which was redeemed by that beautiful expression which enchanted young and old.
“Giovanni wants to stay with the Holy Father,” he said.
Alexander’s lips twitched with pleasure and emotion; the white hands caressed the child’s thick curly hair. “Then you shall, my son, you shall, for His Holiness is as delighted with Giovanni as Giovanni is with His Holiness.”
“Holiness, Holiness,” chanted Giovanni.
“Come,” said the Pope, “tell the lady your name.”
“It is Giovanni.”
“Giovanni what?”
“Giovanni Borgia.”
“Borgia indeed! Never forget that. It is the most important part. There are thousands of Giovannis in Italy, but few Borgias; and that is the name you will be proud to bear.”
“Borgia …!” repeated Giovanni.
“Oh Giovanni,” cried Lucrezia, “did you mind leaving your old home?”
Giovanni’s eyes clouded slightly. “This is a better one,” he said.
“Of a certainty it is,” said the Pope. “It contains His Holiness and the beautiful Madonna Lucrezia.”
“Madonna Lucrezia,” murmured the boy almost shyly.
Alexander picked him up and kissed him.
“There,” he said. “You have seen him.”
“He is to stay here now?”
The Pope nodded. “He shall stay with his Holy Father who loves him, for that is what he wishes.”
Giovanni nodded gravely.
“Now we will return him to his nursery, and then you and I will have a little talk. I would wish you to see how happy he is there, and how well he gets on with his little friend and kinsman.”
So, carrying young Giovanni, the Pope led the way to the nursery, where little Roderigo was seated on the floor playing with bricks which he was trying to build into a tower. When he saw Lucrezia he got to his feet and came stumbling toward her.
She lifted him in her arms and he showed no resentment at her kisses. Then he pointed to Giovanni and said: “Giovanni.”
Lucrezia’s voice was broken with emotion as she said: “So you love little Giovanni?”
“Big Giovanni,” Roderigo reminded her; then his attention was caught by the great ruby she wore in her necklace, and his fingers closed over it and his big eyes started in wonder.
She hugged him and felt the tears rushing to her eyes.
Alexander saw them and said: “Let us leave the children with their nurses. I have something to say to you.”
So they left the nursery and Alexander put his arm about her as he led her back to his apartment.
“You see,” he told her. “I kept my promise. I have sent for him that he may be brought up as one of us.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“I fear I let this break upon you too suddenly. I should have prepared you. But I hoped to give you a great pleasure, and I could not keep the treat hidden any longer. He is a beautiful boy—already I see the Borgia in him.”
She turned to him suddenly and threw herself into his arms. “I’m sorry, Father, but it brings it all back … so vividly.”
He stroked her hair gently. “I know, my beloved. I saw that in your face. And these tears of yours are tears of joy, are they not. You see the boy has been well looked after. You need never worry on that score. I shall give him an estate and titles. He shall be as one of us. Have no fear for his future, Lucrezia. It is in my hands.”
She kissed those hands. “The kindest and most capable hands in the world,” she murmured.
“Their greatest joy is in making happiness for my dear daughter.”
“But Father, he is my son, even as Roderigo is, and it saddens me to have to leave them.”
“True, you cannot take them with you into Ferrara; but you know they are safe here.”
“You wanted your children to grow up round you, Father. I want the same.”
He was silent. “I know this.” Then he smiled brilliantly. “Why should you not have them with you … in time, eh, Lucrezia? I know that you are full of wiles; you are charming and beautiful. When you wanted something of me, did you not invariably get it? Why? Because you were enchanting and I loved you so much that I could not refuse. I doubt not that you will soon learn to get what you want from your husband, as you do from your father.”
“You mean in time I may persuade him to let me have the boys with me.”
He kissed her tenderly. “I doubt it not,” he said.
It was impossible for the arrival of little Giovanni Borgia to go unnoticed, and the new child at the Vatican became the main source of conversation in certain circles.