Introduction

From 1979 to 1990 the British government had acquired a truce with Russia on the strategic targeting of its I.C.B.M’s, this spelling the end of “The Cold War” and so beginning the founding stones of the domino trail that would lead the way to a whole new decade ahead. But deep in the background of all these world events and political concessions there stood a much darker plan manifesting within the ranks of ‘The Law Lords’, better known between The Secret Societies as the infamous “Baker’s Dozen”; 13 men who control the nation’s public, while they, the Lords themselves succumb to those ‘Four Houses’ of great power: The MoD, Police, Civil Services and Justice. As one ‘Secret Order’ to the next lock horns in the battle for global supremacy, only one with hope of uniting them all and bring balance within The Orders’ stands in their way.

When Lord Terrence O’Neill dies through ill health, his son Master Xander O’Neill is put in line to become the next Lord of The House, though this is no normal House. As the young man of seventeen is not seen in the eyes of the Law as old enough to lead his own ‘Order’, he is challenged for power and title. As the Global Order’s start to weaken, crack and fall through catastrophic events they put it upon themselves to protect him as others hunt to kill the Master, his journey is accompanied by friends and enemies alike; those who stay close assist him in many fetes and challenges, as those who are distant lay down their web of deceit, betrayal, loathing and lust for the chance to destroy the young man’s soul – by destroying the Family O’Neill name.

From Seacliffe to London, Scotland to Amsterdam, Xander fends for himself while discovering that he is more valuable to “The Orders’” dead than alive. Knowing this his Aunt, Lady Melissa James-Cartwright assigns him the protection of CPS Officers who are previous employees of “The Agency”, an intricate asset of The Home Office. And, as they each play their role in the Power Game; each being the descendant of a Noble, while each having their value and position defined by what they are: Ace of Clubs to The King of Diamonds – The House of Cards. Officially known as “The Jack of Diamonds”, not only will Xander be taking his place at Cacciatori Svegliarsi Villa – “Hunter’s Wake Manor” – but become a Lord, as well as becoming one step closer to the one true power in which to change the whole world “The Harpsen”; he who holds “The Harpsen” control’s “The Four Corners”.

1 the palermo connection

San Martino delle Scale stood upon the hillside of Strada Provinciale 57, an almost secluded area just 12 km outside Palermo, Sicily, between Montefiascone and Piano Del Geli. Steeped in history the large villa was once home to one of the original “Twelve Houses” that made up the notorious Point-to-Point “Sanctum dell’ordine”, better known to those of “The Four Houses” as “The Sanctum of The Order”; with only twelve countries of the world becoming part of this huge consortium of ‘Orders’, including those of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, America, Japan and New Zealand, as well as those who sat within their very own province’s, too, as it was the ‘Point-to-Point’ areas that would send out their most trusted representatives to each covered country and sit down for talks. These talks would cover various in-line schedules of Trade, Foreign Aid, Support and Financial Donations. In Sicily, it was San Martino delle Scale House which became the one true destination for such gathering’s known as “Ordinis Sancti” – “Order of the Sanctum”. In the Spring of 1978, however, after eight of the International ‘Orders’ broke away from the main body of “The Sanctum of The Order” to founder their own global ‘Power of Independence’, San Martino delle Scale became less used and as a result it was given a ‘House Title’ instead – “The House Of Swan”.

The split of the Houses brought a great strain upon the world, a world that to those outside of The Orders had no awareness that their very structures in life were dependent on the twelve entities working as a whole unit. Within only two years of its name change, San Martino delle Scale was reverted back to its original name and so faded from the memory of those who once graced its walls, halls and grounds and those who had given it assistance to now fend for itself.

San Martino delle Scale, Palermo, Italy – Present Day

Although Xander knew very little Italian, it was with patience that he announced that he would be willing to learn the language to better understand the local culture and to communicate between those he would come into contact with during his stay; just how long this stay was going to be would depend on how quickly the problems back home in England were fixed, and of course, the attitudes of those Lords who saw him as a threat lowering their guard and seeing sense: Sense that he was the direct descendant of Lord Terrence O’Neill, and try as they may, nothing would ever change that fact.

  ‘Your Mother, Maria, she was so beautiful and kind, Xander,’ Madame Angila Agrusa said with a pleasant smile, her eyes glancing over his youth filled face and seeing his Mother.

Xander thanked her for her kind words though troubled by them also.

  ‘Mi displace tanto, my apologies, Master Xander, I did not mean to make you feel…’

  ‘No, Madame Agrusa, it is me who should apologize to you. My Mother died a few years ago, my Father, as you will already know by now just a couple of weeks ago. I appreciate the nice things that you remember about my Mother, but I would prefer to remember her the way that I last saw her, if you don’t mind?’

With a warm smile and waving hand Madame Agrusa turned to Giuseppi and winked. ‘My boys here tell me that you have just had an operation to remove a rib from your heart. Would you like to rest before dinner, I’m sure that you’ll be very hungry after your journey here.’

Xander was hungry, starving even, and seeing as Staff Sergeant Maynard hadn’t been given the opportunity to keep his promise of giving him something to eat when he awoke, Xander gave a slight embarrassed look as the loud grumbling sound from his empty stomach echoed around him.

  ‘Giuseppi, would you ask Mr. Lesean to begin making supper please, and have him provide Master Xander with an extra helping, I’m sure he will be needing as much protein and vitamins in the coming weeks to help him return to good health.’ She called over to her son who was stood near the fire place staring across at Xander.

  ‘There really is no need to…’

  ‘Nonsense, there is every need, Master Xander. The injuries that you sustained were severe, in fact, were you aware that you lost all physical consciousness after you were attacked?’

Xander looked at Madame Agrusa in a way that chilled her to the bone. It was quite obvious that in the attack on him by Lord London and the other men, he would have eventually lost consciousness due to the ferocious beating in which they gave him. But this was not what the woman was trying to tell him, and after she returned a glare of discomfort, Xander knew this was something that he needed to know.

  ‘What are you trying to tell me?’ He asked shifting forward in his seat.

Raising a poised finger in the air, she asked both her sons, Giuseppi and Micheli to go and assist in the preparations for Xanders’ stay at the villa; Giuseppi to find the Cook and inform him to begin making supper, while for Micheli, he was to make sure that Xanders’ bedroom was made up and ready for when he wished to retire for the evening after his late meal. Both young men excused themselves politely before leaving their Mother to talk alone with Xander.

  ‘They are such good boys, Giuseppi and Micheli; they have a very great fondness for those things that I would not wish them to be a part of, if you understand my meaning?’ She revealed little in the way of details, but Xander knew only too well that parents had an overwhelming habit to dislike many things that their children enjoyed doing, even if it did mean breaking the rules of the House.

  ‘I take it they aren’t real brothers’, with different names I mean!’ Xander spoke up rather bluntly but all the same observantly.

