The Family Auditore – Chapter 2 - The Servant Daughter
November 1473
Esperanza sat in the window. Her fingers ached from all the stitching she had been doing. Cesare and Juan always were hard on their shirts. She supposed all boys who were in their late teens were. She sighed and looked back at her work.
"Esperanza!" A shrill voice sounded.
She winced. Vannozza dei Cattanei had returned from her shopping trip. She walked to the door and found her step-mother removing her over coat, gloves, and hat. She saw Esperanza there taking her things from her hand. "Ci è stupido porcellino. Sono rimasto in attesa."
"Sorry, Madam." She said hanging up everything.
Vannozza reached and gripped her face almost painfully. "Your birthday is today. If you expect anything more than a small cake, you had best get your chores done."
"Yes, Madam." She said turning her dark blue, nearly violet eyes to the mistress of the home.
"Good. We work hard to feed and clothe you and what thanks do we get!" The woman stormed off.
Esperanza sighed and followed, but an arm lashed out and grabbed her wrist pulling her into an alcove. She looked up into the linear face of her elder half-brother Cesare. The man was only two years older than she was, but he had a look about him that always made her cringe.
He pressed his mouth to hers and then smiled as he pulled back. "Salve, sister."
"Let me go, Cesare."
"You are sixteen now and turning into quite the lady." He looked her up and down as he held her.
She shivered. "Cesare, let me go!"
He shook his head. "Tsk, Tsk, sister." He smiled. "I only want to sample the goods you have to offer." He smiled wickedly.
"I will not let you."
"You are a servant. I can have my way with you and no one would bat an eye." He turned her and pressed her against the wall. She felt his hardened member against the small of her back. "I could take you now and no one would help you." He whispered against her ear before he kissed it. He chuckled and stepped back. "Go, now, before I change my mind." He told her shoving her roughly away.
She ran to her small room upstairs. It was always cold and she had only thin blankets, but she could be alone. The board that she had to cross in the rafters to her room could not support her elder brothers. She sat on her bed and wept.
It took her time before she managed to go back across the board to the house. She walked down to the kitchen. It was time for tea and she needed to gather the tray for her step-mother and step sister.
She served the tea without a word and went back to her mending. The mistress of the house noticed she was subdued, but said nothing. She liked the girl better when she was quiet, not saying anything, and reminding her of her existence.
She had never forgiven Rodrigo for bringing the tiny infant into her life. He had been away back in Spain and had come back with another girl's daughter in his arms. She had tried to hate him, but failed. The little girl was innocent and Rodrigo's mistress raised her until she turned ten. Not wanting her to compete with her own daughter, she made the girl a servant, a second class citizen in her own family. She would learn her place.
Rodrigo was not fond of the girl, but she was the key to one of his schemes. She had to be. Why else would he had brought her with him? She had Rodrigo's rounded features, but she was darker skinned, not Moorish, but a darker olive. Her dark blue eyes that were nearly like lapis lazuli flashing dark blue one minute and violet the next were the only part of her that Vannozza was envious of. The girl had a beauty, like a gypsy, lovely, but foreign. She was more beautiful than her own daughter and because of this, the girl paid the price because of Lucrezia's need for a good husband.
The girl had her small cake up in her room. She treasured such rewards and ate it as she looked at her book. One good thing about having a man who was now a Cardinal in the church, everyone in his household, he expected to be literate. She read books on philosophy and other such books most of the family found to be dull and not worth the time.
She looked up at her window. It would be a full moon.
It was now or never.
She could not stand to have another run in with Cesare. The younger Borgia son was trouble and if he had his way, he would make her used goods when he tired of her and she would not be able to find a decent husband. She took a breath. That was supposing someone decent would have her anyway. She was a Borgia and a daughter of a wealthy Cardinal with influence who no doubt was plotting to send his children all over the globe for influence, power, wealth, and greater armies. And what better way to gain such power than with a daughter. Sons were well enough, but it was daughters who bore children of their husbands, could be battered for, and sent to whatever country their father's wished.
Esperanza took a breath.
She was not about to allow herself to be chattel for her father to sell her to the highest bidder. She moved to the window and opened it. She took a breath and climbed out onto the roof and looked about.
The skyline of Roma was beautiful. She moved out onto the Palazzo and walking along the ridge of the roof. She looked down. A thick vine was crawling up a trellis. She smiled and swung down. With luck she could climb down far enough to jump to the wall nearby and escape without the guards noticing.
She climbed down, her small hands finding handholds in the thick vine. The old ivy had been there for some time, likely the better part of a century and its thick main vines were thicker than her thighs. She maneuvered downward and then froze seeing a guard.
