Antonio Donati

In his home, with his family, he is a reasonable man, an affectionate man. He treats his father's widow well, and in her turn she uses her Sorte for him. He treats his half-brothers well, and their resentment of him has not (yet) boiled into overt rebellion. He loves his courtesan and his son, even if he cannot shower his son with all of the advantages he would like to give him. He has married, to two sisters young enough to be his daughters, but he is trying to show them patience and kindness and a little liberality, the better to win them over.

He was also a Lord's Hand for Principe Mondavi for some years. His tasks included the brutal murder of the prince's enemies, and then the careful placement of their battered corpses in public areas for maximum terroristic effect.

What? It's part of the Great Game. Business is business. Don Antonio runs his business efficiently, coldly, and absolutely ruthlessly. And he's very good at that.

His careful separation of family and business cannot, sadly, last. His half-brother Tomasso will, one day, do something stupid and Antonio will catch him at it. He will be saddened on that day; he relies on Tomasso to oversee several important areas of the family business, and he does a good job. Also, the other Donati brothers will be unhappy. Hopefully, they will not also be stupid and cause Antonio to have to deal harshly with them.

Bernardo may also be a problem; he has Count Barozzi's patronage, and Antonio would like to be the Viscount of Monfalcone, the Prince's eyes and ears watching the Count. It is not so good to have a brother working for the count, unless that brother can be suborned as a spy for the family. That would be all right.

The three younger ones do not, at the moment, seem inclined to be troublesome. This is good. Antonio has been particularly careful to keep Cristoforo under control, since he is the captain of the guard. Of course, the captain would be surprised to learn how many of his lieutenants get special bonuses from Don Antonio for their continued good work. Angelo seems happy enough to pursue his ambitions within the Church; Antonio silently thanks Tomasso's jealousy, if that was instrumental in pushing the young man into a church career. Out of Tomasso's way, but also out of Antonio's way - and much more likely to survive and pass on his blessing to a future generation of Donatis. Antonio is very concerned with finding Father Donati a good wife.

Teodora is a blessing and a curse. They work well together, but he cannot control her as much as he would like. She causes disharmony in the house, but also checks her sons' behavior. He hopes that his new strega wife will soon be powerful enough to replace her entirely, and pleased enough with her treatment at Antonio's hands to willingly work with him. He prefers cooperation to coercion; having been an agent of coercion for Mondavi, he knows that, sooner or later, that sort of relationship will come to an end. Cooperation can be sustained indefinitely.

And if cooperation fails, coercion remains an option.

The first and second weeks of Quartus 1668 have been eventful for Antonio! He thinks that he's made a match for Angelo: Lady Ellen Locke, a Serrano heir and the granddaughter of an Unbound. Tigran Mondavi unexpectedly accepted his impulsive offer of a marriage with Anna, to his joy; unfortunately, his brothers were not so thrilled with the good fortune. Things were getting sufficiently tense that he decided to inform them about his suspicions regarding the Eisen mercenaries littering the Mondavi countryside: an invasion force working for their Prince. Alas, that wasn't enough to keep them in line; if anything, Tomasso seemed to think he had all the information he needed to make his move. Antonio was making arrangements to take care of that when the lousy benandanti showed up, probably to kill Gabrielle, and Angela started haunting people besides him. Thrilled at the chance to revenge himself on the woman whose Sorte had danced him like a puppet years ago, Antonio prepared for the battle. He won, but unexpectedly found himself also fighting Tomasso, who'd decided to make his move boldly. He survived that, thanks to the intervention of his son and wife, and then nearly died again when Angelo poisoned him. Not that it was terribly unexpected - giving someone a Serrano fiancee just before confessing to unnatural acts with his twin sister? Not a good idea. But a truce was finally negotiated, wherein Antonio would keep his brothers better informed of the family secrets, and the brothers would cease their assassination plots. It was pretty much everything Antonio had ever hoped for.

It was a spring and summer of deception. He had to pay some attention to the rice crop, but Giorgio Masacci's maneuverings were of distinctly secondary importance. Everyone was in a scramble to try and make a profit under the prince's new, strange restrictions, and Antonio had to put on a good show of doing the same. Besides, he was a careful man, and if the prince didn't take him up on his offer, he needed something to fall back on.

But he knew his prince at least a little. He was pleased and not surprised when Angelo (on Odessa's arm?) appeared in Monfalcone with news that his Highness would be visiting to discuss the matter with Antonio. Furthermore, Pietra was to be married to Barone Oreste Mondavi and their Tigran Mondavi problem would be going away. On the troubling front, Salvador had gotten his viscounty - but not as a Donati. Countess Odessa professed to know nothing of this manuever, and Antonio wondered if it meant anything more than Salvador doing what it took to achieve the position. Aside from that, things were going swimmingly.

Until his wife and brother returned home the normal way, with the news that his vedova and his son had died. His son had died.

But the prince was still coming, and time was marching on as Eisen "refugees" milled in ever-greater numbers in Le Tende. Whatever would happen must happen soon, and Antonio would have to put his private grief aside to act once again as one of Mondavi's Hands...

Antonio's most important Sorte strand is a Rods strand; its other end has finally been seen to reside in Countess Odessa Blanchard du Rachetisse. He has the Careful Arcana.

Photo Credits: "Sir Thomas Gresham," Anthonis Mor Van Dashorst, 1565-70.

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