The following morning, Leonardo entered the Palazzo Medici gardens where he found Cecilia seated on a white bench beneath an intricate floral canopy of red geraniums. Without an introductory greeting, he launched straight into his annoyance at the visit of Senior Prodi until he was interrupted by Cecilia, hitting him repeatedly on the arm with her white fan.
‘I am subjected to ridicule by the ladies of the city, and the unwarranted attention of unscrupulous men, who think with my protector nowhere to be seen they can part my legs and treat me like a concubine! And now you come to me without so much as a kiss on the cheek and all you can talk about is an unfinished commission that some miserable monks would have you complete. By my word, I would have been better off in Milan!’
‘Forgive me