Madame Agrusa chuckled to herself. ‘Step Brother’s, Giuseppi’s Father, my late husband, he was killed while protecting an Ambassador in Palermo. Micheli, well, his Father decided he would take off to America and seek out his fortune, and unfortunately, neither his daughter, son nor wife were a part of that. Don’t think for a moment, however, that they don’t have what it takes to be real Brother’s, Master Xander, because when it comes to protecting those of their family, especially their younger sister Margareta, they are most viciously jealous of any young boy or man who tries his luck.’

Xander was suddenly curious. ‘Margareta!’

Sitting back in her seat she shook her head from side to side, as if reminiscing her fond memories of a daughter, niece, even a granddaughter, maybe.

  ‘Margareta is the youngest of the family, but only by two years. She is Giuseppi’s real sister, though to look at the three together you would actually believe they were all of the same blood. You will meet Margareta tomorrow, she is returning home from Milan University for a couple of weeks. What I will say is that she is pretty free spirited, Master Xander, and one young woman that you would be better avoiding in some ways. Please feel free to fuck her at every chance you get, however, as the rest of Palermo’s men already have…’

Shocked by the sudden change in Madame Agrusa’s tone, Xander watched helplessly as she broke down crying, her shifting away to hide the tears that she began to cry from Xanders’ watchful eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry, I…I don’t know what came over me, please forgive me.’ She begged taking hold of a handkerchief from the sleeve of her dress and placing it to her face.

Standing up and walking over to her Xander placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to comfort her, and to accept her apology for such terrible things that she had said about the young woman.

  ‘If there is anything that I can do to help Madame Agrusa then please let me know. As you have asked me to stay away from Margareta, I shall honor your request and keep my distance. For now though, I do believe I can smell food cooking somewhere in the House, shall we?’

Holding out an inviting hand in front of her, Madame Agrusa turned with a strained smile, and for a short moment encouraged herself to take a hold of  it and leave the room for the dining hall with the young man she had agreed to protect under her roof. This was looking to be the start of a good friendship between the two, as Madame Agrusa would soon come to realize the kind heart that Master Xander possessed was nothing short of that same kindness that his Mother shared with the world.

  ‘Madre, eravamo sul punto di venire a prenderti,’ Micheli called out as Madame Agrusa and Xander walked into the dining room.

Glancing around at the puzzled young man by the side of her, she began to clap her hands together loudly to get everyone’s attention.

  ‘As we have a very special guest staying with us here at San Martino delle Scale, we must respect the fact that Master Xander O’Neill cannot speak our language that well. It would please me if we all spoke in English from now on, if that is alright with everyone?’

Strange was the feeling that here Xander was, in his education and tutoring of many different levels learnt to him in Latin, Spanish and even some Mandarin, but never once did he consider learning that of the Italian dialect; personally his hearing of the language was pleasing, though some words coupled with the body language and expression did require some getting used to. But, as he was going to be on the beautiful island of Sicily for some time, his looking forward to learning many customs brought him a huge wide smile that had everyone in the dining room smiling back with accepting nods.

From the kitchens Giuseppi had helped bring in most of the food that filled the entire length of the extra-large table, while Micheli’s persistence in wanting Xander to sit next to him was accepted almost immediately. Taking his place at the table Madame Agrusa held up her hands, a broken piece of bread in one snap and a small glass of red wine in the other. This to Xander was a strange feeling – unity.

  ‘Let us bless this table and those sat around it. We thank the Lord for giving good health and strength to us all. Amen.’

After prayers for the food were given they each tucked in, passing bowls and plates with a variety of fruits, meats, vegetables and savories around quickly, each time one plate was received and passed on another would be delivered until at last the plate which Xander had seen empty on sitting down at the table was now full to the brim. But, as much as his belly rumbled and as much as he really wanted to tuck in and start eating it all, there was something that he was waiting for – something that was of a custom not just here in Italy, but also in his home country too.

  ‘Che cosa sta aspettando?’ Giuseppi whispered over to his Mother, who immediately gave a loud tut.

  ‘English, Giuseppi! I said speak in English. Alright, let’s all eat.’ And that was it, what Xander was waiting for after the prayer and before taking the first mouthful from his plate. Custom was for the Host to start the meal.

After the late supper Madame Agrusa called in the servants of the House to come and clear away the dishes from the table, while both Giuseppi and Micheli excused themselves to go and watch television before turning in for the night. With a warm happy smile from their Mother, Madame Agrusa nodded and told them both to go and have fun while she talked with Xander some more.

  ‘Before you go and get some sleep, Xander, there are some things that I have to tell you, and afterwards, well, I am pretty sure that there are some things that you will wish to ask of me. First, the House is secured at night by our Security Staff, which means that you cannot go wandering around by yourself at night, is this perfectly clear?’

The similarities of Cacciatori Svegliarsi Villa came to mind; the rules being very much the same in their common understanding that there were armed staff that guarded those who lived there and, as a safety precaution nobody wanted to be mistaken as an intruder.

  ‘I understand, Madame Agrusa,’ Xander confirmed with a nod.

Hesitating to tell the young man before her the next rule of the House, she pushed them all aside for a while and put out her hands across the table for Xanders’. Taking a hold of them he gave a slight uncomfortable smile.

  ‘If I told you that the rules were simple, you would understand what I was talking about, wouldn’t you, Master Xander? I mean, you’re young, intelligent, very handsome, so there must be some pretty fair and mature negotiating going on inside that head of yours.’

Throughout the late supper Xander had noticed how Madame Agrusa had drank down a full bottle and a half of the red wine, though this was not uncommon in these European parts, the automatic thought of remembering how his own Mother used to drink heavily at meal times – as well as at all other times – had taken Xander to a belief that Madame Agrusa was drunk and as drunk as she had become was now inappropriately revealing innuendos as to his appearance.

  ‘I understand perfectly, Madame Agrusa, and as your respected guest I will follow them all to the letter. However, may I ask you something?’ Xander confirmed the rules were understood and that there would be no breaking any of the House customs on his part.

  ‘Of course, please, you must have a lot of questions to ask, and please, call me Angila.’

Shuffling in his chair to get comfortable he looked down at the table for a moment before finally raising his head to look directly at the woman before him. Xander’s eyes were fixed on her eyes, hers to his in complete lock.

  ‘When my Mother and Father came here to visit, did they ever bring me?’

This was an unusual, but valid question, if not one of the first that Madame Agrusa had imagined him asking this early in his stay. And though this was conceived as an innocent question to Xander also, it was the expression of something more than guilt which came to hang on the woman’s face, even when she gave her simple rely as ‘No, never.’