She held her breath as the man passed, oblivious to her only a few feet above him. She waited for him to round the corner before she let out her breath. She continued down. A thick branch stuck out toward the fence. She sighed and stepped on it, testing it. It held her weight, though bowed a little as she took a breath as she leaned against the Palazzo wall.
She then nodded and ran the two feet, closing her eyes, and jumping to the wall. She skidded to the raised lip of the wall and took a breath. Her thick petticoats had saved her knees from getting cut on the sharp rocks.
She lifted herself up and brushed herself off. Smiling she took a breath and looked down at the other side of the wall. She was high enough she needed to find something to break the fall. She spotted a hay cart not far from her. She moved, but saw a guard. She froze as he stood, his back to her. She ran then and jumped over the edge as he turned back. She landed in the way and looked up. The man walked along. Clearly he had not seen her.
She took a breath and looked. Her arm hurt and she lifted it realizing it had struck the cart. She winced as she moved it. It was clearly broken and she pulled it to her chest with a yelp. She looked about. There was no one.
She moved quickly along the streets holding her arm to her.
She noticed some guards and pulled her cowl over her face as she moved, trying to move with a small crowd of people. She shivered as she passed them. They were watching everyone who passed them. They then reached and took ahold of her shoulder.
"What are you about? The brothels are that way."
The girl blinked at him.
"Of course, if you are not in a hurry to get home I can make it worth your while."
"Luigi, we are on duty." His companion barked.
"Oh come now. I will let you have a turn after me."
"Why should you go first?"
"Cause I am paying."
"Your mother was a puttana anyway."
"She was not. She was a bread-maker."
"Not according to my brother."
"Figlio d'un cane!"
The two guards wrestled with each other and gained some attention. The girl jumped back, but fell through a gap in the wall of the bridge. With a cry she fell backward. The guards paid no heed and neither did the crowd. They were too busy enjoying the insults and combat before them.
The girl could not swim at the best of times and the current of the Tiber made it hard, especially with a broken arm. She whimpered as she floated, trying her best to keep her head above the water. She managed, as the water slackened, to move toward shore.
She reached out to grab a caught stick near shore. She pulled herself, inch by inch to shore with her good arm. She pulled herself up on shore, utterly exhausted. She panted.
She regretted leaving home. The pain she felt was worse than even her step-mother's hard slaps to her face. She sighed. Her stomach ached, her arm hurt terribly, and all she wanted to do was rest.
She was cold. So cold.
She laid her head down and soon sleep took her, even as her body remained half in the water.
ZzZ
Night brought the Assassin Giovanni Auditore out.
He sighed.
He was feeling his age. He had narrowly missed death once again. He needed to train his sons soon in the deadly arts. They would be much more about at this than he was soon. It was a crime to become old or at least he was starting to feel that way. The thugs had nearly overpowered him by sheer strength and numbers. Something like that would have never happened twenty years ago or hell ten.
He guided the small boat along the Tiber looking for a place to make shore and escape out of the city undetected.
He scanned a small sandy area and he made for it. As he pushed the boat up on shore, he narrowly missed landing on what he had taken to be a log or floating debris at first was actually a person. A person with thick dark hair that was in the sand like a net.
Gently he rolled the body over, expecting it to be some hapless wretch to have murdered and dumped. The face was pretty and female. He gently reached up and felt for a pulse after removing his glove. As his fingers touched her neck, her eyes flashed open, surprising them both.
He gently pressed her back as she looked about panicked. "Are you all right?" He asked softly.
She tried to sit up and cried out as he arm took her weight. He looked at it. It was broken and broken badly. The bone was poking through the skin. He looked at her. "I need to set this or it will never heal right." He said urgently.
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.
Good lord, she could not be much older than his own daughter. He pressed her hair back from her face and gently pressed a kiss to her dirty brow. "Trust me, sweetheart." He said gently. "I do not mean you harm."
She nodded and he lifted a stick and pressed it to her lips. She looked at him curiously.
"It will hurt and I am sorry."
She nodded and he pulled her arm straight then pressed the bone back where it should go. She cried out, biting down on the stick so hard she snapped it. She then fell back unconscious. He nodded. It was just as well. He used thicker sticks to steady her arm as he wrapped it with cloth he had. It would keep it immobile until he could get her to a doctor.
He then looked at her. She was in a sorry state, but he needed to get her to safety. There would be times to ask who she was later. He knelt, lifting her in his arms. She did not weigh much, but she was wet and sandy from the beach and smelled of the water.
He carried her to the inn he was staying in. He managed to carry her to his room unnoticed. He gently laid her on the bed. He called a maid to find her a dress and some dinner for them.
The maid eagerly took his money and he turned back to his charge.
