Part 1 | TBC (eventually)

Fandom: The Borgias (2011)
AU: Feathers of Red
Word Count: 2145
Characters: Ascanio Maria Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia, Giovanni Sforza

Cardinal Sforza makes a small detour on the way to Milan to ease his own conscious, and finds doing so needs more than simply visiting Pesaro.

---

Ascanio draws his horse to a halt in the courtyard of the castle at Pesaro, hoping that his cousin was not on another of his hunts that would mean no chance to speak to him until nightfall. Or the morning, if he was particularly unlucky. He’s not exactly supposed to be in Pesaro, after all, but on his way to Milan.

Still, he had thought it wise to visit more than one of his cousins. Simply to ensure that his reassurances to His Holiness had not been in error, both of the safety of the Pope’s daughter and of the loyalty of Giovanni to the Borgia family and cause.

“Is my cousin at home?” he asks the stable boy as he dismounts his horse, hiding a grimace at the shake of the boy’s head. Another hunt, then. He will be at least over night, then, if not longer. “I will be remaining the night, then.”

“Yes, Your Eminance.” The boy ducks his head, and leads the horse away.

Leaving Ascanio to make his way into the castle alone, though he is caught by one of the servants inside, and directed to the solar where Lady Lucrezia is spending her day. “Lady Sforza.”

“Your Eminance.” Lucrezia gives him a pretty smile that doesn’t touch her eyes. Not the innocent girl’s smile that was familiar to everyone who spent time around the Pope’s family. He’s not entirely certain what has robbed it of the brightness, but he can guess, from his cousin’s absence. It isn’t a sin he might scold his cousin for, to live a life more apart from his wife than not.

“I had hoped to catch my cousin at home, to speak with him before night fall.”

“I’m sorry that you came while my husband is hunting, then, Cardinal Sforza.” Lucrezia gestures to an empty chair, her smile fading into something more neutral. “Will you be staying long?”

“At least the night, Lady Sforza.” He tilts his head to her as he takes the offered seat. “I hope I am not causing any inconvenience.”

“No.” Lucrezia smiles again, something closer to the familiar brightness. “Not at all. Francesca.” She turns her head to the maid who has been sitting to one side. “Would you tell our cook that there shall be a third for dinner?”

“Yes, my lady.”

The maid darts a nervous glance to Ascanio before she bobs a quick curtesy, and goes to do as she has been told. Nervous or wary, and Ascanio keeps his reaction from his face from long practice. He should perhaps be glad his cousin isn’t at home to greet him, and hurry him along his way to Milan.

The afternoon passes in light conversation, news from Rome that slowly brings back a genuine smile to Lucrezia’s face, at least until the clatter of boots on stone tells of Giovanni’s return. Ascanio blinks once at the change in Lucrezia, the false cheer as she greets Giovanni and tells him they have a guest. Pretending all is well, and there is something beneath the surface that very much isn’t.

“Cousin.” He stands, one of his careful political smiles on his face as he nods his head.

“Your Eminance.” Giovanni’s smile is less polished, but he’s never had to live in the Papal court, or indeed, in any greater court than Caterina’s at Forli. “Are you planning to stay for dinner?”

“Your lady has already invited me to do so, since you were regrettably absent when I arrived. I was intending to remain at least through tomorrow night, if that won’t cause trouble with your household.”

He sees Lucrezia’s brow furrow slightly, though Giovanni doesn’t even glance her direction to notice.

“Then we shall discuss whatever brought you here tomorrow. You can come hunt with me.”

Ascanio lets a brief apologetic smile cross his face as he glances down, before holding Giovanni’s gaze. It’s far easier than doing the same with His Holiness, and not only, he thinks, because Giovanni is family. “I’m afraid I didn’t bring anything suitable for going hunting in.”

The grimace that crosses Giovanni’s face is expected, and Ascanio waits for his cousin to concede that they shall stay in and discuss whatever it is that Ascanio has come to discuss. And Ascanio can observe the household with Giovanni present, and decide if his reassurance of His Holiness had been premature.

