The Twelve Tables Ch. 07

Authors Note: Thank you to everyone left comments or sent me feedback about the resumption of the story. I appreciate it all greatly. I am incredibly grateful to my new proof reader blunajana who offered to help me and has done an amazing job. I hope you enjoy this chapter. ~ellie

*****

Josh walked into the small Italian restaurant a week later and smiled seeing his family all seated at the large table usually reserved for them. He noted that Nik had not arrived as of yet, but it was not unusual for her to be late, particularly because he had refused to pick her up for the first time in their lives. She had raged when she realised he had cut her off financially but not to him. She had raged at Marco and at Ben, who had been shocked by the amount of money she had expected from Josh each month, but she had never said a word to him.

Where Josh was concerned, she had been nothing but sweetness and light. When Peri returned to work, Nik had sent her flowers with a small card congratulating her on a speedy recovery. In return, Josh treated her as he would Lucia or Maryanne, with the love of a sibling who lived their life separate and distinct from his own.

Jules looked up and waved him over to a seat next to him. Josh nodded and held up a finger as he greeted Maryanne with a playful dig about the new colour of her hair. He made his way around the table, he kissed Lucia cheek squeezing her shoulder and finally took a seat between Jules and Rommy.

"Look at you being all grown up and calling a family meeting," Jules teased.

"What did you get in the pool?" Josh chuckled.

"He thinks you knocked Peri up," Rommy said from beside him. "I'm going with the fact you have finally realised that you're gay and need to go into the witness protection program before Papa finds out."

"Well, Nik has been a bigger bitch than usual lately, and I am guessing that's your doing," Lucia chimed in. "So I am going with the knocked up version, she'd be in heaven if you were gay."

"Why would you think that?" Rommy seemed disappointed that his theory did not bear weight with his sister.

"She wouldn't have to compete with any other women for his attention. They could check out guys together. The fashion sense alone would have to improve if he was even slightly gay," she said teasingly.

"True, if not for Nik the fashion police would have carted him off years ago," Jules straightened his tie and grinned.

Their conversation ceased as Nik arrived looking stunning and apologising for being late then taking a seat beside Maryanne surprising Rommy who had begun to stand up and vacate the chair beside Josh.

"Told you something was going on," Lucia whispered as Rommy sat back down.

"Quit my job," Josh murmured to Jules, who spluttered the mouthful of wine he had just taken.

"Thought you loved that gig?" Jules looked at him.

"Yeah I wanted a break before starting something new next year," Josh nodded. "I've been planning for a few years to start up my own business. Just a small boutique publishing house. The small press network works rate it well, and I think I can make it work."

"Tough gig, but if you've got your eye on something already established, that's is a plus," Jules said as their quiet conversation continued. "We're in if you need someone to sort out the legal stuff for you," he said enthusiastically capturing the attention of Rommy as he offered both of their services.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Josh clapped his brother on the back and nodded toward Ben, "He'll be happier knowing you're on board."

"Didn't think you would ever want a family business," Rommy murmured, "Moreover I didn't think you were allowed to have one, or a life of your own" he glanced across the table at Nik, who had been watching their quiet chat uneasily.

"I had the plans in place for a while just had never taken the leap. I guess I am just not as happy in my current job as I was, so it was time to move on," Josh said with a smile. "No risk no reward."

Nik heard enough to feel sick inside. She was so sure that Josh would punish her for a few weeks, and then would come to his senses and realise everything she did was for him and the future they had planned together. A future where he would help her to build up her fashion label before starting his own business. It was a future where she wouldn't need to marry because she would have Josh to support her until her business took off. They had been planning it for their whole lives. Escaping the family expectations and living the way she wanted.

She was torn between trying to make things right with him so her life could go back to normal and screaming at him that he couldn't do this to her. What was she supposed to do now? Get married to a nice family man and become a baby making factory? Tears of rage and grief welled behind her eyes. She couldn't work out how he could do this to her. He had always followed her lead. She had to talk to him and make him see what a mistake he was making. She needed her business to take off before he worked on his business plan. She couldn't believe he was so selfish when she was always so good to him.

