've found," he said, his eyes sparkling. Then his expression softened into one of concern. When he reached her, his hands skimmed her neck softly. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes," Cass said. "Now."

"When I heard someone had been attacked, I didn't want to believe it was you." He pushed her tangled hair back from her face. "Then I heard she had fought the attacker off and sent the poor bastard fleeing into the streets." Falco cracked a smile. "I knew it was my starling."

Cass leaned into Falco, allowing him to wrap her in an embrace. She breathed in deeply. As always, Falco smelled like a mixture of paint and minty soap. "How did you find me?"

Falco pulled away and smiled at her. "The whole city's been buzzing about this wedding for weeks," he said. "I paid a servant to let me in. Had to trade away a perfectly good pair of breeches for this outfit, I'll have you know."

Cass had to restrain herself from embracing him again. She wanted to pull him against her. She imagined his soft lips on hers, the way he would weave his fingers in her hair.

But then she thought of Luca, of the way he had looked at her in the wine room, like his whole world would have gone dark if he hadn't gotten to her in time. He had saved her. She stepped back, just slightly, letting a thin cushion of space between herself and Falco.

"I've been worried about you," Cass said. "I came to find you at Signor Loredan's exhibition..."

"You were there?" Falco said. "Did you see the-"

"The Fallen Ones." Cass would never forget the trio of pictures. Mariabella and Sophia, both dead. But who was the third woman? Who was R?

And how many others had Cristian killed?

"The man who attacked you. Was he the one responsible?" Falco asked. He rubbed at the scar under his right eye.

Cass nodded. "His name is Cristian," she said. "He's deranged, but I don't think he was working alone." She paused, remembering Luca's warning to keep the real story to herself, and his insistence that there were larger forces at play. But Cass couldn't lie to Falco. "I believe he was working with Signor Joseph Dubois," she said. "They killed the courtesan Mariabella and the maid Sophia." Cass didn't want to think about who else they might have killed. She was desperate to believe Cristian, that he had nothing to do with Feliciana's disappearance. "They tried to kill me," she continued, deciding not to mention that Cristian and her fiance were related.

"If you're right, you're lucky to be alive," Falco said soberly. "Didn't you say he had ties all the way to the Council of Ten?"

Cass nodded. No wonder Dubois thought he could get away with murder. Again Cass marveled at how naive she'd been; there was darkness roiling underneath the republic everyone called La Serenissima, the most serene.

Falco took both of her hands in his. He lifted her fingers to his lips. "How did you feel after reading my letter?" he asked.

The question was simple, but Cass sensed a thousand others hiding in the subtext. "I-" She glanced toward the doorway and fumbled for a response but could find a hundred, and none. She settled for a question of her own. "Did all the bodies go to Angelo de Gradi? Did Liviana-" Cass couldn't finish.

Falco ran his fingertips down the sides of Cass's face, repeatedly stroking her temples, her cheekbones, her chin. Cass's pain began to fade, as if his mere touch were healing her wounds. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I think he kept some and sold others. Maybe she was used for...artistic purposes," he faltered. He leaned his forehead against hers. "You're never going to forgive me, are you?"

"I forgive you," she said, fighting the urge to press her lips to his. She meant it. She couldn't stay mad at him. And even though she didn't understand, she would do her best not to judge. She was far from perfect herself.

Falco exhaled deeply. "That is the best news I have gotten all day," he said. He leaned back, and his face broke out into a wide smile. "And the second-best news is that my paintings did well at the exhibition. A wealthy artisan from the mainland has offered me work. A lot of work."

"Falco, that's amazing!" Cass couldn't resist reaching out to squeeze his hand.

"Life-changing," he said, in a low voice. "Like you. Like us."

Cass opened her mouth to protest, but no words came out. Falco was right. She wouldn't deny that he had reached deep inside of her and unlocked secret places she had never even known existed.

"But the position will mean a lot of travel. Perhaps relocation," he said.

She looked away from him, biting her lip. "You'll be far away."

Falco nodded. "But I might get to see my family again."

"Your family?" Cass had never even thought to ask Falco about his family, whether he had brothers and sisters.

"My mother is a washerwoman and my father a cobbler. My brothers all work at the shop. I have a pair of little sisters in a convent in Verona," he said. "It's been years since I've seen them."

