The Art of Power and Love ( A Medici Masters of Florence the Magnificent fanfic)

Chapter 19

Ginevra rode for some hours, pausing sometimes when she needed a break and to clean her crying face or to make the horse rest and feed.
Finally she reached her destination. When she spotted her small village she felt the guilt overwhelm her.
She was guilty. She got the right punishment. And now she had to face her sins.
After tying the horse to a tree, she stepped to the familiar village, straight towards the small house that once welcomed her.
She sat in a covered place, watching it with sorrow, while memories flooded her mind. Her heart stopped when a man opened the door and looked out to find some bottles of milk by the wall. He ducked but that movement betrayed his aching back.
He didn't notice the woman hiding few meters from there, behind the bushes and trees.
The old man stepped back into the small house and Ginevra sighed, tears making her vision blurred.
When she left that simple life she promised herself to make justice. She couldn't just go back to that life, defeated.
That man was a good man, too good to bear all the disasters she seemed to be able to cause.
She didn't know where to go when she walked back to the horse and started riding again.
The world was so wide, but she felt totally disoriented.
By the end of the day she realized that she was riding back to Florence and her tired mind turned worried when she noticed that another rider was hurrying right to meet her.
"Leonardo?" She said surprised when she recognized him "What happened?".
He jumped down with a sigh of relief, but he looked exhausted "For God's sake I found you. I had to look for you. It's getting worse without you".
"What? What do you mean?".
"Lorenzo sent all his men seeking for you in Florence. He sent away half of the servants punishing them publicly while Giacomo was almost tortured to reveal informations he couldn't know" he shook his head "Did you at least meet your father?".
She swallowed hard. He was the only one who could guess where she could have been "I didn't get the time. I must come back, mustn't I?".
"If you want" that sounded like a yes "We are all shocked. Clarice doesn't stop crying and also the kids are nervous. It seems that without you that family can't last longer".
"It's insane. I don't even want to go back. I'd rather hang myself to that tree just to avoid this all" she said desperately.
He scowled at her "Don't talk like that, please. Not even for joke. You're the only one who can reason with a crazy Lorenzo, then you can choose to say goodbye to Florence and live with your father".
They rode back together and approaching its walls it was clear that the city was messed up.
"Ginevra! Is that really you?" Giacomo ran to meet her when she approached the Medici palace.
"It's me. God, how are you?" She gasped at his beaten face, like he got repeatedly punched and tortured.
He hugged her tightly "I'm better than I look. I didn't think you would come back. Why did you come back?".
"I heard about the disorders. Lorenzo fully lost his mind?".
He nodded "I've never seen that desperate. He made desperate also his whole family. Clarice would love you just if you can make him stop being so.. wild".
Ginevra shivered seeing the palace with no guards "Where is he now?".
He opened the doors for her "He's out seeking for you. I think he's able to call all the forces of the city just to find you. He also visited the Vespucci. My fault, I couldn't think of what else to do".
"I'm so sorry".
"Hey, it's alright. This thing just slept out of control. But you didn't start it. Those dirty mouthed servants did. And Lorenzo wanted to burn them to the stake" he chuckled.
"What?" She exclaimed shocked.
"I told you he turned wild. But he will come back. I'll look for him to give him the good news. And then I'll take you away from this hell".
She gaped not wanting him to leave but she noticed the Medici who was approaching her.
"Ginevra! Where the hell have you been hiding?" Those words echoed against the walls, making her feel more guilty.
"Am I dead, Giuliano? Leaving was such an unforgivable sin?".
"You turned crazy too? Of course no" he laughed, then he pulled her into a hug " My silly brother just wanted to see you. He won't bite you, I promise. Ha, and he dared to scold me for my passionate follies. And now look at him".
"You pushed away your own follies?" She asked, not knowing what else to say.
He let her go with a sad sigh "Yeah, as I promised. Now let's call my brother before he beheads someone''.
She grabbed his arm begging "No, please. Don't leave me...alone, here".
"Fine. It's fine" he comforted her with another warm hug "He told me briefly what happened. Nobody will dare to accuse you again. He didn't mean to make you feel guilty for something you didn't do".
She recalled all the things she had to feel guilty for and bit her lips.
"I think it's him" Giuliano added and she glanced at him fearing she missed something, but he was staring at the doors and soft noises indicated that someone was hurrying towards the palace.
She swallowed hard, feeling not ready to face whatever what going to happen to her.
Loud noises accompanied the opening of the doors and a tall hooded figure walked fast across them.
Lorenzo impatiently removed the hood and unlaced the dirty cloak with a heavy expression. Then his burning eyes spotted her.
Ginevra was so scared she stepped back.
He reached her anyway and threw himself on her knees.
"Thanks to God, you're safe, Ginevra" he exhaled "I was so scared... I thought something happened to you, you didn't even say where you were going. I panicked".
"Well here I am" she said without knowing what else to say.
"I'm sorry. I should have stopped you as I always did. But you just left and disappeared like smoke in the wind".
He stood us and surprised her by hugging her "Don't do it again. Do not leave without warning me. Please".
She had been welcomed by Giacomo and Giuliano's comforting arms, but she didn't expect to feel also Lorenzo's arms wrapping around her. She believed she overstepped enough to get locket on the top of a tower and spend the rest of her days there.
"Okay" she replied, too shocked to hug him back.
"I'll fix everything" he released her to look into her eyes "I sent away those who spreaded the bad rumours. I'll do what you want, but please stay. I know Giacomo wants you to leave, but you both are now part of my family. And I can't let you go".
She glanced at Giuliano, who had been watching them with a satisfied smile, but now she could read a glint of sadness, due to his recent departure from the girl he loved.
Giuliano conceiled that sorrow by wrapping his hands together and mimicking himself begging her.
She glanced back at Lorenzo, who was still waiting, and she just nodded.

