Author's Note:

I own none of the characters or plot elements of the Showtime show, "The Borgias". A warning also that there is going to be incest in this story, so if this disturbs you I would simply counsel that you stop reading now, however, if Cesare and Lucrezia's love moves you too, then please read on and do leave me reviews as you go!

Many thanks,

DaenerysTargary3n

Chapter I - A Flight from Naples

Cesare's name had never been as sweet to his own ears as it had been in that miraculous moment when he heard his sister's dulcet tones call out to him from the wagon that he had almost allowed to pass his band of bastard sons by. He had given little consideration to Alfonso when he had greeted him, he only cared for the wellbeing of his sister and his nephew and her husband could go to hell for all the eldest Borgia child cared.

As he sprinted to take his sister into his empty arms, all he wished for was to have her in his arms once more and to never be parted from her again. He took her face in his strong hands and planted kiss upon kiss on her sweet, angelic face, a face he feared he would never see again. The small crowd of men standing behind them, hidden in the shadows of the Neapolitan forests were swiftly forgotten as the lovers were reunited.

Lucrezia had imagined that she had dreamt hearing her husband call someone on the lonely road "Brother" but once she noticed that she could no longer hear the faint sounds of his horse's hooves and then she at once ordered the carriage to halt so she could see for herself whether whom she hoped to see with Alfonso was truly there. She praised God in the moment when she poked her head from the wagon and recognised her favourite brother's curled locks and burly stature cloaked, standing in front of Alfonso's steed.

She had made every arrangement in the days preceding her family's timely flight from Naples to ensure that her plan was infallible and undetectable by the new, barbaric king, who had manipulated her with a capability of a Borgia while she had been falsely led to recommend his suit for the crown and demolish Raphael's endeavours to make himself the ruler of the city of weeds that had become a gaol to her. Her husband had disappointed her cruelly in that respect. She always knew he was a soft-hearted man – it was what initially drew her to him – but in the face of his family's captivity, she had sincerely hoped that he would throw off that cumbersome shroud of decency and act to secure their safe passage back to Rome, where the three of them would be sheltered. Upon seeing Cesare, her perpetual saviour, she was overjoyed to come face-to-face once more with her one, true kindred spirit in this life.

Once his sister had narrated to him a brief account of how she had managed to leave Naples unchecked and so quickly, he began to make arrangements so that all of them could continue their journey back to the Holy City, as they had tarried long enough on this road which was but a few miles from Naples and as much as Cesare had every faith that his sister's concoction would keep the inhabitants of that awful city in thrall for long enough, he did not wish to tease Fate any more, especially as she had already so kindly delivered Lucrezia into his waiting, open arms.

With a final kiss to his sister's palm, Cesare strode back to his brother-in-law and his condottieri, telling the latter to ready their horses once more as they were riding back to Rome and purposefully ignoring the former, whom he understood had contributed nothing to the effort to see his family safe once again. Then again, Cesare Borgia had always seen that his sister's spouse was not in possession of a backbone, but it was a fact that still vexed him.

As Alfonso and Cesare rode their horses on either side of the wagon containing the womenfolk and little Giovanni, Lucrezia found herself conveniently sitting on the side of her beloved brother. She was quite tempted to entreat him to join her in the comfort of the wagon so that she might hold his hand and be closer to him, for the night's activities had shaken her a bit, though she was loathe to reveal that to her husband and her maid was already jittery enough as it was. She felt she could only share her former fear with Cesare, from whom she could conceal nothing. She knew, though, that Cesare's new position as head of a great army required him to show at least some amount of detachment from his emotions. He had to be seen astride his horse as they arrived in Rome, he had to appear to be strong and virile, which he was, but even he would have rather held his sister in his arms than merely ride outside her carriage never once taking his eyes off her.

Colonna drove his horse up beside the Prince of Aragon, "You are a fortunate man, sir," he said, with a glint of humour in his cold eyes, "to have married into such a close-knit family, who all love each other so."