Cass couldn't imagine what it would be like to grow up in such a large family, with so many built-in companions.

"Come away with me, Cassandra," Falco said, his hands coming to rest lightly on her waist. "I can give you a life now. It may not be quite what you're used to, but it will be filled with love."

Before Cass could answer, a servant appeared in the doorway to the study, a glass of wine in her slender hands. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she saw Falco.

"Scusi, Signorina," she said. "Your wine...?"

"Just set it down," Cass said sharply, relieved that it was a servant and not Luca who had found them together.

Falco stood. "Think about it," he said to Cass. He pressed his lips to her hand once more and then headed for the hallway. Cass watched him leave. The room seemed to go dim and cold at his exit. The bleak surroundings melded with the hopelessness Cass felt in her heart, which was torn in two opposing directions.

"Water can be a mirror in which we see our true selves, yet it forms the haze amidst which we hide."

-THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE

thirty-three.

Cass took a deep breath to steady herself, then passed into the arched corridor. She needed to find Luca. She just wanted to go home, to be away from the madness. To think. The celebration raged on beneath her. She could see her fiance winding his way through the crowd. She met him at the landing of the stairs.

"The doctor is on his way up," Luca said.

Cass shook her head. "Please-I just want to return to the villa. Perhaps Aunt Agnese's physician..." She trailed off. She didn't want to see him either. Him and his leeches. She just wanted to crawl into her bed and curl up next to Slipper. If she slept for a few hours, or maybe a few years, everything would start to feel normal again.

"You do seem steadier on your feet," Luca said. "Maybe that wine helped soothe your nerves."

Cass thought of the glasses of wine, both abandoned on the desk in the study. It wasn't wine that had soothed her nerves. It was Falco. Just thinking of him made her insides hurt.

"Perhaps." She smiled tightly.

Luca and Cass found Agnese and the servants still in the portego. Her aunt was pacing back and forth with Narissa at her elbow, doing her best to stabilize the old woman's wobbly gait.

"Cassandra. Santo cielo." Agnese hobbled immediately to Cass's side. She raised her twisted, swollen fingers to Cass's face. "Are you all right? I can barely believe the stories I've been hearing."

Cass was comforted by her aunt's cool touch. "I'm all right. I just want to go home." She had resisted thinking of her aunt's villa on San Domenico as home for as long as she could remember, but now she could think of nowhere else she'd rather be.

Agnese frowned. "This criminal. Was he apprehended?"

"We're not certain," Luca said, looping his arm protectively around Cass's elbow.

Across the room, a flash of dazzling blue caught Cass's eye. Madalena stood next to the head table, a glass of wine in her pale fingertips. Her mouth dropped when she saw Cass, and she turned away from one of her father's friends to begin making her way across the room.

Cass unsnaked her arm from Luca's and hurried toward her best friend. The two girls met in the center of the portego. Madalena threw her arms around Cass's neck, wrapping her in a fierce embrace. "I'm so glad you're all right," Mada said. "I can't believe you got attacked. What were you doing in my father's wine room, anyway?"

"You know me," Cass said, pulling back so that she didn't get blood on Mada's gown. "I have a tendency to wander off and find trouble." She wanted to tell her friend the whole story, but today was Mada's special day. Cass didn't want to disrupt it any more than she already had. "In fact I was searching for you. Where did you disappear to at the beginning of the feast?"

Madalena's brown eyes widened. "I think you're the only one who even noticed I was gone. I was in my bedchamber having Eva redo my hair, because it had gotten mussed on the walk through the streets. But then Marco knocked at the door." Madalena's alabaster skin flushed with joy. "I sent Eva away..." Her voice trailed off. She winked at Cass.

Cass raised a hand to her mouth. "You mean you-"

"Do you know how long we waited for this day to come?" Mada grinned. "We simply could not wait another moment."

Behind Madalena, Cass saw Donna Domacetti pushing her way through the crowded portego. Cass had no desire to be grilled about her ordeal so that woman could provide all of Venice with the gory details. "So while I was desperately searching for you, you and Marco were in your bed together." Cass laughed. "I hope it was magnificent at least."

Mada leaned close to whisper in Cass's ear. "It was life-changing," she said.

That seemed to be the theme for the day.

Luca, Agnese, and the servants stood at the top of the grand staircase, waiting for Cass and Mada to finish talking. Cass kissed Madalena on the cheek. "That menace Donna Domacetti is approaching from behind you. Distract her for me."

