The Fortune Keeper: A gripping historical novel of Renaissance Italy (Italian Renaissance Series) by Deborah Swift

Author:Deborah Swift [Swift, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quire Books
Published: 2022-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Earlier That day

It had taken Mia only a half hour to let herself out and get a boat to Bravaggio’s. Let Giulia come back and find me missing, she thought. Serve her right. Even Fabio thought it a dangerous idea to lock her in.

‘Ah! I’m glad you’re here. I have something to show you,’ Bravaggio said. ‘No Pico today?’

‘It’s everyone’s day off, and Giulia and Fabio are out. I thought I’d take the time to study.’

He took her through to the balcony where a wooden tripod stood, holding up a brass spyglass. ‘The new telescope,’ he said proudly, ‘Just as I promised. Now look, keep it pointed away from the sun, and tell me what you can see.’

She squinted through it and turned the brass rim to focus it, astonished at the view that came into her eye. Could that be the city? And the hills beyond? It was so clear! She could even see people on the quay and pick out the gulls circling around the towers.

‘It’s a marvel,’ she said, pulling away.

‘I’ll be able to make more accurate charts and calculations. Last night, with my eye to the lens, I could sense the beams influencing me, so close were they. Think how the light is reaching our eyes now. Such magnification! We must be careful which planets we study, and when, for that reason.’

‘Will you teach me its secrets?’ she turned the telescope to scan over the dome of San Marco.

A shadow seemed to fall over it. The clouds covered the sun. Something inside her shifted and she took her eye away. She had a sudden cramp in her chest, a feeling of dread. Perhaps the use of the telescope was a sin after all, just like they’d said of Galileo.

‘What did you see?’ Bravaggio’s expression was one of concern.

‘Nothing. Just the dome of San Marco. But I had a feeling. Something in the heart.’

‘I told you, the rays from the planetary bodies are powerful. But what did you see?’

‘Nothing. Just the city. And a cloud, like a host of black ravens descending. But when I took my eye away, they’d gone. I wonder if it’s right that we should see so far, when God made our eyes so limited.’

‘Come, let’s sit. We’ll take a look at your chart, do some calculations for today. Perhaps you felt some malign influence in the stars. A month from now we’ll see the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, when the two planets appear closest together in the sky. Great conjunctions like this occur only every twenty years. We can sometimes see it with the naked eye, but this month we will see it close-up through the telescope.’

She barely heard his words because she couldn’t shake the feeling. She shouldn’t be here, she knew. Giulia and Fabio would be angry when she got back to find she’d disobeyed them. She imagined Fabio’s hurt expression and it brought a fresh pang.

Bravaggio fussed around the papers, in his gown and the cap with the flaps over his ears, until it was all laid out flat before them.

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