#possible character ;; giulia farnese

[sweetbitterbitten]

' i am your god, and your executioner '

it is uttered in effort to s t i l l and so the serene lady steers her mounted steed to a stop, lets slip in a sliver of air - tasting the words, their calculated weight cradled to the curl of her tongue; crimson as crushed berries - before being allowed to perch, and press free in flight from sensibly enshrined lips.

“you undersell yourself to prescribe but two positions of power to your pedigree. i admit astonishment at your delicate modesty, imperial majesty. many would vie for m o r e .”

[madonna-la-cardinalessa]

The Borgias Review 02.01 “The Borgia Bull”

And it’s time again for “2 historians judging watching The Borgias”. As said in the post which contains the complete review of The Borgias season 1: This is for entertainment only! We do not intent to hurt any fans with this. Since we both are pretty aware about this time period and study history in our bachelor and master rn we can see what works and what doesn’t in this show and for some people this might not only be funny but also interesting to read (even though this is by far no analysis!). For the time references I apologize again because it might differ from player to player. 

And because of the current situation it is not possible for us to do a The Borgias marathon again since meeting physically is…problematic. So we decided to watch the episodes while doing a WhatsApp call every Tuesday evening. This is why each episode of season two will get it’s own post this time yay! :D We hope you enjoy!

Review of the first episode under the cut:

Since I suck in html I won’t colour Sandy’s and mine parts this time and simply write like: Sandy: or Leni:

4:50 [fake!Giuliano holding a mess or something wearing a ..weird coloured ourfit] 

Leni: lmao, fake!Giuliano, why are you wearing a green gown? You’re a cardinal and you know, the term “cardinal-red” actually has a meaning xD

7:00 [Cesare enters the room, the audience knows it’s of course thanks to him that fake!Giuliano is poisend] 

Sandy: Oh look, Super Brain Cesare enters the stage. Wait, no it was Mastermind Cesare, sorry.

Leni: omg wtf is with his hair? Cesare got a permanent wave???

(Also as if the real Giuliano della Rovere would have been so dump to get poisend)

18:50 [Juan and Cesare bitching at each other and starting a fight]

Sandy: Ehhm, did they hate each other already in the last season? Or is this kinda rushed? xD

Leni: I think they had like one scene in s1 in which they showed how the fame made Juan evil...but yeah this feels rushed.

21:40 [Rodrigo and Giulia discovering some old ruins while hunting]

Sandy: *annoyed* OH NO, do not tell me, they discover some fkn roman ruins now and initiate the Renaissance because of this now.

Leni: Yeah, maybe Neil&Co did not know, that the Renaissance was a thing before the Borgia already. But since all characters (except Juan lol) are so good and lovely and whitewashed in this show, it makes sense that they alone bring Italy the light of the Renaissance ofc.

29:00 [Rodrigo can’t sleep and gets up to walk around in the apostlic palace at night]

Leni: Where is he going?

Sandy: Probably looking for his golden calf to worship it.

35:00 [Giulia noticing how much influence she is loosing towards Rodrigo]

Sandy: You know what? This Giulia is the personification of the cheerleader bitch in american movies.

46:40 [At the mask ball, Giulia gets advice from Vanozza how to keep Rodrigo under her influence]

Leni: As if a Giulia Farnese would have taken advice from a Vanozza Cattanei and if a Vanozza Cattanei would have helped a Giulia Farnese with giving her advice jjkdfjdsjfll.

50:00 [..GAY! xD Giulia making out with Victoria (was that her name?) because it’s sexy and Rodrigo pays attention and therefore f*cks them both that night]

Sandy: *annoyed* Now, the americans are so prudish and censore every f*ck in a show but they are always okay with girls kissing girls because it’s hot?

Leni: I think that’s a man's thing. You really see who scripted this show 

In general in this episode: Micheletto’s appearance

Leni: Why is Micheletto always dirty? And like sweating? Like ALWAYS??

Sandy: Maybe because he knows, that he is the worst assasine in the world and so he always sweats xD

Sandy’s general thoughts: I kinda got the feeling that a lot happened while nothing happened actually. What really made me upset was that the episode made it look like the Borgia initiated the Renaissance like: So yeah, here is the Renaissance, have fun! And then they start to celebrate roman feasts which some people would call ehm idk maybe... HERESY?????

