Page 278 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Chapter 35.
They would be foolish

Everything was perfect, perfect, for several months, and Bianca and Francesco were the
happiest, most benevolent Grand Duke and Duchess that Florence had seen in many a Medici.
But then a smallpox infection settled on the skin and throat of the infant Philip, the son of Joanna
of Austria, and he died suddenly.

This was not good news for Bianca. For suddenly, her husband once again had no heir.
He still had not acknowledged their bastard son Antonio, who was now approaching five years
old. Bianca, as we have noted earlier, was not naive, and she knew that she had to get Antonio
acknowledged and in line to inherit the Medici lineage...before she and her son were killed by,
say, the very next Medici in line, which was Francesco's younger brother, Francisco, who had
been Cardinal since he was fifteen years old. Or if not the Cardinal, then the next in line after
that, or the next in line after that. They would be foolish, the lot of them, not to be planning my
death, she thought. The assassination of Francesco too, would be just as savvy a move on their
part, for she and a bastard son wouldn't stand a chance without Francesco. I must get Cesco to
acknowledge Antonio! Immediately. Else we are all doomed, all three of us. It's just a matter of
what order they kill us.

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