Caterina awoke the next morning to a swarm of servants in her chambers. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up in her bed.
"What the hell are you all doing in here?" She asked overwhelmed by the amount of unfamiliar faces. Cathy always imagined Lady Bona, Costanza, Chiara, even her Grandmother to be the faces she would wake up to on her wedding day. But alas, the only familiar face she could find was Zita's.
"Get out!" She shouted. The servants just looked at her with perplexed expressions. For no reason at all, this enraged her. She leapt out of bed and grabbed her sword from her trunk and waved it around like a mad woman at the servants.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!" Cathy shouted. The servants began to scramble about, some leaving the room, others stood in fright, some of them screaming, others cursed her.
Suddenly both the doors to her chamber were wide open and in strode two Vatican guards and the Count with their swords drawn.
"What in God's name is going on in here?" The Count shouted. Cathy froze, a blush spread across her cheeks.
The chaos vanished; all of the servants halted like pillars nailed to the floor and bowed their heads in the Count's direction.
Riario looked up at Caterina who stood on the black trunk at the foot of the bed in nothing but a thin white slip.
"Leave at once, all of you!" The Count shouted. The servants, the guards, even Zita were out of the room in seconds.
Cathy studied her soon to be husband's face. He stood silently with a stern expression. Something about his demeanor caused an odd sensation to burn in the depths of her stomach.
"Did you know…it's bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony?" Caterina sighed nervously stepping down from the trunk.
Silence.
"I am sorry about all that, I truly did not mean to raise alarm, I just never pictured myself getting married under such circumstances, actually I never pictured myself married at all. "
Silence.
"Listen Riario, I just want to say…"
"As soon as we are married, I will be leaving for Florence." Riario interrupted.
Cathy felt her stomach drop. She forgot that by marrying the Count she was betraying her Florentine friends.
"I'll pack my bags then." She said hesitantly.
"You will be staying in Rome."
"Excuse me?"
"You will be safer here. The city is still in peril."
Cathy felt her cheeks inflame. She was not going to get married and then just sit around in Rome and act like a proper lady. She studied the expression on the Count's face. There was no sign of him relenting. She would have to figure out another way to achieve her goal of accompanying him.
"How long will you be gone?"
"I'm not sure, a while." He said looking too earnestly in her eyes.
"You're lying Riario. I know what you are after and you will need my help to find it." She said looking away from him.
"You know nothing, it's time for you to stop bluffing Caterina, this is a dangerous game you are playing. And now you are my responsibility, and I will not have you getting involved in these affairs."
Bluffing? Was Riario really that ignorant of her involvement in all of this? That means the Pope and Lupo had not entrusted Riario with the information they had found out about her. What was his Holinesses motivate behind this?
"I know you are searching for the Book of Leaves and I know this Florentine artist Leonardo Da Vinci is preventing you from finding it. I also know if this book is what you are after you will be gone for longer than a while."
Riario turned away and walked towards the door. "I'll see you in an hour."
The doors slammed shut. After a few moments, Zita crept into the room silently.
"Shall we get you ready milady?"
That was weird.. it cut off the last few lines, but I fixed it now. I hope all of you are well and excited that Season 2 has started. I'm hoping to have up Part 2 by tonight but I also have a philosophy midterm this week…so we shall see. I really want this story to follow the plot line of the show, so I might have rectify a few things. (Like Riario being in Rome while the Florence take over is happening) So we might stray a little bit but hey, it's a fanfic after all!