The Cardinal’s Niece

Philip Raworth

Description

This tells of a passionate and erotic affair between a law professor and his Italian student against a background of academic intrigue, treachery and ambition
The novel recounts the passionate love affair between a professor and his Italian student against a background of academic intrigues, jealousies and betrayals. The novel explores the depths of their erotic obsession for each other and the problems posed by its adulterous and intense character and its defiance of the ethical code of the university.
Betrayed by one of the professor's students, they are forced to part, and the novel describes the extremities of their reaction to this brutal rupture as they seek happiness or oblivion with other partners. The hero's success in the administrative battles at the university bring with it the knowledge that power is not all and hides its own disillusion. The heroine tries to settle for a marriage to the heir of a Spanish dukedom, but her own feelings and the wiles of her uncle, the Cardinal, bring her back to her lost love.

Sujets

• Erotica
• Romance
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663240675
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE CARDINAL’S NIECE
AN EROTIC OBSESSION
PHILIP RAWORTH


THE CARDINAL’S NIECE AN EROTIC OBSESSION
 
Copyright © 2022 Philip Raworth.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
 
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
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ISBN: 978-1-6632-4066-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4067-5 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022910355
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 07/12/2022
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Epilogue
Endnotes


For my late wife, Marie-Gabrielle, whose beauty and sensuality inspired this novel
PROLOGUE
T HE FALL OF 1959 was beautiful in Vienna, and the two young men were in a merry mood. The Augustinerkeller was known for its excellent grilled chicken, and the beer that had accompanied--and followed--it contributed to their good spirits. They were both students at the University of Vienna. The taller of the two, Count Giovanni Palmieri, was a handsome Italian with fine features and dark, sleek black hair that betrayed his Neapolitan and Spanish ancestry. His close friend, Philip Markham, whose rugged features and shock of unruly hair had captivated more than one lady in the city of music, was from England. He was the grandson of the Marquis of Derwent, whose title he would one day inherit.
In addition to their aristocratic birth and rather tepid Catholicism, the two friends had one other thing in common. Both were in love with women below their class whom their parents disapproved of. In Philip’s case, it was a pretty, blond English girl called Jane, whom he’d met in his final year at Cambridge University. He corresponded with her daily and refused to be drawn into any adventures in Vienna despite many opportunities.
These opportunities were less now that Giovanni had renounced his unending pursuit of female conquests after meeting Luisa. She was German and worked for Lufthansa at Schwechet airport in Vienna. She was fair, very pretty, and had a wonderful disposition. She was no great intellect and had a limited taste for the cultural delights of the Austrian capital, but she had ignited a passion in Giovanni. His eyes glistened when he talked of her candid smile, the softness of her long, blond hair, and her unsuccessful attempts to imitate the German of the Viennese. But, as he sadly confided to his friend, there was no way his father, a typically bigoted and class-conscious Palmieri, would ever consent to the marriage.
“I’ll marry her anyway,” Giovanni insisted, banging rather too hard on the table to the annoyance of a Viennese family nearby.
“Well, I intend to marry Jane too,” Philip replied.
Giovanni looked hard at his friend. “You know, Philip, we’ve been friends now for two years, and we’ve had a lot of fun together. Why don’t we swear an oath to marry a child from your family to one of mine? That way, we can unite the two families.”
It was a quite irrational proposition; even in the late fifty’s marriages were no longer arranged between parents. But the beer--or the schnaps that was following it--swept away any objection, and Philip agreed enthusiastically. He picked up a knife and pricked his finger. Giovanni did likewise, and the oath was sealed in blood. It occurred to neither of them in their euphoric state that there was something, if not blasphemous, at least profane about their proceeding.

Philip did indeed marry Jane, and they had four children: two girls, Louise and Marie, and two sons, Charles and James. Of the four it was James who most resembled his father. He had the same unruly locks and the same nonchalant good looks. He had his father’s charm, but he was more serious and could be very stubborn and unwilling to compromise. He was generally of good humor like his father but prone to occasional outbursts of irritable anger. He’d also inherited his father’s fluency in languages, speaking fluent French, Spanish and Italian. Philip had always thought that if any member of his family was to fulfill the oath sworn in Vienna, it would be James, but he was now married, albeit, it seemed to his father, unhappily.
Giovanni did not marry Luisa. On November 1, 1961 he and Luisa went off on a motorcycle trip in the hills around Florence. They stopped for lunch at a little restaurant, where Giovanni drank too much. He was driving his motorcycle very fast, with Luisa perched on the back, when he collided with a car that had failed to respect a stop sign. Luisa was killed on the spot, and Giovanni was taken with severe injuries to the Careggi hospital in Florence. As he lay there for months grieving over his loss, he was beset by remorse for the irresponsible conduct that had caused Luisa’s death. This was Giovanni’s Garden of Gethsemane, but out of this mental agony came a spiritual awakening. A priest visited him almost every day, and their discussions helped Giovanni regain his serenity. With Luisa dead, his former life held no attraction for him, and gradually the resolution to become a priest took shape within his mind. In July 1963 he entered the Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome to study for the priesthood and renounced his title. Thanks to his aristocratic connections and his own administrative skills, he rose swiftly in the Church hierarchy. Today he was the Cardinal Archbishop of Florence.

Philip and Giovanni had their annual get-together a month before the events took place that are related in this novel. With regret the two friends had to acknowledge that their families would not be joined. Philip’s children were all married, and Giovanni had none.

The two friends failed to take into consideration that Giovanni was not the only Palmieri. He had a sister, Caterina, who was married to Count Paolo dell Chiesa of the black Roman nobility*. She too had four children. Her younger son, Giovanni, had made a suitable aristocratic marriage, but the elder son, Paolo, was, to his mother’s horror, living with an American employee of the family bank, of which he’d just been made vice-president. There were also two daughters. The younger daughter, Carla, was an attractive girl, but she’d inherited the same angular features as her mother from her Spanish ancestry and had as well her mother’s proud, aristocratic attitudes. The elder daughter was quite different. She was vivacious, volatile, passionate, and impatient with the social etiquette of the Italian nobility. She was a picture of sultry and dazzling beauty. Her finely chiseled features exuded sensuality. Her eyes were a deep black and would shimmer with passion or anger. She had high cheek bones, a pleasantly oval face and a rounded nose of perfect composition. Her mouth was exquisite, prettily seductive, her lips soft and enticing, her teeth a radiant whiteness. Her lustrous dark hair fell unfettered around her shoulders or was swept to one side across her full and shapely bosom. Her name was Antonietta, and she was the Cardinal’s niece.
Chapter 1
Sunday June 24, 2001
A NTONIETTA WALKED, NAKED, TOWARDS the door of the bedroom. She could feel Giacomo’s eyes following her and sensed his desire for her. Before, this would have been enough to send her back to bed, whatever her other plans for the day, but she’d been with Giacomo for eight months, and the relationship now palled on her. Soon, very soon, she would end it as she was leaving Italy to study in Canada. She apprehended this moment for she knew that Giacomo, whatever he might pretend, was deeply in love with her. Antonietta had never been in love with him, and now she no longer really desired him. It was a typical end to her relationships with men, and it disturbed her.
Antonietta stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She saw Giacomo enter the bathroom and watched him place his hands on her breasts and fondle them. She felt him hard against her buttocks and let him take her. Gazing at herself in the mirror having sex, she became aroused as well. There was little emotion in her physical pleasure. When it was over, she coolly returned to the bedroom to dres