"Are you feeling okay Nik? You've gone very pale," Maryanne asked in concern.

"No I'm not fucking okay!" she exploded turning her full fury on Josh, who looked back at her calmly. "You can't do this! What about me? Did you even consider my feelings when you decided this without even talking to me first!"

"I didn't think you would care, honestly," Josh said calmly.

"Of course, I fucking care. Don't do it, you will regret it," she seethed.

"Do you want me to explain in front of everyone just how much you've considered my feelings recently and why I believed you wouldn't care?" Josh said in a cold, calm voice. "I'd always planned to become a family man, maybe not as soon as this but my reputation is cactus at my current job now, thanks to you, so now is as good a time as any to start a business."

"Well if you hadn't started fucking that fat, ugly cow," Nik's eyes widened with the realisation of what she had just said in front of her family.

"That's enough," Ben raised his voice and banged his fist on the table. "Remember where we are for god's sake." Pete sat beside him saying nothing but looking furious as Nik immediately calmed down.

"I didn't mean it," Nik looked around at her siblings and shook her head, "I like her. I was just shocked and angry. I didn't mean it." She could see now just how hurt and upset with her Josh was as he sat in stony silence.

"What did you do?" Maryanne asked incredulously, "I've never seen Josh this mad before. He rants and raves he doesn't do the calm voice and silent stare, like Papa."

"I didn't do anything," Nik huffed.

"As usual, we don't know what the fuck is going on," Jules looked to the other end of the table to where Ben sat with Pete, Dante and Emilio.

Dante grinned enjoying Nik's reaction to the news and lifted his glass in josh's direction toasting his decisions. He had not understood when Josh had asked them to do and say nothing when Peri got hurt, but he could see now that what Josh was doing now was a far better lesson than anyone else could have given her.

"I believe," he said with a smirk, "That our baby brother has decided to start living his life instead of letting Nik live it for him." Dante looked at Nik daring her to contradict him. Ben had been seriously shocked by the amount of financial support Josh had given his sister and when Dante had asked why Josh had changed his mind about being a family man he had confided that Nik had made it impossible for Josh to do anything else. He was sure that even Josh had been upset by the amount she had helped herself to from his trust fund to keep her own failing business afloat. He wondered how she was managing since Josh had cut her off.

"Yeah well we've all gotta grow up sometime and face reality," Josh shrugged. "So that's my big news, I'm in the process of buying a small publishing house, and I'm taking the family name." He had used his middle name for so long that the family name almost seemed foreign to him now.

"It's an anticlimax now," Lucia said disappointedly. "Ben, get us some champagne, and he can tell us again. I promise to be super surprised and excited next time you say it." She laughed easily.

"I'll get it," Emilio offered before Ben could comment on the amount Lucia had drunk already.

"What about me?" Nik asked in shock. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Grow up and run your business properly," Josh said without emotion "You have a business. Now I will too."

"I met this great personal shopper that my wife swears by," Jules interrupted to try and stop another argument breaking out. "She could help you out, apparently she has a great eye for fashion, and I have to admit I am quietly impressed with what she has done for Bianca."

"Oh yeah, Carmen loves her. What's her name again?" Rommy asked.

"Andie," Josh answered them. "I introduced them to her when she was just starting up her business. Nik won't want to work with her." He shook his head without explaining.

"I might, I mean Bianca certainly doesn't need any help to look beautiful if she likes the woman why wouldn't I?" Nik said indignantly. "You've lost the right to tell me who I can and can't work with. I'd been planning on checking her out on Bianca's say so anyway." She lied easily. Bianca was one of the few women in the family that Nik socialised with of her own free will. A former model she was tall and stunningly beautiful.

"Fine, give her a call. I am sure Peri's mother would love to help you out," Josh said acidly.

"I didn't do anything to your precious Peri," Nik's voice rose again.

"I saw the video Nik," Josh sighed disappointedly moving from his seat directly across from his sister to sit beside to Lucia.

"What video?" Jules and Rommy asked in unison. Emilio moved into the chair vacated by Josh and smiled at Nik handing her a glass of champagne.

