Two chapters in one day - aren't you chuffed XD
And how right Caterina was. In the two hour drive from the airport, not once did Sofia remain silent for more than a minute. Caterina inwardly groaned – and she thought Francesco was bad; this woman had chronic verbal diarrhoea. Oh well, at least there were a couple of upsides; the woman did genuinely seem interested in the mechanics of a wedding and looked to be enjoying the madness Caterina had always thought planning one was. She also half-suspected Sofia had been planning for months before initiating the plan, due to how many things had already been taken care of: food, drink, guests, locations were all fully sorted and the majority of positions for the service were also taken care of. According to Sofia the main problem at the moment was clothing for the event – in particular, Caterina's dress.
The other up-side to her current situation was she and Sofia weren't alone in the limousine – both Abel and Antonio were being subjected to the verbal display as well and were currently staring at the Hispanian Queen with expressions of mixed horror and awe.
"… White obviously, but the style is what is important; lace, frills, bows, mesh – there's so much choice and looking at your body over a monitor just wouldn't cut it. No, I had to be here in person to oversee this goes perfectly. Which reminds me – Toni have you proposed formally yet?" Sofia asked diverting attention for the first time in three-quarters of an hour to her son.
"Eh? Um, no Madre… I um, haven't even purchased a ring yet…" Antonio answered in a much more submissive voice than either Abel or Caterina were used to hearing from the young prince.
"Well that will never do!" Sofia cried in anguished disappointment. Sighing theatrically the Queen put a hand to her head dramatically and said, "I shall just have to add it to my busy schedule and acquire you a ring – perhaps Bertha would be willing to part with hers, she did always want someone within the family to have it…"
Antonio's eye twitched minutely at the mention of his great aunt, who was large, brutish in stature and had horrible taste in both male company and jewellery. The ring his mother spoke of, whilst grand and very costly, was ridiculously huge (or at least the garnet imbedded into the metal was), and simply wouldn't look right on Caterina's finger.
"T-that's not necessary, Madre. I've found a ring," Antonio lied quickly, "I simply haven't purchased it yet. I… I was going to this morning, but slept in by accident and I didn't want to miss greeting you at the airport… So I simply haven't had the chance yet! I'll go this afternoon, once you're settled into your rooms!"
Sofia looked at her son for a moment with narrowed eyes before breaking into a smile once more. "Excellent, Toni. You can take me with you so I may inspect the ring," she said brightly, happily accepting the lies – or calling them out, Abel thought grimly, seeing through Antonio's deceit.
"But are you not tired from your flight? Surely you must want to rest, Madre?" Antonio tried, smiling worriedly.
Noting that the two Borgias were fully absorbed in their conversation, Caterina turned to face Abel. "When he goes to actually look for one, please go with him and find something I would actually like," she mumbled quietly to her long-time friend, who nodded understandingly.
~~~I wonder if you guys even read me... I know I'm just a line break but still! Ah well, I can't blame you... Oh! I know! Hey peoples if you read me post a review with your opinion on AntonioxCaterina~~~
Eventually, Antonio had managed to convince his mother that she could see the ring after he bought it giving him all of two hours to get into Rome, find a ring and run back to his office. She wanted to see the ring by dinner, which meant he needed to leave now if he had any hope of avoiding more of the woman's wrath by being late.
"Abel, for the love of God – hurry up!" Antonio yelled at the bumbling priest, uncharacteristically tense.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Abel cried in return, pulling his jacket the rest of the way on as he quickly clamoured into the car. As promised, he was accompanying Antonio on his search for Caterina's engagement ring; half-glad to be away from the aging Tyrant of Doom that was Antonio's mother, half-terrified by Antonio's worry and seriousness.
"Are you sure you're alright, Antonio? You seem worried and haven't even cracked a joke since Her Majesty Sofia arrived…" Abel said, concern lacing his voice.
Antonio sighed. "In honesty? I'm terrified. My mother can be a rather viscous woman when she wishes, and I don't mean in physical brutality. She'd ruin both Caterina and I if we don't fit to the mould she's set us. If we don't dance on her strings properly it means our end," he said gravely.
Abel paled slightly. "You… You're not serious are you?"
Antonio looked Abel sternly in the eye. "Deadly. It happened to one of my brothers. He tried to marry for love – a young girl from Catalonia – when mother found out she was furious. Set about creating rumours that the girl was actually a whore amongst many other unpleasant things. When my brother tried to defend his love and stand against my mother… She disowned him, claiming he'd been soiled by a vampire and no longer had the authority to bear the title of his lineage. She's a terrible woman, Abel and there's only so much I can do against her."
The two left the car as soon as it reached the shopping area of Rome. Quickly disappearing down a street in normal citizen clothing, Antonio bee-lined for the nearest jewellery store with Abel following close behind.
"Then why didn't you accept Miss Bertha's ring – it would certainly lower your stress level," Abel pointed out.
"Because that particular ring is both big and ugly. It would look like Caterina were flaunting the fact she's getting married – and suggest I have no taste in rings," Antonio added, a spark of his usual self-centred, cheery nature shining through. Antonio was dressed in black denim trousers and an unbuttoned, white short-sleeved shirt, with a light blue T-shirt underneath. Abel on the other hand was donning grey pants, a purple shirt and was wearing a jacket on top.
"This is ludicrous," Abel mumbled as they entered the shop. There were three main desks in a squared-off horseshoe around the edge of the room, each containing two glass cabinets full of rings, varying in colour, shape, size and price Abel noted, feeling his wallet having a heart attack at even the cheapest of the rings. Thank goodness he wasn't the one paying for the ring.
Antonio anxiously checked his watch. "We've an hour and a half, Abel."
Abel nodded to show he'd heard as he moved over to look at the first of the cabinets. "Do you think your mother will be expecting something like Bertha's?" he asked trying to make small talk with the frantic cardinal.
"I hope not, as long as it's expensive I don't think it'll matter – she really just needs something to boast about, price should do it. Ignore the tags for now though, we can deal with the money side later."
Abel sighed and looked back at the rings – most were overpriced and tacky, even then, the ones that weren't Abel knew Caterina wouldn't really like.
"What about this one?" Antonio asked, gesturing to a ring in the fourth case.
Abel grimaced as he read the engraving. "'For the one I love'? Really?" He gave Antonio a look that clearly said 'no'. "It's also the wrong metal. She told you she likes white gold right?"
"Oh… Yeah…" Antonio mumbled.
"The engraving's a good idea though," Abel said in an attempt to cheer Antonio up. "Try looking for an odd or interesting shape engraved into the ring, like leaves or something, not love sick messages that scream 'dependency issues'." Antonio chuckled in reply and nodded, brightening slightly.
It was about an hour later in their sixth shop that they finally hit the jackpot.
"This one," Antonio said pointing to a ring in one of the upright glass cases against the walls.
"Hm?" Abel bend backwards slightly to work the cricks out of his lower back as he moved to join Antonio. Looking at the ring he broke into a smile. "That's more like it~."
"And with twenty minutes to spare," Antonio said with a grin as he called the shop assistant over. "We'll take that one, please." Five minutes later after Abel had given the size they needed the two men were in a car back to the Vatican celebrating their small victory.