“Besides,” my masked man added, smiling. “Apart from the taking of lives, what else are you good for?”

That hit me in the stomach like a cold fist. “Something, I hope,” I managed to say, and the cards felt clammy in my hands.

“Oh?” He raised his eyebrows. “What? Besides shabby little card games, that is.”

The thought echoed. What are you good for? I asked myself. Alienating friends? Stumbling through Latin books? Writing piss-poor sonnets?

What indeed.

“Shall we leave it to the next hand?” I said finally, and we turned our cards over in silence.

“Thirty.” Cesare Borgia smiled.

I tossed mine down. “Thirty-one.”

“So?” He collected all the cards. “What’s it to be, little lion man? Will you come and work for me?”

Giulia

It is every little girl’s wish to be a poetical inspiration, preferably one which will live through the ages and inspire love in the hearts of men for all time, and jealousy in the hearts of all women. Or at least it was my wish when I was a little girl. I had thought my daughter would be pleased to learn she was named for the greatest muse of all, but Laura was disgusted with her namesake.

“She should love Petrarch,” Laura said very firmly.

“She couldn’t, Lauretta mia. She was already married.” I retrieved my daughter’s straw hat from where she’d flung it over a rosebush.

“She was mean,” Laura decided.

“Well, he should have been more sensible. But try telling that to a poet.” I kissed the top of Laura’s head. “Poets can be quite foolish sometimes. Wait till I tell you about Beatrice and Dante. Beatrice was another great poetical inspiration, you know.”

“Was she nicer?” Laura wanted to know, leaning over to stroke my pet goat, who had gotten quite fat on a country diet and now lay snoring in the grass at our feet.

“Well, Beatrice died. But she was nice even after she died.” I saw the plump form of our household priest approaching, his tonsured head sunburned from the heat that continued to swelter in Carbognano even in September. “You can read all about Beatrice and Dante someday, but it’s got very difficult words for a little girl. Try Leonello’s book instead, and see if you can’t pronounce all the names this time.”