The Glassblower of Murano

The Glassblower of Murano Read Free Page B

Book: The Glassblower of Murano Read Free
Author: Marina Fiorato
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no skater clothes. Their courtship was accelerated by similar feeling on Stephen's side - here was a beautiful, freethinking, artistic girl dressed in a slightly funky fashion,
charming him with a world he knew nothing of.

    When Nora brought Stephen home to Islington Elinor
sighed inwardly. She liked Stephen - with his old-world manners and Cambridge education - but could see what was
happening. In her women' group her friends agreed. Nora
was seeking out her father, but what could Elinor do?
    Elinor gave her daughter the glass heart that Bruno had
given her. She told Nora what she knew of her father's
family, of the famous Corradino Manin, in an attempt to
give her daughter a sense of paternal identity. But at that
time Nora was no more than momentarily interested - her
heart was full of Stephen. Nora finished her Masters and
was offered a teaching post, Stephen got a surgical residency
at the Royal Free, and there was nothing left to do but
get married. They did so in a solid conventional fashion
in Norfolk, with Stephen's wealthy family running the day.
Elinor sat through the ceremony in her new hat and sighed
again.
    The couple went to Florence for their honeymoon at
Elinor's suggestion. Nora was enchanted by Italy, Stephen
less so.

    Perhaps I should have sensed something wasn't right, even
then.
    She now remembered that Stephen detested the traffic and
tourism of Florence. He resented her speaking to the locals
in her hard-learnt but fluent Italian. It was as if he resented
her heritage - felt threatened. In the Uffizi he himself
braided her hair again after his brief, uncharacteristic
moment of romance in front of the Botticelli. He said that
her blondeness attracted too much unwanted attention in
the street. Yet even with her hair bound she collected
admiring glances from the immaculately dressed young
men who hunted in designer-suited packs of five or ten,
raising their sunglasses and whistling.
    It was Stephen, too, who had resisted her suggestion to
call herself Leonora again - too fancy, he said, too Mills
and Boon. She had kept the name Manin for her work,
as she exhibited her glassware in a small way in some
London Galleries. Her chequebook and cashcards, however,
said Carey.
    Nora wondered if Stephen had only accepted Nora Manin
because it sounded as if it could be English. Few people
identified Manin as an Italian name, with no giveaway
vowel at the end.
    Is it because Stephen resented my `Italian-ness' that I am anxious
to embrace it so wholeheartedly, now he is gone?

    Nora turned from the luggage and searched in her makeup
bag for her talisman. Among the mascara wands and bright
palettes of colour she found what she was looking for. She
held the glass heart in her hand, marvelling at its iridescence. It seemed to capture the light of the bathroom's
fluorescent tube and hold it within itself. She threaded a
blue hair ribbon through the hole in its crease and tied it
round her neck. Over the last horrible months it had
become her rosary, her touchstone for all the hopes of the
future. She would hold it tight as she cried at those 4am
wakings and tell herself if she could only get to Venice,
everything would be alright.
    The second part of her plan she did not want to think
about yet - she had told no-one, and could barely even
say it to herself as it sounded such a ridiculous, fanciful
notion. `I am going to Venice to work as a glassblower. It
is my birthright' She spoke to her reflection, aloud, clearly
and defiantly. She heard the words, unnaturally loud in the
quiet of the small hours, and cringed. But in determination, she clasped the heart tighter and looked again at her
reflection. She thought she looked a little more courageous
and felt cheered.

     

CHAPTER 3

Corradino's Heart
    There were letters cut into the stone.
    The words on the plaque which adorned the Orphanage
of the Pieta were thrown into sharp relief by the midday
sun.

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