"It's still not too late to admit you fucked up and apologise to him," He said quietly. "You can screw up with the rest of us, and we can shrug it off because we expect that from you, but he was blindsided. Just apologise, admit what you did was wrong even if you had reasons you thought were right and he will forgive you. He always has in the past. This time, however, I don't think he will come around without some spectacular grovelling."

"Always the peacemaker, Lio," Dante said pulling up a chair beside Nik. "She's a smart, beautiful and independent woman. She doesn't need anyone's approval. She does what she wants and gets rid of anything and anyone standing in her way. Don't you Nik?"

"You're such an asshole," Nik spat.

"I know. I have to make up for Mr Goody-two-shoes over there. If it were up to me, that video would be viral by now." Dante said with an evil grin.

"Let it go, D." Josh said in a pained voice and turned back to his conversation with Lucia. "Say yes to letting me edit and publish that short story you've written and I will tell you the whole story," he winked appealing to her resentment of Nik, who had been cruel and uncaring during the last few years.

"Deal, you can drive me home and pick it up today if you like," Lucia lifted her glass in acknowledgement of their deal and took a long sip. "I don't think I could handle another of Ben's lectures."

*****

Peri sat at the large kitchen table with her research notes spread out around her as the three women who comprised Josh's sisters-in-law who lived in the city, worked in the large kitchen making traditional Italian Christmas cookies for their children to take to school on the last day for their teachers and friends.

"Okay I've got it," Carmen said suddenly. "Rich people hire live-in nannies and cooks right?" She waited for Peri to nod. "Well imagine that those cooks and nannies were paid one lump sum into a bank account and never had to touch it because all of their day to day living expenses had been taken care of. They still work seven days a week or, at least, are on call seven days even if they are given a day off now and then." She paused letting that sink in. "Now tell me how that is different to a cook or a nanny choosing to sign a contract that gave her the same thing except that she wore a collar. They do the same job, they see to their owner's needs, they can quit and walk away at any time, no one forces them to do anything they don't want to do."

"Okay, so how do the families find people who want to live like that?" Peri was still trying to wrap her head around the caste system that seemed to be at the root of family life for these women.

"They advertise, of course, it's a job like any other job," Bianca chimed in. "You're obsessing over the word slave. They are just employees at the lowest level of the pay grade. Maids, gardeners, labours, cooks, nannies though they weren't always considered slaves, most nannies were plebs. They have a higher pay rate, better conditions and more responsibility than the slaves."

"So Plebs are freemen who come and go as they like and the family didn't like the nannies having that freedom?" Peri asked.

"Exactly, now you're getting it," Carmen smiled. "See there is nothing sinister or illegal about it. The older generation just takes the traditional line about it all. We don't enforce the old style collars in favour of using a sturdy but pretty chain that could pass for jewellery. On the farm, though, it's very traditional."

"You have slaves?" Peri was shocked.

"Well I have a maid and a cook," Carmen admitted. "That's why I come here and help Emily bake, I can't boil water on my own, and I like the kids to think I made the biscotti. We all do, Emily has a maid, Bianca has a maid, a cook and a nanny."

"No gardeners?" Peri teased.

"No need in the city, one of my cousins has a landscaping business, they come once a week and maintain it," Emily said not realising Peri was teasing them. "What has all this got to do with the family history?"

"Well as I was going through it all I found all these cousins that don't seem to sit at any of the twelve tables. I thought," she paused and blushed, "That maybe the slaves were you know," her voice faltered as she tried to explain what she thought, "Sex slaves and the cousins were maybe illegitimate children to the men who sit at the table."

"The family does not run a brothel, Peri," Emily said defensively.

"Oh, I didn't mean that at all," Peri said aghast. "I'm sorry, I was thinking more about courtesans, you know the ones who were trained in giving pleasure specifically for high-ranking officials."

"It happens," Carmen came and sat with Peri. "We call them kept women. They get paid a lot more than the house or labouring slaves, and they live very separately from the rest of the staff and family. Most of those cousins you speak of are the Patricians, the skilled workers and friends from good families who immigrated with the twelve sons to help build communities here. Pete's father and grandfather immigrated with Papa and his father. He's a cousin not by blood but because of who he is in relation to the table."

