As with Pio’s clever adornment, Vittorio had braided and knotted bits of leather to create a seamless circle. This piece, however, had been crafted with far greater skill. The leather threads were almost as delicate as wire, and he had twisted them into an open filigree pattern to which he’d added bits of colored minerals. Those tiny beads were similar to the large specimens we ground to make the various bright-hued pigments for frescoes, and I guessed that the youth had shaped them from scraps he had swept up from the workshop floor. It was a beautiful example that I was certain had taken many hours of work.

“Any woman would be glad to wear such a fine bracelet,” I declared with an admiring nod.

Vittorio’s blush deepened. “I am glad you like it. I made it especially for a certain girl. She-she doesn’t know that I like her, and I’ve been afraid to say anything to her. I hope that giving her this bracelet will let her know how I feel.”

He smiled at me shyly, his expression hopeful and brimming with a secret knowledge at odds with his usual boyish openness.

Meeting his gaze, I was momentarily puzzled. In the next instant, I was swept by the fearful certainty that Vittorio had discovered the truth about me that even Leonardo did not know. Why else would he have sought me out away from the others, if not to clandestinely confront me with what he had learned? And yet, how could it be? How had he unraveled the secret that had allowed me to remain as apprentice these many months?

How had Vittorio contrived to learn that I was not the boy Dino, as I claimed to be… but was instead Delfina della Fazia, a young woman who had disguised herself as a male in order to study painting with the greatest master in Milan and all the surrounding provinces!