Betta decided that Prince Alfonso of Naples would die the morning she returned to the palace after her night spent with Micheletto. The household had not begun to stir when she slipped through the gates and nodded at the guards, who looked at her with sleepy, bored eyes. She immediately sought out her mistress.
"Is that you Betta?" The lady moaned from beneath a mound of bedclothes. "I did not know that you had returned.
"I have only just arrived my lady," Betta said. "If you could send word to your brother."
"Were you able to find Micheletto?" Lady Lucrezia's eyes had still not opened. She was not a person best suited to early mornings. For the first hour after she roused from slumber the lady mumbled and squinted as though she were unused to the sight of the sun that streamed through the panelled windows. This morning when she sat up in the giant carved bed the sleeve of her shift slipped to reveal creamy shoulders marred by a five fingered bruise.
"Lady Lucrezia! Who has hurt you?" Lucrezia's eyes flew open and she looked down and saw the marks on her flesh. She jerked her sleeve back in place and tied the neckline more securely.
"My husband can be...overly affectionate when he is in his cups, and he find relief in the bottle more and more. But no matter. Tell me about Micheletto. Will he be returning soon?" Lucrezia seemed more embarrassed by the bruises than upset, as though on some level she felt that she deserved the treatment.
Betta temporarily shelved her anger since her mistress was plainly so eager to change the subject. "I know not if he shall return but he lives at least." Betta had a sudden vivid recollection of the strength of him when he moved inside of her and she shuddered, her cheeks flaming a bright crimson.
Lady Lucrezia's eyes snapped to Betta's face. "Betta?" The tone was a question.
Betta flushed still redder and cast her eyes to the ground. Lady Lucrezia hopped out of bed and grabbed Betta's wrists. "You shared his bed. I can tell, its all over your face. Tell me everything." Lady Lucrezia was more animated than Betta had seen her in a long time and seemed much younger.
"No my lady." But Betta could not control a small smile.
Lucrezia pouted for a second and although it seemed that she might press her further she only smirked mischievously for a second before asking "Tell me on thing, I pray. Did he match the promise I have always seen in his eyes?" From her smile Betta could tell that Lucrezia had never seriously contemplated Micheletto as a lover but there was a certain presence about the assassin that brought to mind the large cat that the Duke of Gandia had brought back from his trip to Spain. Dark, and deadly, but somehow more beautiful and alluring because of the danger. Betta could feel her blush grow even more intense as she remembered hands that could easily have taken her life moving down her body and rousing sensations in her that she had not known existed.
Lady Lucrezia laughed. "No matter, I can see the answer plainly on your face. I will send for my brother soon and you can share your tale with him."
"Not the whole tale, my lady." Betta had never smirked lasciviously in her life but the effort must have been successful for Lady Lucrezia dissolved into a fit of giggles.
Her duties occupied Betta for the remainder of the day and she was shocked to see the degeneration that had taken place in Prince Alfonso in the time since they had returned to Rome. Maria whispered to her the events of the previous night, when the master had called Lady Lucrezia the daughter of a whore and a degenerate in full view of the servants and then drug her roughly to bed.
Betta was awoken that night in the little room that she shared with Nanny by the sound of drunken cursing coming from Lady Lucrezia's chamber. She could hear Giovanni, who still shared his mother's chamber, begin to cry in the darkness but Nanny did not move and Betta could see fear in the woman's eyes.
"Why is that little bastard crying?" The Prince's voice was slurred with drink.
"Leave him be Alfonso."
Betta left her bed and keeping to the shadows she crept to the door and peered into the room. Lucrezia was standing in front of Giovanni's cot trying to keep her husband from coming any closer to the child but even as slim and drunk as the Prince was she could not restrain him.
"What no kiss for your husband?" Alfonso dropped the bottle of wine that he had been holding and seized his wife, dragging her away from the child. "You kiss your brother readily enough." He pushed her onto the bed and ripped the front of her robe open, exposing her breasts, which he began to fondle roughly.
Betta stole in, using the darkness as cover as Micheletto had taught her. She caught Lucrezia's eyes, which were running with tears, and understood from the Lady's frantic look at her son what she must do. Making no more noise than a ghost she wrapped the child in her arms and smiled at him as she fled. Giovanni loved Betta, and with her arms around him he ceased crying and snuggled deeper into the blankets. She crept from the room and went to Nanny. Together they ran down the stairs to a small room in the back of the palace that was usually reserved for servants.
"He will not look for you here." Betta told Nanny, whose eyes were round and terrified.
Betta had not realized she was grasping the knife that Micheletto had left her until she stepped back into the room where Prince Alfonso continued to berate his weeping wife as he pawed at her. "Tell me wife, how long have you been spreading your legs for your dear brother?" He pressed in between her legs and ground into her. "And your Holy Father too? Am I the only one that you will not fuck willingly?"
Lucrezia struck out with her hands but she was powerless against his strength. "Please stop, this is not like you." She cried, and tried to move away from him.