---

Ascanio wakes from first sleep, blinking a moment in the darkness of the room as he listens to the unfamiliar sounds of Pesaro in the middle of the night. Almost silent, compared to Rome, where the walls of the Vatican are paper-thin and his own palace is no place of midnight comtemplation. He is alone in his bed here, and he smiles a little to himself before he sits up, reaching for his rosary.

His prayers are interrupted by a thin cry of pain, that reminds him that perhaps the walls of Pesaro are no more proof against sound than those of the Papal Palace. Ascanio listens, rather than block the noises from his hearing and return to his midnight prayers. The creak of a bed, the weeping wails that do not speak of a wife happy in her duties.

Would that he had been right in his words, rather than having so misjudged his cousin. Though he had not heard of Giovanni being given to such cruelty before, and he wonders if that is because Giovanni’s been cautious or if it is simply that no one would discuss such a thing with Ascanio.

He’s uncomfortably aware that it could easily be both.

When the quiet of the night returns, he drags his thoughts back to his interrupted prayers, and hopes that he can find sleep again tonight.

---

Dawn the next morning sees him already awake, and seeking a simple meal to break his fast. Kitchens have been unfamiliar since he was a child, sneaking down to charm a treat from the cook, and his skills in those matters have fled along with that childhood years past. Though the cook still provides him with one of the last manchet from yesterday, and some cold remains from dinner. From a wary familiarity with Giovanni’s hunting habits, Ascanio thinks, when Giovanni is not far behind him in seeking an early meal.

“Since you are already awake, perhaps you can tell me what has brought you here, and leave me time enough still to hunt today.” Giovanni leads Ascanio to the same hall they’d dined in the night before, waving him to a chair as he settles in his own. “I assume the Borgia Pope sent you on some pretense or another.”

“His Holiness has asked me to bring him reassurances that the Sforza family arms will indeed stand with Rome against the French invasion that threatens.” He pauses a little longer, flicking a glance at the edge of the table a moment before looking back to Giovanni. “I have, of course, told him that there is no doubt that you and Caterina, at least, will do as you promised when you wed His Holiness’s daughter.”

That one reassurance he’s already given has been proven wrong does not give him much certainty of his others. It remains to be seen if Giovanni takes his words as a subtle warning that his loyalties are best with Ascanio’s to the Pope, or a quiet reassurance that Ascanio will fall in line with whatever the rest of them chose to do.

“Sforza arms will follow Sforza interests, as they always have.” Giovanni shrugs it away as inconsequential, and Ascanio almost applauds him for learning some subltety. “To keep the French out of Pesaro and Forli on their way to Rome, should they invade.”

Almost. Ascanio knows Giovanni has the Sforza appetite for intrigue, but he shares his skill with words with Ludovico rather than Caterina or Ascanio. That had seemed a boon when choosing a cousin to suggest for marriage to Lucrezia, and seems now more a detriment. Though it does mean Ascanio at least can be certain of Giovanni’s intentions.

“I see.” Ascanio looks at his plate, where his bread sits untouched. “And are Pesaro and Forli safe from the French, if they invade?”

“Safe enough, if we do not provoke them.” Giovanni is already nearly finished with his own meal, eating as swiftly as if he planned to hunt regardless of what Ascanio might wish to discuss. “Was there anything else you wanted?”

“Other than a chance to rest before continuing to Milan, no.” Ascanio lets a self-deprecating smile cross his face. “I’m afraid it’s been a long time since I spent much time in a saddle, and the chance to rest longer than the night was one I could not deny myself.”

“Then rest. You’ll travel on tomorrow morning?”

“I still must travel to Milan, and I cannot delay that for long.” Ascanio shrugs, tearing the manchet in half so he can at least attempt to eat breakfast. “You will see me off?”

“Of course.” Giovanni pauses. “I apologize for not having been here to greet you when you arrived, though if you had sent a messenger ahead, I might have been.”

“Your lady was a gracious hostess, and I know you prefer your hunting over other pursuits.” Ascanio gives Giovanni a reassuring smile, though it quickly fade when he turns away. “I wish you luck on today’s hunt.”

