The Twelve Tables Ch. 19

With the extra help she now had, Bridgette managed to pull together a small feast for the eight men, sending a plate to the nursery for Peri, who had retired there to settle her babies and get ready for their mid-afternoon feeding. She had apologised for her absence at the meal and promised that should they visit again in the new year she would be the perfect hostess.

Josh's patience was wearing thin by the time the lunch ended, and he could tell that Dante seemed equally impatient and on edge. They waited because any attempt to draw their uncles out on why they had all come to meet with them and why they both had been asked to be there was easily deflected by their uncles.

"We will use the spare suite, it has a table for eight," Joseph announced standing. Joshua, you can bring Peri to us now and join your brother in his suite and wait for us to be ready to speak with you," he commanded and walked away towards the guest suites where Dante now resided.

"Wait? What?" Joshua and Dante said almost in unison.

"No harm will come to her we merely wish to speak to her," Joseph said over his shoulder not entertaining any further argument. Josh looked to Andreas for help but he merely came closer to where Josh stood and looked at him.

"He speaks as the Chair now, not your father, do as he asks, Josh," Andreas said quietly and followed his brothers to the other end of the house.

"You can't send her in there alone," Dante said, concern evident in his voice and stance.

"What choice do we have? You heard Andreas," Josh said still considering the situation.

"We say no, we stand together and just say no. We aren't children anymore Josh. We are the next table. There has to come a point in time when they listen to us," Dante encouraged him wishing Emilio was there to be the voice of reason and suggest a valid reason they were all here at the same time and wanting to see Peri. "At least give her a choice."

Josh nodded, but he knew, if given the choice to obey his father who was indisputably the leader of a family much bigger than anyone realised she would agree to talk with them rather than disgrace her husband. He had no clue what was going on and that bothered him more than anything else. He hated not being in control of his world, and he was still feeling as if he was on very slippery slope with the babies and Dante both altering his daily routine and priorities. He needed to know what was going on and if Peri going to talk with them would get him the answers he needed then he would send her. If he didn't, he might never know the real reason they had come.

"D. just give me a moment to talk to her. I will give her a choice and she can decide," Josh said with authority placing his hand on Dante's shoulder as if to stop him from following him. Dante opened his mouth as if to say more but closed it again and nodded. Josh had drawn a line in the sand, and he was not about to jeopardise the bond they had created by defying him as well as his father. He swallowed his misgivings and sat back down pouring the dregs of the wine bottle into his glass.

"How did the lunch go?" Peri asked quietly as Josh walked into the nursery.

"I don't know," Josh said honestly. "Something is going on. They rarely come together like this. They want to talk to you alone, in the guest suite," his face showed his concern as he said it.

"Okay," Peri said slowly and tilted her head questioningly. "I can't imagine why? There isn't another trial you haven't told me about is there?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Josh shrugged. "I feel like it's something important, though. I wish I knew what you could be walking into but honestly I have no idea."

Peri could see that he was worried, and she put the baby she had been nursing into his crib. Taking a deep breath, she smiled at Josh. "I love you, and I knew what I was getting into when I married you. I did all that research. I possibly know more than I should about your family and how the table works," she said quietly. She moved to him then and placed a hand on his cheek. "I chose this life with you. I'm sure whatever they want to talk about will be nothing more than that I remember the lessons of my trial and know my place in this family."

"I love you," he murmured and kissed her wrapping his arms around her. "You have a choice, and Dante is concerned that we do not know what they want. So as we go in, make sure he knows this is your choice." Josh did not want a rift between his brother and himself to develop over whatever was happening today. She nodded, and they walked toward the other wing of the house through the kitchen. Dante waited for them at the small corridor leading to the suites on that side of the house.

"Don't look so worried," Peri smiled at him. "I'm sure they just want to ask me if I am prepared to have more babies in the future after having so many at once," she laughed lightly.

"You don't have to do this," Dante said looking at the closed door to the guest suite.

"That's so sweet and exactly what Josh said but I think we all know I do," she straightened her back and knocked lightly on the door. Without looking back at either of them she entered at the invitation and took the seat offered at the end of the table as the door was shut behind her.

"You did well in your research of our family and the tables that have sat at the head of it over time," Andreas said once she was settled in the chair. "We have to commend you on that. You possibly know more about the positions each seat holds than we did before assuming our seats. I imagine you know more than the two men who wait for you on the other side of that door."

"Joshua vetted all my research, the book was his project for the family, I merely helped him with it," Peri said her loyalty to Josh making her push his efforts before her own.

"Tell me," Vincenzo interrupted pushing forward a sheet of paper that listed the position names and the work undertaken by each position toward her. "Did Josh read this?"

"I found random snippets of information that alluded to these, but I couldn't quite put my finger on any of them to say it was fact rather than just how some of the men were referred to because of their roles. Josh likes facts to be checked and doubled checked before adding them to information that is published, particularly by him, so I had planned to look into that further once I went back to work and had more time. Assuming that everything is moving along as planned with my team and there are no big issues for me to untangle when I return," she explained. "It's an incomplete list of assumptions at best, at worst I have wasted some time chasing a few generations way of doing things."

