mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
nephew. But Olimpia realized that allowing the princess of Rossano
into the family would be like opening the gates of Rome to the Goths,
or perhaps inviting the Lutherans back in for another sack. This was
not a woman to meekly accept orders from her mother-in-law. Here
was a woman as smart, grasping, ambitious, and manipulative as Olimpia
herself.
It is likely that Olimpia was not averse to fighting her battles with a
daughter-in-law—she had, over the course of her life, taken on much
worse and come out victorious. But what frightened her most was the
thought of the pope’s reaction to this charming new niece. There would
be frequent interaction between Innocent and the princess, of course—
lunches, dinners, banquets, religious events, and the more official papal
audiences in which the lovely bride would request honors and benefits
for her family and friends and would try to influence papal policy.
Olimpia knew that the princess of Rossano, with her words as smooth,
sweet, and golden as honey, would be able to convince the pope to do
whatever she asked. And those honors and benefits could very well be
the exact ones Olimpia had her eye on, and those papal policies might
directly contradict what she was conniving at.
Olimpia knew that even if by some saintly miracle she could suddenly
once more become twenty-three, the charms of the princess would
have beaten hers hands down; and now she was fifty-five. The princess’s
figure was slender, shapely, achingly perfect. Olimpia’s was, well, that of
a fifty-five-year-old who enjoyed her dinners. Her jowls were sagging,
and then there was that pesky double chin.
Olimpia was of mediocre birth, the unwanted daughter of a rural assistant
tax collector. The princess boasted close connections to three papal
bloodlines and was a cousin of the reigning duke of Parma. Olimpia
had received the most rudimentary education; her conversation was a
slab of brown beef thrown on the table. The princess’s conversation was,
in comparison, sparkling peach champagne, bubbling with erudite witticisms
uttered in several languages ancient and modern.
Even though there had not been the slightest rumor of the pope’s
having sex with a woman—other than Olimpia, of course—Innocent
was undoubtedly drawn to attractive women and listened to their ad-
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