This chapter is going to have a lot of switching back and forth between Ezio and Contessina. It is an important chapter as far as their relationship goes and it is to help speed things up a little as far as timeline. Also, this chapter originally started out different, but the pacing was way slower, and I had a lot more trouble with it than I expected. This is an updated and more condensed version so if it seems a little weird, you know why.
Anyway, I hope everyone is still doing well! Enjoy!
The chill of winter was still in Firenze when Giuliano returned from Roma with letters from Pope Sixtus. Contessina sat in Lorenzo's study as Giuliano produced a stack of letters full of intel from Roma and the Medici supporters there. She had a cup of wine in her hand as the brothers shifted through the pile on Lorenzo's desk looking for the one letter that mattered the most. The atmosphere of night made the room look like a scribe's place of worship, but she waited as they looked.
"Ah! Here it is." Giuliano said picking the large letter with the papal seal on it and a red ribbon tied around it. "Unopened as requested by the Pope." He walked over from the desk to hand it to the blond woman who was nervous at seeing what the pope decided her future was going to be. She looked up at Giuliano wondering if he understood her hesitance in grabbing the letter. "Don't worry, whatever it says we will deal with it." He offered her a hopeful smile before looking at his brother who was deep into his own letter.
"Let her open it, Giuliano." Lorenzo said with his face blocked by the letter he was reading.
Contessina slowly took the papal document from her cousin's hand and cracked the wax seal open before removing the red ribbon. She slowly opened it knowing that the vellum in her hands could possibly force her out of Firenze or it could officially make her capable of being a free woman again. Ezio's face flashed through her mind at the thought of divorcing him, but he also thought it a good idea, if only for her safety and that of Cammillia's. He had said as much in the tiny letter he had given her the day of Uberto Alberti's assassination. Contessina scanned over the document trying to understand the Latin that was written upon it in Sixtus' hand and then the translation done by one of his cardinals. Her heart sunk at what she read.
"This is what the pope thinks of us Medici." She said standing up and handing it to Lorenzo, who put the letter he was reading down to look at the document himself. "He would rather see me exiled from Firenze as well."
"He does not approve of the dispensation because you are married to a criminal still on the loose. Signed by his Holiness and the cardinal who translated, Rodrigo Borgia." Borgia? Why did the name sound so familiar? "Did Carlo send anything?" Lorenzo asked his brother.
"Si, he did." Giuliano pulled that letter from the inside of his doublet and handed it to Lorenzo. It did not take the older Medici man to open the letter and scan its contents after putting down the papal letter.
"Carlo will keep trying to persuade Sixtus for the dispensation, Contessina. For now, you must keep yourself confined to the Palazzo for your own safety." Lorenzo told the blond woman who stood up quickly.
"I refuse to be jailed, Lorenzo." She said walking to his desk and leaning over it to get the letter from the Vatican. "No one has to know about it right? They all believe the rumors to be true, so why not keep this charade going?" She could forge the handwriting on the document and make it official, but she would need help from a certain artist to help with getting the right ink. The Vatican used a special ink, not like the ink that Lorenzo used, no the ink was a mix of squid and charcoal. She smelled the vellum. It smelled of dried urine as well as the fragrance powder used to dry the ink. "I will be back." She said folding the letter up and putting it in the bust of her corset. "I have to visit a friend."
Ezio sat at the desk in the room at the top of Villa Auditore with a quill in his hand and paper in front of him. He had no idea what to write, but he knew he should. It had been a few days since his uncle found Ezio, his mother, and his sister on the road not too far away from Monteriggioni surrounded by Vieri de'Pazzi and his thugs. If it had not been for Mario, Ezio was not sure if they would all be safe and sound in the villa at that moment. What troubled him the most was the secret his father kept from him all of his life and he was just now knowing about it. How was he to understand it or accept it? Had Contessina known about this too? He doubted she knew as much as he did, but he did not know.
