Description
A Triestine widow in her late forties, always in good black silk with a widow’s brooch and sharp, amused eyes. Frank, funny, and entirely without illusions. She sits in the Locanda del Leone’s common room watching the door over the rim of her glass, and misses nothing.
Background
Born Rosa Brunetti, poor, in Trieste’s harbour slums. She married up three times and buried every husband — a Venetian wine factor, a Ragusan ship’s chandler, and last an Austrian customs official whose pension and contacts she still trades on. Each marriage moved her along the Mediterranean — Venice, Ragusa, Corfu, and finally Alexandria, where she has run “a business” for a decade.
What the business is shifts with who is asking: a boarding-house, a dealer in lace and luxuries, an arranger of introductions between European gentlemen and whatever — or whoever — they are looking for. All of it true; none of it the whole truth. What she actually trades in is information and access: which consul is in debt, which captain smuggles, which merchant’s wife takes lovers, where to find a discreet doctor, a clean girl, a forged paper, or a passage that appears in no manifest.
Connections
- A patron of the Locanda del Leone (alongside Lucas Pyke, Capitaine Thibault, the Greek captains).
- The fastest route to a discreet doctor for Emma’s wound, the best hammam (Hammam al Yasmin), honest boatmen, and corrupt officials.
- The Trieste thread: she came from Trieste, the port the party sailed from — she may have heard of, or glimpsed, La Speranza’s departure weeks ago.
Appearances
Session 4 Developments
Joined the party at the long breakfast table at the Locanda del Leone and agreed to guide Emma, Georgiana, and Katherine through Alexandria for the day. She led the three women down through the covered lanes of the souk to shop for veiled street dress and custom garments, then on to the Hammam al-Yasmin for the bathhouse scene where Georgiana’s mark was declared a baraka. Acted purely as guide and social lubricant throughout — securing access, smoothing introductions with merchants and tailors, and steering the group toward the bathhouse — rather than as an active participant in either the shopping or the revelation at the hammam. Also noted feuding with a new local tailor, Master Hagop, over hems (see Chapters/Chapter 4 - Calcutta/Sessions/Session 04/Session_04_Table_Assistant_Notes.md, DRAFT — promote if he recurs). Source: _inbox/session-Jul 2nd, 2026.md (Shopping in the Alexandria Souk, The Hammam al-Yasmin); Chapters/Chapter 4 - Calcutta/Sessions/Session 04/Session_04_Table_Assistant_Notes.md (“The Tailor’s Bolts”).
Connections
People
Courts
- Katherine Ward Player character warmOne operator recognising another; takes a shine to Katherine2 sessions, Give Rest to The Road to Cairo
Knows
- Sitt Zaynab NPC warmRosa brokers introductions into Sitt Zaynab's quarters; they trade in the same female-world currency from opposite sides of the Frank line.
Places
Finances
- Locanda del Leone Location warmA fixture of the Locanda's common room; watches the door over the rim of her glass2 sessions, Give Rest to The Road to Cairo
Located at
- Locanda del Leone Location neutralCurrent location2 sessions, Give Rest to The Road to Cairo
- Alexandria Overview Location warmFellow guest at the Locanda del Leone; a local fixture who serves as an informal guide
Things
Trades with
- Emma Egyptian Dress Item warmRosa guided the ladies to the souk tailor who made the dress1 session: The Road to Cairo
- Georgiana Egyptian Dress Item warmRosa guided the ladies to the souk tailor who made the dress1 session: The Road to Cairo