Vengeance in Seville by Matilde Asensi

Author:Matilde Asensi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIV

Isabel Curvo's miraculous recovery immediately became the talk of the town. That night, with their very own eyes, the guests at my party had seen her stride out of the palace arm in arm with me, not just walking perfectly well and with no signs of pain, but also fervently assuring every single person that came anywhere near her that she'd never felt better in her entire life. Everyone swore that it was the most extraordinary transformation that they had ever been lucky enough to witness, a marvel of truly epic proportions and, as the party went on, many approached me discreetly to beg me to lend them the services of my servant, be it for a sick father or a child who'd been ill for a very long time.

Two days later, a Monday it was, the sixth day of August, a friar appeared at the door of my palace. It turned out that he was the private secretary of Don Fernando Niño de Guevara, the Cardinal of Seville, and he had been sent to request that I send Damiana to treat the all-powerful churchman.

'His Eminence has been ill for many weeks,' he told me, once we were alone in my drawing room, behind closed doors, in the quiet just before sundown. 'His condition is getting worse and nothing the doctors do is making him any better. All he can eat is a little bit of fish and his thirst is insatiable. We're afraid that he won't last out the year.'

'My servant will attend His Eminence tomorrow in the Archbishop's Palace,' I promised him.

'Could you possibly allow me to take her there with me now, Doña Catalina?' he begged me despairingly. 'Everyone at court is already discussing who they want to be chosen as his successor. The Cardinal of Toledo has asked the King to appoint the Bishop of Cuenca, the Count of Barajas is supporting Cardinal Zapata and the Borgia family is backing the Archbishop of Zaragoza. The Duke of Savoy's son has his supporters, others are campaigning for the Archbishop of Santiago and there's a powerful group arguing for the Queen's brother, Don Leopoldo.'

I hadn't met any of these characters and I certainly didn't have any plans to get to know them, but it was certainly clear that there was a full-scale struggle going on in the ruling circles of the Spanish Empire, with all of the contenders working all out to make sure that the next Cardinal of Seville was a close friend of theirs or a member of their own family. Personally, I could hardly have been less interested in the outcome, but getting Damiana to heal the Cardinal, and anyone else who asked for her help, did seem to make very good sense to me, as there was no better cover for what I was really planning and it also gave me invaluable protection.

'He's suffering from depression and from dropsy,' Damiana told me that same night when she got back from the Archbishop's Palace.

'Can

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