Page 25 of Palazzo
She had called Gian Battista after Luca’s and Max’s sentencing to report to him, and he thought the judge and the prosecutor had been very fair. Olivier and Cosima agreed, but Luca didn’t. He had sent Gian Battista a scathing letter, accusing the lawyer of betraying him. He had threatened Max’s life for selling him out to the prosecutor for a lesser sentence, and he inflicted the harshest cut of all on his sisters, which he knew would wound Cosima to the core. Total silence. He was still trying to wound people even once he was in prison. He hadn’t grown up yet and become a responsible adult, willing to be accountable for his own mistakes.
Cosima could remember people telling her over the years that they had an unredeemable rotten brother, and it had seemed so odd to her that they should give up on a member of their own family. Now, with Luca, she understood it. Some people just refused to ever take responsibility for anything they did and expected the entire world to forgive them. It broke her heart to see what Luca had become, and to know he was in prison. She felt as though she had failed him because she hadn’t helped him become a better person.
She wrote him a loving, compassionate letter, full of apologies and regrets, that he never answered. She eventually learned to live withit and moved on. She couldn’t carry his weight forever, nor the burden of his mistakes and the blame. It took courage to give up on him. She was sad about it, but she had a life to lead, even without him. It had never been her style to give up on anyone, but she knew she had to this time. Allegra took it less personally, and had never been as close to him, or felt responsible for him. Their relationships with their brother were entirely different.
Olivier had promised Max he would visit him once a month. Basile had no desire to see him. Basile and Allegra had similar attitudes about their derelict brothers. They wrote them off and felt free to go on with their own lives and didn’t feel sorry for them. Cosima didn’t plan to visit Luca either, unless he contacted her and something changed radically. Gian Battista was relieved to hear that she wasn’t trying to hang on to him or save him. She had finally given up on her brother.
—
Cosima called Sally Johnson a few weeks after Bill’s funeral, to see if she had changed her mind about the palazzo and wanted to go forward with the sale after all, after the initial shock. She didn’t. She was totally devastated by Bill’s sudden death. He wasn’t young, but he wasn’t very old either, and they had been very close for all forty-seven years of their marriage. The idea of continuing their life in Venice without him was unimaginable. So the sale of the palazzo to Sally was a dead issue. Cosima knew she couldn’t put it on the market in the condition it was in after the fire. She had promised to send Sally what was left of their belongings that had been damaged. Shewanted to go through the house and see what was worth saving and send it to Sally by container. It was a sad end to the Johnsons’ happy years in Venice.
Cosima spent a weekend in Venice in September, identifying their belongings and putting together what was salvageable, intact, or worthwhile, or might have sentimental value. It wasn’t a large pile, except for some wardrobe boxes of clothes that had been upstairs and weren’t touched by the fire or the water. It was a pathetically small pile of boxes and crates, and Cosima used the opportunity to assess what to do with her own things.
Once she had packed up what belonged to the Johnsons, there was little worth saving. The furniture in the bedrooms was of little value, and reeked of smoke, so she marked it with red tags, to be thrown away. All of the fabrics in the upper rooms, used as servants’ rooms and guestrooms, smelled of smoke. The fire had gotten to the main bedroom floor and many things were burned and had to go too. Curtains had fed the flames and were gone, carpets were badly damaged, upholstered furniture had been soaked through and ruined. At the end of her weekend of sorting, there was very little furniture worth storing or reupholstering, and another group of antiques that were water- or fire-damaged but could be restored. The family had sold most of the art a long time before, and most of what was on the walls belonged to the Johnsons. There were beautiful original crystal sconces and light fixtures which were still intact, and Cosima left them in place. Some of the china and crystal had shattered from the heat, but most of it was still good, and she marked it to pack up and store. The family silver was tarnished but undamaged, and there was a lot of it, with the family crest on it. And the miraculoussurvivor of the fire was the ballroom in the far wing of the house, which was spared almost intact, with only a faint hint of smoke.
Cosima marked everything, and showed it to the two elderly guardians, Tomaso and Guillermo, and asked them to ship the items to the Johnsons or put them in storage, and throw away what was too damaged. She sent an email asking for instructions.
Cosima planned to leave the house empty rather than filled with damaged items. On closer inspection, there was a fair amount in the end to send to storage for future use or repair. All the floors had buckled from the heat and water and would have to be redone. The burnt moldings would need to be restored. The walls were still drying out from the water a month later and might take a year. But once they got out all the ruined furniture and items for storage, it would be easier to see the work the house needed to restore it to its former beauty.
