“Madonna Adriana cares for him.”
“Yes. Indeed yes. That is why she is contented that I should please the Cardinal. My family is contented also, Lucrezia.”
“Contented! But how can that be when you are to marry Orsino?”
“Yes, yes. And it is a good match. The Farnese and the Orsini will be united, and that is good. One cannot marry a Cardinal … alas … alas!”
“If Cardinals could marry, my father would have married my mother.”
Giulia nodded. Then she went on: “You must not be sorry for Orsino. I told you his mother is contented that I am the Cardinal’s mistress. I told you that, did I not?”
“But she is a good woman. We have thought her harsh, but we must admit that she is good.”
“Lucrezia, you live in a world of childhood and it is time you left it. Adriana is glad that the Cardinal loves me. She helps me dress when he is coming, helps to make me beautiful. And what does she say when she helps me dress? She says: ‘Do not forget that you will be Orsino’s wife before long. Get the Cardinal to agree to advance Orsino. He has great influence at the Vatican. Make sure that you squeeze the greatest good from this … for yourself and Orsino.’ ”
“So she is pleased that you and my father are lovers?”
“Nothing could delight her more. She makes everything easy for us.”
“And you so soon to marry her son!”
Giulia laughed. “You see, you do not know the world. If I were to have a love affair with a groom … ah, then I should be beaten. I should be in disgrace, and he, poor fellow, would doubtless have a sword run through him one dark night, or be found in the Tiber with a stone about his neck. But my lover is a great Cardinal and when men of influence love as he loves me then all gather round to catch some of the prizes. That is life.”
“Then Adriana with all her prayers and sternness, all her righteousness, is not a good woman after all!”
“Good and bad, little Lucrezia, what are they? It is only little children who have sentimental notions such as yours. The Cardinal is happy to love me; I am happy to be his mistress. And Orsino’s family and my family are happy because of the great good I can bring to them. Orsino? He does not count, but one might say even he is happy because it means that he will not have to make love to me, which—unnatural monster that he is—I do not believe he is at all eager to do!”
Lucrezia was silent for a while, thinking more of Adriana than anyone else: Adriana solemnly on her knees before the Madonna and the lamp; Adriana, lips pursed, murmuring, “One must do this because, however unpleasant, it is one’s duty” Adriana, who made one feel that the saints were continually on the watch, recording the slightest fault to be held against one at the day of Judgment, the good woman, who was willing to allow the illicit love affair, between a man of fifty-eight and her prospective daughter-in-law of fourteen, to be conducted in her house, and moreover connived at it and encouraged it because it could bring honors to her son.
Honors! It was necessary, Lucrezia realized, to make a reassessment of words and their meanings.
She was indeed a child; there was much that she had to learn; and she was very eager to grow out of childhood, a state in which it seemed innocence was synonymous with folly.
Giulia had married Orsino, and the ceremony had taken place in the Borgia palace, the first of the witnesses to sign the marriage documents being Roderigo Borgia.
The married couple returned to Monte Giordano and life went on as before. The Cardinal paid frequent visits to the Orsini palace and no one now made any secret of the fact that he came chiefly to visit his mistress.
He was delighted to see his daughter also, and seemed content to spend a great deal of time in the company of the two young girls.
Giulia was exerting her influence on Lucrezia who was growing more and more like her. Giulia talked of the love between herself and the Cardinal and of many more trivial matters. She told Lucrezia that she knew how their hair could retain its bright yellow color; she had a recipe which would make it shine like pure gold with the sun on it. They washed their hair, tried the concoction, and congratulated themselves that their hair was more golden than ever.
Lucrezia began to long for the time when she would have a lover, for, always ready to be influenced by those who were near her, she was modelling herself on Giulia.
When she heard that her eldest brother, Pedro Luis, had died and that Giovanni was to become Duke of Gandia and marry the bride who had been selected for Pedro Luis, it seemed hardly important, apart from the fact that she wondered how Cesare would receive this news. He would surely want the dukedom of Gandia; he would surely want Pedro Luis’ bride.
She was eleven when the Cardinal called at the palace and, after embracing her, told her that he was arranging a match for her.
It was to be a Spanish match because he believed Spain, which was fast rising to a power of first magnitude determined on the domination of the world, had more to offer his daughter than Italy.
Her bridegroom was to be Don Cherubino Juan de Centelles who was the lord of Val d’Ayora in Valencia, and it was a grand match.
Lucrezia was a little alarmed, but her father hastily assured her that, although the nuptial contract was drawn up and would soon be signed, he had arranged that she should not leave Rome for a whole year.
That was comforting. A year seemed a very long time to the young Lucrezia.
Now she could discuss her coming marriage with Giulia and it delighted her to do so, particularly as that event seemed so very far away in the distant future.
She was beginning to know the world, to accept with the utmost calm the relationship between her father and Giulia; to accept the mingling piety and callous amorality of Adriana.
That was life as it was lived in that stratum of society into which Lucrezia had been born.
She had learned this much; and it meant that she had left her childhood behind her.
ALEXANDER VI
During the following year Lucrezia really did grow up, and afterward it seemed to her that before Giulia had come into her life bringing enlightenment she had indeed been an innocent child.
Giulia was her dearest friend. Together they made many journeys to the Cardinal’s palace where Roderigo petted them both, delighting that it was Lucrezia who brought him Giulia and Giulia who brought him Lucrezia.
And why should Lucrezia question the rightness of such conduct? She, Giulia and Adriana were all guests at the wedding of Franceschetto Cibo, a grand occasion when the whole of Rome had rejoiced and there were bonfires on all of the seven hills; Franceschetto was openly acknowledged as the son of Innocent VIII, and the Holy Father made no secret of this, for he was present at the banquet and caused the fountains to run with wine; moreover Franceschetto’s bride was the daughter of the great Lorenzo de’ Medici; so that it was not only Romans who honored the Pope’s bastard.
So naturally it did not occur to Lucrezia to do anything but accept the conditions in which she lived.
Goffredo had now come to live at Monte Giordano, and she was happy to have her young brother with her. He wept a little to leave his mother, but Vannozza, while missing him sadly, was very glad to let him go for she saw in the arrangement an admission by Roderigo that he accepted Goffredo as his son.
It was during that year that Roderigo decided that Don Cherubino Juan de Centelles was not a satisfactory match for his daughter. It may have been the brilliant marriage of Franceschetto Cibo which decided him. It was true Franceschetto was the son of a Pope, but Innocent was ageing fast and who knew what the next months might bring forth? No! He would find a better match for his daughter.