I thought Rome was the same as it had always been; it was the Borgias who were worse. But what did I know? “The Convent of San Sisto,” I said instead. “You’ve often spoken of it, how much you enjoyed taking your lessons from the sisters there when you were a little girl, how many friends you made among the sisters. Perhaps you could go back for a short visit. Pray, rest, see your friends. Get away from all the noise here in the city.”

“You think so?” Lucrezia brightened. “Would the Holy Father allow it?”

“I’ll make sure he does,” I promised. “A retreat for you—I’m sure you could use the time to reflect in peace and quiet, if it’s really true the Holy Father wishes to annul your marriage.” I half-hoped she’d made that up, but she just gave a little shrug.

“He doesn’t need the Sforzas anymore,” she said, and sounded remarkably offhand about it all. “It’s the Neapolitan alliance he needs to reinforce now, in case the French get restive again.”

“I see,” I said, and wondered why Rodrigo had said nothing of it to me. He doesn’t tell you everything, I heard Vannozza dei Cattanei whisper in my mind, from that warm afternoon in the gardens of the Vatican when I had first spoken of my doubts about her daughter’s behavior.

Just how long had my Pope been planning to rid himself of Lucrezia’s husband?

“I wouldn’t mind seeing the sisters at San Sisto.” Lucrezia’s little face had brightened again. “I can tell the Holy Father it will keep me safe out of reach from my husband, in case he decides to return from Pesaro for me. Even my Giovanni isn’t so crude he’d storm a convent!”

She giggled at that, good humor apparently restored now that the tears had been cried out. “I’ll go to see poor old Adriana now,” she said, rising. “And I shall be absolutely abject, I promise. I really didn’t mean to hurt her. She knows that.”

“Of course,” I said.

“Then I shall apologize to you all over again,” Lucrezia added. “I get stormy when I cry, you know—I don’t hate you, not at all. I just said that. You’ll forgive me, won’t you? Of course you will. Then we shall go sit in the garden and sun our hair together; I have to dry mine all over again now that you’ve gotten me soaked, and maybe Laura can sun her hair too! It’s never too early to begin caring for your looks, you know.” Lucrezia strolled over to pick up her hand glass, pinching her cheeks to make them pinker, admiring her fine white teeth in a dazzling smile. “I don’t think Laura’s going to be as pretty as me, so she’ll have to work with what she’s been given . . .”

Carmelina