The young Auditore missed his wife. For once, he missed her presence because she made sense of things when he could not. Right now, he needed her to tell him what to do. Ezio was determined to leave as soon as possible, but his uncle insisted that he stay a little longer to learn how to defend himself. While Ezio felt improving his fighting skills would be beneficial to protecting his mother and sister, he did not want to stay longer than he needed to. There lied the problem.
He would give anything then and there to have Contessina come up the stairs and say his name. Anything to have her give him some advice, but she was in Firenze taking care of Cammillia while making sure his niece or nephew came into the world kicking and screaming. The thought of another Auditore being born soon was one to rejoice over, but the saddest part was that Federico would not be there to hold his child for the first time. All that child would have was an uncle with a talent for revenge to act as a father figure. If that. Ezio was not sure how to be any sort of a father figure to anyone, but he would try.
"Ezio!" Claudia's voice interrupted his thoughts as she came up the ladder. "Zio Mario is asking for you before you decide to retire." She said as she made it up to see him with the tip of the feather on his lips. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to write, but I have nothing." He said staring off into the distance. "Who knew composing a letter would be so hard."
"Is it to Contessina?" Claudia asked with a curious look on her face.
"Si, but I do not know what to say to her. I want to know if she is alright and safe, but I can't address it to her directly." He said looking at his sister. "It would put us all in danger if we were caught sending letters to each other."
"Ah, I see. Well, you could always make it sound like a love letter. No one wants to read a sappy love letter between a husband and wife." Claudia suggested with a sly smile on her face as she moved closer to the desk. "Here, I will write it for you." She plucked the quill out of his hand and pulled the piece of paper he was musing over from under his elbow.
"Claudia, she will know it is you writing it." The young man said as his sister gave him a snotty look. "Fine, address it to 'Giulia'."
"To my dearest Giulia." She said as she wrote out the words and then looked up for Ezio to say something, but he just leaned back in the chair and sighed. "I miss you so. The days since our departure has left me aching for your touch..." She said writing until Ezio grabbed the paper from her leaving a jagged line where the quill scratched into the medium. "Hey, that was not fair."
"I do not sound like that." He plucked the quill out of her hand and put it aside. "You can write her a letter if you wish but leave this one to me." He shooed his sister away.
"Fine. Next time you ask me for help, I'm just going to ignore you." She said walking away with her nose up in the air. Ezio rolled his eyes. He recalled her taking the quill and paper away from him first then taking over.
"Be careful going down the ladder, Claudia." He told her as she went down the ladder.
"If I want your concern, I'll ask for it." Came the bratty response from his sister. His wonderful, but very spoiled sister who had opinions for days on end. She could very well end up not finding a husband because of it.
He decided his uncle could wait as he readied a new sheet of paper before dipping the tip of the quill in the ink well. Ezio was no poet, but Claudia's idea was a good one and he would try. He may not be good with describing his feelings on paper, but he could tell a story. It may not be a good story, but it was the message he wanted to get across to her and for her to be able to send something back in the same manner so he could understand. Honestly, it was something Leonardo would suggest doing to keep their cover so Ezio began to write about a traveler on the rode to seek peace with a sultan.
Contessina knew it was late, but her task could not wait until the next day and she knew her friend would still be active. When she made it to his workshop, she knocked on the door with delicate taps before the heavy door opened. As she predicted her friend was still wide awake and dressed in his normal attire. Leonardo da'Vinci stood before her with confusion on his face as to why a young woman of her standing would be at his door in the middle of the night.
"Signora Contessina? What are you doing her at this hour?" He leaned over to look out of the door in case there were guards around watching his move, then when he saw no one he moved aside for her to go inside.
"I'm sorry Leonardo, but this could not wait." She said handing him the letter she had stuffed in her corset.
"Oh Mio Dio, this is upsetting." He said reading it and gave her a sad smile. "Does Ezio know?"
"Of course, he does. The idea was to make it appear as though we are divorcing, but as you can see that plan backfired and now, I need your help." She took off her cloak and set it down on the back of a chair before grabbing an empty cup of wine and filling it with the sweet red substance in the bottle next to it.
