had never forgiven Benito for the way the little bastard had humiliated him. So this looked like a chance to pay Benito back and turn a little profit by way of a couple of Dandelo bonuses.
He watched Benito moving in the shadows under the bridge. He squinted, but couldn’t make out anything more than a brief exchange with someone in the gondola—just a meeting of a pair of shadows within the shadows. Then Benito squirted out again and scrambled up the water-stairs and on over towards Cannaregio.
So. Maria had transferred whatever it was she’d picked up to the boy’s hands—likely because of the Schiopettieri stirring on the water.
He grinned viciously with absolute satisfaction, and headed up the walkway on the brat’s backtrail. In a few more moments, he’d have whatever it was Maria had been carrying, and he’d have the boy as well to sell to the Dandelos. Without balls. He was a good age for a trainee eunuch.

Harrow spotted the swarthy bullyboy trailing Benito with almost no effort whatsoever. The scar-faced low-life was so clumsy in his attempts to shadow the boy that Harrow snorted in contempt. This inept street brawler wouldn’t have lasted five minutes as a Montagnard agent.
Once Harrow saw that the boy was on the Calle del Arco, Harrow had a fairly good notion where he was bound: Giaccomo’s. That boat-woman must have passed something on to him.
The bravo evidently had a shrewd notion where Benito was going as well, since he increased his pace a trifle. It looked to Harrow like he was planning on ambushing the boy down in one of the sotoportego that Benito would use as a shortcut on his way to Giaccomo’s. Harrow gave up trying to be inconspicuous—there wasn’t anyone much in this decaying part of town anyway—and hastened his own steps.
He was almost too late. He hesitated a moment at the ­shadows next to the Gallina bridge, his eyes momentarily unable to adjust to the darkness of the sotoportego after the dazzle of sun in the piazza. Then he heard Benito shout in anger and defiance—and a second time, in pain.truth was easy enough when the person you were talking to didn’t know just what you were talking about! She walked away, edging her way through the knots of people, quite differently from the way she’d seen Francesca sashay her cleavage through the crowd. Unfortunately she hadn’t spotted Lodovico. Her grandfather had a commanding presence, so it was easy to forget he