Chapter 2

“Living on a lighted stage
approaches the unreal
for those who think and feel,
in touch with some reality
beyond the gilded cage.”
-Rush,

“Limelight”

The Sun shone through the open balcony doors into the bedroom of the castle. It cast its beam across the marbled floor, onto the Persian rug, across the king-sized bed, and onto the face of Contessa Helena de San Finzione. She opened one eye slightly and the light entered it as well.

Helena turned over and grumbled, burying her face in the breast of one of the two Ultimados she’d brought home from the raid. Their “special debriefing” had been very long and intense. Helena rolled back over, reached for her phone, and texted Jeanne to prepare the best gift baskets and that this morning, she wanted American coffee with the two croissants that started every day around the castle. Following the stream of that thought, Helena checked her phone’s clock and looked at the time on the West Coast of the United States. She messaged Jeanne to bring breakfast to the study, then slipped on a robe and took the secret passage from the bedroom to get there. Someone would see the Ultimados out.

In centuries past, the late Count’s ancestors had used the room that was now Helena’s study and personal office as a war room to scheme against their neighbors. Located in the center of the castle, it had thick stone walls that blocked out all outside noise, a secret passage to her bedroom, and an escape tunnel out of the castle. When she’d walk the halls in the early days of her marriage while her late husband was ruling San Finzione and she needed a break from sitting and observing the things she would one day need to know to lead a people, she’d found it a good place to think.

Helena pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the pocket of her robe and lit her first of the morning as she sat on a long couch and considered the day ahead. Her interview for American television was in two hours and a meeting afterwards had been canceled, so another had been moved up from the afternoon into its place. Her hairdresser was coming to the castle to give her a touch-up before she faced cameras and would be here by the time she usually got out of the bath. She’d look her best for her rigidly scheduled “surprise drop-in” on the tour group around lunchtime.

The large oak door to the study groaned open and Jeanne, her pretty, blonde personal maid, wheeled in La Contessa’s breakfast trolley. Beneath a silver lid on the tray atop the cart were two still-steaming croissants from the kitchen, and the cart had a small power supply that one of the several various single-serving hot-beverage-making machines atop it could be plugged into; a necessity borne of Helena’s preference of hot beverage varying with her mood. A single cup drip coffee machine was actively brewing the American coffee she’d specified, but the tray also held small cappuccino and espresso machines, a small water tank, a kettle for tea or cocoa, a long-handled brass Greek briki, and a small hot plate for heating the kettle or the briki. Behind Jeanne walked in Lady Maria de San Finzione, Helena’s great-granddaughter who’d opened the door for her and her cart. She was in her early 20s, only a few years younger than Helena, who’d married Maria’s great-grandfather, the Count, quite late in his life.

“Good morning, Great-Grandmama,” Maria said as she sat down next to Helena on the couch. She grabbed one of the croissants off the plate. Jeanne smiled as she lifted another silver lid to produce two more and set them before La Contessa.

“I know it’s just me and Jeanne, Dear,” Helena said to her great-granddaughter as she picked up one of the croissants. “And you were holding the door for Jeanne, but you should have let her through, let the doors close, then open them and walk through. Here, like this.”

Contessa Helena de San Finzione got up from the couch and stepped out of the room, closing the thick old wooden doors behind her. Five seconds passed, then the doors were shoved open and she stepped proudly into the room between them and strode back her seat on the couch.

“Like that, Darling,” she said, pulling apart the croissant and popping a bit into her mouth. “Every head in the room should turn when you enter. And if they don’t, make them.”

Lady Maria nodded her understanding, taking out an iPad and bringing up La Contessa’s schedule. After the trauma of Count Vincenzo’s death as he and Helena made love and the fight with La Familia de San Finzione to retain her title and position, Helena had used the ability that gave her control over the minds of others to make Maria into her personal maid and occasional lover in a misguided effort to “look after” her late husband’s favorite great-grandchild. Recently, some old friends convinced Helen that she was taking advantage of the girl whose care she’d been entrusted with, and she’d been seeking to make amends since; helping Maria acclimate to the world she’d been born into and allow her to live her own life while also teaching her how to one day rule San Finzione herself. The girl now served part-time as an administrative assistant to La Contessa so that she could watch Helena in action as Count Vincenzo had done for her as well.

“I’m certain Great-Grandmama is already aware of the afternoon schedule change,” Maria asked and Helena nodded, putting out her cigarette.

“Yes, which means the afternoon has just freed up for both of us. And the meeting that’s been bumped up to after the interview is Top Clearance Only; I don’t need you for the Tour Stop, which means you’ve basically got a day off, Maria. When was the last time you and Stavro spent a day in the middle of the week together?”

“It has been some time,” Maria said with a little smile. Stavro was her boyfriend. In the days before La Contessa had given Maria her due and she was still her personal maid, Stavro had been the son of the butcher who supplied for the castle and delivered their orders. Maria had been unsure how to approach him and afraid to tell her Great-Grandmother for fear that she’d decide to take the young man for herself. Helena had created a position for him as the head of her new Citizens’ Grievance Office to give the young man a good job that would allow him to come to the castle and see both of them regularly and still allow him to help out his father. Helena nodded and turned to Jeanne.