"I don't know what you are asking me to do here, Contessina." He looked at her with a confused expression before pouring himself a cup. "Wait a moment, are you asking me to help you forge a papal document?"
"Si. Exactly." She smiled. "If the document is never seen the lawyers will grow suspicious, but if we hand them an official document with the approval of dispensation of marriage, then all will go according to plan."
"I do not know if the Devil himself could be as cunning as you are Contessina, but you are right." Leonardo said to her with a laugh. "Fine then, what do you need of me?"
"Can you make the ink that is used at Il Vaticano?" She asked him.
"Si, I can. The parchment is typical vellum, which is good, but the ink is specially made for his Holiness. I believe it is..."Contessina interrupted him.
"Squid ink, charcoal, and urea. The drying powder is made from chalk with ground rosemary." She said.
"How do you know such things?" Leonardo asked her astonished at the knowledge she had about the papal ink.
"My Uncle Carlo. When I was in Roma a couple summers ago, he gave me a small bottle of it as a late birthday gift. I hate the smell of it, and I do not understand why the Pope would use an ink that smells so horrid." Contessina told him with a scrunched-up nose just remembering the smell of the document. It did not make any sense to her other than to identify the letters from the Pope as official. The handwriting was not a problem for her, and she could copy both styles without issue. The Latin may be a little difficult because she could not read it well, but she could do it. "Now, do you think you can have the ink ready by tomorrow afternoon?"
"Yes, if you can pay me for the materials, I can have it done in no time at all." He gave her a smile as she took the document back from him. "I would buy them for you, but I am still working on that commission."
"It is not problem, Leonardo. Just tell me how much you need, and I will be back in the morning." Contessina told him as he pulled out his little book of sketches and lists.
"Well, the squid ink is likely going to be costly and of course the chalk. I have enough charcoal to spare and the urea, well...that is free." He coughed knowing that the process of obtaining urea was a natural function of the body. "The rosemary will need to be dried and a doctor should have a good supply of that. I would say twenty florins for all of it?"
"That is expensive, but if I am to succeed, it is worth the price. I am sure you have a sheet or two of Vellum parchment around here somewhere." Contessina said looking around his workshop at the stacks of loose paper that littered the desks.
"Of course, I just have to remember where I put them." Leonardo grinned sheepishly as he realized he was very unorganized in that moment. "But this will not be a problem. I'm sure with the two of us together we can make this document look like a fraud and ours will be the real one."
"Of course, but it has to be done quickly. The lawyers will know that Giuliano is back in Firenze tomorrow." She told her friend slightly worried that Lorenzo's lawyer would come to the door first thing in the morning.
"Do not worry Contessina, I believe everything will work out smoothly." He put a hand on her shoulder. "You must get home though. People will talk if they see you leaving here in the middle of the night."
Contessina did not protest this so she bid the artist farewell with a hug and put her cloak on before quietly heading out the door. She carefully navigated the streets back to the Palazzo Medici where she entered through the gardens going straight into the atrium where Giuliano sat on the stairs. He was lounging there with a cup of wine in his hand and his shirt open as usual.
"Well?" He said as he took a sip of wine. "Did Leonardo da'Vinci agree to help you forge a papal document?"
"He did. How did you know that was where I was going?" She said taking off her cloak and draping it over her arm before going to sit down next to Giuliano.
"I know you, Contessina. I know who your friends are, and I know exactly what you have planned." There was no denying this so Contessina sighed as Giuliano gave her the look he gave someone when he knew their game. "Come on, who taught you how to be sneaky in the first place?"
"I see your point, Giuliano, but you can't take all the credit. Some of it is raw talent." She leaned against him with a smile on her face at his hurt look.
"My dear, dear cousin. What am I going to do with you?" He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "Don't ever leave me alone with these boring Medici family members."
"At some point I will have to leave." Contessina said sadly, but then she looked to her cousin's face. "But until then, maybe you can teach me how to defend myself." Giuliano gave her a surprised look before thinking about it.