  ‘The reason I ask, is that when we were driving up here this evening, I could have sworn I’ve been here before. Though my parents’ House is pretty much the same layout and design as this beautiful big House of yours, Madame Agrusa…Sorry, Angila,’ Xander complimented before correcting himself.

  ‘As you say the design is much the same as Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa, as there are others very much the same all around the world too. If you like I will tell you of them all, but not tonight as you must rest and get your strength back. There may be dark times ahead of us all, until the Houses can come to some form of order.’

Agreeing with a smile Xander began making his way to the door before being called upon by Madame Agrusa, who rushed over to him with haste.

  ‘Just one more thing before you leave, Master Xander, your name, it would be better that you change it temporarily, until it is safe to return home, that is.’ She declared waiting for his reaction to the suggestion.

This was a strange, but true matter that would have to be addressed sooner or later. Of course, a select few of the staff that Madame Agrusa and her family employed around the House could be trusted well enough to keep the news of his arrival and short stay secret. As for those of guests, however, the same thing could not be said of them to keep his identity or location to themselves.

  ‘Could I not be named after one of your sons, perhaps, and then the suspicion would be far less?’

  ‘Actually, those who come to visit know too much about my family and me so, it would be very prudent to make you a Nephew or a distant Cousin to Giuseppi or Micheli, don’t you agree?’

The fact that San Martino delle Scale was no longer one of the main visited Houses by “The Sanctum of The Order” didn’t by any means neglect it from the occasional visit by those still involved in the business acquisitions throughout the ‘Orders’. Sooner or later, whether they were prepared or not, the question would be raised on “Who” Xander was, and if there was anything more embarrassing than this question being raised, it was the one’s asking the question going on to ask more questions that made things more complicated.

  ‘I’ve always seen myself as a Robert, though my favorite name in the whole world has got to be Travis…’

  ‘Robert!’ Madame Agrusa giggled loudly. ‘I think we can do much better than that, don’t you think?’

Xander was surprised by the woman’s reaction, especially as she had asked him for his opinion in the first place. Maybe this was just a pleasantry that she had put forward as to see what he thought, and in the nature of things, maybe if he had said another name – any name – she may have accepted it.

  ‘How about…’ Madame Agrusa fell into deep thought, her eyes squinting, her left hand index finger prodding the air as though she was calculating.

  ‘Angelo’

  ‘Angelo! Are you…’

  ‘Angelo Swan,’ she added with the perfect interruption as for the door of the room to swing open and Micheli to walk right in to hear Xanders’ new founded name for the duration of his stay.

  ‘Eccellente, Master Xander…I mean Angelo. Would you mind if I borrow my Mother for a few minutes, please…Cousin?’ Micheli said correcting himself twice; once for the breaking the new House rule of speaking no Italian, and secondly for almost calling Xander by his official title and not that of the new name in which Madame Agrusa had just given him.

Informing Micheli that he was turning in for the night and that he and his Mother were finished, Madame Agrusa rubbed her hand down Xander’s arm and wished him goodnight while she and Micheli made their way out of the dining room and across the corridor to the Study Hall. Making his way up the stairs Xander stopped and turned to call down to Micheli.

  ‘I’m sorry, which is my room?’

Having given his Mother bad news, Madame Agrusa excused Micheli before they came out of the Study Hall to approach Xander standing on the stairs.

  ‘Oh dear, yes, I forgot about the room. Here, I will show you.’ And with a spring in her step she made her way up to meet him, her face showing something different than that which Xander had seen before, something that leaned more heavily on her mind than the mere overlooking of the room for his stay. If Xander didn’t know better, exactly what he saw in her eyes, was The Tremadale; the beginnings, maybe, but definitely the spark existed.

  ‘Is everything alright, Angila?’ Xander asked with concern.

  ‘Everything is…No, I’m afraid I have had some very disturbing news from an old friend of mine. I had hoped that it would have been good news instead, but alas, it has come to pass that I must inform people of a very tragic incident.’ She revealed.

The news of Lady Melissa Cartwright had finally reached European shores, and in its haste to become known to those ‘Houses’ overseas, the messenger had failed to realize that those of the opposition would also hear of her untimely death too. Of course, one further problem persisted to hang on Madame Agrusa’s’ mind and that was how to break the news to Master Xander – His Aunt Mel was dead.

  ‘Was it a family member?’ Xander asked innocently.

Ushering the young man up the rest of the stairs and leading him down a long dimly lit passageway, Madame Agrusa played for time in an attempt to answer nothing until Xander was inside his bedroom and prepared to hear what could only be considered to be heart breaking news. Finally, both of them reached the end of the passageway, the door to the bedroom where Xander was to sleep was wide open and, as he entered he became filled with a small overwhelming sensation of joy; the room was almost a complete replica of his bedroom back at Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa in Yorkshire, except for the walls that were painted and papered in a dreadful light lilac shade.

  ‘Do you like it, Xan…I mean Angelo?’

  ‘It’s absolutely fantastic, it’s like…It’s like home,’ he responded running up to the foot of the four poster bed and leaping through the air to land on the soft mattress that bent to the shape of his body as he landed down hard upon it.

Madame Agrusa was so glad that he was happy with the room, especially as she herself had looked out the paints and furnishing’s while in Palermo that same week. And with determination between her and the painters who had come over at the drop of a hat to go to work on the very large bedroom, which coincidentally used to be that of Margareta’s, before she left for Milan University less than a year ago.

  ‘You mean, you did all of this…For me?’ Xander was ecstatic with the hard work she had put into the decorating, while at the same time feeling the pain of his injuries with the heavy landing on the bed, before sitting up to nurse his sore ribs.

  ‘Are you alright?’ She asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed, half scaring him for the thought that she may still be feeling a little beside herself from the consumption of wine at supper.

  ‘It’s okay, I think I may have landed on a bruise or something, I’ll be fine.’

Taking the opportunity to pluck up the courage to tell him about Lady Cartwright, Madame Agrusa put a hand onto his knee and smiled. Of course, with such thought’s still fresh in Xander’s mind, he jumped with fright and started to panic. Madame Agrusa believed the start was due to his attack from Lord London and proceeded to calm him down enough to reassure him that she wasn’t going to hurt him and that he was nothing but safe in her care.

  ‘I just…I just don’t like being touched, that’s all,’ Xander replied grabbing a hold of his pillow and sliding away from the woman’s hands.

  ‘I understand completely, and I am very sorry. However, there is something that I need to tell you, Master Xander, something that may cause you great pain and sadness…’

  ‘Madame Agrusa, I’ve felt great pain and sadness like you would not…’

  ‘The bad news, Xander, it was not for me directly, but for you. Agent Michelle Carter, the woman who placed you in my son’s protection, she…’

  ‘Has she died?’ Xander exclaimed almost derailing Madame Agrusa’s’ train of thought completely.