She woke a couple hours later and he gently sat beside her checking her other wounds for infection. She watched him silently. He was watching her also. Her dark hair and darker olive skin marked her as something other than Italian. Her dark eyes were something that any man would gladly die in. Lord help him, if he was younger, unmarried, and not a father he might have been tempted.
He broke the silence. His face was kind and his long blonde hair made him look younger than he actually was. "Buona sera, piccola." He smiled.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"My name is Giovanni." He said softly. "What is yours?"
"Esperanza." She said.
"Spanish are you?"
"No Basque." She said. She was not going to admit her father's Castilian blood to a stranger.
He nodded and tenderly looked her over. "Other than your arm, your other wounds have been washed and no longer bleed." He smiled a little. "Are you hungry?"
She nodded and tried to sit up, but he shook his head and set a tray on her legs. "Buon appetite."
She ate her fill as he busied himself cleaning his weapons. She watched him as he worked on a knife in the firelight. He was inspecting it for nicks and cracks. He looked down the edge and saw her watching him.
He smiled at her. "How are you, my dear?"
"Well, thank you." She smiled back.
He sheathed the blade in his boot and rose to his feet. "You should rest. I will call for a bath for you in the morning so you can get the sand out of your hair."
She looked at him suspiciously and he suddenly understood.
He spread his hands. "If you think I am going to molest you, I have a wife and four children at home, my dear little one. Though you have very pretty eyes, I will keep my vows to my wife." He smiled and patted her leg gently and moved to the divan nearby pulling up a pillow and blanket as he faced the fire.
She settled back and realized her rescuer was no threat. He had healed her and he was now far enough away to give her privacy, but close enough to help should she need it.
ZzZ
She awoke the next morning to Giovanni moving around.
He opened the door and nodded as a metal tub was brought in and servants with hot and cold water filled it. He selected some soaps and sweet oils and then nodded to the new dress he had bought for her. "I will return in an hour, Esperanza. Enjoy yourself."
She blinked as she rose to her feet. He steadied her as he came to her. He gently knelt and drew the dagger from his boot. "If anyone comes through that door other than me, use this."
"But…"
"Careful it is very sharp and not a toy." He smiled and left.
She looked after him and then down at the well balanced blade in her hands. She had never held a blade before and she set it down near the tub cautiously.
ZzZ
She had been in the bath long enough to turn her skin red like a boiled crustacean, but she was clean and her hair was about her like a living thing. She was startled when the door opened. She sat up reaching for the blade Giovanni had left for her.
She lifted it as she sat there holding it in her good hand.
Her breasts were covered by her hair thankfully, but Giovanni looked at her equally startled. "Oh my. Forgive me; I thought you would have been dressed. I took longer than I expected."
She relaxed as he shut the door and turned from her holding the packages he had and seemed to be waiting for her. She blinked.
She then understood and rose to her feet. She dressed in the dress which was a little large on her, but not by much. She could not tie the back and she coughed to gain his attention. He looked back at her over his shoulder as she lifted her thick hair out of the way with a towel about it and revealed her back to him.
He walked forward and then sucked in his breath. Someone had beat the holy hell out of this child at one point. His finger caressed a mark that marred her otherwise perfect flesh. "Who whipped you?" He asked softly as she shivered under the caress.
"My step-mother." She said. "She thought I stole her comb. When it was found in my room I was beaten for it, though it was my half-brother and sister who did it."
He closed his eyes and on impulse wrapped an arm about her slender shoulders. "I am sorry." He said softly behind her. "Girls are treasures. They should not be beaten." He tasted bile. Who had ever done this knew how to flick to increase the pain with the minimal amount of strikes. No woman should have had to endure such torture.
He gently pulled her dress up and tied the ties for her. He then reached up and took a brush to her hair. He was surprised at her tolerance to him pulling the knots in her hair. Once he had it brushed out, he began to braid it with deft skill.
She held still, but as he tied the end with a ribbon she looked back. "Where did you learn that, sir?" She asked.
He laughed a little. "I have a daughter your age and my wife. Between them I am fairly adept at styles, especially when our maid was on leave when she became with child."
She nodded.
"Are you well enough to travel?" He asked looking at her.
She looked like a merchant's daughter. It would do well for him with the pass he had bought for them.
"Yes." She said. She was ready to quit this place.
He nodded and offered a hand. "Come then my dear. Are you up for a little fun?"
She cocked her head at him.
He smiled. "I am your new husband. We must play the part until we are to Firenze. Can you manage?"
She nodded. She took his hand and walked with him outside. They walked together, heads up and proud. This was what she had dreamed of.
To be free.
And Giovanni was the key.