For awhile after Juan returned to Rome, he ocassionally visited Jofré and Vannozza at her villa. Jofré was still worried about if and when the Pope will ever summon him. He had already heard that Lucrezia was now living in the Apostolic Palace along with Adriana and Giulia, who had now recently given birth to a baby girl whom she named Laura, and not only that, but her engagement to Gaspare of Procida was anulled, and it was agreed between His Holiness and Cardinal Ascanio Sforza of the Sforza family, that she would marry Ascanio's 27-year old nephew Giovanni, who, like Lucrezia, was born out of wedlock. One day while Juan was visiting, he, Jofré, Vannozza, and Carlo were sitting out in the courtyard, when suddenly out of the doorway leading back into the villa, came Cesare. Dressed in black silk and carrying a rapier on his belt. Unannounced by the servants and completely by surprise. Vannozza looked up from where she was sitting and a look of surprise overtook her expression.
"Cesare!" she gasped. She immediately got up and ran towards Cesare. " Jofré! Juan! It's Cesare! Oh my son!"
"Excellency!" cried Carlo as he rose from his sit as well to welcome Cesare. "Welcome to my humble house!"
Cesare smiled at Carlo and immediately turned to his mother, with his hands holding hers.
"Oh beloved Madre..." said Cesare kissing his mother's hands. "Happy...unhappy mother..."
"Oh Cesare!" Vannozza cried as she swung her arms around Cesare, while Cesare wrapped his arms around her and even managed to pick her up a foot or so off the ground in their happy embrace. When they were done, Vannozza looked over Cesare's shoulder, pointed at the door leading into the villa and asked "Who is he?"
Jofré looked behind them and saw that in the doorway, leaning against the wall was a very strange and fearsome looking man. He was dressed completely in black from head to toe, with a black cloak, and black gloves on his hands, and a rapier on his belt. His black hair was wavy and between short and medium length, his face was covered with a black mask, that covered most of his face, leaving only the bottom of his face, which was mostly covered by a short black beard, except for his mouth and the bottom half of his cheeks, which were as pales as death. Jofré judged from the man in black's broad frame that he must be powerfully built. The man made Jofré feel uneasy.
"Oh he's a shadow." said Cesare to Vannozza concerning the mysterious man in black. "Blow out the light and he's gone!" Cesare said with a chuckle.
Cesare's words did not ease Jofré's mind, but he decided it was best to disregard the man in black and focus on greeting his brother.
"Brother, it is so good to see you again!" said Jofré as he walked over to Cesare and gave him a hug.
"How now, dear little brother?" said Cesare in a happily surprised tone. "You were not so tall a lad when I last saw you!"
Jofré chuckled. "I am not yet even a man, and yet I already begin to grow to near stature!"
Juan, on ther other hand, did not get up from his seat. He merely sat there and not bothering to say hello, and asked in a tone of suspicion and a raised eyebrow. "Why are you in Rome?"
Cesare said nothing to Juan, merely disregarded his brother and turned back towards Vannozza.
"How is Lucrezia?" Cesare asked, holding Vannozza's hands again.
"She is well." said Vannozza.
"When will she be well?" Cesare asked Vannozza, in a tone as if he were asking her a question in some sort of code.
"In the autumn." said Vannozza. "When you are closer, Cesare."
Cesare smiled and asked Vannozza if there was anything she wanted him to do, but Vannozza cheerfully declined, saying, "Oh no, no, my son! Say nothing! Do nothing! I am content."
Juan than rose from his seat and walked over towards them, still with an expression of sly suspicion, saying to Cesare, "You weren't given leave to return to Rome..."
Cesare again said nothing to Juan, but simply turned to him, and mockingly blew him a kiss. He immediately went over to Carlo.
"How are you, Segnior Canale? Do you prosper?" asked Cesare.
"Oh indeed, your excellecy!" Carlo replied with his hearty chuckle.
"His Holiness has appointed him governor of the prison." Vannozza said, as she lovingly put her hands on Carlo's shoulders.
"Prison Governor?!" Cesare said astonished. "Well, you didn't expect that when you wed my mother, now did you sir? he said in jest.
"Cesare!" chuckled Vannozza.
"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Cesare chuckled, putting his hands up in a way that was both defensive and apologetic. "Forgive me. I certainly expected nothing less." Cesare gave Carlo a polite smile.
Jofré, wanting to be part of the conversation, decided to step in and tell Cesare of Juan's success, not remembering that anything concerning Juan's pleasure made Cesare short in temper. "Juan is to be Captain-General of the Holy Church!" he told his brother.
"WHAT?!" Cesare hissed, as he sharply turned around towards his brothers. His eyes looking incredibly fierce.
"T'was agreed long ago." said Juan, as he casually began to stuff his face full of olives, from a small bowl he held in his hands. "You were to be the priest, and I the soldier." He gave Cesare a smug smile.
Cesare chuckled in derision at Juan. He knew that his brother had more false bravado than geniune courage in battle and was a very poor candidate for such a position. "I could defeat ANY force you lead, with only FIFTY horsemen! Each wearing a cuirass of brightly polished steel!" Juan merely raised an eyebrow to such retort.
"Oh, Cesare, Juan, please don't!" said Jofré, realizing the Pandora's Box he had just unknowingly unleashed, and trying to figuratively shut the box.
Cesare, merely continued talking, disregarding Jofré's plea. "And our foppish elder brother here, would be so besotted with fifty images of himself, he would have no wits left for battle!"