"I see, so the short answer is no?" he asked again.

"No, I didn't show it to him. Honestly, I didn't show him most of my notes. I guess my next question would be, how did you find it? I am sure I didn't allow anyone access to the protected files on my computer," Peri said curiously.

"I am the Watchman of my generation," he jabbed his finger at the list she had written some time go. "I know more about you than you would be comfortable believing," he said with a sly smile.

"So this was fact?" She asked her eyes widening. "That's wonderful!" Then her brow creased as she looked at the list and back at the six men around the table. "There are more roles than men here, do you have cousins that come to the table to make the twelve? I mean, I'm guessing there should be twelve even though I have only found nine mentioned in my research." She was excited more by the discovery that she had been right than by the fact that the men surrounding her held those roles.

"A member of the Battaglia family joins each table as a warrior, and there are always two men at arms. These are lesser roles and can be taken as you said by cousins," Vincenzo answered her question again. "You were right she has wisdom to go along with her intelligence." He nodded in the direction of Andreas and Joseph, who sat together at the far end of the table from Peri.

"What else can you tell us about this list and how the table is set up?" Joseph prompted her.

"Well," Peri said nervously pulling the list closer. "I believe that Papa is the Chair and the leader of this table. He drives the agenda, and it is his duty to populate the next table as best he can. The ultimate goal of having nine sons seems to have been out of reach of most of the tables I have researched. You came close though, Papa with eight." She lifted her head to look at him directly. In driving the family agenda, he links with the other tables both here and overseas to ensure the control of certain markets." She paused and looked at them nervously.

"That is a reasonable summary of my role, go on," he instructed, "The Oracle?"

"From what I could understand the Oracle is next to the chair, it's the Oracles role to mirror Chair. I had thought they would live together and share much of their lives, like living one life and sharing much of the leadership between them. The Chair is the public face and the Oracle holds the hidden power but that does not seem the case with this table," she paused and looked thoughtfully at how Andreas had pulled his chair alongside Josephs. "I could be wrong about that though."

"Go on," Joseph encouraged not correcting her or giving further information.

"The Oracle would be the one to gather information from each of the other members of the table including the chair, predict issues that may occur in various sectors of family, finance or politics and co-ordinate a pre-emptive solution. Ah, I get where the Warrior and Men at Arms come in now," she said out loud although she was talking to herself now. "Sorry, I just had an ah-hah moment," she gave a small nervous laugh. I had thought that the Oracle would possibly hold more power than the Chair but was protected by the Chairs public profile.

"My brother Christo was our Oracle, he died when Joshua was quite young," Joseph nodded to confirm her assumptions.

"The Chamberlain controls the family finances, not the general day to day things but the greater wealth accumulated by tithes and used by the Chair and Oracle in furthering the family agenda," Peri went on and found that with each role she named one of the men at the table identified themselves.

"The last two, the Physician, I assume is Pete, who looks after us all so well, and the Magician I assume was an alchemist, but I am unsure how that would translate into modern society," she finished lamely feeling like she had been talking for hours.

"Pete has taken over where our brother Bruno left off. Zino was our magician and worked mostly with technology though he was a fine inventor. The lesser roles are people who you have met but are of no importance at this time," Joseph said.

Peri sat back and considered the men and why they would have gone through this information with her and identified themselves to her. She said nothing as her thoughts chased each other around in her mind and the silence stretched out between them all.

"There is a major point of power behind each table and one you touched on only briefly," Andreas broke the silence with his deep strong voice. "There is always a mother of each table. A mother who brings forth and raises strong sons with family values. Our family values," his voice took on a strong tone, and she sat up straighter under the piercing gaze he gave her. "Antonia has been the perfect Matriarch but then she was born and bred to assume such a role."

"She is a wonderful woman and has made me feel like one of the family from the first moment I met her, although I didn't know who she was at the time," Peri still couldn't understand why she was receiving this information. "Emily is a wonderful mother, and when Ben steps up as Chair, I am sure she and her children will be the epitome of Donati strength and power."

"Why do you assume Ben will be given the Chair?" Vincenzo studied her.

"He is the second son. It is his by right of birth isn't it?" she said uncertainly. "Papa was the second son amongst you all."

"That is true, but it is not always the way. You have not studied the other tables as you have ours, but you will find that the law states a younger son, not specifically the second son, may inherit the Chair. It was a second son who was chosen to begin a new colony in the new worlds when they opened up but that was more tradition than family law."

"I hadn't considered the discrepancy in the wording. I had just assumed younger referred to the second," she mused. She looked up at them then as awareness dawned on her. "You are considering Josh for the Chair?" she asked incredulously.

"That will depend entirely on you and our discussion here today," Andreas said seriously. "Are you prepared for what will be required of you as Mother of the table?"

"Josh and I have always talked about having a large family like the one he grew up in," Peri said quickly thinking that a large family was the main requirement of being the mother of the table.

