The Plague Doctor's Daughter

17. Matteo

Matteo awoke to find Bianca Falier in the dining room having breakfast with his mamma.

"Oh, my dear, how happy I am to see you," his best friend's mother addressed him as he entered with the intent of only giving the pair a quick greeting before setting off to the palace jails. "You must talk some sense into that foolish son of mine at once."

Matteo didn't know what Simone had gotten himself into now, but he certainly had no plans to pull him out of trouble today of all days. He had more important matters to attend to, ones that he wasn't even sure how he'd fallen into at this point. Because in the middle of the night, Matteo had unexpectedly convinced palace guards of the false suspicions around Giovanna's husband's return from battle. Yet no matter how hard he pressed his credentials as the procurator's son, he still couldn't get assurances of how long they'd hold him. Making sure that Stefano Visconti was away long enough to hide the sick plague doctor was now his top priority. Finding an appropriate punishment for how he had treated his wife was for another time.

"I'm sorry, but—" he began while grabbing an apple from a china bowl before kissing his mother's cheek. His stomach still hadn't quite returned to its robust self, but he knew not eating also wasn't a solution.

"Why is it that once a man is forbidden from something, all he wants is that and nothing else?" asked his mother, cutting him off before he could finish making excuses.

As much as he wanted to avoid the resulting conversation—for such statements always seemed to end in heated discussions about the sordid doings of the Venetian upper-crust—Matteo's interest was undeniably piqued. Pulling out a gilded chair, he took a bite of the apple and sat. "Very well. You have my undivided attention. Why is it that I need to speak with Simone?"

"You haven't heard? I would have thought he'd have shared the news with you above all else," said Signora Falier, pushing her empty plate away before dabbing the corner of her mouth with a fancy napkin. "But then again, it's quite obvious that after how her father supposedly behaved in front of the Great Council, we would at once stop Simone's planned marriage to that Delfini girl."

Matteo leaned forward, inadvertently knocking a silver spoon to the ground. "Their betrothal is broken?"

"Are you not listening, Matteo?" snapped his mother. "The boy is inconsolable!"

"I am listening, hence my confusion," he said, bending down to retrieve the errant silverware. "Because as I recall, Simone was not overly fond of the idea of marriage so having it halted should have been a time for relief not sadness. So what has changed?"

Signora Falier looked at him with puckered lips. "You're a man. You tell us."

He had no answer, and that was how two beautiful women entrapped Matteo Barozzi into changing his plans. Foregoing a visit to the holding cells deep within the Republic's new prisons just a few steps away, instead he took a gondola north to the Cannaregio district.

It was an area Matteo knew well, although not many places within the islands had eluded him. With its reputation for high-stakes games and pleasant society, however, Simone was undoubtedly a more frequent visitor to the Ca' Calergi.

Classically inspired columns and trefoil embellishments separated its three stories that looked onto the Grand Canal where two sets of French doors welcomed visitors arriving by water. Another side abutted a smaller waterway used for deliveries, while the rear of the large building overlooked a private garden courtyard. Its interior boasted of lavish, early Baroque-style decor that was also the envy of most of the city.

Met at the door by a servant, Matteo was automatically relieved of his cloak, handed a goblet of wine, and escorted upstairs. Separate parlors existed for discussing business or politics over the best Tuscan prosecco and Portugese brandies and for enjoying harpsichord and operetta pieces in the company of enchanting women, but the most space was devoted to the art of gambling.