“Very well.” He cut back the throttle and inched us forward to a set of steps a few yards away. “When will I see you again? Or do you not want to see me again?”

“Oh yes,” I said, sounding, I’m sure, a little too eager. “But we only have two more days in Venice before we go on to Florence. I will ask Aunt H. about the Biennale. Perhaps she will say yes. Or perhaps she will still be feeling ill tomorrow, and I’ll have time to myself.”

“Good,” he said. “Let us hope the sickness lingers for one more day. I have so much to show you of my city.” He grabbed the post beside the steps and held it firmly. He assisted me out, then handed me my bag.

I looked down at the box of kittens. “You promise me you won’t drown them as soon as I’m gone? Cross your heart and hope to die?”

“What?” he asked. “You wish me to die?”

“No, it’s a saying. We say, ‘Cross my heart and hope to die’ when we promise something.”

“Very well, I promise, but I do not hope to die. I plan to live long and have a good life.”

I stood on the canal walkway, looking down at him. Would I ever see him again? I wondered.

“I shall be here at ten o’clock tomorrow morning,” he said. “Ready to escort you and your aunt to the Biennale.”

I gave him a big smile. “All right.”

“Ciao, Julietta.”

“Ciao, Leo.”

He revved the motor and the boat sped away.

CHAPTER 3

Juliet, Venice, May 1928

Fortunately, I encountered the proprietress as I came into the front hall. She threw up her hands in horror when she saw me. “Cara signorina. What have happened?”

“I fell into a canal,” I confessed.

“Dio mio! Subito. Taking off clothes and washing you.” She bundled me into a bathroom, ran a bath and helped me out of the wet clothes, all the time making little cluck-clucking noises. She managed to make me understand that she would take care of washing my dress and undergarments. She whisked them away, then brought me a large towel and a robe. I lay back, enjoying the warm water, smiling as I thought of Leo. All my life I had dreamed of falling in love. All those years at a girls’ school, with not a single boy in sight. Even the gardeners were going on eighty. And now it had really happened to me. A wonderful boy wanted to see me again. I sighed in pure happiness.

Aunt Hortensia was sitting up reading as I tried to creep into the room. She looked at me in astonishment. “You had a bath? I didn’t hear the water running.”

“The proprietress ran one for me downstairs,” I said. “I’m afraid I had a little accident and fell into a canal.”

“Juliet! I let you out of my sight alone once, and you nearly drown. What were you thinking?”