  ‘Who, Michelle, no, not Michelle, she’s fine.’ She replied looking up at the ceiling to think of the best way to explain.

  ‘If Michelle is alright, then who is it that has been hurt, is it David?’

The sudden wall of silence didn’t help matters being concluded, though the matter at hand was as delicate and as if telling someone that one of their parents had been killed – Just like his Mother, Maria O’Neill.

  ‘I don’t know how quite to put this Master Xander, so I will just come out and say it. There was an incident involving your Aunt Melissa in London, and she was hurt really badly. The hospital did everything that they could to help her recover…but her injuries were too great I’m afraid. What I’m trying to tell you is…’

Madame Agrusa didn’t need to continue telling him the news that she had heard, Xander was already aware that she was attempting to lighten the blow. All the same, the silence, the look on his face and the way in which he pressed hard into the pillow that he held together so tightly was enough to signify that the comprehension was acknowledgement – the only thing to do now was to make sure that the young man had someone there to help him through the emotions, if he did so wish. Even his thoughts on Amsterdam, when it was Mrs. Torelis-Myer’s who had informed both him and Michelle of the shooting, but at that time Lady Cartwright was in a stable condition.

  ‘I’m so sorry Xander, I knew your Aunt Mel so well before your Mother…’

  ‘Can I go to sleep now, please, Madame Agrusa?’ He whispered putting the pillow over his mouth and turning over on the bed to face away.

Without questioning him she nodded and left, closing the door quietly behind her to turn in herself for the evening. The day had been quite a long one, for both her and for Xander, but at a cost to the young man who would find himself alone and without any home support should the wolves come knocking at the doors of San Martino delle Scale looking for him.

Cacciatori Svegliarsi Villa – 1984

  ‘Be as quiet as you can, Xander, we don’t want to wake your Father now, do we?’ Xander’s Mother whispered opening the door to an upstairs room that Xander had never been in before.

Xander stood fixed to the floor, stiff legged and afraid to move a muscle by the words of warning that his Mother had just given him. A few seconds later and Maria had opened the door and was now pulling her son’s pajama sleeve while keeping a strong grip on the door handle so as to close it quietly behind them once they were inside.

  ‘Alright Xander, stand here and wait till I close the door. There’s a light switch somewhere around here, I’m sure of it…Ah-ha, here we are.’

The whole room in which they were stood lit up instantly with the flick of the switch on the wall. As Xander looked around the room his Mother rubbed her hands together excitedly, her only thoughts were of him liking what he saw when the lights came on and presented him with a great surprise.

  ‘Wow, this is a great room Mother, whose is it?’ He asked as if he didn’t know.

Surprised that he hadn’t guessed by the way the decorative surroundings were for a child his age, she suddenly changed from looking excited, to that of disappointment.

  ‘Gotcha…’ Xander laughed with a wink.

  ‘Why you little Munchkin,’ she cried chasing him around the bed and back to the door before catching him in her arms and pulling him close to her.

  ‘Can I sleep here tonight, Mum, please?’ He begged.

Maria was suddenly poised in deep thought; the room had been arranged for Xander, and yet, it was done between the times that his Father, Lord Terrence O’Neill was either out doing what he did to keep the country safe from Tax Evader’s, or when he spent endless hours in The Great Hall with his ‘Half-Mast Trouser Brigade’, as Maria often referred to them. The very thought hadn’t even occurred to her, however, that Terrence may actually like it, but then why would he after publically disowning his own son in front of the entire gathering of guests during a High Hat Ceremony?’

  ‘I’ll tell you what, why don’t we wait a little while longer and then show your Father?’

Xander was suddenly feeling not so enthusiastic; it was as though the mere mention of his Father had spoilt the moment, so much so that he bowed his head and began walking to the bedroom door.

  ‘Xander, where are you going?’ She asked following after him. But Xander didn’t reply.

Taking a hold of his shoulders Maria pulled him back toward her and then turned him around to find out why he had such a sad face.

  ‘My Father won’t like it, will he?’ Xander sighed.

Not being able to understand why he should say such a thing brought Maria to her knees.

  ‘Of course he will like it, Xander. What makes you think that he won’t? Has your Father said something to you, Sweetie?’ She enquired calmly.

Xander reminded his Mother that his Father had, only a couple of nights before told all The Lords how he was ashamed of him. How he – Xander – was not of true family blood, but that of a Bastard Father who had not the courage or balls to take on his responsibility of him. But of course, all of this was old news now, and as far as Maria was concerned, Xander was her son, and that was all that mattered.

  ‘Your Father was angry at me, not you, Xander, you have to know that. Sometimes parents fight and at some point parents will say some things that they don’t really mean…Like what your Father said the other night…’

  ‘You mean, he didn’t mean to say those things, he was just angry at you?’

Xander was showing to be a growing young boy, as well as becoming very smart too, as Maria was starting to realize by the way he was now observing many things around him and drawing his own conclusions from processing emotions, sayings and even certain anxieties experienced in human nature.

  ‘Actually, do you know, I think it’s time we made a little deal you and I, Xander O’Neill. It’s so clear that you are all grown up now, so let’s agree that we don’t keep things from one another, is that okay?’ She whispered while giving him a big hug.

Maria knew that if Xander was as smart as she believed he was, then he would turn down the offer in favor of saving his Mothers’ feelings. If he accepted, then it would not be to insight the hurt to her feelings, but to merely agree to please her wishes. This was a Mother thing and nothing at all to do with the unconditional love and bond that they both shared, but yet, it may have been construed by a lot of people as some form of emotional blackmail heaped with arrogance on Maria’s part.

  ‘But what if I wanted to keep a secret that I promised not to tell Mum?’ Xander whispered under his breath.

Maria had to think; she didn’t want Xander to believe her intrusive or that she was checking up on his behavior as such, she just wanted to be able to talk to him, if and when the occasion arose.

  ‘Then that secret you can keep, there, how’s that?’ She replied with a forced smile.

Xander was happy, and yet he was unhappy for some unknown reason to his Mother. For Xander, it was the failure to inform her of the secret he had buried deep down in his mind that had brought self-disappointment.

  ‘You don’t look so sure’

  ‘I’m sure,’ he said, ‘I just want to tell you, but I’m afraid that they will come and get me when I’m asleep, just like they said they would if I told anyone else…Especially you, Mum.’

Xander’s words rolled out of his mouth like that of true innocence, except for that of Maria, who found the words harsh, coated in a layer of hurtful innuendo that scared her to the bone as to what her son was trying to tell her – what was he trying to explain to her? It would appear that Xander had been warned! Yes, warned not to tell another soul of something, but what was it? The fearful tone in his voice was of “They”, so this would imply that there was more than one person involved, but in what?

  ‘Come along Xander, nobody is going to get you while your asleep, don’t be silly!’ She added with haste while he was still in a state of sadness from the ‘Father incident’.

