“What’s all this?” I asked her.
“Don’t worry about that crap,” she said, waving her hand. “It’s just for my gaming.”
“Doesn’t look like gaming.”
She stared at me. “What did you need, Natalie?”
I sighed, looking down at my hands. “Had a weird night last night.”
“What’d my brother do?”
I laughed. “How’d you know?”
“It’s always that way in this house. They fuck up and we’re left trying to figure out how to put it all back together.”
“Not always,” I mumbled.
“So what did Prince Lucas say?”
“Well,” I said slowly, “it’s a bit of a long story.”
“Tell me. Now I’m curious.”
“It involves my mom and your dad. And it’s not very good.”
She snorted. “I don’t give much of a shit about Arturo, but I’ll tell you what. You tell me this story, and I’ll tell you one of my own.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you why I haven’t left my room.”
“Okay,” I said. I didn’t know why I trusted her or why I was taking the deal, but something told me I should.
And so I told her. Starting with walking in on my mother and ending with her brother’s comments, I told her everything I could remember.
It came out of me in one giant rush. Louisa sat there staring at me, not really reacting one way or the other as I gave her all the details. I actually felt pretty silly when I told her how angry I had been at her brother, but I couldn’t really skip that part.
Finally, I finished and felt tired. Better, like I had drained a wound out or something, but so tired.
“None of that surprises me,” Louisa finally said when I was finished.
“Really?” I asked. “Not even my mother?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know your mother, but she’s a person and people make mistakes.”
“You’re right. And I mean, I get where Lucas is coming from.”
“Don’t defend him,” Louisa said fiercely.
I felt a bit taken aback. “Sorry. I mean, I was just saying.”
“Listen, Natalie,” she said. “If you’re going to stick around, you should know something. The men here, they’re stuck in the Old World.”
“What do you mean?”
“They want everything to be black and white. And in that mindset, women are just frail creatures that cook and clean. Women are either saints or they’re whores. There’s no room for a nuance of emotion, for sexual feeling, nothing.”
I felt surprised, but it was something that I understood without having ever really said it before. The compound was like the old days in how everything worked, complete with servants.
“I get that,” I said. “I know Lucas didn’t mean anything by it, and he was probably right. But I want him to know that he has to respect me and my mother, even when she’s acting like a whore.”
Louisa nodded. “Good. Lucas is probably the most progressive of the bunch. He’ll figure it out and come around eventually. But don’t let him off easy.”
“Thanks. That makes me feel better.”
“And about your mom,” Louisa said. “Don’t tell anyone else. My father can be a vengeful, violent man. You’re right to feel afraid.”
I felt a spike of worry hit my stomach. “What should I do?”
“Nothing,” Louisa said. “Lucas will protect you all. He’s not so bad, deep down.”
I nodded. She had confirmed my worst fears, but she also had strangely made me feel better.
“Okay,” I said. “Now it’s your turn. Why haven’t you left this room?”
She laughed, grinning. “It’s funny. It’s actually related to what we’re talking about.”
“What, my mom being a whore?”
“No. The Old-World mentality, the sexism.” She paused and adjusted herself and then began talking.
“I was never good at school. I was never interested in it, even though I had always been great with computers. School wasn’t hard for me; it was just boring. And plus, I knew what my father and my brother did. I understood what sort of family we were.
“But they kept me from it. They acted like they were protecting me, but I never needed protecting. Finally, I dropped out of school, bitterly disappointing my father. The next day, I demanded that he let me join the family business. I told him that I was a Barone like any one of them and that I deserved to be a part of it.
“He refused. He told me a woman’s place was not anywhere near their business. He wanted me to go back to school, to meet a man and get married, to give him grandchildren. Naturally, that pissed me off. In retrospect, I understood he was trying his best to give me a good life, but I didn’t want his idea of a good life. I wanted the life that I wanted, and I want to be a part of the Barone family.