Fantasy Susan Takes Charge by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Maria," I said evenly. "This is starting to feel like a sitcom plot. And not a good one; one of the ones that get canceled a couple episodes in."

Maria gave me a frustrated "don't you think I know that" look.

"Susan, now that we have located Great-Grandmama, now that Troy has been able to talk sense to her and she has agreed to come home, now that she is happily enjoying a few days away from everything with her best friends and the man and woman she loves most in the world before coming back to us; do you wish to be the one to call her and tell her that we need her to cut things short and come home immediately? Because we face the crisis of Lucinda pressuring me into throwing a party on short notice? The reception itself may be her power play; getting me to throw together such a thing at the last moment will put a feather in her cap with the others."

I sat back down and thought about that for a moment. La Familia are incredible mooches and might just be after a free dinner on the Palace side of the castle. They weren't trustworthy enough to assume that was all there was to it, but that chance existed. Servants almost never go over to the Business Side, but when they do, there are signs just before you exit any of the service accesses in that part of the building advising the staff that they work for La Familia ROYALE, not La Familia, and nobody who might normally be in that wing, except La Contessa or Lady Maria, can order them to do anything. So, it's not until they come to visit the Palace Wing that La Familia get to do any proper servant belittling. (I waitressed at a shitty highway diner for eleven years before Troy found me. Guess how much respect I have for people like that.)

Helen told me that after they visited to "console her" following the Count's death, everything shiny that could fit in a pocket was gone. She did The Thing to them to get everything back at the same meeting with the lawyers that ended with all of them agreeing that Count Vincenzo, forever does he reign in our hearts, wanted his beloved Contessa to sit on the throne until it was Little Maria's time. (Maria was 16 when her great-grandfather died, so the name was only starting to get creepy back then.)

With all the shit Helen's dealt with just in the time that I've known her personally, it's hard to deny that she could use a few days off. Intellectually, I knew that the smart thing to do would be to call Helen anyway and at least seek her advice. As I played out that phone call in my head, I realized that telling Helen anything about it would get the wheels in her own head turning, she'd start thinking about it, and instead of relaxing with Troy & Julie, her mind will be focused on what she's going to come home to. Or yes, decide she needs to come back immediately.

Troy's their father and has just as much right to know what's going on, but they think too similarly, and we'd have the same problem; Troy's TOO responsible to hear that and just go back to relaxing, he'd drop everything and come right back here. Julie has no poker face, so if I talk to her, the other two will figure out that something's wrong. We're going to be the boys' godmothers, (I'm Vincenzo's, Julie's Byroni's. Helen's an atheist, but San Finzione is a Catholic nation, and she's their Contessa, so it's expected of her to get them baptized.) so, responsibility for them falls to me at this point. I could just take them somewhere, let the godmother be the bad guy for Maria in the situation; but she's too good a friend to leave to face La Familia's depredations on her own. Dammit, she was right!

"Ok, Maria." I said. "I'm in. What about Rita? We won't be able to pull this off without her. I mean, if I had their experience, or them here to work with me, putting Jeanne in a wig would be enough to fool everyone." I gestured to Jeanne, who smiled. "Up close, I'd tell them that she's Helen and they'd believe it. But they'd be able to tell from a distance that Jeanne's not the right height and figure. Rita could fool them until they got close enough for me to make them believe it. Do we know where she is right now?"

Maria looked over at Jeanne. Jeanne took a day-planner from her cart and flipped through it.

"Ms. Delvecchio would be in the studio at this hour." Jeanne said in Italian with a sweet smile.

(Jeanne does a lot more than just serving drinks for Helen. Yes, she does THAT kind of stuff for Helen, too, but she knew about that going into the job. Unlike some undeservedly popular books and movies, Helen knows how to draw up a sex contract.)