FIVE
The royal blue and gold gondola belonging to the da Fuligna family waited for them as they stepped off the barge. Sophia lumbered along behind her parents as they crossed the fondamenta. Clad in her finest gown, a simple but elegant buttermilk silk that tapered at the waist and revealed the upper curves of her full breasts, her body felt as disconcerted as her mind.
“Let’s ride within the felze, shall we?” her mother suggested, her voice ringing with forced frivolity as she tried to help her daughter brave this perilous journey. “I have never been in one and it will be cooler.”
The reticent gondolier helped them onto the craft with silent reverence, a stark contrast from the oarsmen who had driven them to the festival. This man was a servant of the da Fulignas; it was not his place
