A week later, she was arranging the knives on the small table, when she heard the door to the Hideout open. She held her breath and listened for familiar footsteps and heard soft rustling sounds. No, it wasn't him.
Frowning, she turned back to her task when whoever it was that had entered, came to stand right behind her.
"Ah, Claudia! Just the woman I was looking for."
Claudia rolled her eyes and thought if she should just ignore him. She finished arranging the throw knives and moved to the swords rack. "What is it Gilberto?"
He came to stand beside her and looked miffed and she knew exactly why. She had stopped calling him La Volpe because it was a term of respect he had bestowed on himself and she wanted to reduce his dignity to shreds if she could. "I have a small problem. Actually my thieves are having this problem."
Claudia slid a sword into the rack and wished the recruits wouldn't forget to do this themselves. She had often had to clean up after them after they were done with the training. Not that she minded much, because it gave her something to do instead of pining in her room.
Machiavelli had still not come visit her nor contacted her. Was his work even more important than her?
"So? Will you help me?" La Volpe asked.
"What exactly do you want?" her tone was harsh, but he deserved it for falsely accusing Machiavelli numerous times.
"The Cento Occhi gang have been troubling my men again." He explained. "We need to contain them. I have found out that they have a secret meeting in a few minutes. We could catch them with a surprise attack and exterminate this problem once and for all."
Claudia longed to tell him to go solve his own problems, but the Assassins depended on the thieves and besides, it wasn't the thieves' fault that La Volpe was an idiota.
"Bene." She said and pulled the hood over her head. She checked for her dagger and sword and nodded. "Andiamo."
La Volpe led her out and then called for two horses. "It will be faster this way."
Claudia got on her horse and followed La Volpe as he rode down the streets and then the bridge. They were heading towards the Campagna district when he spoke. "So how is the training going on?"
"Antonio has assigned them easy contracts as training." Claudia said. "They've been eliminating spies in Venezia, Firenze and even here in Roma."
"That is good." He said idly. "Have you heard from your Uncle?"
"He has extended his stay in Monteriggioni as the renovations are taking longer than expected." She replied and then halted her horse as a woman with a child crossed the streets. "Mother has joined him as well." She continued.
They arrived near the ruins and Claudia navigated her horse through the fields. Some of the farmers were planting seeds while others were raking in hay for the horses.
"How much further?" she asked. "We could have just taken the tunnels."
"I thought the ride would do us good." La Volpe said. He was acting strangely and then she found that they were heading towards the Antico district.
"We didn't have to take this long route." She said, getting irritated. "We are wasting too much time."
"I was merely making sure that the Centi Occhi gang weren't banding together here." La Volpe said. His voice had grown a little pitchy and Claudia started to get suspicious.
He was obviously lying to her, but what was his purpose? She watched him carefully, but he remained silent until they reached the district.
They were then heading towards a row of broken houses and dried up fields.
"Here we are." La Volpe said and got down from his horse.
"What are we doing here?" she asked him.
"Come down. I shall show you." He looked glib and smug and Claudia hated him more and more.
Nevertheless, she got down and followed him up the roof of a broken home. "I don't see any bandits."
"He'll be here." La Volpe replied and the leaned over a beam. "I think I see him."
"Him?" Claudia asked. "I thought you said it was a gang." She looked to where he was pointing and saw a man dressed in red attire walking in the shadows of the trees and then waiting. After a few minutes, one of the Borgia guards came towards him and the man in the shadows walked out.
"There." La Volpe looked pleased and Claudia could understand why. It was Machiavelli and he was speaking to the Borgia guard. From where she stood, their interaction didn't look like it would end with the guard dying. They were shaking hands and Claudia saw the Borgia guard slip a letter into Machiavelli's hands.
Machiavelli shook his hand and then walked away quickly.
"See?" La Volpe said, raising an eyebrow.
Claudia licked her lips. "This isn't going to work, Gilberto." She said. "So he was talking to a guard, so what? It could be one of his spies." Then she regarded him crossly. "Did you bring me here all the way just to show me this?"
"Ah, but there's more." La Volpe said, climbing down.
"I'm not coming." Claudia said.
"You may want to see this." La Volpe said. "I have received information that he is going off to see a woman."
Claudia climbed down. "And who is this woman?"
"His so called friend, Marietta." La Volpe said. "Let us follow him."
"I will be doing no such thing." Claudia argued. "You may continue with this foolish errand, but I am not impressed. I have work to do."
"Based on what I have learned, you may want to reconsider who you think is loyal to the Order and…" he chuckled. "You."
"I am not coming." She said, climbing up her horse.
La Volpe took the reins of her horse so that she couldn't ride off. "Then do it to prove me wrong. You have my word. If Machiavelli is proven innocent today then I shall never tarnish his name."
Claudia twirled the reins in her hands and then sighed. "Bene. You have a deal."
La Volpe got on his horse and together they closely followed Machiavelli who was also on his horse. They rode for quite a while until they reached an area by the cliffs that was mostly covered by trees.
Machiavelli got down and Claudia saw him removing the letter from his pocket. La Volpe gestured to her to get down quickly and they snuck behind the ruins of a pillar to watch.
Claudia wished she could just leave rather than to give in to La Volpe, but as he had promised to never bring up the subject of Machiavelli being a traitor again, she had no choice but to comply as it was getting irritating to see the thief accusing her husband all the time.
A few minutes later, Claudia heard the sounds of a horse approaching and peeked through the space between the two pillars to see Marietta approaching. Machiavelli helped her down and they started to speak.
La Volpe kept gesturing to her, but she ignored him. Even though Marietta was no longer on the horse, Machiavelli's hand was still on her hips and he was laughing with her.
Marietta, then clasped her hands around his and looked happy. They looked like lovers. Claudia dismissed the thought from her mind, but it returned again and again. They looked happy, and he looked happier than she had ever seen him.
Machiavelli gave her the letter and she tore it open. Whatever in that letter must have been good news, for she gave a squeal of delight and then Marietta put the letter to her chest.
Machiavelli put his hand on her shoulder and was speaking to her, after which Marietta suddenly leaned over and kissed him.
Claudia gasped and felt her heart sink. This couldn't be. She was dreaming. No, this couldn't be true.
La Volpe was whispering something to her, but she didn't hear him anymore. Her eyes were fixated on Marietta as she pulled back and hugged Machiavelli tight who hugged her right back.
"I told you." La Volpe whispered in her ear.
Claudia looked at him and felt as if her heart were being strangled to the point that it would rupture. The pain spread up to her throat and felt a tightness that was making her dizzy. Her heart kept telling her that this wasn't true that her husband wasn't really having an affair, but her mind reminded her that the truth was playing right before her eyes.
She turned away and started to run. Where, she didn't know. Her legs carried her far away from this place until her lungs felt like they were on fire and even then, she didn't stop. Her vision blurred with tears and then her foot hit a rock and she tumbled onto the ground.
Her breath came in loud gasps and before she knew it, she was sobbing out loud. Clutching her chest, she desperately wished for the pain to stop, but her mind cruelly played the images of Machiavelli and Marietta in her mind and reinforced her pain.
Then before she knew it, her stomach clenched and she was vomiting. When it was over and when she had emptied all the contents of her stomach, Claudia got up and wiped at her tears. She was by the cliffs and she could see a river.
The reasonable thing to do would be to call for a horse and get back to the Hideout. She was an Assassin now. She was only an Assassin now. Her breath hitched and her heart pained.
She was nothing else except an Assassin to him.