Ginevra decided to stay but she had to witness the unhappiness of the servants who had to leave their job, forcing the Medici family to replace them with more trustworthy people. Mission that Lucrezia kept mostly for herself while Clarice preferred watching over her beloved children, that Lorenzo wanted to be intructed by his young artist Poliziano, who was despised by her. Clarice turned a bit softer with Ginevra, deciding to accept her in the end, but she gathered all her hatred upon the man who had to spend a lot of time with the little heirs of the Medici family, much more time than the one spent by Lorenzo with his own sons.
The only one that was always welcomed by the kids was the funny Giuliano, but he had other obsessions to get rid of.
And no happy days were in the horizon.
He promised not to visit Simonetta again, but soon came the news that she fell ill, so he had to break that vow.
Simonetta died on a spring day. She was only 23.
The whole Florence was shocked by the tragedy, but Giuliano was surely the most desperate one.
Ginevra watched over him knowing that he was left alone for some minutes he would have done something terrible.
He visited Simonetta's tomb more than anyone else. No matter what people would have thought, nothing could be a scandal anymore.
"Why?" Was the only word he had able to say in all his mourning whispers for days.
"That's life. She was too good for this world maybe" Ginevra whispered.
Giuliano had cried all his tears. Still his face was handsome although it became the image of sorrow.
"No. She died because of our sin" he mumbled after a long silence "I was the one who had to die, not her".
Giuliano started sobbing again and Ginevra embraced him trying to support him. He screamed and made his usual tragic play, but she understood how much a broken heart can hurt.
"Shh, don't say that. She's in heaven now, do you think she would be happy to hear you saying that?" She tried to scold him and pulled him away from the tomb.
Another man was always around that place, but didn't dare to approach it unless when the church was empty. Sandro Botticelli loved Simonetta in a more secret way than Giuliano did. Also after her death, he preferred suffering alone and silently. But he had her clearly into his mind for years. All his following works depicted the fresh beauty of his Venus.

The news of another tragedy reached Florence few months later.
The Duke of Milan, the biggest ally of the Medici, had been murdered on the day after Christmas.
It was like a dark cloud was hovering above Florence too, and specially above the Medici. It was like they realized that the Damocles sword was over them too.

Lorenzo decided not to take further risks and to protect his family first.
He ordered his wife Clarice to leave with their children to be hosted in a safe place.
Clarice wasn't disappointed. Everything she wanted was to take her children away from the influence of Poliziano ans his teachings from pagan classical works, while she was a devoted Christian, also when the Church itself became her family's greatest enemy.

Ginevra watched Clarice bossing around to instruct what to bring on the carriages that were waiting in the courtyard.
She was acting like moving away from the city and never come back. She missed her city, Rome, but she couldn't go back there.
Ginevra moved back into the palace and stopped in front an intimate scene.
Lorenzo was dismissing his kids. He didn't spend a lot of time with them, although he was making sure they were getting the best education.
Ginevra watched them with a bittersweet feeling. It was touching seeing him with those little Medici.
He kissed them all on the cheeks, then called the servants to walk the kids away and nodded to Ginevra to step closer.
"I feel like it's my fault. And now I don't know how to protect them" he said brushinv his hands on his hair.
"You made the right choice" she said calmly.
"Yeah" he whispered "That's what I keep repeating ro myself. It's better if Clarice and the kids stay away from here. It's not safe for them".
She nodded trying to persuade herself first "Better taking precautions than facing tragedies".

But news weren't good. Lorenzo was full time busy with diplomacy while Ginevra and Giacomo kept spying whenever they could, collecting any little hint about what was menacing the Medici supremacy.
Giacomo described it as a conspiracy. And claimed that the biggest enemy that was inside Florence was one family. The Pazzi.