The full moon shined down on the canal, bits and pieces of its light reflected from the waves brought on by the evening breeze. Karlia Genovesi looked back up the marble stairway to her father's palazzo she had just descended. She made sure that she was not followed, her bed packed with pillows to imitate her sleeping form, and the second decanter of brandy she got from her father's cook she gave to her nurse had been enough to leave the poor woman snoring loudly, as she crept out of her room. The sound of chirping crickets were the only sounds she heard while the rest of the palazzo slept as she made her way outside and down to the side of the canal. She did her best to wait patiently, looking over the water and straining her ears to hear the sound of her lover's approaching gondola.
She first saw him at mass two Sundays before, as she was sitting in her family's pew, after receiving communion. Her father was one of the richest men in Venice and paid well for a pew near the front of the cathedral San Pietro de Castilo. This assured him that they where they were among the first to receive communion each week and afterwards they would wait, her father impatiently, while all the other parishioners filed to the front to receive their wine and host. Karlia would often spend the time people watching, observing the other parishioners as they waited in line to receive their communion. That was when she first saw him. She was taken by his beauty immediately. His long curly, blonde hair cascading down his muscular shoulders straining against the material of his shirt and his angelic face drew her attention, and led her to wonder who this handsome young man was with his fair hair that set him apart from all of the other men receiving communion.
The next week she secretly wrote him a letter and carried it to church hidden in the folds of her dress hoping that she would see him again. Throughout the service she waited nervously only to feel a surge of relief as she saw him waiting in line for communion again. She was not sure, but she thought that he smiled at her as he passed her family's pew. After mass, as she filed past the pew where he was standing, waiting to exit the church, she discretely as she could, dropped the envelope with the letter at his feet. In the letter she told him how she had seen him the week before, likening him to an angel fallen from the heavens, and how she wanted to meet him. This brazen advance, something a girl of her position would normally not dream of making, had been prompted by her father's recent plotting to marry her off to Vinchenzo Nunzio, the son of one of his main rivals. He felt that the marriage would smooth the way to a merger of the business interests of the Genovesi and Nunzio families. Vinchenzo was hideous in Karlia's opinion. Short in stature, he was hunched over due to a birth defect and his dark complexion did nothing to improve his looks. The thought of marriage to him was abhorrent to Karlia, and the thought of eloping with this handsome man seemed as if it may be a salvation from what her father intended.
In the letter she also told him about a chink in the garden wall at the back of her family's palazzo, telling him that if he was interested he could slip her letters through it. The next day she woke early and snuck out of her room, careful not to disturb her still sleeping nurse, and went down to the garden at the back of her family's palazzo. Looking at the wall at the edge of the garden she found a letter that had been slid into the crack. Hardly believing her luck she slid the letter out and read it.
Dearest Karlia,
I was amazed to get your letter. For weeks I have watched you spellbound by your beauty and I dared not approach you, fearing your rejection. But when you dropped your letter at my feet my heart jumped. What could you want of me, I wondered. Reading your letter I was thrilled that you shared my feelings. Now my heart beats only for you and I long to be with you. I have dreamed of the joy your company would bring to me and hope that we may be together soon.
-Enrico
She was thrilled when she read this letter and was careful to hide it from her nurse and family, reading it over and over again in secret. Awaking early each day of the next week, she snuck down to the garden and retrieved a new letter, left during the night, from the crack in the wall. Each day the letters seemed to grow more confused and desperate as Enrico begged her for an assignation, telling her that he would take her away to his villa and they could enjoy a midnight supper. Although willing to give in to his advances almost immediately, she played coy and after a week of reading his missives she agreed to meet him, leaving a note that she would secretly meet him on the canal Friday night at midnight.
Impatient for his arrival she was down at the canal side almost half an hour before midnight. She spent her time pacing up and down the short walkway at the canal side waiting what seemed like an eternity for Enrico to make his appearance. She stopped her pacing when cathedral bells struck midnight and as the pall of the bells faded she heard the sound of an approaching gondola breaking the water. She looked down the canal and in the moonlight saw a gondola approaching. As the gondola came to the quay side where she stood she saw that it was empty save for the gondolier.
"Where is Enrico," she called out to the gondolier.
"Singnorina, my employer has told me to collect you and bring you to his villa. That is all I know. Come aboard and I will take you to him."
She could feel her heart beat harder as she stepped aboard the gondola. The mystery of the unoccupied gondola thrilled her and thinking that he had his own villa raised her hopes that maybe he was rich, rich enough to afford his own villa, and maybe rich enough to win her father's approval. She was near swooning as the gondolier paddled down the canal. It seemed to take forever until the gondola pulled to the side of the canal. As the gondolier secured the boat to the landing, she jumped out of the boat and ran up the stairs leading away from the canal, the skirt of her dress flying in the air as she ran. When she reached the top of the stairs she saw the villa, its white walls resplendent in the moonlight. She quickly crossed the courtyard, its pavement surrounded by arbors and lit by torches posted into the ground.
She approached the front door of the villa, painted a deep red, and knocked. She only had to wait few seconds and the door opened to reveal an older man, clothed in dark red livery.
"Ah Signorina Karlia, master Enrico will join you in the dining room. Please follow me."
She followed right behind the servant as he led her into the villa. The door opened into a luxurious sitting room with many red velvet covered couches. As she crossed it she took a moment to take in the sculpture and paintings on display, marveling at the good taste she thought they showed. He must really be rich to afford such fine art she thought. The servant led on to the dining room which was lit with candles both in sconces on the walls and candlesticks on the table. She sat down in the seat that the man pulled out for her at the side of the table. The table was impeccably set with sparkling silver and ivory white china.
"Master Enrico will join you in a minute," said the man before he bowed, walked around the table, and disappeared into a doorway. Karlia looked around the room as she waited. Just like the sitting room the walls of the dining room were coved with art, which consisted mostly of landscape paintings showing the Italian countryside, all remarkably well done, she thought.