Giovanni’s thanks is fleeting, and soon he’s off to the hunting he’d invited Ascanio on, leaving the household to the quiet of early morning without master or his hunters.

---

He doesn’t see anyone of the household until Lucrezia comes down for her own breakfast, though he hears the quick footsteps of servants in the halls. Avoiding him, as he begins to think they avoid Giovanni. He’s been too much in Rome, and too little in visiting his cousins if he has failed to know how little Giovanni is liked in his own home.

Once Ascanio could have boasted knowing all about Ludovico and Caterina and Giovanni and their respective households in Milan and Forli and Pesaro. Caterina’s stubbornness and Ludovico’s greed and Giovanni’s malleability. He’d assumed little had changed when he reassured His Holiness about Lucrezia’s ability to keep Giovanni in line.

It’s a disturbing thought to realize more has changed than he had noticed, especially with their family’s appetite for intrigue that he has inherited, for all that he applies it in the service of the Church rather than the family.

“Good morning, Your Eminance.” Lucrezia smiles as she settles into the seat nearest the hearth. “I hope you slept well.”

“Not as well as I had hoped.” He lets the servants set him a meal as they do one for Lucrezia, if only so not to offend either them or Lucrezia. “Though not for a lack in your hospitality, Lady Sforza,” he adds when her smile falters a little. “You have been a most gracious hostess.”

“But Pesaro is not Rome.” Lucrezia looks down at the table, reaching for the crock of butter the servants had set out. “And that I cannot change.”

“It is difficult to change the nature of a place, Lady Sforza, and there are few who would suggest even making the attempt.”

“Is it only places that are so difficult to change?” Lucrezia slants a sideways look at him, a small furrow appearing between her brows a moment.

Ascanio tears the small manchet on his plate in two, using that to keep silence for a moment. “Only the most difficult to change, and perhaps beyond the skill of a single man or woman to change.”

“All of Rome changes with the whim of a single man. All of the world, if he wishes it.” Lucrezia takes a neat bite of her bread, watching Ascanio.

“It is not places than, that change, but people, and only if given a great enough incentive to do so. Not all are so readily manipulated by His Holiness.”

“And your family. Are they changed by my father?”

Ascanio takes his own bite of bread, measuring his words. “Their goals are not changed, any more than are His Holiness’s. How those goals are achieved are no doubt changed.” He hopes Caterina and Giovanni might have the loyalty to hold to the agreement sealed with Lucrezia’s marriage, but Ascanio’s certainty of them has been too much shaken for him to reassure even Lucrezia that she need not fear her loyalties being torn between Sforza and Borgia.

“No doubt.” Lucrezia picks at the cold meat on her plate. “And you, Cardinal Sforza, are you changed by the actions of my father?”

“No.” Only left with less time to his own enjoyments, and whims. “I am as I have been, Lady Sforza. A servant to our Holy Mother Church. Even your father would find it hard to change that.”

---

Notes

Yes, this is my rare-pair-hell WIP. As I post more, each post will continue to have the full header, because parts of that header will change. Including warnings as needed.

Also, fair warning. Anyone who decides they want to get on my case about the age gap – historical or in the show – or the power imbalance, or any other ‘problematic’ element of this fic? Don’t. I know about it, I don’t care about your opinion on how they might be horrible, and I’m going to explore it anyway. I tag it, I put it under a cut, and if you click it anyway, that’s not on me.

For future reference about the continued fic:

Ascanio/Lucrezia is the eventual pairing. It’s not yet present, hence not tagging it yet.

There is likely to be sexual content at some point, because at least one set of notes for conversation involves it happening around at least foreplay. It will be tagged when it comes around. Sexual content will be as non-graphic as can be managed, and is likely to only be present in-text when plot development happens around it or because of it.

There is rape in the show that may be alluded to in the story. It will remain past, rather than present. I still twitch at those parts of the show, and tend to fast-forward through them, and nothing of that sort needs to happen in-text.

No one is actually going to die in this particular story. That does not promise that no one will die in later stories in the AU.