The Venice Sketchbook

by Rhys Bowen

“What I have to say from now on is all top secret, and you must sign a document to verify this.” He reached into his pocket and put a sheet of paper on my table. “Are you prepared to sign?”

“The codes will be changed frequently. You will not know in advance how you’ll receive a new booklet. Maybe a package from your auntie in Rome with recipes in it.” He shrugged.

“My name is Juliet,” I said, “so my code name could be Romeo.”

I lay on my bed listening to the sounds beyond my shutters: the slap of oars, the putter of motorboats, the cooing of pigeons and the high-pitched squeaks of the swallows. And I felt ridiculously content, as if everything made sense for the first time in my life.

“I would be happy to escort you.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “How is it you have so much free time?” I asked.

Honestly though. This dude is finding any opportunity to hang out with her. It’s both cute and a little creepy.

I had to smile at this. “When I see the art here, I am rather afraid I shall never rise to such heights.” “But that is the art of the past. You must have seen Picasso, Dalí, Miró? They break all the rules. They paint the world as they see it. What is in their hearts. That is what you must do.”

So Caroline had spent her holidays from boarding school with Granny and Great-Aunt Lettie, whose real name, never used by the family, was Juliet.

“You will get through this, I promise you. We humans have the capacity to survive almost anything. Not only to survive but to come through triumphant. Another door will open. You’ll see. A better one. A safer one. A brighter future.”

“Then use this as a new beginning for you as well,” Granny said. “Show that no-good husband of yours that you can succeed without him.”

“People only bully because they feel inadequate, Caroline. You should pity them. And that teacher—how old is she? An old spinster like me. Probably she resents seeing you bright young people with your lives full of hope.”

“Experience makes one come to terms with life, to be at one with the mind and the heart. And most people are suffering in some way.”

“I survived.” Her grandmother gave a sad little smile. “Most of us survive the hardest things. We are quite resilient.”

“It is good for them to know what is being created, rather than just relying on the past,” I replied. “They can make up their own minds whether they think modern art is equally beautiful.”

“Life doesn’t always go in the direction we expect it to.”

that a time of stress and tragedy takes away all but the will to survive.

It was exciting to be part of a group of people—people who teased and expressed opinions and had different views.

“Not all art is meant to be beautiful,” Professor Corsetti said. “It is meant to evoke an emotional response, maybe to stir anger or sadness even.”

It celebrates when we were saved from the plague in the 1500s.

👀

Why oh why did I think it would be a good idea to come back to this place?

Very simple. He’s hot.

“No. I do not know her. I never heard of this woman. Why would I be friends with an Englishwoman? Me, I hate the English. I wish them all dead.”

Damn, lady.

It was only the heat of the moment, I told myself.

For a book so slow, things really happen fast.

“You cannot live someone else’s life. Your life is what you make of it. You have to decide what you want.”

“We’d only be second or third cousins,”

I personally don’t think it matters. Family is family, don’t care how distant. Keep away. Don’t get weird.

“I think I should like to make love to you. Would that be so wrong? Even if I am your cousin.”

Yes, it’s wrong. Gross. Please don’t.