I own nothing.
The Borgias S3E10
Pt. 13 Trouble
"Lucrezia? Lucrezia, my love..." he whispered softly to his sleeping sister.
Lucrezia found it hard to open her eyes; she felt the presence of another between herself and Cesare and realized that it was her son fidgeting excitedly against her bosom. "There is no finer moment I would have this day to help ease my melancholy than to wake up to my two loves..." she said as she cuddled her son then looked over at Cesare.
Cesare smiled his affection back at her.
"What time is it? Dawn has not even broken..." she said as she looked over to the window.
"Giovanni was fussing in his crib, quite outdone and missing his mother...we had quite a lovely conversation—and a change of your clout, huh, little nephew?" he cooed at the boy.
"Did you, now? And just what did the two of you discuss?" asked Lucrezia, her eyes full of amusement.
"Oh, well, we talked about things men are wont to discuss: the state of Italian affairs; the best strategies for breaking in one's hobby horse; the beautiful golden-haired woman who belongs to us both, lying oblivious to us equally, in her bed."
Lucrezia chuckled. "Really? Giovanni is not even big enough for a hobby horse yet."
"That's what I told him, as well, but he assured me that he does indeed have his heart set on a very particular one, made of fine Ceylon cedar with a chestnut mane and leather and gold reins..."
"Oh, he does? Is that right, Giovanni?" she asked of her smiling son.
"But he grew tired of me and insisted that he would take that, and the issue of breakfast, up with you." Cesare kissed the back of the baby's head and then his sister's forehead. "It is just as well, my love—no matter how chastely we slept this morning we cannot have the servants find us this way, hmm?"
Lucrezia nodded her reluctant agreement.
"A half-hour to sunrise, at the most; I shall be able to retire to my own room and have a nap, at least, for I've been content to lay here beside you and look at your angelic face...and think the happiest thoughts I shall be blessed to think for quite some time to come."
"You've been awake all of this time?" Her voice registered alarm.
"Happily. I will see you soon at the chapel, sis...good morning..." he dared to kiss her lips then, with great passion and longing. Their eyes lingered upon each other for a long while after he broke away from her at last; he kissed the top of Giovanni's head tenderly and then wordlessly left them both.
As Lucrezia sat in her pew in Santa Maria della Febbre she was struck by the loneliness of Alfonso's flag-draped coffin before the altar, made even lonelier by the small number of attendees in the chapel. It seemed a sad affair to her indeed, with only herself, her nursemaid Miracella, Giovanni, Vannozza, Giulia, Alessandro's mistress, Silvia, and Cesare in attendance. She knew that her father would not officiate the mass, but that he did not even come to her before its proceeding annoyed her to no end. He could hide behind the excuse of his Papal duties, but she was to leave Rome immediately after the mass and he had not even come to say goodbye to her.
In less than an hour all the words had been said by a priest who had never known him and only Alessandro Farnese, who had not known him either, walked behind the coffin to its final disposition. As Lucrezia made her way down the aisle out of the chapel Giulia stopped her.
"Lucrezia...I am so sorry for your loss, my love."
Lucrezia handed Giovanni to Miracella and then accepted Giulia's warm embrace. "Thank you, La Bella." Lucrezia looked askance at her dear friend as they released each other. "What is this? You have the glow of woman with a divine secret, La Bella."
"I do have a secret, and it brings me much joy even as my heart breaks for you now, Lucrezia."
"You...you are—with child, La Bella?" A little smile broke across Lucrezia's face.
"I am!" Giulia checked herself as she looked down at the floor in embarrassment at her inappropriate display of joy.
"I dreamed of babies and my brothers as happy children the whole week I was gone, La Bella—and it was all really about you, it seems—congratulations, my love. Is your child—to be a sibling of mine?" Lucrezia asked delicately.
"Yes."
"Does our Holy Father know? Surely you have told him..."
"Not yet, Lucrezia, and I seem to waver within myself as to whether I will actually do so—Giovanni Capece has provided me every happiness—we are to be married next month."
"And I will not be here to see it," Lucrezia said sadly. "I feel nothing but joy in my heart for you, La Bella, you have more than earned this happiness."
"Your words I know to be true, my Lucrezia, but I know you—your heart is heavy and your blood boils for all of us whose hearts have suffered the abuse of your determined Holy Father; but believe me, dear one, he will do right by you, I promise you that—he did for your dear mother, did he not? Provided her with not one, but three fine husbands, Lucrezia! Who loved her, each and every one. He has provided me with a man I shall go to my grave loving with my whole heart, even as Rodrigo himself resides within it, as well. He will do the same for you, Lucrezia, for I heard from his own lips that your next husband must be more worthy of your heart than of his political desires—from his own lips, my love...wait—what do you mean you will not be here?"
"I love you, Giulia Farnese..." Lucrezia kissed Giulia's lips. "I do appreciate your hopes for me and I do not doubt that the words you heard Our Holy Father say were spoken, but they are only words, after all. It matters not what type of man he hopes to enjoin me to, or if he is worthy or not—to put me forward for another alliance is to deny my son my bosom—you know this. I would prefer to never marry again and die and rather than suffer the forfeiture of my son again," she said sadly.