When she studied the palazzo closely, Cosima was surprised that there was a lot less restoration to do than she had feared. She was sorry now that Sally Johnson didn’t want to do it, and that she didn’t have the money to do it herself, and there was no insurance money forthcoming, thanks to Luca. A new owner could do it if they wanted to, but it was a big project, and would be expensive and time-consuming.
She worked alone for three days, sorting everything and throwing things away. She had a few boxes of mementos and old photographs she found in an upstairs closet, some old family albums, and several beautiful old Vuitton trunks in the attic, containing her mother’s old gowns, some costumes for their masked balls, and her mother’s and grandmother’s wedding gowns, which were all unaffected by thefire. She was sending it all to storage. She only threw away what was irreparably damaged and couldn’t be restored. The china, crystal, and silver could still be used one day if she or Allegra had a formal home. Luca was no longer a consideration.
She’d had the structure checked by an engineer right after the fire, and had some vital areas rewired so they had some light in the house. Surprisingly, the ceilings were all sound, despite the water, and she had all the broken windows replaced that had been blown out by the fire. Just doing that much had been expensive, but it had to be done to protect the house for the winter. She had thrown out all the old kitchenware and faded linens before the Johnsons rented the palazzo, so everything was clean and fresh for them. A lot of the Johnsons’ new décor had melted in the heat of the fire and had to be thrown away. Sally was going to be shocked by how little was left. It made Cosima think of the housewarming party after they redecorated, where she had met Olivier, the same night that Max and Luca had met at the casino. It had all started then, only three months before. It felt like a lifetime.
She knew that Olivier was visiting Max the same weekend she was working at the palazzo. He came to see her on Sunday afternoon and was amazed by how much she’d done herself, with the caretakers’ help.
He had found her up in the attic looking at her mother’s gowns. Even the trunks they were in, which had been her grandmother’s, looked like works of art and were worth a fortune. Every room had an echo now, as the two men carried things out and she emptied each room and threw things away.
“It looks better than I thought it would,” Olivier said when hefound her. She had done an immense amount of work. She was filthy, covered in soot and ash and dirt. She had cut her fingers repeatedly on small shards of broken glass. He hugged her when he saw her, and she was happy to see him.
“How’s Max?” she asked him.
“Not bad. He could be worse. It reminds me of when I visited him at camp, which he hated. He says the food is terrible, but he likes his cellmate. He’s a Russian forger. Max may pick up some bad skills there.” More than a month of his sentence had already gone by. Olivier had brought him cigarettes, magazines, and chocolate. He had his computer, and a job in the kitchen. It made Cosima wonder how Luca was doing. She didn’t ask if Max had seen him. The two men hated each other now and blamed each other for their misfortunes. She wondered what Luca would do when he got out, if prison would change him, or make him worse, and turn him into a dangerous criminal. Two years was a long time. And Luca was already far down a bad path, probably irretrievably. She had no hope for him now.
“Can I drag you away for dinner?” Olivier asked her.
“You’ll have to turn the hose on me. I’m filthy.” Her clothes and hair smelled like smoke, and she was covered in dust and ash.
“We can tell them you were cleaning house all day and you’re a thorough cleaner. The place does look surprisingly good. Are you really going to take it off the market?”
“I don’t see who would buy it like this,” she said, carefully folding her mother’s gowns back into the trunk, and putting a tag on it to send to storage.
“It’s not easy to find a historic palazzo in Venice,” he said. “Someone might want a project. And only two of the floors were really affected. The ballroom is perfect.”
“We won’t get a decent price for it like this, and I can’t afford to do the restoration now. Maybe later.” He nodded, it was a difficult situation, and heartbreaking for her, especially since her brother had done it.
“Your sister is coming to Paris next week, by the way, to visit Basile. They’re going to do street art together. He’s going to teach her how.” It was the second time in a month Allegra had visited Basile, and Cosima smiled.
“They’re cute together.”
“I had the feeling they’d like each other when I met her. They have the same vibe, full of life, they’re like rays of sunshine together.”
Cosima nodded. “And I look like a garbage can.” She laughed at herself as she headed downstairs with him to the main hall. She came down the grand staircase remembering how her mother had looked doing that at their balls.
“You’re just a little dusty,” Olivier teased her. He couldn’t believe how much she’d done. She was a powerhouse, and so was Allegra. They were strong, determined women, with courage. “Can I get you out of here?”
“I’m done. The rest has to be thrown out, sent to storage, or shipped to Sally in Dallas.” She’d spent a productive three days, which didn’t surprise him.
