The Family - Mario Puzo [103]
His sister was not only his lover, but his dearest friend. Now that there were so many things about his life and his plans that were changing, he wanted to share them with her. Yet for months she did nothing but spend every minute of the day and night with her new husband, Prince Alfonso, throwing parties, entertaining poets and artists, taking outings in the countryside. Her palace had become an artists’ gathering place, attracting visitors far and wide.
Cesare stopped himself from imagining the young couple making love, for he had heard rumors of her wedding night, and in this case—unlike her experience with Giovanni Sforza—he had heard that she was filled with joy and enthusiasm.
Now that Cesare was no longer a cardinal, he had little to do. To pass the time he spent hours studying military strategy, and trying to determine the best marital alliance he could form in order to help his father expand the papal territories. And he wished to speak about the matter with his sister, to gain counsel not only from his father and his advisors but from her as well—for who knew him better?
Unfettered by the robes of a cardinal, he began to spend days and nights drinking in the city with courtesans, managing in several incautious encounters to contract the French pox. And he paid dearly for his indiscretions, for his own physician used him as a guinea pig to construct a cure, forcing him to spend weeks soaking the pustules that covered his body with all manner of herbs and boiling pumice packs. He was cut and scrubbed and soaked until finally the sores disappeared, leaving him with a host of small round scars that were hidden beneath his clothes. And for that his physician was credited with a cure.
Once Cesare was well, he again sent for Lucrezia. And for two days he received no answer. Then, as he was raging in his bedchambers, determined to take himself to her palace and insist on a meeting, he heard a knock at the door to the secret passage. He sat up alert, on the side of the bed.
Suddenly Lucrezia was standing before him, radiant and more beautiful than ever before. She ran to him and he stood to kiss her, to embrace her with all his pent-up passion, but their lips met for only a moment before she pulled away. It was a sweet kiss, an affectionate embrace, but one completely without lust.
“This is what you come to bring me?” Cesare asked her. “Now that you have someone else to enchant?”
He turned before she answered, and stood with his back to her. She begged him to turn and look at her, but he refused, and she found herself pleading with him. “Cesare, my dearest brother, my love, please don’t be angry with me. All things change. And now that you are no longer a cardinal, you will find a love as complete as I have.”
Cesare turned toward her again, his chest heavy, as though he had swallowed a stone. His dark eyes glowed with anger. “This is what you feel after all our years together? In just a few months you have given your heart to another? And what has he given you?”
She tried to approach him again, this time with tears in her eyes. “Chez, he lavishes me with kindness, conversation, and affection. It is a love that fills my heart and my life, but more than that, it is a love I don’t have to hide. It is not forbidden, it is blessed, and that is something you and I could never have.”
Cesare sneered. “All your promises about never loving anyone as you loved me—all that has changed in this short time? Just because you have a blessing, you can give yourself wholly to another? Your lips can be kissed as I kissed them? Your flesh responds with the same fire?”
Lucrezia’s voice trembled. “There will never be anyone like you for me, for you were my first love. It was with you I first shared the secrets of my body, as well as the secrets of my heart and the most intimate thoughts of my mind.” She walked to him then, and he allowed it. She held his face in her