The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker

At the Ospedale della Petia, a music school for orphaned girls in Venice, Marietta Fontana and Elena Baccini meet and become like sisters to each other. As they leave their impoverished childhoods behind, their bond grows more complicated - Elena marries a scion of the powerful Celano family, while Marietta weds a wealthy widower who is the sworn enemy of the Celanos. When Elena secretly bears a child, then quickly gives it up to be raised by Marietta, a chain of events is set off that will test the true strength of their friendship and threaten every bit of security each woman has worked so hard to gain.

Overall I enjoyed this book but didn't find anything to set it apart from the wealth of historical fiction on the market today. The story line and the descriptions of the place (Venice) and time (late 1700s) were the things that kept my interest in this book. The writing could have been more polished and cleaned up considering this is a repackaged book originally released in 1993.