John Paul Cacioppo

All I Can Offer You Are Complications

4: A Hosting Lady

1482 A.D.

Lily doesn’t talk about what happens to her at night, not even to her attending, who’s been with her for the final month of this pregnancy. Everyone knew what she did (or more precisely, what was done to her), but nobody spoke of it. This, of course, didn’t stop them from including her in the gossip, carefully tailoring their words in each moment. The entire affair wouldn’t normally hold this much note or be so taboo, but Mr. Dennezi was different from other men and Lily didn’t treat these things like other women of her station.

Even though Lily arrived in Naples for the same carnal uses, as other girls brought from up north, Mr. Dennezi acted perfectly towards her. The servants marveled and fumed over this very fact each time they took care of his little mistress, and it was no different on the night of their child’s birth. In fact, it was much worse because that’s when one man, a butler in fine standing, found Lily’s notes. Being the fine man that he was, he did the responsible thing and turned them in to the head maid for inspection, all while Lily breathed in and out through her labor, unaware.

These notes were not a surprising discovery, since more than a few people had spied her scrawling those little things at the end of a late night or in the early morning rise. It had been assumed, at first, that these were for her father who she cared for deeply, but whenever his letters were folded up and sent away – the little notes she created had never been a part of them. The knowledge of these little notes spurred on the rumors and discussions in the household and occasionally in the neighboring households as well; and now, while Lily birthed a boy – a remarkable boy, to be named Escante after his father – the mystery of these little notes were finally to be answered.

The head maid, not being literate but knowing that the carriage rider was, sent for him with haste and listened to his recitation of Lily’s words. The words echoed through corridors and reached the ears of the many who rushed about, helping Lily through the screams of childbirth. And soon enough, all knew how she wrote and how she felt about their employer Mr. Dennezi, and how she thought herself some great thinker beyond those that Mr. Dennezi and his friends read.

After the discovery, the staff quietly went to work and shared their findings with Mr. Dennezi. Unfortunately, Lily’s abrasive display of writing only meant a loss of her writing tools. She would remain under the protection of her child, being safely used for years, to the staff’s disproval. It’s only after a decade of quiet seething that the staff finally got their chance to rid themselves of Lily when Mr. Dennezi was poisoned and she was left as the primary suspect.

It was never clear whether she’d truly done the deed, but as Mr. Dennezi recovered from the attack, it didn’t matter if she was the true culprit. She had the means to pull it off and for many, that was enough. What never did make sense to those who speculated…would be the thankless endangerment of her own child’s future. When the rumors left the doors of the Dennezi household and entered other households, it would be assumed that she never loved her son to being with – that he was only ever a reminder of his father whom she hated.

And since the boy had grown old enough to know reason by this time, people would tell him as much, even in her presence; neither Escante nor his mother, Lily, spoke a refutation to the claims. In fact, not a single word of defense would ever part from Lily’s lips, so at some point the rumors grew to become an insurmountable truth that could be discussed freely and without question, even when Lily sat in the very same room or stood right beside the discussers.

What would baffle people most about this whole affair would be Mr. Dennezi’s role in the aftermath. He didn’t rid himself of Lily right away, instead he spent constant nights with her for 3 months before disposing of her at Madam Belli’s House of Women. Madam Belli’s place would be Lily’s home for the rest of her life, and it would be there that she entertained endless guests.

During her prime, it’s said that she’d sneak extra coins for her son, and even find the chance to give him better opportunity through her clientele. And a great job she did of this because of Mr. Dennezi’s kindness in proposing her time for his friends’ entertainment. Mysteriously she’d never have another child during her entire time working, which after some time became another claim that placed her in infamy. Nobody spoke of it outside of rumors, but it may as well have been fact. And that fact…well, it had its consequences.

Mr. Dennezi’s son wept over his mother at first, despite Mr. Dennezi’s kindness and loyalty to the boy, allowing for visits and extra care. But that weak spirit of would be wiped away at the age of fifteen -- not by his father but by Lily, the woman who’d birthed him. It’s said, with Madam Belli herself as witness, that Lily dismissed the boy and when the boy refused to go, she slapped him. Now Lily had a copper ring at that time, which jutted on all ends, so that when she gave her boy a slap across his face, a nice clean scar would take hold of his cheek for the rest of his life.

He'd gone out Madam Belli’s door weeping. A day later, he’d join a band of fighters and become a man that Lily would hear great things of in between visits at Belli’s House. She’d only see him again for one night when he’d visit Belli’s House with a group of knightly men, who’d pushed him towards a new girl with a curious face. Madam Belli would give Escante a private room for the night, despite having paid for less (a kindness to Lily, no doubt), and while he spent his time there, Lily and the rest entertained his friends; it would be during this time that she’d pull aside one of her son’s more kindly friends where she’d wheedle away at his measured temperance and learn many of the details of her son’s life.

The next morning, she’d wake to see the company of men stand outside the door to Belli’s house, checking to see if they had all of their things. Light would shine in from the doorway, and Lily would be confronted with a memory of her father strapping a sword to his side just before his final battle. She had helped him get his boots, which he thanked her for with a serious face. Her father had always had a serious face before his accident, and now she realized that her son had it too. But no accident would peel it away, she was sure, and maybe that was a better thing.

She thought this over for the rest of the day once they left, and she’d never speak of it to anyone. All she would tell the girls at Madam Belli’s, would be what she learned of during the night before. In the mornings, they’d hear it and while they explored the streets, they’d hear it again. They heard it enough to grow tired of it, but by then, Lily began to share her food generously so they bore with her for a time. Until one day, she grew to weak to rise out of bed. Too weak to work. And then at one point or another, she died listening to those same girls, sharing the stories that she’d told them. None of them knew if they were true or righteous or just, but they made Lily smile and that’s all that mattered.

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