Reference: "The first lesson I ever learned was to never wait for a man's rescue."
Chapter 2: The Venetian Envoy
A year in Rome passed so swiftly. She stayed there with the Pope as he refused for her to leave his sight. She received letters of marriage proposals from so many, that the Pope Clement VII decided to screen her letters himself.
If she didn't know any better, all he was doing was screen her thoughts and memory if she ever did remember what happened prior her rescue. She has been told the version of the Pope on what had happened that day numerous times that she may have led them to believe that she too believed it to be such.
Nobody remembered that with the golden crucifix she held so close to her heart was a sharp dagger she used against the man who had the audacity to mount her.
Nobody knew of the details that among the lifeless bodies on the grounds of the convent were those of the nuns who sacrificed their virtue so that no one would dare touch her. But at the end of it all, someone among the rebels had made his way to her, able to take something she cannot take back again - her innocence.
She, in return, took something from him too. She slit his throat and watched his life escape him. On her slender, gentle hands lay her rise as a powerful survivor. She was soaked in his blood for days. She knelt down the altar with his blood drying up her skin. She prayed for the redemption of her eternal soul, but she knew, given another chance she would do it over and over again. She would do the same to the next man who would lay a hand on her.
Numerous times she called on the Blessed Mother and asked her if she had wept for her too… but everyone kept dying until it was only her left in the chapel by the time the Pope Clement arrived for her rescue.
His face was of pure utter shock. He couldn't believe how she survived. Her brown empty eyes looked at him and he chose to silence the questions he dare not want to confirm. He knew he wouldn't want the answer to it.
He took the silk veil of the Virgin Mother and covered her up with it as if it was meant to undo what had happened. She would have cried at that moment but she didn't. She was too shocked, too tired, too resigned. So, he held her, quietly carried her as she sank into a deep sleep she didn't wake up to until three days later. By that time, the Pope declared her a virgin, retook Florence and Rome. He declared her viable for marriage to anyone willing to propose to her although she has been long promised to France.
Catherine stirred as her carriage went to a full stop. It was enough to snap her right back to the present. She straightened the crease on her Italian robe that she purchased from Venice. The Pope offered a generous dowry as if to solidify in truth the lie they live in. No reason to unveil the illusion when it was so much better than what really happened.
She heard trumpets echo from the outside, declaring the arrival of her Venetian envoy. She readied herself, orchestrated a mask of smile so charming that she knew would be enough to charm the King of France and his sons, especially her Prince Henry.
She never met him, never knew how he looked like, but she would marry him. All because it was how it should be.
Little did they know that the road to their marriage was more complicated than what was planned fourteen years ago.
Please review. Next chapter is the meeting if our favorite couple and some more characters will be thrown into the mix.