Cass headed down the stairs with the others. Behind her, she heard Donna Domacetti pull Madalena across the room to a table of Venetian socialites. "Now, these are some women you absolutely must get to know," the obese woman lectured. Cass smiled again. Everything was as it should be.

As they exited the palazzo, Luca flagged down a gondolier while Agnese and the servants formed a protective cocoon around Cass. For the first time in a long time, Cass felt completely engulfed by family. If she ran away with Falco, she would lose all of that. She knew she loved him, but was love reason enough to betray Luca and hurt Agnese?

A sharp rain began to fall as Luca helped the three women into the boat. Cass and Agnese settled in beneath the felze. Droplets splattered against Cass's cheeks, stinging her exposed skin. She turned her face toward the storm. The pain felt cleansing.

Siena huddled close to Cass, deliberately avoiding turning her eyes to Luca for even a second. "I was so worried about you," she said, in a whisper. She looked as pale as Cass had ever seen her.

Cass reached out and squeezed her hand. Siena had her own secrets, but she was a faithful friend. She must have been terrified when she heard that Cass had been attacked. You need always consider how your actions might affect others. Cass had thought of Agnese as merely strict, but she was beginning to realize that the old woman's lectures were born of love, and wisdom-not just general grumpiness.

"I should have known if there was trouble that you would find it, Cassandra. You're very like your parents in that way." It was almost as if Agnese had read her mind. Cass watched the raindrops ping against the tiny waves as the gondola left the Grand Canal and entered the lagoon.

Agnese wasn't finished. She turned her attentions to Luca. "And you, Luca da Peraga. If you hope to make Cassandra your bride, you'll have to learn to keep a much tighter rein on her."

Luca's cheeks colored slightly as he shifted in the gondola. "Mi dispiace, Signora Querini," he said. "But you speak of your niece as if she's a horse instead of a beautiful young woman." Luca dared to flash Cass a quick half smile.

She smiled back. Luca's willingness to defend her to her aunt made her feel as warm, as comforted, as his heroics in the wine room.

Agnese harrumphed. "If I speak of her as an animal, it is because her antics are positively uncivilized at times." Then her voice softened. "Perhaps I am too hard on you, Cassandra. But please keep in mind that you are all that I have left."

Cass stared down at the bottom of the boat. She often thought about how Agnese was her only true family, but rarely stopped to think that the reverse was also true. "Mi dispiace," Cass said, feeling a swell of relief as the distant shore of San Domenico came into view.

Agnese reached out to squeeze her hand. "Let us just thank God that everything ended as it did."

Except that it wasn't over, and Cass knew it.

The next day, Cass and Luca took a stroll around the tiny island of San Domenico. Cass was surprised to discover that she liked the feel of Luca's arm in hers, the way he guided her around puddles and cracks in the walkway. Women glanced at the two of them as they strolled by, likely envious of Cass. She saw Luca as they must see him: tall, handsome, affectionate. It felt good to be able to be out in public with a man, to be able to laugh and talk without having to worry about who was watching.

They passed in front of Il Mar e la Spada, the little taverna that Falco and his friends liked to frequent. She thought about her nights with Falco: how intense and scary they had been, but how alive she had felt through it all. Would she feel that with Luca? She wasn't sure.

Over time, would she feel something even better? It would be different. Tempered. But maybe that was what Cass needed-someone to complement her impulsive nature, someone who would give her calm and stability.

They made it past all of the buildings to the shoreline. Luca turned to Cass.

"Have you heard of the Order of the Eternal Rose?" he asked, with a sudden urgency in his voice.

Cass looked at him curiously. "No. I don't know what that is."

Rather than explain himself, Luca let out a breath and shook his head. "Never mind. It's nothing. I just...I don't know where to start. My behavior since returning to Venice may have seemed strange to you," he said. "I-I wanted the opportunity to explain. A few weeks ago, I received a letter from Cristian. I hadn't heard from him in years. I confess I was hoping he had been killed in the war. He wrote that he had heard of my upcoming nuptials, but warned me that he would see to it that I never received my anticipated happiness." Luca glanced away, squinting in the sunlight reflecting off the lagoon. "I had no doubt he was on the lookout for you. He had taken someone I loved before; he would not hesitate to do it again."