The Family - Mario Puzo [129]
Lucrezia hesitated only a moment before agreeing. “Of course, I’ll go to Papa, and Sancia will stay here, for Alfonso is weak tonight.”
Michelotto’s face never changed its pleasant expression. He leaned toward Sancia now, and said in apology, “It is very private, this conversation.”
Alfonso didn’t say a word; he pretended to be sleeping, hoping Michelotto would go away, for he didn’t want to try to explain what he had been doing on the balcony that afternoon.
Lucrezia and Sancia left the room, destined for the Pope’s chambers, but before they reached the end of the corridor they were summoned back by the urgent call of Michelotto.
They ran back to the room to find Alfonso lying in bed as though asleep, but now his skin was tinged with blue, his body still and dead.
“He must have suffered a hemorrhage,” Michelotto explained softly. “For suddenly his breath just stopped.” He said nothing about the powerful hands he had placed around Alfonso’s neck.
Lucrezia began to sob uncontrollably, as she threw her body over that of her husband. But Sancia began to shriek and scream, throwing herself at Michelotto, her fists swinging and hitting his chest again and again. When Cesare entered the room Sancia immediately fell upon him, scratching and screaming all the more. “You bastard! You godless son of the devil,” she screamed.
She began to rip at her hair, tearing shocks of it out of her head, leaving many of her long dark locks lying in heaps on the floor at her feet.
Jofre entered and came toward her, and bore the weight of her fists until she could scream and shout no more. Then he held her, to try to comfort her, until she could stop trembling. Finally, he took her to their quarters.
It was only after Cesare dismissed Michelotto that Lucrezia lifted her head from the chest of her lifeless husband and turned to Cesare. Tears streaming down her face, she said, “I will never forgive you for this, my brother. For you have taken from me a part of my heart that can never love again. It can never be yours, for it is no longer mine. And even our children will suffer for this.”
He tried to reach out for her, to explain that Alfonso had shot his weapon first. And yet he found himself speechless in the face of her desolation.
Lucrezia ran from the room then, to her father’s chambers. “I shall never feel the same way about you, my father,” she threatened. “For you have caused me more misery than you can imagine. If it was on your order that someone did this evil deed, then, out of love you should have considered me. If it was my brother’s hand, then you should have stopped him. But I will never love either of you again, for you have broken my trust.”
Pope Alexander lifted his head to look at her and his expression was one of surprise. “Crezia, what are you saying? What has happened to you?”
Her light eyes were clouded with grief. “You have ripped the heart from my chest and you have severed a bond that was tied in the heavens.”
Alexander stood up and slowly walked toward his daughter, but he kept himself from wrapping his arms around her, for he was certain she would recoil from his touch. “My sweet child, your husband was never meant to be harmed, but he tried to kill your brother Cesare. I ordered your husband’s protection,” he said, but lowered his head and added, “but I could not stop your brother from protecting himself.”
Lucrezia saw the distress on her father’s face, and she fell to her knees at his feet. She covered her face with her hands as she wept, “Papa, you must help me understand. What kind of evil comes in this world? What kind of God is this, who would allow such love to be extinguished? This is madness! My husband tried to kill my brother, and my brother kills my husband? Their souls will be lost in hell; they will be damned. I will see neither of them again; with this