"That is not a requirement but rather a given of any woman who married one of our sons. The Mother of the table must take on responsibility for maintaining family tradition and structure. She must know each and every member by sight and name, that includes aunt's uncles and cousins and can extend beyond that over time. She must cater for the gathering every year and a meeting of the twelve tables once a year. She must know each of the chairs well including their likes and dislikes, by being in constant contact with the Mothers of those tables," Andreas spoke again outlining some of the bigger responsibilities she would be required to undertake.

"You're the Oracle, and I am the problem you are trying to pre-empt," Peri said before she could stop herself. "You don't think I am worthy," she said sadly.

"Quite the contrary little Mama," he gave her the first smile he had let slip since she entered the room. "You are the reason we are considering both Joshua and Dante to lead the next generation of the Donati's."

"I am? I don't understand," her mind was reeling, and she looked at each of the men. "You will give them both the chair? How is that possible? And why should it matter what I do where Dante's future is concerned?"

"You were right when you spoke of the Oracle. It is a position of great power and must be the mirror the Chair, though we refer to it as a shadow. You were right that they would live closely. So closely that they share a home and a family. More importantly due to the time each of them would be required to be away from the home they would share, the Mother," Andreas paused and watched her as she took in the words.

"Dante loves you. He has for some time, but it has become more obvious to everyone since the night that Emilio passed from our lives. I have known of the potential for love since your altercation with Sabrina Avic," Vincenzo added.

"Dante requested access to a Kept with similar attributes to yours because he would never expect you to betray Josh as he wouldn't want to either. Nor would he purposefully hurt either of you," Charles said quietly.

"Joshua is aware of his brother's feelings but trusts you both implicitly despite your growing affection for Dante," Vincenzo continued his report as the Watchman. "They have spoken about it, he does not hate the affection between the two of you, but he is not ready yet to see it manifest."

"I would never betray Josh like that," Peri said aghast at the idea.

"Josh will request it of you in time, you merely need to be open to the idea," Andreas said.

"Do you share Antonia?" Peri accused not imagining for one moment that that was the case.

"No that is not my role, but Christo did," Andreas said gently.

Peri looked at Joseph confused. She had seen the way he and his wife doted on each other. She couldn't imagine someone coming between them. She felt an overwhelming need to speak to Antonia. The silence lengthened as her mind whirled again. Josh would be the leader of this family. The family he loved above all else in the world and one she had willingly joined because she loved him. Her mind went to Dante and the dreams she had been having about him since having the babies, and she felt her face heat with a blush at her thoughts.

"I would like to talk to Antonia about all of this," she said quietly. "If Josh requested anything of me including this I would do as he asked. I may ask questions, but ultimately, I love him. I loved him enough to go through your trial of signing the contract, and I loved him enough to go to the facility. I loved him enough to put what Nik did to me behind me and look to the future even though every day I am terrified that she will come back to finish what she started." She gave an involuntary shiver and looked at them all. "If you're asking if I can do what is necessary to make sure my husband and in turn his brother, have the life they want and deserve, then yes, I can."

"This will not be a quick process, and each of the members of the next table will train with the man whose role they will eventually take over. In some cases, this may take years where we will sit at the table with them, but as they take over the role, we will each retire and let the next generation take over until they find the next generation prepared to take over. As with all of the positions on our table you will work closely with Antonia to learn things the other girls have known their whole lives. You will also continue your research and learn more. You have a keen mind, and it would be a terrible waste to let it atrophy," Andreas spoke again.

"And in my spare time I'll sleep?" she laughed shaking her head.

"She's not intimidated by any of this," Constantine who had been silent up until this point roared with laughter. "She's got my vote. I reckon she will give Antonia a run for her money." He continued to laugh.

"She made Dante smile again. That alone was good enough for me," Manuel nodded. "There's no reason to vote we all knew who the mother would be when we gave our agreement to the order of things. It is better for everyone especially Josh and Dante that you are agreeable, to the life you will need to lead, though." He turned to address Peri.

"I don't think it's me that you have to worry about," she said quietly.

"Joshua will come to understand what is necessary as he did when you went on your trial," Andreas said confidently. "I have helped to raise that boy for this day. The rest of the table will be told of the handover and their roles in the new year. Until then this conversation remains here amongst those who must know." He looked at her carefully. "The three of you, who will lead the next table, will have until the last day of December to prove you are all willing and able to embrace the traditions and laws of our family."

"Antonia knows more than anyone about the family, she will contact you and organise to spend some time with you between the wedding and the holidays at the farm," Joseph said. "You may go back to your babies and let my sons in here now. I am sure they are concerned with the amount of time we have kept you. Reassure them you are unharmed and send them in."

"No need to mention our conversation before they learn their fate," Andreas gave another rare smile.

"I understand," she whispered coming to her feet and stumbling as she was startled by the men coming to their feet as she left the table and the room. The door to Dante's suite was open, and she came to the doorway she saw them both hurry towards her.

"That was all very interesting," she said lightly with a smile. "It's your turn now." She returned Josh's embrace and laughed. "I love you," she murmured into his ear. "They're expecting you both," she said as he released her and leaned up to kiss him. Josh took a step past her and through the door turning back to look at Dante, who was following him before moving across the small corridor and into the room.