Leni’s general thoughts: My PoOr BaBy AlPhOnSo of NaPeLs T_____T how can they torture my precious psycho kid Alphonso in that way??? Fake!Charles, I hate youuuuuu *cries for 10 hours straight*. And yeah, I think this episode’s plot was pretty boring. I enjoyed the few scenes with Lucrezia but kinda got the feeling that Giulia played a more important role than her now. And of course some things just did not work (like almost everything).

[ducavalentinos]

Why don't you like Sarah Dunant's novels about the Borgias? Being as you are a Borgia expert/fan, I'd like to know your opinions on this 2 novels, 2 novels which were hugely popular some years ago and have been praised by some Borgia historians.

Ok, so I just want to start this by saying that I haven’t read the second volume and given what @margarettudor told me about it, it doesn’t sound like something I’d want to read tbh. So this is gonna be only about the first volume: Blood&Beauty.I mean, it’s not suprising that these novels were hugely popular and praised by Borgia historians anon, given that Dunant backs their narratives about the Borgia family. Especially about Lucrezia. Dunant clearly sees Lucrezia like most, if not all Borgia historians do. It’s something that plagues Borgia historiography if you ask me. The flawed idea that the only way to rehabilitate Lucrezia’s terrible reputation, is to deny any association with the “crimes” of her family. To press hard that she was just a victim, and she never did anything wrong, ever. If Cesare and Rodrigo are usually the epitome of bad traits, Lucrezia is the epitome of good traits. Which not only is just as dehumanizing as portraying her as evil, but completely ignores the times she was living in and how she was raised, it also doesn’t match with the little evidence we have about her.She was not the poisoner of the Renaissance, (although according to a letter of Giulia Farnese, she was quite good and passionate about chemistry.) But she certainly wasn’t a passive victim either. She received the same education her brothers did, she spoke 5 languages, she had that well known Borgia allure that she deliberately used to her and her family’s advantage, and she definitely had the same mind for politics and diplomacy they had. Rodrigo and Cesare seemed to have trusted her the most with their political affairs. And then shockingly she also shared with them familiar flaws such as: callousness, shallowness, and selfishness.So coming back to Dunant’s book, to see her portraying Lucrezia as this sweet innocent girl, who is incredibly gullible and easily shocked by any imorality lool, who just wants to love and be loved, but her family, most notably her creepy, cruel brother keeps getting in the way is absurd quite honestly. Lucrezia wouldn’t have survived as long as she did if she was truly like that. And then how Dunant presents Cesare and Lucrezia’s relationship as one-sided, as Cesare being the one who is obsessed with his sister is unreal. And that has nothing to do with my shipper feelings for them. I don’t need them to be incestuous on every piece of media, especially considering they were not like that in real life.I do need however, that their relationship be a close and honest one, with mutual feelings and trust because that was pretty much the case. It is a hopeless task to keep trying to separate Lucrezia from her brother and his scheming. If there is one thing that is clear about the Borgias, is Lucrezia’s extreme closeness and loyalty towards her brother and vice-versa, and how that remained true until the very end. No matter what happened. It poses as a big obstacle for Borgia historians who are keen on the St.Lucrezia narrative and it puzzles them too, (which can be quite amusing when you read it ngl) but it is what it is. Lucrezia adored her brother, and he adored her, their complicity was such that it seems even Rodrigo was occasionally bothered by it. By all accounts they were each other’s favorite sibling, possibly because they understood each other best and had similarity in character. We don’t see that same closeness between her and Juan for example. But apart from the Lucrezia’s business, Dunant’s characterizations of the Borgia family as a whole felt dull to me. They are essentially pinned down into tropes? or the same ol’ stereotypes if you will, you have: Rodrigo, the likeable, ambitious schemer, Cesare, the-sometimes-charming-but-mostly unlikeable, dark and heartless scheamer, and then you have Lucrezia, sweet innocent lamb who’s just a pawn. There is no complexity, no depth with these characters, and mind you the whole Italian Renaissance was a complex period, full of grey areas, which it’s one of the things I love about it. You have these people who had no problem slaughtering their way to the top, even if it included their own family members, but who were also big patrons of the arts and humanities. The Malatesta family is a good example of that. Also the Baglioni to an extent. So I needed that complexity and that grey area, and it wasn’t delivered imo. It’s that simplistic portrayal of the family. After a while, it gets tiring.Those are the reasons why I’m in the opposite side of liking this book I guess. And it’s not to say is utter trash, because it isn’t. Dunant is a good writer, she has a way with words. I think that’s also why her novels were so well-received, and there are worst Borgia fiction out there. In the end I think it’s a matter of personal taste and how you perceive the Borgia family. I respect Dunant’s view, (although I find it dishonest and presumptuous how she says what she wrote is as close to real life as possible.) But my view on the family is a different one, I don’t believe neither one of them were good people™. But that doesn’t mean they were evil. Far from it. All three of them had qualities and flaws, all three of them were capable of good and bad things, and that’s what gets lost more often than not in both fiction and history. They were better/different at some things, and no worst than their contemporaries at other things. That’s what I try to find wherever I read fiction about them: balance, complexity, humanity. It is a hard task to be sure lol, but sometimes I get lucky. I hope this bible of an answer makes sense for you anon and I hope you read this before tumblr goes down lol, any other questions, feel free to ask! :))  

