Chapter One
Marietta raised the velvet-covered lid of the box. Immediately her green eyes widened at the sight of the full-faced golden mask that shone from its bed of black satin. A strange shiver passed down her spine.
“Who has ordered this mask, Mama?” she asked almost warily, recalling that a few days ago she had seen her widowed mother, an outworker for a shop in distant Venice, give it a second coat of a certain rust-red paint in preparation for its gilding. Then it had been just another mask among so many in the workroom, but now, newly returned from the gilder, it had somehow leapt into life. Its strong male features showed a forceful nose, deeply indented chin, wide planes across the brow and cheekbones, and a well-cut mouth.
“I know nothing about the purchaser, except that the
