She went out a lot with friends and had a special car Cosima had gotten her with manual controls when she was old enough to drive. Her whole apartment had been installed with everything at her level in the kitchen and bathroom, and she could control curtains, stereo, lights from an iPad. She led a full life and had friends in for dinner frequently. Cosima could hear music coming from her apartment at times and loved knowing that she was having fun. She had too much wine with her friends once in a while, and those were the only occasions Cosima had helped put her to bed, and teased her about it in the morning, and called her a hopeless drunk, which she wasn’t. Allegra led a full life for a young woman her age. She’d had a boyfriend once when she drank too much, and Cosima had found them both sound asleep on the couch, tiptoed out of the room, and left them there. At twenty-nine, Allegra admitted that she’d never been deeply in love, but she had dates, and was a beautiful girl. Her disability weeded out the good guys from the bad, and most of the men she knew found her fun and attractive. She just hadn’t met the right one yet to spend a lifetime with. Neither had Cosima, who Allegra had long suspected had a “friend,” and she could guess who it was. Cosima didn’t talk about it, and Allegra didn’t ask her. Cosima was so secretive about it that Allegra knew the subject was taboo. Cosima considered herself married to her family and the business, and if she had a romantic secret in her life, Allegra thought she was entitled to it and was happy for her. Allegra hoped her sister would marry one day but had the feeling she wouldn’t and didn’t want to, for reasons of her own. Allegra respected her sister’s secrets. If she had guessed correctly who it was, she knew why they weren’t together. Some things were better left alone.
* * *
—
When Cosima got to her office that morning, she had a full day’s work ahead of her, with conference calls and design meetings. She met with the designer of their clothes and looked over the cashmeres and fabrics they were going to use in the next season. They only used manufacturers in Italy, and their own workrooms for leather goods. They had discussed adding a few items of jewelry at some point, and Cosima had decided not to. Another possibility was a perfume, but Cosima thought it too risky, and didn’t want to lose money on an expensive product that might not do well. She was extremely conservative about the business. Allegra wished she’d take a little more risk at times, but Cosima was slow to move into new areas and was afraid of losing money. She preferred to stay with what they knew worked well for them.
Cosima left the office at eight o’clock that night, she had been invited to a party but decided not to go. It had been a long day and she was tired, and didn’t have the energy for a late night, and she was leaving for Venice in the morning. She was taking work with her to do on the train. The trip took just under four hours. She rarely wasted a moment when she could work. She answered her emails the next morning from the train.
She got to Venice after lunch and smiled when she saw the station. Although Cosima had lived in Rome all her life, it was as though her soul and body knew this was home too. She took the boat from the Santa Lucia station to the small hotel where she stayed now, enjoying the familiar sights and sounds of her second home. She had time for a quick visit to the store and toured the workrooms there. After she had seen everyone she wanted to, she looked at the displays of newly finished merchandise. She walked to the Piazza San Marco, sat down at a café, and had a cup of coffee on her own, enjoying the magnificence of St. Mark’s Cathedral and the Piazza, just as she did the boats on the Grand Canal when she walked to the Piazzetta San Marco. It was an unbelievably beautiful city, and she loved it. There was a magic and mystery to it that existed nowhere else. Rome had its own special charm, with its history and atmosphere of joyous chaos, but Venice was unique, built on the water, with a Renaissance feeling to it.
She got back to her hotel at six o’clock, in time to return some phone calls from Rome, bathe in the enormous bathtub of her hotel room, and dress for the party. The hotel had arranged for a private boat, and at nine o’clock she was at the Palazzo Saverio and could feel her heart soar as she looked up at it. This was her home, her roots, and her history, and she could imagine her parents waiting for her in the doorway, greeting their guests as they had before the balls and glamorous parties they had given there when she was growing up. She remembered the evenings perfectly, the women in sweeping gowns, her mother in the grandest one of all made for her in Paris, or by couture designers in Rome. Some of the parties had been masked balls, which were even more extraordinary and a favorite in Venice. Cosima had watched the guests from the top of the grand staircase when she was a child. The memory was imprinted forever on her heart. The others had their memories of those nights too. It made Cosima miss her parents acutely, and the loss seem fresh again.
Her breath caught as she walked through the front door and instead of her incredibly elegant parents, she saw Sally Johnson standing there, a very large black taffeta dress covering her sizable figure, with an enormous emerald necklace she had had made by a famous Venetian jeweler, and her tall, portly husband just behind her in white tie and tails. They were way overdressed for the occasion, and the invitation wasn’t black or white tie, but they were nice people, honoring the house as well as their guests, and Cosima was touched when she saw them. It brought tears to her eyes as the image of her parents faded and reality struck her.
There was music coming from the distant ballroom and about a hundred people milling around as waiters served caviar and champagne from silver trays, using the Saverio family crystal, silver, and china, which were all part of the rental. The silver trays bore the coat of arms of the Saverios, the same as the signet ring on Cosima’s left hand. The house was filled with flowers, and Cosima was startled by the new décor, as she descended one of the grand marble staircases to the main living room. The house was built on many levels, which would have made it difficult for Allegra now without most of the ramps.
Cosima glided smoothly down the marble staircase after greeting Bill and Sally warmly at the door. She was startled by the new decorative additions, which consisted of enormous antique crystal chandeliers hanging from every ceiling, in addition to the original ones, tall antique Venetian lanterns, and oversized reproductions of Venetian grotto furniture encrusted with huge pearls and coral. There was a turquoise-encrusted sedan chair at the entrance to the ballroom, which was even more over-the-top than Cosima had expected, with hanging crystal drops, oversized candelabra, and Fortuny fabrics in gold and coral tones. Some of it was beautiful, but all together it was too much. But the Johnsons were ecstatic, and proud of what they’d done. And their friends were dazzled. Just being in a palazzo impressed them and would have been enough.
There were original antique mirrors propped up along the walls, multiplying the images of the guests, and the dining room table, which seated forty-eight, looked like Alice in Wonderland goes to Venice. There were statues of Roman heads and busts, encrusted with crystal, turquoise, coral, and pearls, all provided and designed by the Dallas decorator. It took a while to take it all in. Cosima circulated in the crowd and recognized a handful of big Saverio customers, who were friends of Sally’s, and she made a point of talking to each of them.