A Match Made in Venice by Leonie Mack

Author:Leonie Mack [Mack, Leonie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

20

The island of Murano welcomed Didi and her project much more warmly than Piero had at the beginning of December. At Salvatore’s suggestion she set up a desk in his studio and spent the next week inundated with visitors, ideas and an increasing collection of little glass horses.

It was all beautiful and the display would be something truly special. Fola’s initial concern that the idea wouldn’t capture enough of the nostalgic Christmas allegory was addressed to perfection by the proposals for snow-covered trees, reindeer and perfect snowflakes, all made of glass.

After having little to show for herself the week before, Didi was almost constantly on the phone to Fola, setting up a merchandising plan where customers could buy their own little piece of Murano glass, inspired by the display.

It felt like a commercial machine, but that was the price of success – unless you lived in Piero’s little world of ideals. The display would be beautiful. Yes, it would sell a lot, but it would be a joy to look at, for every one of the millions of people who walked along Oxford Street during the Christmas period.

She’d also spent some time with each maestro who came to her, discussing the effectiveness of their visual merchandising and marketing strategies for their studios. She wasn’t sure whether to make a point of saying that Piero was paying her. She’d love to repair the rift between him and this powerful association of glass masters, but she feared that her comments might backfire – or that Piero would deny it later.

She was glad to have set up in Salvatore’s studio, because Piero dropped in on her every day and was therefore forced to exchange a few words with his father. If she hadn’t heard the hurt in his voice when he spoke about Salvatore, she might have believed he enjoyed their barbed banter.

And if those few minutes, sometimes as long as an hour, when Piero dropped by, were the highlight of her day, she put it down to what she saw as a comfortable friendship.

Everything was going so well that she’d felt confident enough to book her flight home for the seventh of February. It felt like an age away – as Venice felt like a world away from England – but she had plenty to keep herself busy.

She was headed to Murano later than usual one day in mid-January after long phone calls with Fola and Norah. She’d had a note in an orchid from Piero the day before, explaining that he was in the middle of something and would be under the radar for a few days. She wasn’t sure when she’d have to start pushing him for answers and, as he was so sensitive, she was putting it off.

Lost in her thoughts, she hopped down from the last step to the ground floor of her building with an unexpected splash. She froze and looked down to find her heels in an inch of frigid water. Oh dear. She should have expected this.

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