"Lucrezia, my love..."
"Go on to your happy life, La Bella—it does my heart well to know that someone in this family shall truly have one. When your little one is born, give him or her a loving kiss from me and their cousin Giovanni." Lucrezia gave her confused friend another kiss as a single tear fell from her eye and then hastened away with Miracella and Giovanni in tow. Cesare, who had been watching them from the corner of his eye, broke away from his conversation with his mother and Silvia and headed for his sister. He was approached then and stopped by Johannes Burchart and a man unknown to him.
"Your Excellence, I am Ambassador Ascanio Liverotto..."
Cesare shot the man an undignified look. "Whoever you are, you will excuse me..." he made to continue to his sister.
"Your Excellence, your presence is required now for an informal inquest of the death of Prince Alfonso of Naples," the man continued.
"What?" he snorted his surprise at Liverotto and Burchart both.
"The family of Prince Alfonso seeks understanding and closure to his most unfortunate end, Your Excellence, surely you can understand? His Holiness and the Consistory await, Your Excellence." Burchart intervened.
Cesare only gave them both a scathing look. "You will excuse me to go and say goodbye to his aggrieved wife." He left them.
"Lucrezia? What is it?" he asked her before she got to the chapel doors.
"It is time for goodbye, Cesare, is it not?"
"Not in front of all of these eyes..." he made to lead her away.
"No, brother, we will say goodbye here—it is far safer for my heart for me to do so now—if I have a moment alone with you I will never be able to leave. A chaste, familial kiss to my cheek now, brother, your love and best wishes, and I shall do the same—for all of these eyes upon us."
Cesare was almost speechless at her insistence and resolve; his eyes darted about to the others in the chapel, casting his anger and frustration at suffering their existence in his world at that moment.
"Cesare..." Lucrezia dared to take him by the neck gently and put her forehead to his, "stop this, my love, we are making spectacle enough of ourselves," she cautioned him. "Kiss my cheek and then call our mother over..."
Cesare rolled his eyes hard in his head and let out a grunt of tortured and true dismay; he opened them and looked into his sister's misty eyes, his own still angry and resentful but full of his silent declaration of love for her.
"I know, my love—and I, you," she whispered at him.
He broke away from her at last and did as she had commanded; he kissed her cheek chastely and then looked over at his mother and held out his arm to her.
"What is this, my children? Cesare? Lucrezia? My loves?" Vannozza looked to them both in great despair then took her daughter into her embrace.
"Cesare only seeks to comfort me, mother, and to say goodbye," Lucrezia said against her mother's shoulder.
"Goodbye? What do you mean, 'goodbye'?" Vannozza's confusion was honest as she disengaged from her daughter and held her at a gentle arm's length.
"You do not know, then? He did not tell you." It was more of a statement than a question and Cesare's anger flashed anew in his eyes and upon his face, through flaring nostrils and gritted teeth.
"He? Who? Tell me what?"
"He is sending me away today, mother...now...to Nepi."
"What?" Vannozza's outrage was complete and echoed loudly throughout the chapel.
"It seems our Holy Father is full of all of his usual secrets. Lucrezia's retinue awaits her as we speak, mother," Cesare informed her.
"Lucrezia, my love, I did not know! Why? Why?"
"Why, mother? As with everything—because it is his will." Lucrezia looked from her mother to her brother with vacant, defeated eyes, broke away from her mother and left them both without another word.
"I will throttle him!"
"You'll have to wait until after my inquest," Cesare hissed as he watched his sister disappear with Miracella and Giovanni through the chapel doors.
"What is this, now? Inquest? What inquest?"
"An 'informal' inquest into Alfonso's death. Holy Father awaits me, I have just been informed, along with the Consistory and an agent of the royal house of Naples."
"Just been informed, you say? I...I am..."
"Calm yourself, mother—or try to anyway...I shall come to you when it is done, yes?" he counseled her gruffly.
"Yes, my love, thank you."
Cesare gave his mother a kiss to her cheek and then hastened away defiantly to the Basilica with Burchart and Liverotto on his heels.
"My Lady, what is it?" asked Giulia as she and Silvia rushed to Vannozza in great alarm.
"Did you know of this, Giulia? That Rodrigo was sending Lucrezia away today?"
"No, I swear it, Vannozza—he does not confide in me as he used to—as you well know." The two women looked at each other in recognition, for it was common knowledge that Vannozza and Rodrigo had somehow rekindled their relationship and that he had not garnered a husband for Giulia a moment too soon. "The last conversation I had with Rodrigo was about Lucrezia, but that he had vowed to God in heaven that he would provide a worthy husband for her. I knew nothing of this—sending her away? To where?"
"Nepi...this very moment."
"And what of Cesare? Is there some trouble?"
"I love that boy more than my own life, but with him there is always trouble...worry and trouble..." Vannozza said with quiet frustration to the two women who stood with her looking into the unknown beyond the wide double-doors of the chapel.