"Si, I can do that." He looked around to make sure no one else was in hearing distance. "But we have to be quiet about it." Then he stood up. "We will have to go outside the city so no one will suspect anything."
"Because women can't fight." She nodded in understanding.
"Well, not only that, but your mother would have a heart attack if she knew and I don't want to be on the receiving end of her cane." Giuliano winked as he held a handout to her. "For now, we have to be secretive about it." He sounded excited about this and she wondered if he had been waiting for her to ask him about this for a long time now.
"Of course." Contessina allowed him to pull her up to her feet. "When shall we start?"
"After this business with the papal letter. I know you need to concentrate on that for right now." Giuliano told her before kissing the side of her head. "Goodnight, Contessina." He walked upstairs leaving her to think on everything that had happened in the last few minutes. To be honest, she was excited herself because she would finally be learning something useful besides the mundane chores that most women did. She smiled and wished she could tell Ezio everything that was going on in that moment, but he was not there.
Morning in Monteriggioni was dull and grey unlike in Firenze. The small town was actually part of the Republic of Siena, which explained the back and forth nature of its dealings with Firenze. Ezio stood looking out the window as he held onto the letter, he wrote the night before while waiting for the courier to come into the sleepy town. While Monteriggioni had its charms, it did not compare to the rest of the towns that dotted the landscape of Toscana.
The young man watched as a courier on horseback came riding through the gates and up to the base of the Villa's foundation where he handed the reins of the horse to a mercenary. Ezio wasted no time in putting on his boots while not bothering to tuck his shirt in the process before running out of the room. He ran down the stairs as fast as he could when he saw the courier come into the villa.
"Nipote, slow down." Mario Auditore laughed as the young man came to a sliding stop on the marble floor. "What is the rush?"
"I did not want to miss the courier." The younger Auditore said catching his balance and his breath. "I have a letter that needs to go to Firenze." The courier and Mario chuckled at the young man in front of them. "What?"
"You are not the first man to come running up to me with a letter for their girl." The older man with the leather pouch on his shoulder said putting a hand on Ezio's shoulder with a chuckle. "Give me the letter and I will make sure it is delivered to your girl."
"It goes to the Palazzo Medici, give it to Giulia." Ezio said handing the man the letter carefully.
"A Medici? Mario, this boy is in over his head." The courier laughed which agitated Ezio in a way he never thought he would be.
"No, he isn't, he married the girl." Ezio's uncle said with a smile on his face. "She is quite the beauty with long golden hair, or so I've been told."
"You must be speaking of Contessina, surely you jest?" The man asked looking back to Ezio. "I remember her very well. I was bringing letters to Il Magnifico for her hand in marriage every other week. Now I know why they stopped coming." The man said with awe in his voice.
"Come Riccardo, let us talk in my study for a few moments before you leave." Mario grabbed the man by the shoulder and pulled him away from the young Auditore who seemed to be simmering underneath.
"For what it is worth Signore Auditore, Contessina de'Medici is a good and pure woman, keep her close." Riccardo said with a sincere smile as he looked back to Ezio. "I will make sure this letter makes it into Giulia's hands."
"Grazie, Signore." Ezio bowed his head in thanks to the man as he was left in the hall alone with thoughts of Contessina running through his head. Over the two days that she helped him in Firenze, he had found he could not have made it through without her. At first he had wanted more than anything to run to Cristina, but Contessina was able to do more for him than the other woman could just by giving him the encouragement he needed and a place to unburden himself of his emotions. Because of this, he held her on a higher pedestal than Cristina and he did not feel guilty over it. Ezio was surprised by this and he ran his hands through his hair in realization. He was starting to see Contessina as something more than a friend now.
In the afternoon, Contessina found herself sitting at a desk in Leonardo's workshop with a blank vellum parchment and the original papal document next to one another. Leonardo had mixed the ink for her already, but the smell was terrible. She tried hard not to gag at the scent that hit her nose, however she had no choice; she had to complete the letter. She began with Latin, or what she could understand of it with Leonardo's help. She took great care in following the arch and curve of the handwriting on the original document. It took her nearly two hours before the Latin was written with the message of annulment being approved in a way that would not give away that the new document was a fake.