[shadowsong26x]

Lavinia for the character meme thing!

All righty then! Putting this behind a cut because somewhat spoilery (though, probably her Major Plot Points aren’t super hard to guess, between various other commentaries I’ve made/tropes I’ve mentioned liking/I think I’ve hinted at it/foreshadowed okay at least in bonus content?) and also Long.

favorite thing about them

Not necessarily my absolute favorite thing, but it has a nice Flipside so…

She thinks things through. She does her absolute best to gather appropriate information and make sure she’s prepared for the situations she’ll find herself in, including researching from as broad a collection of sources as she can. She considers all the consequences of her actions, and she never forgets that, because she is who she is and she has the abilities and position she does, her actions can have Consequences. And she learned how to do most of this processing fast. She is fast and she is well-informed, and at the end of the day she will do what is necessary, in service of the galaxy and her larger goals, but she will be sure it is necessary, and that the consequences are acceptable, given what she stands to gain.

least favorite thing about them

Of course, the flipside of this is that she overthinks everything. And I mean, e v e r y t h i n g. Like I said, she learned how to overthink very quickly, because her father wouldn’t tolerate her being paralyzed by those doubts, but that also means that she never really learned how to trust herself and her judgment and be confident in her decisions. This leads to some pretty epic screwups in her personal life, and also her shying away from certain things, particularly her own abilities with the Force beyond passive observation and occasionally assisting her more mundane manipulation with a Mind Trick or two (unless she’s desperate enough to completely unleash, which leads to her pulling off things like battle meditation; which might save her and her allies once or twice, but that kind of all-or-nothing/rigid but brittle control is Not Good in the long run.)

(Again, this is not necessarily my absolute least favorite/what I would consider her most negative trait, because a lot of that is situational, but, well, it’s situational. Her ability/habit of thinking things through and putting a lot of effort into her choices is both a good thing and a bad thing, and it’s the trait I could write up most clearly from both sides.)

favorite line

The problem with answering this question is most of the ones I can think of are somewhat spoilery Wham lines, and also require a fair amount of context to explain why they’re my favorites. And/or come from miscellaneous AUs that also require a fair amount of setup…

So, I’m going to go with one that’s from an AU of Masks!verse, in reference to Luke:

“Oh, you poor boy. Try not to let your excess of compassion get you killed. The universe needs more men like you.”

brOTP

Depending on the AU/context/point in time (and I am excluding non-fusion crossovers here), Luke, Kallus, Thrawn, Pellaeon (…who maybe shouldn’t count, because he’s more Dad, but he’s one of the most important people in her life and their relationship is 9000% platonic so), Mara, Leia, Ventress (…also kind of a weird example, because the main way it applies is Ventress as her mentor/teacher/etc. which may not be the best application of brOTP? But, again, v. important relationship and entirely platonic when it comes up).

OTP

Lando and/or Sabine.

Lando because they complement each other in some interesting ways–they’re both talented administrators and good at reading/managing people, though Lando’s a lot better at one-on-one People slash dealing with people when it’s not Work, so to speak. But he tends to be a master of Xanatos Speed Chess/a case study in “Well That Escalated Quickly,” and she is Hyperprepared/very rarely makes a move unless it’s certain. I.e., see my first two answers, lol. So they balance each other out in that way.

