“Sit,” Pope Clément barked at his Cardinal, the acrimony in his voice unmistakable, so Albornoz sat as told, needing no further encouragement. He felt like a naughty schoolboy in front of his master, waiting for a punishment.
“Do you have any idea why I’ve summoned you?”
“None, Holy Father.”
“None! None, he says! Who’s the fool in this room, I ask you? It’s not me, so it leaves only you, Albornoz.”
me, you, He picked up the parchment sheet Marius had given to him and waved it around like the sails of a windmill, first this way, then the other. He approached his cleric, arms still flailing, his face red with anger. Holding the sheet so it touched the Cardinal’s nose, he tried to speak, but his opening words were lost in a garbled outpouring of noises, a stammering that he could not cont
