Chapter 22 The Easter Celebration: Madam, please forgive me.

Three days after the Mauro affair was Easter. Following the hasty end of the family gathering that had been intended to celebrate Easter, the Committee of Forty delivered its verdict on Mauro. Despite his father Bruno's fervent pleas, he was sentenced to exile as a slave on the Venetian colony of Crete in the Aegean Sea, never to return to Venice.

Lilith did not attend Mauro's formal sentencing. She had more important things to do.

The day before yesterday, she took Heinrich to the notary office early in the morning to complete the liberation procedures, granting him the status of a free man. In the afternoon, she went to the money exchange guild and retrieved the official operating license and the keys to the vault of the former Goldstein Bank. Yesterday morning, she was invited to a social tea party organized by her Aunt Elena, and in the afternoon, she rushed to the dock to order a one-way ticket to Jerusalem for Solomon Goldstein, whom she had been forced to concede to the family through a series of maneuvers, as a "thank you gift" for the successful acquisition.

That evening, she gathered all the servants in her household and announced that everyone would have a three-day holiday during the Easter celebrations. After the Easter holiday officially ended, everyone would immediately return to their busy work, working overtime to prepare for the official opening of the new bank.

So, on the morning of Easter, the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox, Lilith, wearing a thin nightgown and with her hair down, skipped downstairs, munching on cookies Ivanka had prepared for her, humming a boatman's tune she'd heard somewhere. Just as she drew back the curtains from the living room's French windows and sprawled unceremoniously on the sofa with her legs crossed, she suddenly saw Heinrich's face appear like a ghost on the ceiling in the corner of the living room.

"Aaaaaaah!" Lilith jumped up from the sofa in fright. Looking closely, she saw Heinrich standing on a ladder, taking down a black curtain hanging from the ceiling.

"Why did you climb so high! Are you trying to scare me to death!" Lilith shouted angrily, pointing her finger at his nose.

“I was the one who was so startled by your scream that I almost fell down.” Heinrich smiled sarcastically, threw the black cloth he had taken off on the ground, and climbed down the ladder himself. “Happy Easter, madam.”

"..." Lilith muttered as she walked to Heinrich's ladder, crossed her arms, and said, "I thought something unclean had gotten into the house."

"What, are you worried that your fiancé, whom you killed, will come back to haunt you and seek revenge?"

“Don’t think that just because you’re a free man you have the right to talk back to me.” Lilith grinned mischievously as she gripped one of the ladder’s side posts. “My dear Heinrich, do you want to try and see if you can recover after you fall?”

"I was wrong, madam. I apologize to you."

“That’s more like it.” Lilith smiled smugly, and only let go of Heinrich’s hand after he landed safely. “What are you doing taking down the curtains here? Today is Easter, aren’t you going to take a vacation?”

“Cecilia told me to do this. She said it was inappropriate to have funeral decorations in the house since it was Easter and the bank was opening. I didn’t know what to do on my vacation, so I just came to take this down. Anyway, it’s my job, and I had to do it sooner or later.”

“Cecilia doesn’t understand Venetian customs. If these black veils aren’t taken down after six months, people in the family will definitely use them as a pretext to gossip. I still need to do business because of my status as Mrs. Schmidl, so let’s leave them for now and not take them down any further.”

"good."

Lilith ran to the sofa and sat down again. The ground by the front door was piled with various exquisitely packaged gift boxes, and on top of them was a black and white rabbit doll that looked seven or eight parts like the Dutch rabbit that was poisoned by almond cookies, except that the eyes were sewn crookedly and the stitches were really crude.

"What's this?" Lilith casually strolled over and hugged the rabbit to her chest.

“This is… a Easter gift I prepared for you,” Heinrich said somewhat shyly.

You made this yourself?

"Yes. It wasn't done very well."

"I thought a big, burly man like you couldn't do needlework," Lilith said curiously, turning the rabbit over and over in her hands.

Actually, when he was training with the Knights, his clothes were always worn out and drafty, so Heinrich had to learn to sew his own clothes. But sewing a doll was definitely a first for him. Although he wasn't obligated as a servant to deliver Easter gifts to Lilith, he had some free time after Mauro's matter was settled, so he worked overtime all night to sew it.

"I hope you like it."

"Thank you, dear Heinrich, I like it very, very much!" Lilith suddenly threw herself into Heinrich's arms and hugged him, then quickly went back to the sofa to lie down and continue eating cookies.