Sabine because they started kind of flirting in the Handler AU and then it got super cute. Might also be a thing in the Pellaeon AU? Or another Masks!Verse AU that has a similar breakpoint to the Handler AU…anyway, the two of them getting together depends on some specific changes and timeline things, so it only works in certain AUs. That being said, they’re pretty cute/sweet together. Because we have Useless Lesbian Sabine and Only Flirts In Professional Lavinia and yeah.

nOTP

Luke. Like. There is no incarnation whatsoever, even if I’m not reading Luke as aro (he’s definitely ace, but aro–I go back and forth on whether he’s aromantic or panromantic but that’s another conversation), where that works. Even in at least one AU where he’s the biological father of her child (in an IVF/sperm donor situation, she asked him because he’s someone she trusts completely and also someone who would be completely okay with not being the kid’s dad and things/their relationship wouldn’t get Weird).

random headcanon

Lavinia’s favorite color is blue. Specifically in the aqua/teal/slightly-green-tinged family. She’s always considered herself more Coruscanti than Naboo, but maybe something deep inside her feels a connection to that peaceful, watery, living color or something.

…or possibly she just likes it and there’s no Deeper Meaning behind it, heh.

unpopular opinion

…lord. Uh. This one’s hard, since she is my OC and I haven’t published/posted a whole heck of a lot about her? So it’s hard to know what the popular opinions are, let alone what the unpopular ones are…

I guess in the spirit of this, there’s the fact that, deep at her core, she’s kind of an idealist? She believes in things, and in certain people. And she believes that, not only should the galaxy be a better place, but that it can be.

(possibly in the spirit of this because she’s also, like, a spy and a professional politician so there’s a lot of cynicism on the surface/covering up that idealism…)

song i associate with them

Quite a few actually. Hm, what’s one I haven’t necessarily shared with you yet…

…ehh, I’ll go with these two:

I may have actually shared this one with you before, but it’s still one of my favorites for her. At the end of her life, looking back on her life/taking stock.

And this one I’m pretty sure I haven’t shared. From a somewhat younger perspective, and also kind of a nostalgia bomb for me.

favorite picture of them

Let’s see…::digs through #lavinia tag:: …and most of these are just fashion photosets that fit her aesthetic, but here’s a couple pictures of her:

This is probably something along the lines of what she looks like in her early/mid-teens. I believe this is the actress who plays Lucrezia in the not-Jeremy Irons Borgias show that came out around the same time. Which is particularly entertaining to me because…

Grown-up Lani is Lotte Verbeek, particularly as Giulia Farnese in the other Borgias series XD

Anyway, most of the other ones I have saved are gifs, so these two it is.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t link the commission I got of her a couple years ago!

[cesarborjas]

“we get dark, only to shine” - chapter eight

title: we get dark, only to shine verse: wgdots (8/?) characters: Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia Borgia; Cesare/Lucrezia stuff that happens: Cesare and Lucrezia squabble about the present and plan for the future. chapters: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven

CHAPTER EIGHT

Lucrezia, Lucrezia.

Cesare just managed to hold himself still, legs at awkward angles, while Lucrezia braced herself against him, one hand on his shoulder and the other grasping his shirt. He adjusted his grip on the small of her back, feeling her sway under his fingers. It was uncomfortable and it was impossible to care.

I should not—

The thought dissolved at a clutch of Lucrezia’s fingers, nails digging into his shoulder. Yet their mouths hardly touched, hovering a hair apart, brushing together, parting again, the kiss as much in their mingled breath as the graze of their lips.

Cesare pulled away, opening his eyes. Lucrezia’s face was still tilted up, lips parted, eyelids lifting heavily. She looked as if she had just found more pleasure than most did in the beds of their lovers. Her lips curved, slow and contented.

In that moment, Cesare would have laid more hearts than Giovanni Sforza’s at her feet, had she wanted. Entire cities. Empires. Anything, anything at all, as long as it kept her smiling.

But there was nothing new about that. He smiled back.

“I should not be here,” he said.

Lucrezia looked even happier. “No. You should be in Rome.”