  ‘I’m not being silly, they told me if I told anyone what they were doing that they would come and find me while I was sleeping, and I would never wake up again – Ever! I don’t want to sleep forever, Mum!’

Shocked! Terrified! Lost for words except for the stifled gasps in which she made into her handkerchief to quieten the noise from travelling out of the room, Maria let go of Xander and stepped back toward the middle of the room. The look of shear horror on her face as the imagined thoughts that someone – friends, guests, even family members of the House – had hurt her son, was now making her feel sick to the pit of her stomach. She had to find out more, even if this whole thing turned out to be truly innocent, she could not just let the subject or conjecture of the half conversation of innuendos fall to silence or failure in learning the truth from her son’s words.

  ‘Now, Xander, I need you to tell me exactly what they told you NOT to say. Okay?’

Xander looked catatonic, to the state of being non-responsive to his Mother’s request in telling her the details of such an awful accusation which involved her twelve-year-old son. Re-approaching him with a more calm and sensitive composure Maria again knelt down in front of him on bended knee before taking a firm, but gentle grip of his shoulders.

  ‘They told me that I was not to tell anyone what they were doing to me!’ Xander replied sheepishly.

  ‘And…What were they doing to you, Xander?’ Maria asked with dread clearly sounding in her voice.

As a sudden wall of silence fell upon the room, from across the hallway outside the sound of Terrence’s voice boomed out, his demand in wanting to know where both she and Xander were. It was this that had the boy flinch with fear and his whole body stiffen before shaking his head vigorously from side to side.

  ‘Its…Its Dad, he’s angry because I told you about the secret,’ Xander pulled free from his Mothers grip and ran to the bed where he hid himself under the bed clothes and fell deafly silent.

A few seconds passed by when Terrence opened the door to the room and set his eyes on Maria, who in the moments leading up to his unplanned entry had gained her composure and now stood staring at him with almost soulless eyes.

  ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ He demanded leaning in and looking around the room as though searching for something – or someone.

  ‘What are you doing up here, Terrence?’ Maria asked, almost demanding why he had entered the room where she and her son were.

Terrence looked at Maria with a puzzled expression. ‘Whose room is this?’

Without giving an answer she quickly made her way up to him and pushed him back until they were both standing outside the room in the passageway, and then, with a little pull of the door handle to close Xander inside, she raised her hand and slapped Terrence hard across the face with a swift precise strike.

  ‘YOU SICK BASTARD! ’

The strike to the face had knocked Terrence off balance, while at the same time forced him to step back blindly toward the bannister rail that was low enough to take him all the way over, if he hadn’t have reached out and grabbed Maria’s silk scarf that tightened around her neck with his swaying weight. With a low and stifled begging plea to her, Terrence looked back to see that the drop to the ground floor was a fall that he would not survive if she allowed him to fall.

  ‘One thing Terrence, just one thing stands in the way of me letting you go and hitting the fucking marble hall you love so much.’

With restraint Terrence managed to balance his body weight, enabling himself to hold steady long enough to think about what his wife had said. Time was not on his side however, and if the question was not asked quickly enough, then the answer could not be given, or the saving of his life carried out. Terrence was terrified with the thought of falling, and this Maria knew all too well. Her back was cambered, eyes set, while thoughts of a wicked intent had taken a lasting hold of her.

  ‘Okay, name it and it’s yours! For fucks sake, Maria, you have everything that you’ve always wanted from our marriage, so name it and pull me back.’

Knowing only too well that Terrence had a well-known reputation for breaking his promises when it came to either her or Xander, she knew that he would have to swear on the only one thing that he dare not break – his word as a Lord; the customary word of a gentleman could be broken at any time in a case of such a misdemeanor, though for being a gentleman, there were no rules saying that their word was that of their bond. In the case of a Lord, however, tradition brought one thing that would carry a great deal of consequence, should he break the word of his title. It was this that she needed him to swear on before she helped him do anything, including saving his life.

  ‘Alright, I swear on my title as a Lord, name it and it’s yours…Come on, Maria, I’m falling…’

  ‘Xander, my son, you leave him alone, you and those twisted fucks you call an Order! If any of you as much as touch another hair on his young body, I will see to it that you are crushed like the fucking bug you are, do you hear me, Lord Terrence O’Neill?’

Running out of scarf to hold onto, he nodded and gasped with desperation.

  ‘Alright, alright, I give you my word, nobody will go anywhere near Xander from my Order again, you have my word as a Lord. Now, pull me back…Pull me back.’

Taking a hold of Terrence’s wrist with her small nimble hands Maria pulled him back into the hallway away from the edge of the bannister where he was now safe from toppling over, his sweaty forehead signifying that he was indeed afraid of what might have happened had he not given his word in time to her. It was now time for him to straighten himself up and shrug off the embarrassment, that of the humiliation, too, which had had him groveling for his life to a woman who in his eyes had betrayed him, and the promise to a son that was neither his to support or care about.

  ‘You bitch! You could have fucking killed me, what the fuck was that all about, Maria?’ He demanded.

Reluctant to answer, Maria stayed quiet, her silence was enough to tell Terrence that she stood by the words and the promise he had given. And, with a stare of admission Terrence turned away and left her standing on her own at the top of the landing hall.

  ‘Mum, is daddy going to hurt me?’ Xander exclaimed suddenly appearing from the room without as much as a sound to let Maria know that he was there.

Turning around quickly she attempted to make out that she had just stepped out for a moment to see where his Father was, and that everything was going to be alright from now on. What Maria was unaware of, was the fact that Xander had seen her forcing his Father to make the promise and that he and The Order members would never again hurt him in the way that they had.

  ‘Of course not, I told you, nobody…You saw all of that didn’t you Honey?’ She conceded upon realizing that her son witnessed everything that she and his Father agreed on through pure and simple blackmail.

Xander nodded his head. ‘At least Dad gave his word!’

Unintentionally, Maria laughed at the way in which Xander’s resolve of the situation was of his Father learning a lesson in which not to mess with his Mother, though in a very short time it would be this example that would teach him that not all problems could be fixed by the same actions as those put on a person of weakness.

San Martino delle Scale, Palermo, Italy – Present Day

Xander had fallen into a deep sleep after he had cried so many tears from the news of his Aunt Melissa’s passing. The night was pitched with a warm breeze that came across the open top hillside while making its way through the open windows of the large Mansion House and around each room. Downstairs the barely noticeable sound of an approaching car pulled up outside the entrance where the few Staff remaining overnight began moving around the House bringing a startling surprise for the young Englishman. In the darkness of the whole building light footsteps made their way up the stairs and entered his room, which Madame Agrusa had picked out for him especially for his stay. With cautious hands the door was closed quietly as in the dimness of the cloud covered moonlight shining through the fluttering curtains the figure of a woman took leave of her clothing and climbed between the covers before resting her head down on the pillow next to a half asleep Xander. A few minutes later and the woman turned over, her arm dropping across the duvet and resting upon a soft, warm, naked torso.