Juan finally started to flare up. "You're ever a blaggard!" he shot out at Cesare.
Cesare immediately got tensed and made an obscene finger gesture towards Juan, as he too was about ready to start a row. Jofré worried that his brothers would start brawling right in the courtyard. He then realized that since both of them each carried a sword, that they might not even bother with fisticuffs and just go straight to fencing! Thankfully, Carlo immediately stepped in between them and offered to get everyone a goblet of wine, hoping to diffuse the strife between his wife's eldest sons. As Carlo left, Juan immediately turned around back to his seat. As he passed by Jofré, he passive-aggresively elbowed him in the shoulder. Jofré, not being big enough to retaliate, only stood by and watch as Cesare and Vannozza had a little conversation between themselves and was able to overhear them speak.
"Must you ALWAYS quarrel with your brother in my house?!" said Vannozza in a tone that was both exasperated yet rebuking.
"We meet nowhere else!" said Cesare defensively.
"Than I shall forbid you to come, though I see you too rarely." said Vannozza.
"My father's a fool to favor him!" said Cesare.
"If you weren't so blind with envy, you'd see he loves you both!" said Vannozza.
"But he keeps me from Rome!" said Cesare. A look of weariness and sadness overcame his countenance. "Why won't he acknowledge me as his child?" he said in a tone that was reminiscent to a whinning child. "The Borgia Bull stands on every column in Rome, yet I may not put it upon my house, or on myself-!" quickly Vannozza cut him off.
"Cesare! Cesare! Have patience! I will speak with him!" Vannozza said to Cesare trying to calm him down.
"You?" Cesare looked at his mother with astonishment. "You mean nothing to him now..." he said, looking away, treating Vannozza's words as a plan that is utterly doomed to fail and not even worth trying. Turning back to her, he said, "You've nothing to bargain with!"
Vannozza stood there looking at Cesare for a moment, and then said finally "So...of you must be cruel, take care you do not enjoy the pain you inflict..."
Cesare said nothing, and merely gave Vannozza a guilty and remorseful look and then lowered his eyes in shame. Vannozza calmly stroked her fingers along her son's face.
Finally Vannozza said to Cesare, "You're right, of course. When you see him, tell him..." than Vannozza paused for a second, then lightly shook her head. She originally intended to ask Cesare to tell Rodrigo that she loved him, but she reconsidered such an idea, and finally she settled with-"Tell him I pray for him..."
Cesare looked at Vannozza in her eyes for a moment, then finally smiled lightly and nodded his head. He kissed Vannozza's hand and said, "Farewell, Mama..."
"Goodbye my son..." Vannozza replied.
"Farewell, your excellency." said Carlo.
"Adios, Cesare." said Jofré.
"Adios, hermano." replied Cesare.
"Promise you'll remind Papa to remember me." said Jofré.
Cesare nodded and walked back to the villa. As went, he turned and bid everyone with the exception of Juan a farewell, and then turned again and went back inside the villa with the strange man in the black cloak and mask, and they both left together.
For a while there was silence. Jofré went up to Vannozza. "Oh Mama, I do not like the look of that masked stranger that Cesare brought with him..." he said with worry in his voice.
"Nor I, mi bambino..." said Vannozza as she put her arms around Jofré and stroked his head.
"So, our dear, priestly brother has an assassino in his pay!" Juan said in an accusatory tone.
"Juan!" exclaimed Vannozza with wide eyes. "Do not say such things!"
Juan merely scoffed. "Cesare has no godliness about him! He's more of a priest for the Devil than he is for God!"
"Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone, my son..." said Vannozza curtly.
Juan raised an eyebrow. "And just what is that suposed to mean, Madre?"
"It means that you are no one to make such judgements." replied Vannozza.
"How so, Madre?" Juan asked, in a sarcastic tone.
"You yourself have told me of the rowdy and bawdy behavior you partake in when out and about the streets of Rome, or when you were back in Spain!" Vannozza said in an angry, scolding voice. "I have not forgotten about that terrible brawl you and Cesare started with members of the Colonna family one night when you two were with your friends in one of my taverns! The horrible, violent things you two did to those men! One of them was blinded in one of his eyes from a piece of broken glass from a bottle, and I have heard that Marcantonio Colonna's finger was cut off!"
"Those Colonna puercos bear the burden of instigation, Mama!" Juan said defensively. "You know how our family is hated by nearly every major family thoughout Italia! The Colonna, the Orsini, the Sforza, the Riario, the della Rovere, and so on!"
"Juan, if you want so badly to not have your family hated so, perhaps you should use your position to give the others reason to love the House of Borgia, not cause to hate even more!" Vanozza replied with exasperation.
Juan merely scoffed and said, "It matters not,now! Now that my father is Pope, all the other families will have to bow down to US! What does it matter if they love us when we have enough power to make them fear and obey us!"
Vannoza lowered her head a bit towards Juan, but not her eyes. "Take care to remember that popes are not like kings who father princes to inherit their thrones, Juan. One day, when the Lord calls your father out of this world, do not expect yourself or Cesare to be the next Heir of St. Peter!"
Juan merely smirked and replied in a scheming voice, "Oh, but in the meantime, I intend to milk our status for all it is worth! I shall take as much advantage of our family's elevation until I can't any longer!"
Vannozza made neither a reply nor retort, but simply frowned, closed her eyes, and shook her head in disappointment.