Helpless, he drew her close, pressing their foreheads together, hand still curled about her neck. “Shall you send me away? Back to the Vatican?”

“No,” whispered Lucrezia. She raised her eyes. “Are we falling, Cesare?”

Into sin? Love? Was there any difference?

“I don’t know,” he said, scarcely hearing his own words. He leaned down to kiss her properly, slanting his open mouth against her upper lip. Lucrezia, with a small humming noise, pressed herself closer. Her arms slid about his neck. She was kneeling between his legs, her hands in his hair again, and when she caught his lip between hers, his mind fell into a white-hot blank. Cesare couldn’t think. He could scarcely breathe. He licked into her mouth, fingers tightening in her hair at the scrape of her teeth.

“God,” he whispered, despite himself. “My God, sis.”

Dimly, it occurred to him that he should not say … should not … something. But Lucrezia pressed kisses over his face and then there was nothing but her.

“Cesare.” Lucrezia ran her fingers over his hair, his cheekbones, too frantic for him to catch her mouth. He kissed her where he could and stroked her neck down to the collar, her skin soft and hot under his own shaking fingers. “Cesare. Cesare.”

Her body was pliant in his arms and her mouth urgent and still he craved more. He felt fever-mad with it, with her. His skin must be as warm as hers, Lucrezia burning him up, both of them burning each other up. She could take him. Right here, right now. Nobody would know. Sforza—

Sforza. Cesare’s hands, already at the laces to her gown, stilled.

“Lucrezia,” he managed to say, voice low and hoarse, scarcely audible even to his own ears. He cleared his throat. “Lucrezia!”

“Brother,” she murmured.

Cesare winced. Then she rocked back on her heels to gaze at him, her lips red and swollen, a deep flush high on her cheeks and a few locks of white-gold hair falling over her face. He not only forgot to be embarrassed, he might have forgotten his own name if it were not also hers.

“I …” His mind cooled enough to grasp that she’d been kneeling the whole time. “You …”

“Hm?”

He gathered a few shreds of reason. “Sit down.”

Lucrezia pouted and shifted around to sit without moving much backwards, her folded legs now pressed directly against his calf. Cesare shut his eyes, trying to think of anything else.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera—

“Why, Cesare,” said Lucrezia sweetly, “you don’t look comfortable.”

He flicked her cheek, then pulled both his hands away from her and clasped them together. “You are a fiend, my love,” he said.

She grinned.

“But we must speak.” He sobered, laced fingers clenching. “About your husband.”

Lucrezia frowned. Dropping her eyes, she reached a hand up to his collarbone and toyed with the loosened laces of his shirt. “Must we? You cannot kill him, you know.”

“Oh?” Cesare glanced at her shoulder, covered by its sleeve again. It didn’t matter. He would never forget. “I would gladly cut his throat, if it were not too easy a death.”

“No,” she said. “We need the Sforza arms, Cesare. You understand that as well as I do.”

“I don’t care. He defiled your innocence, your happiness. I shall see that he pays for it.”

“Perhaps,” said Lucrezia, “but not yet.”

“You sound like our father.”

“And you sound like Mother,” she retorted.

“Mother? What has she to do with any of this?”

Lucrezia stared at him. “Have you forgotten already? It was our mother who gave Cardinal della Rovere cause to depose Papa!”

“You mean it was our Holy Father who gave him cause,” said Cesare. “Unless I have grossly misunderstood the situation, it was not Mother who committed public lechery with Giulia Farnese!”

They both glowered at the ground. But a moment later they lifted their eyes, sheepish, and laughed.

“Can you imagine it?” she said.

He shuddered. “I am trying not to. Mother would die first.”

“Well, perhaps if Papa—”

“Lucrezia, no.” Cesare gave her the sternest look he could manage, in the circumstances. “As far as Mother is concerned, this conversation never happened.”

Lucrezia giggled. “But really, Cesare, you must see that marching into the Vatican and storming at him in public created a great many difficulties.”

“What I see is that this affair, in itself, made a great many difficulties, of which that was but one,” said Cesare. He was conscious, in some remote corner of his mind, that a man sprawled out in a forest glade with his sister sitting between his legs probably had little room to judge, but he persevered. “He took a new mistress at the worst possible moment. That was his doing.”