  ‘Che cazzo! Who the fuck are you?’ She gasped with an almost breathless shriek that scared ander half to death.

Jumping out of bed Xander started to rub his eyes of the sleep, his focus blurred from the dried up tears that he had shed only a couple of hours before, as the naked female figure clambered out of bed too, making her way to the light switch where she turned it on to see who it was that she shouting at. Xander stood silent in his nakedness, his thoughts jumbled in turmoil.

  ‘Who the hell are you? And why are you covered in bruises?’ She demanded immediately placing her hands onto her hips while waiting patiently for an answer…

Xander was lost for words. ‘I…I’m…!’

  ‘Well, I’m, would you mind fucking off while I go to sleep in my bed?’

The tone of her voice was piercing, alerting and yet, it was also very familiar to Xanders’ ears. Suddenly finding the right stance in which to speak, Xander pointed his finger straight at her.

  ‘I think you’ll find…Whoever you are, that this is my room!’

The young woman stood poised, her eyes slowly falling down from Xanders’ face to his chest at first, and then continuing its descent to an unaware hardening erection which the young man was completely and utterly oblivious to displaying. While he had found the words to speak, it was becoming more obvious that they were failing to be heard, as he began to notice the sparkling brown eyes of the young woman before him were no longer paying attention to his face, but were in fact dilating and staring at his groin.

  ‘Santa Madre di Dio, che è una grande gallo!’ She gasped licking her lips slowly and giving a strange smile.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said that is one big cock! Who are you? What are you doing in my room?’

Suddenly shaking her thoughts from the display before her, the young woman began issuing demanding questions that she expected to be answered.

  ‘I might ask you the very same thing, how did you get in here?’ Xander replied grabbing his jeans from the end of the bed and turning away from the young woman’s transfixed eyes.

Though turned away from the young woman – Margareta – who was the daughter to the Lady of the House, who had returned home without knowing that Xander had been welcomed as a guest, he couldn’t help but feel her eyes burning into the back his head. As Madame Agrusa had told the guest very little about her daughter, however, there had been enough information shared to have the young Master react in a way that would surely please the Mother.

  ‘Margareta,’ the young woman spoke up. ‘My name is Margareta.’

Xander turned, fastening the top button of his jeans while now throwing on his shirt and straightening it the best he could.

  ‘Margareta Agrusa, you’re the daughter…’

Shaking her head from side to side while giving in to the thoughts that her Mother had already enlightened him of her sexual exploits, Margareta put up a poised finger.

  ‘My Mother is something of a drama queen…!’

A moment of silence concluded that Margareta was enquiring to his name, of which Xander, when he had finished dressing formerly introduced himself with an outstretched hand. It was, however, the way in which Margareta stood; her hands still hugging onto her bare fleshed hips, feet apart and the whiteness of her naked breasts that had Xander having second thoughts.

  ‘Angelo, Angelo Swan…My apologies, would you not be better with some clothes on, I mean, I’d like to…’ Xander struggled with his words.

  ‘You’d like to what exactly?’ Margareta knew already that the young man standing in front of her found her attractive, as with his stiffening penis that even by her standards made full mast faster than most men she had known.

  ‘Discuss this matter in a more adult way, if that is what you wish?’

Master Xander was becoming uncomfortable, something that unlike him to shy away from; had this happened at any other time, or place, or with some beautiful young woman other than the Lady of the House’s daughter, then he would have accepted the incident as an act of luck or fate. But this was not just anywhere and the moment had been untimed with the presence of a beautiful young woman that he had given his word he would not entertain in such an encounter. This was a scenario that he had not faced before – ever – and as it was something of a strange feeling; his mind already making a number of mental notes for it to never happen again, he did but sigh.

Margareta had heard clearly enough Angelo’s suggestion that they dress and talk about the situation, though in the young woman’s eyes a more mischievous and sensual suggestion was about to be delivered to Xander, one which would clearly test his red blooded animalistic counterpart roaring away inside.

  ‘How about you get naked and tell me what you want to see out of this awful mistake, and while I’m riding that beautiful cock you have, I will give you some suggestions of my own. How does that sound?’ Margareta purred.

The suggestion was immediately brushed away by Xander though Margareta’s sudden advancements toward him were received with resistance and avoiding steps that led him to the bedroom door.

  ‘I am a guest of your Mother, Lady Agrusa, and you are her daughter…’

  ‘Fuck my Mother! She has more chance of patting you on the back and handing you a condom than throwing you out of here, Master Angelo Swan. Besides, I haven’t had a fuck all day and I’m feeling as horny as hell.’ Margareta sighed with frustration.

Xander knew that he had to do something before both he and Margareta were called upon by someone in the House who had seen or heard the young woman enter the room and shout out aloud.

  ‘Maybe we should talk about this downstairs!’ Xander suggested shyly walking quietly out of the room into the hallway outside.

Margareta did not answer. Turning around to find out why she did not argue the suggestion, Xander found to his bemusement that she had not only jumped back into bed, but also turned off the light, turned over and began to fall asleep.

  ‘I don’t be…!’

As Xander’s words began to slip from his lips his attention was drawn to the sound of male voices on the landing below him. It was the Private Security making their rounds throughout the House.

  ‘Well, that’s just fucking great!’ Xander sighed closing the door to Margareta’s bedroom before making his way across the landing to the top of the stairs, where he was met by two burley built security men.

  ‘Perché sei fuori della vostra camera?’ One of the men cried, his hand tucked inside his jacket as if reaching for something concealed.

  ‘I’m Angelo…My name is Angelo Swan, I am a guest of Madame Agrusa and…’

The two security men looked at one another and gave a short burst of laughter before turning and walking on past Xander, who was by now alarmingly puzzled by their reaction to him.

  ‘Margareta ha fatto di nuovo, credo che questo ha molto da imparare!’ The second Security Man said with a smile and gentle slap on Xander’s back.

The Security Man who asked what he was doing out of his room stopped and turned to face Xander, who was still standing on the stairs wondering what the two men had said to him. It was this look that the Security Man recognized, and with an almost silent tut he walked back to the young man and placed a gentle hand upon his shoulder.

  ‘You are English?’

Xander nodded. ‘Yes, my family are…’

  ‘The young woman who has taken your room, she is Madame Agrusa’s daughter, Margareta’

  ‘I know.’ Xander growled.

Again the two Security Men began to laugh, but quieter this time.

  ‘My name is Carlos, my friend here is Joseph, come with us, we will finish our check of the House and then you can, as you say in England…Hang with us. Yes?’

