When Abel read that morning's newspaper, he was certain he'd awoken in an alternate dimension – there was no way what he was reading was correct. Caterina, his beautiful (albeit a smidge creepy) boss, the little girl he had known for twelve years who had made it obvious on several occasions she had little interest in finding a good man to settle down with, "Is marrying that self-centred, egotistical demon priest? Oh Lord what on Earth did I do to deserve this!" Abel yelled at the sky as though he were expecting a great booming voice to answer him. Since said booming voice didn't call out to the white haired Father, Abel rolled the paper up and when to find out which crazed universe he was trapped in today, praying it wasn't reality.
"Um, Caterina? May I come in?" Abel asked knocking on the door to the Vatican Foreign Affairs Minister's office, curious as to why there was no one at the secretary desk.
There was a moment of silence where Caterina must have been discussing something because shortly after the blond beauty opened the door, a weak smile on her face.
"Come in, Abel," she beckoned opening the door further so Abel could pass her, though not before allowing Sister Loretta, the secretary for that day, past, the young nun quickly going to her desk.
Closing the door carefully behind her guest, Caterina then gestured for the priest to sit, preferring to lean against her desk herself. Abel took a seat on the sofa in the spacious room, watching his boss perch anxiously on the edge of her desk.
"Is everything alright, Caterina?" Abel asked, noting the small cracks in Caterina's usually carefully made up appearance. She was ignoring perfectly good and comfortable chairs; her slim fingers were curled into fists around the edge of the desk, her gloves concealing white knuckles from how tight her grip was. Abel also noted Caterina had been biting her bottom lip, though he commended the careful use of lipstick used to hide the fact from human eyes. "You look moments from becoming a nervous wreck," he noted, calmly waiting for Caterina to speak.
"So would you if your mother-in-law was a psychotic match-maker from hell," Caterina answered with a sigh, simultaneously loosening her grip on the desk. For one reason or another, she found Abel's presence calming as well as a small feeling of happiness that he'd come to check on her.
Abel blinked. "Huh? What do you mean 'match-maker from hell'?"
"That article you read was created by Cardinal Borgia's mother, Sofia de Borgia y Borgia, the Queen of Hispania," Caterina explained, pointing at the newspaper in Abel's hand. "Other than we are to wed in a month, it's a complete fabrication."
"Which brings me to my next question: why Antonio of all people? I didn't think you liked him much either…"
"The Queen of Hispania wanted to form a Treaty between the Vatican and Hispania the old-fashioned way by marrying off children and is my dislike for Cardinal Borgia that obvious?" Caterina answered raising a thin eyebrow in question.
"Only to one who knows you well – the first few times he called you 'honey' your eye used to twitch, I found it rather cute," Abel said with a shrug, chuckling. "Also a rather nice pay-back from when you told me the brat was going to be a priest."
"Well I couldn't exactly tell him to stop," Caterina sighed, referring to her nickname. "He's always so presumptuous – his mother more so."
"Ouch, hehe you sure know how to pick 'em, Caterina," Abel joked.
"I don't suppose anyone's scheduled a kidnapping attempt over the next two days? Depending who it is I might just beg to be abducted," Caterina stated, her lips curling into a wicked smirk. Abel snickered in reply.
"I doubt that would delay the wedding – from what I've seen of Antonio, if his mother's worse they'd have someone maraud as you and have him marry them."
"True, but I'd be able to avoid the farce of meeting the Hispanian monarchy."
"Pff. They can't be that bad. Tell you what, Caterina. When Her Majesty comes in two days I'll greet her with you – I'm sure we can get a rude joke or two in behind her back," Abel said with a bright smile.
Caterina chuckled into the back of her hand. "I'll hold you to that, Abel," she answered before planting a soft kiss on the priest's cheek. "Thank you."
~~~Come, sit, have a cup of coffee/tea/other liquidised substance. Not alcohol though. Too young to buy it… And oh look – turns out there's still some chapter left. Hurry up, hurry up, off you go now~~~
"A little showy aren't they?" Abel commented quietly from his position behind Caterina as the pair along with Caterina's siblings – Francesco and Alessandro – Tres, Brother Petros and Antonio, watched the Hispanian airship land. Size wise, the ship was bigger than those owned by the Inquisition, and so clearly larger than necessary for a single person and some servants.
"Well since I won't have the chance in a few seconds – I'll apologize now for whatever torture my mother places you under," Antonio mumbled to Caterina, hurriedly plastering a wide smile onto his face at the sight of Sofia de Borgia disembarking.
"Hola, Madre," Antonio greeted smoothly, embracing his mother and placing a chaste kiss of welcome on her cheek.
Being able to see her in full, Caterina took in the Queen of Hispania's full appearance; clothed in a fine silk dress, deep green in colour, with shoulder-length brown-turning-grey hair tightly braided over one shoulder, a stand of silver fabric weaved into the braid to weaken the aging affect of the grey hairs. Matching her garb to her kindly smile gave her an all-over sense of beauty and while Caterina felt she should be somewhat awed, the young cardinal instead was filled with dread that the effort used to portray Sofia would soon be applied to her.