"So, I didn't prepare a gift for you... But there's a big celebration in St. Mark's Square today. Don't you want to go and see?"

"Are you planning to go?" Heinrich had never been interested in such crowded and noisy events; he preferred to stay at home.

“The servants are all on holiday, and I can’t possibly go alone. What if I encounter danger? Besides, these celebrations are pretty much the same every year, and I’m already tired of them. You, on the other hand, haven’t been in Venice for long and have never seen a Venetian celebration before. Let me tell you, I’ve heard that many foreigners come all the way to see the Easter parade in St. Mark’s Square every year. How about it, do you want to go? If you miss it, you’ll have to wait another whole year. It should still be possible to go by boat now.”

"actually……"

"Actually, you really want to go, right? Hehe, see how good I am to you. I'm going to change my clothes, I'll be right down."

Heinrich watched helplessly as his excited mistress ran upstairs with her rabbit doll. She clearly wanted to go, but insisted on taking him along, brazenly stealing his precious vacation time without giving him any room to refuse. He had originally planned to go to the German Tavern near the Rialto Bridge after finishing his work to see if there was any news from his brother, but now he had no choice but to go back to his room, put on his cloak, pull down his hood, and wait for her at the door.

Lilith changed into a gorgeous black dress trimmed with lace, slipped the ruby ​​ring her fiancé had given her onto the ring finger of her left hand, and put on a bowler hat veiled in black. She nimbly hopped onto the gondola moored at the main entrance. Heinrich, however, remained hesitant on the shore.

"Where is the boatman?" Heinrich had a bad feeling.

"It's a holiday, everyone gets three days off." Lilith leaned back comfortably on the soft couch. "Why don't you just do the arranging?"

"I can't row a boat."

"What?!" Lilith sat up straight in anger. "If I had known you couldn't even row a boat, I would have bargained down the price by at least five more ducats. Rowing in Venice is like walking; nobody can't do it. Even if you couldn't when you first arrived, you've been here for a month now, can't you at least try to learn?"

"You haven't given me a chance to learn either. What if I row your boat recklessly and bump or damage it? If all else fails, shall we walk?"

“Walking there is definitely too late!” Lilith glared at Heinrich, lifted the hem of her long dress, stood up, and skillfully walked to the stern in her heeled shoes to pick up the oar. “Hurry up and get on.”

Heinrich boarded the boat somewhat embarrassedly, watching incredulously as Lilith untied the ropes tied to the shore and rowed the small boat into the main canal channel.

"So you can row a boat too," Heinrich exclaimed in surprise.

“I already told you, rowing is as easy as walking.” Lilith glanced down at him. “Learn from him, and you’ll row the way back.”

"..."

"To tell you the truth, rowing is like accounting and business. Everyone says it's something only men can do, and women can't learn it. But do you know how I learned it? I didn't listen to any of their nonsense. It's that simple."

Lilith, beaming with confidence, rowed with ease, wielding the oar with one hand: "You see, you have to learn to go with the current, let the current push you, and use the stroke of the oar to control the direction of the boat."

The gondola rounded a bend and re-entered the canal, soon arriving near St. Mark's Square. The banks were filled with small boats, and the air was bustling with noise. Lilith took Heinrich's hand and squeezed through the crowd to the front.

As the bells of St. Mark's Basilica rang, a solemn procession slowly emerged from the Doge's Palace. Eight guards carried a huge banner embroidered with St. Mark's image, followed by eight musicians playing as they marched. Close behind were dozens of priests and priests in golden vestments, singing hymns; some carried enormous golden crosses, others held Gospels with jewel-encrusted covers. Finally, came the Doge of Venice. His embroidered gold robes were as luxurious as those of a Byzantine emperor, displaying the glory and wealth of the maritime republic to the crowd. The cheers of the Venetians were deafening. [Note]

"God bless Venice! Long live the Republic!"

But Heinrich didn't care about any of that. His eyes were only on Lilith, only on her fiery red hair shining brightly in the sunlight. Perhaps worried about getting lost in the crowd, Lilith didn't let go of his hand. He felt the warmth of his fiancée's hand through his gloves, and finally realized a fact he had never dared to admit or face.