"It is good that a brother and sister are so close, my lord." Alfonso whispered back, not at all taking the other man's full meaning.

"Yes, indeed," he sniggered, "though, I think that if my wife were to show such affection to her brother, then I might reconsider that opinion. Then again, you will have heard the rumours."

Alfonso prided himself on his morality and good nature, but the lack of a question in the lord's voice startled him somewhat, "Rumours? I have heard no rumours concerning my dear wife. I only know what she has told me."

Colonna stared in surprise at Alfonso's face, but in it he saw no hint of sarcasm or deflection. The man was truly a fool if he had bound himself to the Borgia family without being privy to the tales that swamped the whole of Italy regarding the relationship between the eldest Borgia son and his younger and only sister. If he hadn't been party to the rumours, Colonna at least thought that some kind of alarm should have sounded in the prince's brain when he witnessed their passionate reunion. But maybe he had just put it down to them having red, Spanish blood flowing through their veins…

"Your silence unnerves me, my lord Colonna," Alfonso warned, "pray, do tell me what rumours circulate?"

"I, well, I," the lord of the Romagna seldom was at a loss for words, but he had no inkling how to break the news of his wife's presumed infidelity and incestuous behaviour with her brother to her unsuspecting husband, "there are certain rumours, my lord, that your wife and her brother have carnal knowledge of each other and have for many years now. There is talk that they are truly in love and that is why her husband, Giovanni Sforza, was killed by his lordship because he defiled his sister."

Alfonso took a moment to process what he had been told and it had always appeared to him that the commanding Cesare Borgia had held his sister dearly in his heart and forever was she foremost in his thoughts, but never had such sin and amorality crossed his mind. He observed how his Lucrezia was gazing out of her carriage window at her brother and how from time to time, said brother returned those gazes with a warm smile. He had watched from afar as they had kissed on the road and he knew in his heart that his wife would never embrace him like that or bestow such love on him, but he had assumed that was because she had always had her brother protect her and they shared a close bond, but a bond between siblings, but could it possibly be that siblings never behaved so, only lovers did?

Colonna saw the doubt spreading through Alfonso as he never spoke another word on the subject, so Cesare's mercenary lord fell back to the rear of the wagon and he knew he had either committed a grave error or he had aided his master on his quest to keep his sister for himself, yet only time would tell.

It was dawn when the cavalcade of escapees rode into Rome and up to the walls of the Vatican, where it was determined that Lucrezia and her family should stay instead of their mother's villa, where Cesare knew he could not keep as firm an eye on them as he would wish to. Alfonso did not wait for his wife, which she thought odd, but led the way to their chambers which Cesare informed them had been untouched since their departure. Cesare took Alfonso's place and walked beside his sister, at one point wresting Giovanni from her arms, so as to feel his innocence in his own as they climbed the stairs.

"It does not feel like home," Lucrezia whispered as she watched Cesare deposit her son in his undersized cot.

"Are you lost, sis?"

Lucrezia only made a small sound of assent as she walked to her brother's side and helped him to lay Giovanni down, as the poor, sweet child had been overtaxed by the journey and was restlessly trying to fall asleep.

"He will need a bigger cot," Cesare pronounced, removing Giovanni's petite travelling cape, "and so will he."

Alfonso's presence in the main chamber caught the siblings' eyes and they exchanged a brief smile before Cesare took his leave and Lucrezia flew into her welcoming bed as Alfonso inquired after what had made her smile so.

"You did," she said, with a false smile, she had perfected whilst in Pesaro, "because you are the joy of my life, the light of my days."

Alfonso felt as though his eyes had been opened to the truth which had always been before him, but he was too stupid to see it, "You know that I know that is not true."

Lucrezia saw a change in her husband's eyes, one which frightened her to her core. He had grown a pair, but at the most inconvenient of moments. She knew that she and Cesare had acted impulsively when they had found each other again, but at that moment she could not care for anything but being back in her lover's arms, but now, she could see it in Alfonso's chocolate brown eyes that he knew. She had no response to give to that kind of fatal knowledge.