“How can we blame him?” said Lucrezia. She laid her hand against his cheek, rubbing her thumb over the bone, gazing at him with her impossible mix of steady, companionable affection and rapture. Cesare turned his face into her hand, repressing temptation to do anything but kiss her palm. She shivered nonetheless, withdrawing her hand to her lap.

Her voice thick, she added, “We cannot help where we love. You and I must understand that better than anyone.”

“He could help where he—” Cesare bit off the end of the sentence. Leaning back on the heels of his hands, he said, “We understand the need to maintain your reputation. We understand staying out of the sight of prying eyes. We understand restraining ourselves for months. The Pope has not shown half the restraint and discretion we have. Do you see? Even if he does love Lady Giulia, he did not have to claim her as his mistress the moment the whim took him. He did not have to flaunt her all over Rome. If you had not told Mother, she would have heard of it from someone else, and probably someone less careful than you were.”

She caught her lip between her teeth, worrying it. Through sheer force of will, he kept his eyes on hers except for one brief downward glance, fingers digging into the grass.

Lucrezia, being Lucrezia, only smiled. “Well, yes. I understand why she was so angry. And you must not think I don’t admire our mother! I can only pray to someday have her beauty and wit and grace.”

Cesare opened his mouth.

“But what she did made everything worse. It was not wise. And that would be nothing to killing my husband! The Pope—”

“Damn the Pope, Lucrezia—”

“No! Listen to me!” Lucrezia grabbed his shoulder again, flushed and almost angry, her jaw set. “You wanted details, Cesare. Very well. You shall have them.”

His throat went dry.

“My wedding night was consummated in the harshest possible manner. Lord Sforza marched into my chambers, scolded me about our family, then ripped my nightdress off and threw me on the bed. You cannot imagine how confused and frightened I was. I … I tried to push him away, to catch my breath, and he grabbed me and held me down and—” Her face crumpled, hand clapping over her mouth, eyes squeezing shut. Tears still streaked down her cheeks, her entire body shaking.

“Lucrezia.” His instinct was to reach out to comfort her, as he always had, but he hardly dared touch her. When she bent her head towards his shoulder, however, he could not help but tug her the rest of his way, curling his arms around her. Lucrezia pressed her face against his shirt; he could feel every tremble of her body, every ragged exhalation, every spasm in her grasping fingers.

Cesare stroked her back, inwardly furious that he could not do more, that he had not done more. He should have done something to prevent this. He was her older brother, her oldest brother. He should have protected her. He should have spoken more forcefully to the Pope, and if that made no difference … he might at least have persuaded him to choose someone else. A Neopolitan, perhaps, or some Medici or Orsini. 

Rage and failure burned in him, coiled about his chest until he could hardly breathe. And Lucrezia, for fourteen years so bright and sunny that she seemed to walk on air—Lucrezia cried into his shoulder.

He had never imagined that her wedding night had been pleasurable, never supposed that it would be, truly, but he had not—

Cesare took a deep breath, pressing his lips against her hair. He murmured something, endearments, he scarcely knew. Sister, sister, my love, Lucrezia ...

Her hands tightened, then smoothed out the wrinkles her fists had left in his shirt, as if he cared. She drew back far enough to lift her eyes to his. 

“Every night, Cesare. It was always the same, except after that, he slapped me if I wept. He beat me if I made him cross about anything, the whole day. Sometimes I didn’t even know what I had done! And I never knew what might enrage him. It could be anything.” She scrubbed at her face. “Or nothing. There was one day when I never even saw him, and that night he took me like a dog against the headboard. I didn’t think anything could be worse than the thrusting, but my head kept hitting the board and I—I think I fainted.”

“No, my love,” he said, voice so raw that he would not have known it for his own. “He beat you into oblivion. There … is a difference.”

I will gut him for it. Bile was sharp and acrid on Cesare’s tongue. Sforza might have killed her, delicate as she was. And he hadn’t been there.

“Yes, I suppose,” said Lucrezia. “Well, he did not beat me constantly. But he always thrusted.” She shuddered. “Do you think I never thought of killing him myself? Or sending for you? Writing to Papa? Sweet Virgin, sometimes I almost wished to die, myself. But I kept my silence for the Sforza arms, for our family. And you would throw that away in a moment’s temper? No! I will not have endured it for nothing, Cesare!”

