Freak of Time, History's Game ( I Medici Masters Of Florence)

Chapter 22

Florence

1464

Villa Medici in Careggi

In a hot summer, Cosimo de Medici passed away.

The family felt that moment coming, but still that event shocked them deeply.
Riccardo was over busy with the problems of the heritage.
Cosimo clearly nominated his grandson Lorenzo as his heir, even if he was just a fifteen year old boy. In that same years his son Giovanni died and Piero's health wasn't strong. Riccardo always asked not to be within the options.
The family respected another of Cosimo's  latest wills and planned a private funeral ceremony.
But all the city cried the loss of such a great man. He was like a king who never wanted a crown.

Vittoria left for visiting her brother in Gubbio for two weeks. She needed that break. Her father died the year before. Her last close relative was her brother, who lived far from her so they couldn't spend much time together.
Then Cosimo's illness brought a lot of worries, together with political tensions and the menace of new wars against the other big cities.
Vittoria was busy at raising her four children, but never stopped supporting her husband. Contessina offered to help her giving the kids the highest level of education and the young woman could just obey.
Rumours came to haunt them too and when she got back from her journey they were just growing worse.
They moved to the mansion in Careggi, to be near Cosimo in his latest weeks. The villa was overcrowded and the couple couldn't have much time for themselves.
Vittoria was used to sleep with her children, afraid that someday the duties would have separated them.
She hated being teased as an unfaithful woman but she didn't dare  to face those rumours from noblemen and members of the high society that just loved to gossip and ruin marriages for their advantage. And she was never truly accepted for her rebel attitude.
That was a hard period, every little sparkle could start a big fire.
Not even with Cosimo's death the rumours stopped, they just grew stronger.
Usually Contessina was ready to help, but she was griefing for the loss of her husband.
The family was splitting instead of being united.

Vittoria needed some private time to breath again, even if that was just increasing the suspects.
Riccardo was too busy with his brothers and the lawyers for most of the days, he just had few hours of sleep and she barely could talk to him and mainly just in public meals. She wished she could help him somehow, but she felt like those rumours were poisoning him too in those tiring days.
Trust and respect. That was what always kept them together.
Vittoria never doubt on his faith, never believed to the woman who claimed that were his lovers, to the many lies that were ready to destroy a fragile mind. Every trouble just made her love him more and deeply. And he never disappointed her.
But the loss of two close relatives of Riccardo hit him badly and she could just understand it and praying for better times to come.

Vittoria knew that some servants were ccorrupted in order to spy and report all her moviments.
Still she slipped away from the mansion disguised with a heavy cloak and hood, to run near the woods and reaching one of her favourite place ever, the little glade that witnessed the time when she was bonded to that family.
She deeply breathed watching the night view of her city.
Even in  all those life troubles, she couldn't stop loving Florence. Her adopted family did so much for it, making it maybe the most beautiful and modern city in the world.
Her positiveness was abruptly broken by the instinctive certainty that someone  was around. She quietly moved away to hide.
She was ready to anything, any kind of danger, any animal. But the biggest danger were humans.
Someone might have followed her till there.

But only one other person knew of its existence and importance.
"Riccardo? Is that really you?" She asked softly.
"Yeah, it's me, dear".
She ran to him to hug him "God, I really needed you here, right now".
He hugged her tighter "I'm here. I'm always with you".
"I missed you so much" she said letting her tears fall.
"I missed you too. It will be over soon, I promise. We'll go back home in the city and we'll have time for ourselves".
"I'm really looking forward to it" She let him go just to look into his eyes "You don't believe those rumours that are spreading at the mansion, do you? They're all fake. I can swear".
"I know they're just rumours" he assured "And I'm sorry if I don't fight them. But I will".
She sighed with relief. He still loved her. But the dark cloud was still upon them "They're trying to put us against each other".
"They'll never succeed. They'll regret it".
His menacing tone worried her "Don't do anything. We still need the friendship of those who have fun by telling those tales. I just needed to know that you believe me, not them".
Riccardo took carefully her face into his hands "I always believe you, how can you doubt? Remember what you told me when we secretly married. As long as we love and trust each other, we'll be unstoppable and never fail. People can try to hurt us in any way, but we'll always win as long as we are together".

They went back to the mansion together and disguised.
In the following days they had similar secret meetings and as suspected the rumours just grew stronger.

One night a servant ran to a tired Riccardo before he reached his room.
"Sir, I must tell you something".
"Can't you tell it tomorrow? I'm too sleepy now".
"It's very important, sir".
"So speak up" Riccardo ordered annoyed.
"Sir, we saw your wife leaving some hours ago. Disguised in an old cloak. She met someone and went away".
"Alright. Thanks for the undating. I'll deal with it".
That wasn't the reaction the servant was expecting "But sir...".
"I said I'll deal with it. That's my business.  Now leave  me alone".
"Yes sir".

Next morning some noblemen asked for an audience and invited also Vittoria.
Riccardo already guessed what they were trying to do. They openly accused her of adultery, claiming that they had prooves of her crime.
"Are you trying to turn me against my wife?" Riccardo said angrily to a count who appeared to be the leader of that comploct.
"I say that people saw her meeting a stranger at nights out of the mansion! She was disguised, but it was her!" He turned to the woman and pointed a menacing finger to her "Come on, confess! Do you dare to deny your crime?".
She ignored him and stared at her husband, who crossed his arms and lifted his chin with an authoritarian expression "It was me that stranger. And you just insulted my wife! You dared to spy her but forgot to spy me!".
It was a hard strike to all of them, but the rumours ceased all at once and forever.
Love won, again.

Few days later they were ready to go back to the city center, but  new riots were making the roads dangerous.
Riccardo left in vanguard to check that the journey would have been safe for his family.
The woods were quiet. It was a lovely evening.
The guards just claimed that the way was free and safe, when the first arrows flew around them, catching them by surprise.
Riccardo shouted to  withdraw when an arrow hit him.

Vittoria soon felt that something was wrong and the worst impressions caught her.
She instinctly spurred her horse and ran to meet the flying group. She loudly cried when she noticed that her  husband was wounded and panicked.
They all returned to the mansion and the guards won over the outlaws.
Riccardo lost consciousness after recognizing his desperate wife crying on his chest.
Most of people who witnessed that got deeply touched.
Contessina solemnly claimed that nobody could ever doubt of Vittoria's loyalty again.
The doctors hurried to cure Riccardo, who was soon out of deathly danger. His wife never quit him.
Some literate friends wanted to praise that event, but Vittoria forbade them to use her name, wanting  everything to be under Medici's name. All she was doing was always for the sake of her adopted family.
Riccardo needed some weeks to recover from the wound thst almost reached his heart. Later he joked saying that the arrow couldn't kill him that way because his wife was keeping it.
Vittoria smiled knowing that he was finally ready. So they left and went back to Florence, stronger than ever.