So how do I discern a cousin by blood as your children are, and a cousin by proximity?" Peri asked becoming more confused by the multiple layers of the family. "It's no wonder no one has been adequately able to make sense of this history despite it being only three generations old."

"Two generations," Emily corrected her. "Papa has not named his successor. It could be any of the younger sons. My father was the youngest of his family and had four older brothers, yet he was named the head of the table when the time came."

"The truth is that the cousins and uncles and aunts don't matter," Carmen said, "Only the family that sits at that table and their direct descendants matter in that book. Once the successor is named he and his family will fill the next pages and the rest of us will fade out," she smiled.

"I doubt Uncle Charles or Andreas considers themselves as faded out," Bianca laughed.

"Well that makes it easier at least," Peri said. "Thank you, Josh has been preoccupied lately, and I didn't want to bother him with all my questions. I think I have the history of this table back as far as the House of Lorraine will allow, but I have a few loose ends to follow up on to see if I can date it back further. Now that I don't feel like I need to place all your extra cousins I think I can get it to a good place before we go to the farm."

"It's rare to have someone not connected with one of the families go out to the farm, it didn't go so well last time," Emily came from the kitchen to sit with the other women. "I have to be honest and say that Ben hasn't told me much of what's been preoccupying Josh," she said not wanting to say too much in front of Bianca and Carmen. "Be careful at the farm, though, you know Nik will try and trip you up every chance she gets."

"Oh yeah, Nik is more than a little possessive of Josh," Bianca laughed. "If it wasn't illegal to marry your brother I bet she would have had him down the aisle as soon as they turned eighteen."

"That's disgusting," Carmen laughed despite her words. "I'll get it," she stood hearing the timer on the oven beep.

"Well, at least, you've done your research so you won't be shocked by the step back in time that will greet you down there," Bianca continued to laugh. "Papa rules like a king; the men all do as he commands and all the women know their place."

"Are you okay, Emily," Peri ask seeing the woman visibly sag in her chair.

"Just a little tired, we've been baking all morning," Emily smiled and straightened in the chair.

"Oh Emily not again! How could Ben do this to you after last time," Carmen looked at her in alarm willing her to deny that she was pregnant again..

"Ben didn't do anything," Emily shook her head.

"Then you won't mind me calling Pete because you're looking more than just a little tired," she said sceptically.

"No don't call Pete I will be right after a cup of tea and a lie down this afternoon," She lifted her hand to smooth back her hair from her face and smile. "Don't you worry Ben about it either. I didn't sleep well last night, that's all."

"Then there is no reason not to call Pete," Bianca fished her phone out of her pocket.

"They're all at that family lunch including Pete, don't call him now. Ben will just worry. I promise I will see him later today or tomorrow," Emily's voice took on a pleading tone.

"I can be discreet," Bianca rolled her eyes and put her phone to her ear. "Hello my handsome husband, how goes the family lunch was it as fun as you thought it would be today?" She paused for him to answer. "I can't wait to hear all the juicy tidbits," she laughed. "Is Pete there?" she asked. "Oh, you know me I am a disaster in the kitchen I slipped on some butter or something and think I twisted my ankle, could you get him to come over to Ben's place?" She paused again, "No I'll be fine, and Carmen drove today, so I don't have to worry about getting home. I just want him to check it out." She laughed easily into the phone. "Yes the girls are fussing around me, even Peri, I'm in good hands, you enjoy yourself, and I will see you tonight."

"See, no problem," she turned back and smiled at Emily. "The only time I have ever seen you look this exhausted was when you were expecting BJ. Tell me you haven't ignored all of the warnings and done it again."

*****

Jules considered his phone as he hung up. He knew his wife well, and there was enough nonsense in that phone call to make him mildly concerned. He stood and walked around the table to where Pete sat and not wanting to concern Ben or Josh lured him away from the table on the pretext of getting more champagne because Lucia had stolen the bottle.