He hesitated, and Lucrezia’s expression softened, the flash of anger fading as it always did, though she looked no less resolute. She reached for his wrist, her fingers too small to even encircle it.

“I do not ask for you to … to exert yourself in friendship,” she said, almost tripping over the words. “Only to stay your hand until this matter of Cardinal della Rovere blows over.”

He lifted a brow. “Blows over?”

“Resolves itself,” she amended. “In one way or another.”

Cesare drummed his fingers against his knee. He would have Sforza’s blood sooner or later: of that there could be no doubt. Had Lucrezia wished it, he would do it immediately and damn the consequences. But now, at least, he thought through the consequences. 

The Sforzas would undoubtedly join della Rovere’s cause, the Riarios with them. Others might flock to such a banner. By and large these great Italian families hated each other more than they hated Spaniards—thankfully—but his dubious honours already offended them. A Valencian bastard in the College of Cardinals! The looks on their faces had been his only consolation. If he murdered a Sforza in his bed… 

Even if the Pope were not deposed, his father would never forgive him.

Cesare would risk it, for Lucrezia. But if she did not wish it—not yet—well, it was true that Sforza’s death would render her suffering meaningless. He bit his lip and glanced up. Lucrezia was gazing at him with a peculiar nervous intensity, not at all like her.

“I cannot answer for what I will do if I am left alone with him,” he finally said.

Lucrezia smiled, anxiety dissolving on a sigh.

“And I shall not bear another insult to either of us. I shall not leave you here. If he makes any trouble over it—”

“Thank you,” she said, and kissed him lightly. 

It could almost have been a sister’s kiss, even the stroke of her fingers over his face nothing out of the ordinary for them. But they had never been ordinary, and Lucrezia hovered a breath away, searching his face for something, so close that he could feel the warmth of her blushing face. His heart was pounding all over again—over a trifling kiss! God only knew how he looked right now. To go by her expression, however, whatever she found pleased her.

Unable to resist the satisfaction in her face, he leaned down to kiss her neck, smiling at her small, stifled moan. He only just remembered that he should not mark her, that it was one thing to take their delight in each other’s touch a few steps further, another to expose her to vile gossip. Cesare lingered a moment, feeling more than hearing the thrum in her throat, unsure if he was unwilling or simply unable to tear himself away.

It was a dangerous game they played.

Forgive me, he thought, but lifted his head to see his sister languid, dreamy-eyed, happy: justification enough. The words died on his lips.

He cleared his throat. “We … we should return to the castle.”

Lucrezia looked disappointed, but agreed readily enough, then smiled to herself and began lacing his doublet up. She bent her head as she worked, brow knit in concentration, Cesare holding the sides in place and looking down at the smooth slope of her neck. With a fortitude that surprised even him, he did not touch it, but only tucked the strands of hair he had loosened back into her net, reciting church law in his head.

Hardly speaking, they shook out their cloaks, fastened them, and untied the horses. Lucrezia did not wish to ride, so they led them away on foot; she slipped her hand into his with her old confiding look. Cesare smiled and tightened his hand around hers.

He glanced over his shoulder as they left. The glade still gleamed in the afternoon sunlight, the trees wafting gently in the breeze, the pond glass-smooth and untroubled. They might never have been there. Yet he could almost imagine that shadows of themselves remained by the water, ghosts of their lives until today, gazing eternally at their faded reflections.

Nonsense. Nothing had changed. Cesare’s attention returned to Lucrezia, eyes firmly fixed ahead.

“I do not see any reason for you to spend much time around him,” said Lucrezia.

It took him a moment to remember what they had been talking about. Ah yes—Sforza, and the necessity, however regrettable, of his continued existence.

“Especially,” she added, “if you truly do mean to buy an Andalusian for me.”

Cesare shook his head, bemused. He had not thought his mind that clouded. “What? That is, yes, of course, but—”

“No doubt it will be a great deal of trouble.”

He shrugged. “That is no matter.”

“Well, I should not like you to go to so much effort and expense for nothing. They are fine horses, are they not?”

“Very fine.”

“Yet I am not a great horsewoman,” said Lucrezia thoughtfully. “I should strive to become worthy of such a gift, I think. I must practice my horsemanship, and you must help me! We shall go out riding every day, and leave Lord Sforza to recover in peace and quiet.”

