Kenzie Anne - Florentine Part 2 -11.11.21- -

“Matteo,” she said.

Kenzie gestured to the canvas on the easel. It was a study of a woman’s back—spine like a rosary, shoulder blades like folded wings. The face was turned away, lost in shadow.

“Before I show you,” he said, “you need to understand. This isn’t a love story, Kenzie. It’s a warning.” Kenzie Anne - Florentine Part 2 -11.11.21-

“That’s Artemisia Gentileschi,” Matteo said. “She painted this self-portrait in 1615, when she was twenty-two. She had just won a rape trial by being tortured with thumb-screws to prove she was telling the truth. She won. She painted Judith beheading Holofernes four times. And she left this book hidden in the corridor for someone exactly like you to find.”

She was smiling. And she was terrified.

“That’s me,” she whispered.

Outside, the bells of San Niccolò began to ring. St. Martin’s Day. The saint who cut his cloak in half for a beggar and later saw the beggar was Christ. “Matteo,” she said

Matteo touched the cut on his lip.