"And now for Rodrigo Borgia's handwriting." She said looking at Leonardo for a moment. Daylight was at an end, but this part would be easier since it was in her mother tongue and Borgia's penmanship was rather easy to pen with its long arches and swooping curves indicative of Spanish origin.
Another hour later and Contessina looked upon her handiwork with pride. Now all she had to do was remove the seal from the original document and place it on the new one, which was very easy to do. All she needed was a candle to heat the wax then remove it carefully before placing it on the folded vellum that contained the fresh writing. Once the deed was done, the ribbon was fixed to the new document before she gave the old one to Leonardo.
"Could you keep this hidden for me? Just in case I may need it for something else later. No one must find it Leonardo." She told the artist.
"It will be safe with me, Contessina." He bowed when he took the original parchment from her. "I hope this works."
"It will as there is only four people who know about this forgery." Contessina smiled at her friend before leaving his workshop.
Lorenzo did not know if he should be angry or impressed at Contessina's bold move of forging a papal document with a different message than intended. She could tell by the look on his face when he dropped the letter on the desk in front of him and he gave her a blank stare. The blond almost feared the worst from her cousin while Giuliano stood next to the fireplace with his arm resting on the mantle. Contessina watched as Lorenzo clasped his hands together in front of his mouth thinking about how he should respond to this act of treason against the Pope, but as far as she was concerned, Sixtus was on his way out of the position.
"Of all the foolish things to do, Contessina, you chose to do the worst." Lorenzo put his hands down on the desk and looked up at her with a glare. "Forging?"
"Lorenzo...I" She stopped immediately when he held his hand up.
"Forging as a practical joke is one thing, but this?" He picked up the letter she forged. "This borders on treason and I cannot believe you thought this was a way out!" He raised his voice at her.
"Lorenzo, she is only trying to do what she thinks is right." Giuliano said but his brother glared at him as well knowing that he had a small part to play in all of this.
"Do not make excuses for her, Brother. She knows what she has done, and she is very lucky I do not send her away." The older Medici said walking up to Contessina with a deep frown on his face. "You better hope our lawyers accept this because I cannot protect you from the law after this."
"Lorenzo, I did it to..." She was interrupted again.
"To serve your own needs. This was reckless, foolish, and... very good work." He told her as he calmed a little. "You do have a talent for forging, but do not let it become a habit. In the meantime, while the lawyers debate over this, you will be confined to the Palazzo."
"For how long?" Contessina asked her cousin in shock. There was no telling why Lorenzo thought to keep her pinned up like an animal, but she knew it had to do with the rumors spreading around Firenze.
"I do not know, but you have made it difficult for yourself Contessina. The lawyers will send letters to the Vatican for confirmation and when they realize you forged an official Papal document; it will not be in your interests to stay here." Lorenzo said making everything clear to Contessina. She had made a grave miscalculation on her part and now her cousin was going to have to clean up her mess. She sighed before sitting down in the chair.
"You could hold on to this for a while longer. Everyone knows dispensations take a while to complete so a few more months will not hurt." Giuliano said coming to Contessina's rescue once again. "Tell the lawyers His Holiness wishes to see Contessina in person to understand the need for her divorce from Ezio."
"Yes, I can go with Clarice on her yearly trip to Roma." Contessina sat up in her chair hearing the unfolding plan that they were trying to convince Lorenzo of. "After Cammillia has her child of course." She added not forgetting her responsibilities.
"I will think about it. Until I give you an answer, you will be confined to this Palazzo and if I do let you come and go, you will have an escort at all times." The head of the Medici family said before returning to his desk. "Do I make myself clear, Contessina?"
"Si, Lorenzo." She said before standing up with a frown on her face. She curtsied to her cousins before leaving the study in a frustrated state of mind.
If only Ezio were there with her.