He looked at her, catching her laughing sideways glance.

A dangerous game, indeed.

“Of course, sis,” said Cesare.

Notes

1) Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera—: from the Pater Noster (Our Father/the Lord's Prayer), "lead us not into temptation, but deliver [us from evil]"

2) reciting church law in his head: Cesare was trained in civil and ecclesiastical law, and apparently brilliant at it. Even his enemies said so; this was during his time in Perugia and Pisa, when he was still a teenager.

[giagomez]

Biggest 그레잇게임 Win Ever - Broke the Bank  #323

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[sweetbitterbitten]

' i’ve heard so many stories about you. ' ( to giulia )

"oh dear, that does put one in the undesirable position of determining if the stories are magnificent...or mean-spirited. you'd best choose one of E A C H respect to make certain they are of equal but opposite V A L U E ."

la bella farnese was nothing if not judicious in the juggling of her own mythos.

[ducavalentinos]

What are your thoughts on Giulia Farnese? It seems she's such a shadowy character despite being Rodrigo's mistress and Lucrezia's companion... How you view her relationship with each of the Borgia family (Rodrigo, Lucrezia, Cesare, Juan, Gioffre&Sancia and Giulia's predecessor Vannozza di Cattanei?

Interesting question! Giulia for me is one of those historical figures where there isn’t much about them, but you love them anyways. At least I do. Some Borgia biographers tend to describe her only was beautiful, frivolous, or feeble minded, however I think she seems to have been an incredibly smart woman, who like Lucrezia, knew very well how to navigate a men’s world and get the best advantages for herself and her family. As for her relationship with the Borgia family, it seems Lucrezia was the one she was closest with, after Rodrigo. Although once Giulia lost Rodrigo’s favour and no longer was at their inner-circle, their friendship seems to have faded. There are no records of letters between them, or any mention of them seeing each other again, that I know of. I have no idea how her relationship with Juan, Joffre and Sancia was like. I don’t hink they saw much of each other anyways. And my memory might be failing me, but I don’t think Giulia was at the Borgia’s court when Sancia came to Rome. I don’t remember any mention of her.As for Cesare, I believe their relationship was ok. There’s nothing to suggest any animosity between them. I mean sure, being as close as he was with his mother, maybe he might have felt some resentment or disapproval towards her? maybe something close to how The Borgias portrayed it. But maybe he thought nothing of it, you know? that’s also possible. I’m currently reading a fiction where the author puts them in a romantic light. In a first love kind of thing, which when you think about it, it’s not THAT absurd I guess lol. Their ages were pretty close and they were both attractive people so who knows?!With Vannozza, I’m not sure there was a relationship there. Vannozza didn’t seem to attend the Vatican often. If they ever met, it had to be during the French Invasion, but either way I don’t think Vannozza cared much about the situation. She was also a smart lady who was making quite a profit from her vineyards and establishments in Rome, and she had to know no woman would ever replace her role in Rodrigo’s life, she was and would always be the mother of his adored children, so if she felt jealous towards La Bella, she must have prudently kept it to herself and went on with her life. Last but not least, Rodrigo. Their relationship is tricky to talk about? Not just because of their age gap, and the possible power dynamics involved, and the ~~problematic elements~~ attached to it, which Borgia historians like to gloss over it because otherwise it makes their job of cleaning Rodrigo’s image to the fullest pretty difficult lol, but also because almost all the evidence we have give us more about how Rodrigo felt about her. We don’t have much to determine how she felt about him. Did she had genuine feelings towards him? Was she pressured by her family or Adriana de Mila? Or did she saw it as an opportunity to elevate herself and her family? maybe a little of both? It’s quite clear Rodrigo was a fool for her, but then again he was quick to anger wherever she displeased him, if those letters to/from Pesaro are any indication. But Giulia, however, didn’t seem to fear him or his retaliations (he was Pope afterall) against her person and her family. She really seemed to have had an independence of spirit, so maybe their relationship was like that? a bit tempestuous sometimes, but overall easy-going? sweet? either way, their liason was quite finished after Giulia fled from Rome behind Rodrigo’s back under the protection of the Savelli, who together with the Colonnas were pro-French, and so against Rodrigo at the time of Charles VIII’s Invasion of Italy.