"I saw it from the beginning, you know, when you danced with him. I saw the way you looked at him and how he looked at you but I thought I must be mistaken. How could even a Borgia," he said her name like it was the most vile curse "fornicate with her own brother?" The Prince was crying now too, even as he tried to unlace his codpiece. "I thought you were different but you are a whore just like they said. Is Giovanni his son? Is the Infans Romanus your nephew as well as your son and that's why you had to have him by your side?"
Betta found her mistress's eyes in the light of the flickering candle and could read hopeless desperation in the gray depths. Betta recognized the feeling, and a killing rage blanketed her thoughts in a red haze. Not a knife, Betta thought with the cold voice of logic that was completely separate from the emotion that sent blood pounding through her body. Micheletto had cautioned her to avoid the obvious kill unless it was absolutely necessary. She could almost hear him whispering in her ear, telling her what to do.
"Do you love him?" Alfonso roared, demonic in his drunken rage. "Is that why you will not love me?" The Price continued to shout and his words were poison. Lucrezia flinched as though struck, his words more deadly to her than the hands that continued to grasp her flesh with bruising strength. "I have bought and paid for you, whore, and I am going to have you."
Betta grabbed a water jug from a stand and crept up on the pair struggling on the bed. She brought the heavy piece of pottery down on the Prince's head, rendering him unconscious with a vicious blow. She grabbed his booted foot and pulled him from the bed, uncaring that his bleeding head struck the ground with a wet sound. She crawled on the bed and gathered Lucrezia in her arms and rocked her as the other woman cried. "My fault." the lady whispered again and again. "Its all my fault."
"Shall he die, my lady?" Betta asked, stroking the blond curls. "If his head struck the stone hard enough he would never hurt you again."
"You would kill him?" Lucrezia still cried but she gathered the pieces of her robe together and stood, looking at the man she had married. In his unconscious state he looked almost innocent once again.
"He should die for this." Betta gritted out from between her teeth. She held the knife so tightly that the knuckles on her hand were white. She wanted his death, wanted to feel the lifeblood pouring out of him and spill over her hands.
"You must not kill him." Lucrezia said. "I will not have his death on my conscious. He is, after all, what I have created." Her voice was hollow with sadness as she looked at Alfonso. Betta thought that she must be seeing him as he had first appeared to her, as gallant and handsome as a young knight.
Betta nodded but was careful not to promise to spare the Price from harm. The next time he touched the Lady he would die for it, no matter that it would make her own life forfeit. A life for a life, she thought.
She went over to the water stand and pushed it over. "My lady, if you would assist me?" She grabbed the prince by his arms and she and her lady dragged him over to lay next to the overturned stand and she placed the water jug near his head. The injury to his head would incapacitate the prince for enough time to consider the best course of action.
Cesare Borgia was occupied with the preparations for moving his army to Forli and it was several days before he could visit the heavily guarded palace and speak to Betta. It had been a very quiet interlude as the Prince recovered from the fall and his wife attended him solicitously. Prince Alfonso made no more attempts against Lady Lucrezia but he continued to drink heavily and watch her and the child with sullen, resentful eyes.
When Lord Cesare finally visited the house Betta frantically cast about for a reason to speak to him in private. The timing of his arrival was fortuitous. Lucrezia was called away to Giovanni's side for the child had a fever and cried when he was not in his mother's arms and the master of the house had left earlier, promising to find his wife some bauble that would show his gratitude for her tender care during his injury. No one expected to see him before dawn and Betta suspected that Lord Cesare's visit had been timed so that he would not encounter Prince Alfonso.
Lord Cesare took Betta's hand and seated her in a chair opposite his own when she was summoned. Lord Cesare watched her closely as she related the story of how she had found Micheletto but had been unable to persuade him to return to his Lord's side.
"Elizabetta, is there something else the matter?" He leaned closer to her and Betta could not control the small flutter she felt when the full force of his eyes pierced her.
"My Lord?"
"Your hands grip the chair with fingers made white and you keep looking to see if my sister returns. I do not believe it is fear of me that has you in this state. Is there something you wish to tell me?"
Betta had decided to share her knowledge with the former cardinal. "My lord, I do not wish to betray my Lady's confidence but I must speak. Your sister suffers greatly at the hands of her husband. He must die, and soon."
Lord Cesare stilled, and Betta read the cold promise of death in his eyes. "Suffers how, exactly?" His tone was so courteous that he might have been inquiring about any number of inconsequential things. Betta told him the events of the previous nights and what she had learned from the other servants. She could only admire the iron control that kept a neutral expression on his face and his muscles relaxed despite the fury he must be feeling.
"If he tries to rape her again kill him and I will see that you do not suffer for it. I will make preparations to deal with him in such a way that it will not besmirch my sisters honor." Lord Cesare took Betta's hand, roughened from years of work, and brought it to his lips. "I am in your debt."