Xander was hesitant at first, but then, after a couple of seconds he conceded to the fact that it would be better to “Hang” with the Security Men than wake the whole Household up in order to find him an alternative room to sleep in for just a few of hours.

  ‘Okay, lead the way Carlos, I’m all yours.’ Xander agreed with a strained smile following slowly behind them both.

The two security men lead Xander through darkened halls and even darker corridors at the top of the House, while all the time they asked him if he had been to San Martino delle Scale before, to which Xander admitted that he found the building familiar, though it would have been a very long time ago when his parents visited from their home in England.

  ‘This House is steeped in very much history, Angelo, much of it legend…Myth even, as to whether it is true or not, you understand?’ Carlos informed him.

Xander nodded. ‘You mean like Hero shit and all that?’

  ‘Yes, Hero shit and all that! The House was a port…A meeting place of Order’s. My Father used to work here a long time ago, and he used to come home and tell me and my brothers strange stories of important men and women who were Cosa…’ Carlos silenced himself.

In front of the three men a door was seen to be ajar slightly, as inside a light was flickering on and off as though a coded message was being sent via torch light into the darkness outside. This was unusual in the sense that there were no guests in this part of the House, just empty rooms where the space was used for storage.

Ordering Joseph to go on ahead and for Xander to stay where he was, Carlos whispered into his radio to alert the rest of the House Security. As soon as this was done the two security men continued on their way to position themselves by the side of the room, and then, after the count of three they made their move…

  ‘Merda Santo! ’ There came a loud scream as both Carlos and Joseph sprang into the bedroom with their guns at the ready. It was Madame Agrusa, and she was scared half out of her wits.

Xander, too, with the sudden scream was scared for the fact that he was not expecting the reaction. Emerging from the bedroom Madame Agrusa was seen telling the two men off, or at least it appeared she was telling them off in the strongest words of Italian that Xander didn’t and couldn’t understand. In less than a minute, the woman’s eyes fell upon his, and it was this look that became stuck on Xanders’ brain like a cattle branding.

  ‘Oh My God, Angelo, what are you doing here?’ Madame Agrusa demanded rushing over to him.

  ‘Madame Agrusa, I’m sorry, I was…’

  ‘Are you alright, I mean, is there something the matter?’

Madame Agrusa’s reaction was saturated in concern, though to Xander there was no call for the reaction as he was absolutely fine. Nevertheless, the woman hugged him close and patted his back as a Mother would, when her child had awoken from an unsettling nightmare.

  ‘I’m fine honestly I was just helping Carlos and Joseph with their rounds before breakfast.’

  ‘Helping Carlos and Joseph, really?’

  ‘I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?’ Xander asked unsure whether he had gotten the two men into trouble or whether her disappointed reaction was due to something else.

Calling the two men over to her, Madame Agrusa looked at each one in turn before asking why they had brought Xander with them on their check. As they walked past Angelo, Carlos gave a wink and smile, for which Xander smiled back and turned to Madame Agrusa.

  ‘They tell me that Margareta has returned early…You’ll need another room.’

The tone in which she spoke was predominantly filled with both anger and anguish, as well as the visible signs that she was in deep thought; maybe that of expectation or something more serious as to Margareta’s behavior while she was with me in the bedroom.

  ‘She stole my room!’ Xander spoke up without thinking of what he was saying aloud, until he had actually said it.

Madame Agrusa turned her head slowly to him to show a look of disbelief. ‘She stole your room!’

Taking Xander gently by the arm Madame Agrusa lead him back down the hall from where he had followed the two security men, while asking the tired young man a series of questions regarding her daughter, Margareta, and in particular of how she was when he last saw her. Of course, Xander being Xander, as to his nurturing having taught him to always be honest, precise and forthcoming, it was the next couple of moments that had Madame Agrusa wishing that she had never asked the question.

  ‘Margareta…She was naked and most notably horny the last time I saw her!’

  ‘Naked! Horny! Are you sure?’

  ‘Quite sure, before she stole my room, which of course technically it was her room, but it was the room that you gave me, so it was my room. Yes, she was definitely naked and pretty horny, or it was cold outside judging by the hardness of her…!’

  ‘I get the idea, Xander,’ Madame Agrusa interrupted before he could finish his sentence. ‘What I meant was, how did she look in herself, you know, did she look happy?’

Xander thought back to when both he and Margareta were talking, or to when Margareta herself was doing most of the talking and he was listening. It was at that moment that he remembered that she did have a half formed smile on her face, but this was not an emotion that he felt she had brought with her to the House, but more what she discovered when returning – a fully naked young man lying in her bed sporting an erection which he failed to realize he had…or act upon

  ‘Actually, as the room was dark I was unable to see whether she was happy or sad. In my experience, I must admit, your daughter is a very hard woman to work out, especially in the dark.’

Continuing onward to the stairs, Madame Agrusa pointed over to her daughter’s bedroom door with an almost deniable impulse in which to approach and knock; should she have knocked, would Margareta have been hostile, or would she have welcomed her Mother with a warm embrace and excited show of love? The answer to this was lost, for a while anyway, as she shook her head slightly and began walking down the stairs to reach the bottom.

  ‘There are more than fifteen bedrooms in this House, and from all fifteen my daughter decides to visit yours in nothing but her…’

  ‘Nakedness, oh yes, I mean, I am no stranger to the natural customs that you have in this country, Madame Agrusa…’

  ‘Master Xander, may I say, you are not helping in this matter. Follow me and I will arrange for one of the night staff to fix you up a room and while you are waiting I shall join you for a Midnight drink of Cocoa and maybe a cookie.’

The matter of Margareta’s return back to the House and the manner in which she introduced herself to Xander was quite obviously finished with, though the Cocoa and cookie’s would have more of a chance in being discussed than the young woman who, for some strange reason unbeknown to Xander looked faintly familiar.

  ‘Tomorrow I will have Micheli and Giuseppi take you into the city and get you some new clothes, it should be good for you that my sons are more …well, let’s say more approachable than my daughter, but, I must warn you, Master Xander, Micheli has this damned strange liking for colorful fabrics. My advice…!’

Madame Agrusa was suddenly stopped by one of her staff at the bottom of the stairs.

  ‘I am so sorry to interrupt, Madame,’ the young Maid, who to Xander looked almost too young to be staff apologized with a swift and awkward curtsy, ‘I was told that you need a room for your guest in the North Wing of the House, Madame Agrusa!’

Madame Agrusa stared at the young woman for a moment before looking away. ‘North Wing…Ah, yes, that will be fine, Monique, Hector will show you which one will be perfect for our guest. Will there be anything else?’ Madame Agrusa asked, noticing that Monique was paying a lot of attention to Xander.

  ‘I, erm, no, thank you…I mean, I will go and get Hector, Madame,’ Monique finally replied after her instinctive feelings realized that both Madame Agrusa and Xander were waiting for her answer.

