Work Text:
He laid down in his straw mattress, wide awake, and with all the thinks that could occupy his mind, all the dangers ahead, new plots and webs laid by some treacherous Borgia, he couldn't sleep, not so close to Rome.
And in truth, it was none of those things that really kept him from sleep, visions were the ones to blame. Visions of a black haired woman, garbed in crimson colors. A round face and a smile on plump lips, it was her, the nun.
But she wasn't a nun them. Her black habits were replaced by what I identified as my cardinal clothes. It was all too big on her, could barely see her hands at the end of the sleeves. When I reached out to her, trying to touch her, she shied away from me. Of all the women I could see, why her?
I admit that having her near me the night before, helped me sleep, but it was only out of peace of mind, of being able to take her from harms way. Yet, I was letting her return to the monastery tomorrow, all alone by the same roads where those men tried to rob us, no, to her there was a crueler fate. I remember the way her head piece was torn away, how she looked when I forced her to stop and rest, scared and lost.
She was a pretty girl, a face like the ones from afrescos across all Rome. Yet, she was a woman of the faith, not a lost girl that I can let roam free and at mercy of unknowns. She was my irresponsibility as much as I was hers.
The path that I had to follow was clear, this vision was only a sign to me. It was in my power as cardinal still, to protect her. It my moral obligation, and that was the only way.
I am to bring her to Rome with me.