It was already late morning when Caio returned to Alessandro's bedroom. 20 – or the girl, as Alessandro now referred to her – was still sleeping when they talked, and he didn't want to wake her up and disturb her rest. So he had asked Rocco to send word to him when she was already awake, and went about preparing for his first meeting of the day.
He was in the middle of discussions with some of the other ministers of external affairs when he received a message that Concubine Number 20 was having breakfast and he could talk to her anytime. He continued the rest of the agenda; however, he found that he could barely concentrate in the second half. Caio knew he was not easily prone to get distracted – on the contrary, once he started working, he would usually be focused until he was done.