He fell in love with Lilith, this beautiful and alluring, intelligent yet ruthless, pitiful yet hateful little girl. Even though she had murdered all his trusted men, reduced him from a nobleman to a slave, and repeatedly plunged him into danger and brushed with death. Love is so unreasonable. He fell hopelessly in love with someone he should have hated to the core, while she only saw him as a servant she could summon and dismiss at will. What should he do, Heinrich? What should you do?

“Uncle Massimo will probably be at the back of the parade too. Let’s hurry before he comes out.” Lilith turned to look at Heinrich, her eyes meeting his deep, affectionate blue gaze. Lilith frowned and pinched his palm hard. “What are you looking at?”

“Your hair…” Heinrich turned his face away shyly, even forgetting to use honorifics, “is tangled in one place.”

"I was in a hurry to leave, so I didn't have time to comb my hair." Lilith made a face at him, stood on tiptoe to take off Heinrich's hood, and admired his neatly combed light blond hair with satisfaction. "Let's go, this time you can row me home."

Heinrich was once again pulled by Lilith through the crowd to the waterway where the gondolas were moored. The red-haired little girl hopped and skipped onto the gondola, leaning against the bow, and watched as Heinrich stumbled and staggered onto the stern. Because the gondolas were pitched up at both ends, the rocking motion at the bow and stern was much more intense than in the water-sloping middle, not to mention that the center of gravity was higher when a person stood upright, making it even more difficult to maintain their balance.

"Madam, I'm afraid your life will be in danger if I were to paddle." Heinrich struggled to grip the heavy wooden paddleboard, barely managing to stand up and maintain his balance.

"Relax," Lilith said with a sly smile. "Just put the oars in the water and row backwards."

Heinrich tried his best to do as Lilith instructed, but the boat kept rocking and swaying with the waves, making him feel like he was about to fall, and the wooden oar in his hand felt as heavy as lead. He had no idea how to use the water's current to row, and only felt the heavy resistance in the water, using all his brute force to push the boat forward.

"Is that so!?" Heinrich cried out to Lilith with a hint of despair.

"Hmm... that's not quite right. You should imagine that the sea is a reasonable person. What you should do is talk to him calmly and peacefully, instead of resorting to violence at the drop of a hat."

"ah??"

Before Heinrich could decipher Lilith's mysterious advice, he was quickly dumbfounded by the sight before him. There was a low archway in the narrow waterway, so low that even if Heinrich stood on the high, upturned stern of the boat, he would not be able to pass through it, even if he bent down.

"what do I do!?"

"Don't be afraid."

Lilith glanced back at the archway, stood up, and sat on the right side of the boat, on the same side as Heinrich. The weight of the two of them caused the boat to suddenly sink to the right, startling Heinrich so much that he bent his knees and knelt down on the stern, almost falling into the river.

"Next, you need to stand on the edge of the right side of the boat and paddle, because the water is deeper there. When we go through the bridge, the position will be lower, so you can squat down and get through."

"How could anyone possibly stand like that?"

He glanced at the boat, which was tilted at nearly a 45-degree angle on the water, and shakily stood up again. As Lilith had instructed, he carefully stepped onto the gunwale. Just then, a small wave caused the boat to bob slightly, and with a splash, the poor novice boatman fell into the water.

"Oh, it's alright, there's nothing shameful about it." Lilith leaned on the edge of the boat with a smug look on her face, pretending to offer a helping hand to Heinrich, who was struggling in the water. "I've fallen in before, and you learn how after falling in a few times."

"Yeah?"

Heinrich frowned, grasped Lilith's hand that was pulling him onto the boat, and feigned an accident, gave him a sharp tug downwards. The lady of the house, dressed in a beautiful dress, was immediately dragged into the river. She knew, of course, that Heinrich had done it on purpose, just as he knew perfectly well that Lilith had deliberately chosen such a difficult waterway to see him humiliated and fall into the lagoon. But neither of them had any evidence to accuse the other. Heinrich played along, looking at Lilith, who had also fallen into the water, with feigned grievance:

"Madam, it's my fault, I was wrong, please forgive me."

[Note] This passage references the historical material "City of Fortune: Venice's Maritime Domination" by Roger Crowley.

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Author's note: Finally, I got to the sweet romance part, hehe. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Two days ago, my novel reached 100 reads, and I'm so incredibly grateful to everyone! As a new author's first work on Jinjiang Literature City, and given that it's a niche genre (which I'm very interested in), I originally wrote it with the mindset that I'd finish it even if no one read it. It's a great honor to have people read it, and I will definitely continue to work hard and improve!