Fantasy Susan Takes Charge by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Oh, this isn't 'the antidote' or anything, don't worry. I wouldn't do something like that, Lucinda. There's nothing in there but your Oolong with no cream or sugar. Just the way I know you like it now. That's a skill I learned from working too, Lucinda. Remembering what people you know you're going to see again like to eat and drink. No, this is something I need to return to Helen's office, I just decided to do this along the way to send you a message, Lucinda. So I hope you're listening or recording or whatever."

She was too startled by the realization that, if I HAD chosen to poison her, it would now be too late to respond, so the floor was still mine.

"The twins already have a moral guardian, and you're who she's guarding them from. The Devil, too, but saying that feels redundant. I figured that part out, too. Why you needed to wait until you thought Helen might not be around. This wasn't to feel her out now that she's a mother. Or to see how Maria would handle things if you suspected Helen wasn't here to look out for her. They're both known quantities to you. The purpose of this exercise was to test the unknown quantity; to see that IF Helen had left the country and IF her dearest friends had gone after her, then who was this woman whom ALL of them entrusted with the children while it was going on? Well, Lucinda?"

I leaned in close for my big ending.

"Hi. My name's Susan Bailey. Got your answer?"

I didn't wait for her reply. I walked out.

* * *

Lucinda would need revenge. Troy watches the Godfather movies every Thanksgiving weekend. (He has this joke he never seems to get tired of about it being "time that should be spent with The Family.") So I'd seen them enough times to know that since I'd sent her a message, now she HAS to send me one back. Unless I'd pissed her off to the point of hiring a hitman overnight, though, it was too soon to worry about it. (And if she goes that far, I'll just have to trust that I've done enough favors for the Ultimados by now that they'll do what they do for Helen and "get rid of the problem" for me before I even find out one was ever there.) I'd have to start watching my back tomorrow or the next day, but for today, I could just enjoy the victory.

It was a few hours later, after returning the maid's uniform and going back to the Palace Wing, that I ran into Maria by the Nursery and we stopped in at the little conversation alcove there.

"I understand why you needed to do it." Maria said after I told her about my trip to the Business Wing. "But si, you have thrown down a gauntlet and ensured a next time, Susan."

"Then the Pastry Chef's going to need to hire some backup and I'm going to have to see if anyone in the Marketplace carries anvils and dynamite for my counterplan." We both laughed at that. I had another thought and shared it with her. "You were a step ahead of me the whole time, Maria. Which means that you probably figured out the other thing that I did long before, too: Who Lucinda was really testing."

"Oh, si." She replied. "Her plan would have had the same chance to succeed or fail with Great-Grandmama present. It would still have taken her some maneuvering to refuse graciously in a way that Lucinda could not gain from."

"So what would you have done if Rita hadn't agreed?"

"I would have made up some excuse for her. Something relating to the babies and perhaps gross enough that no one would question. That she was tired from nursing them all day or something, they would have gone for it."

"Then why didn't you just do that?" I asked. "Why let me go to all this?"

Maria smiled at that.

"Because I liked your plan, Susan. Because you had things under control and because there was something that I needed to learn, too."

"What was that?"

Maria put her hand on mine.

"I do not question your friendship or loyalty at all, Susan. There was something I needed to know about you, though: Would you stand up to me if I had a bad idea? I knew right away that it would simply add complications to a situation already full of them. I knew you were a good enough friend to do it, but were you a good enough friend to tell me why we shouldn't? I've learned that those friends are far more important. I would have 'come to my senses' and asked you to stop before you really did it. Now I know, Susan, that you will tell me if I have a bad idea in the future, when it truly matters. I need to know who I can count on for this on the day that I am not simply ruling in secret until Great-Grandmama returns."

While I looked questioningly at Maria, she gave a little laugh and continued.

"Did you truly think that I would panic like a debutante in a P.G. Wodehouse book over all of this?" She looked over at the Nursery door, smiled, then looked back to me. "I, too, now have future rulers of San Finzione to think of. And whom I can entrust with them."

I smiled at the future Contessa Maria Louisa Francesca de San Finzione.

"No." I told her as I stood. "I thought you handled it like a Contessa."

That got a smile back before she left to go meet Stavro and I went to go spend some time with the little people that everything the past couple days had been for.

* * *