Continuing on to the kitchen the two held in their laughter of Monique’s highly visible fondness of Xander; and why not, he was young, attractive and above all, he possessed something that not a lot of young men his age did – charisma of the finest breed.

Inside the kitchen there was a Butler and three other Maids who were almost of the same age as Monique awaiting Madame Agrusa’s arrival. The Butler, Mr. Lesean, had prepared French toast and the finest blended ground Cocoa chocolate. Linuzza, Arazia and Marannina were at Mr. Lesean’s side waiting to take a hold of the food and drinks to serve both Madame Agrusa and Master Xander at the small table where they had seated themselves.

  ‘We received news from England after you retired to your room last night, something that you should be aware of while you stay here, Master Angelo,’ Madame Agrusa exclaimed quite suddenly. “The House of Justice” has been given temporary placement of Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa, so that the Orders find some kind of calm and knowledge that should anyone come looking for you, they will know there will be severe repercussion’s.’

Personally, Xander’s knowledge of The Four Houses was lacking in description and purpose, and the whole Power House Play was of no interest to him, until such a time as he was ready to return back to England and swear his allegiance to Cacciatori Svegliarsi Villa as an official Lord.

  ‘Why do you dip the toast into the Hot Chocolate like that?’ Xander asked quite suddenly, his question almost certainly avoiding the news that Madame Agrusa was awaiting to hear a reaction to.

  ‘The French Toast gives the Cocoa a more embodied taste, if it was just toast, the flavor would be spoilt by the encased starch…’ Mr. Lesean intervened to answer the question, much to the objection of Madame Agrusa, who was used to all her staff members knowing their place.

  ‘But why dip any toast at all into something that is so delicious tasting anyway?’ Xander insisted, his further questioning dispelling any chance of Madame Agrusa reprimanding the Butler’s untimely interruption.

Madame Agrusa displayed an inviting hand for Mr. Lesean to further explain to Xander the custom in which had been around for almost a century, to which he pulled out a chair and sat himself down by the side of the inquisitive young man.

  ‘Our tradition of French Toast, though it is almost insulting to the Sicilian, has encouraged a more fundamental breakfast feast than any other food to fill those served. Sure, you could put a plate of toasted bread down to a man and encourage him somehow to dip it into the cocoa, but to what end when the bread breaks up inside the cup and becomes mushy. With French Toast, however, it is the sealing from whipped egg white and the added peppered yolk mixed at just the right time, that we avoid the bread being exposed to the hot liquid.’ Mr. Lesean concluded.

Xander found Mr. Lesean talking like that of a chef, rather than that of a Butler who tended to the running of the House, and it was this that made all the difference, opposed to himself, who would just make up the closest things at hand. Mr. Lesean, however, made it clear that his passion for creating niceties and delicacies was in his nature, not in his duties to Madame Agrusa or the others who lived in the House.

Taking a piece of French Toast from the plate Xander hovered it over the wide oval cup of steaming hot cocoa, his eyes switching between that of Mr. Lesean and Madame Agrusa, as though awaiting permission to dip it into the smooth chocolaty drink. With silent nods both gave a smile before Xander lowered the Toast into the cup for a few seconds and then lifted it up to his mouth to take a small bite.

  ‘Wow!’ Xander exclaimed with a wide smile. ‘That is…!’

  ‘Sensational?’ Mr. Lesean added with anticipation.

  ‘Sensational, absolutely,’ Xander agreed, again dipping the French Toast into the cup and eating more until at last the piece had been devoured.

After finishing the plate of its contents, Mr. Lesean was excused and Madame Agrusa had one of the Maids escort Xander to his room, the one which had been prepared on the North Wing of the House. On the way, however, there was no conversation made with the Maid, Arazia, just the occasional glance to and fro before reaching the room.

  ‘Your room, Signore, if there is anything you need, please let me know,’ Arazia finally spoke in a polite and pleasing tone.

  ‘Thank you, as I am going to be here for a while, it would be good to have someone with knowledge of the House handy, have you been here very long?’ Xander smiled a reply that had Arazia blush slightly.

  ‘Three years, Master Angelo, my services started after my degree at Oxford University…’

  ‘Then you are English born!’

  ‘No, I am Sicilian, but I love everything about the English customs and their ability to let their hair down.’

Inviting Arazia into his room and closing the door behind them, Xander looked around while the young Maid talked about her time at University; from the start off when she was not so good at speaking English, to eventually passing her degree and leaving for Sicily where her Mother was in very poor health. It was this that interested Xander the most, as Arazia pointed out the intercepting help of Madame Agrusa and the two sons who assisted in her getting better.

  ‘So, San Martino delle Scale, you are a Maid here, nothing else?’

  ‘We Sicilian’s take being House Staff Members very seriously, as well as being proud to serve those who employ us, Master Angelo. If there is anything that you wish to know about San Martino delle Scale, then I would be happy to tell you.’ Arazia replied, her voice almost seeming insulted by the gesture of being referred to as just a ‘Maid’.

Walking up to the young woman Xander put out his hands for her to take, while the apologetic look on his face was accepted. Accepting his hands Arazia was led over to the freshly made bed and with a gentle push to be seated Xander sat down by her side.

  ‘What do you know about me, Arazia?’ Xander asked in a most serious but low tone that brought a more than expected puzzled expression to her face.

For a moment the young woman remained silent; observations upon her clasped hands, tightened and stiffened body of an uncomfortable situation and the averting of eye contact told Xander that there was something there that maybe she did not want to disclose, or something that she had been ordered not to share by the Lady of the House.

  ‘Oxford University, that’s a pretty big step in the direction of a great and prosperous education, don’t you think so, Arazia? Supposing that such as a degree…Which degree was it?’

  ‘Housekeeping…’

  ‘Housekeeping,’ Xander chuckled, ‘Right, and that is something that takes a beautiful young woman like you all the way over to England to study for a degree. Okay, so, you have your degree and in the last hours of returning home to Sicily, you decide to what?’

Arazia was puzzled with Xander’s approach. ‘I do not understand.’

Standing to his feet Xander made his way to the bedroom window where he looked out and across to an open window of another bedroom facing his, its familiar setting of furniture under the bright light of the full moon showing everything that suddenly made him realize that the room was that of which had been stolen from him by Margareta upon her return. Changing his position slightly he became aware that not only could he see every piece of furniture, but he could also see very clearly the bed and its sleeping occupant who was now stretched out on top of the covers; the soft white milky skin of her legs, buttocks and back that appeared to glisten and gleam in whitened beams of the moon. Her half positioned arms that stretched outward and forward of the headboard to rest peacefully on the fluffed up pillows that sat away from her face, and the occasional shadowed glance of the freshly shaven peach shaped lips of her vagina that had the perfect V-slit posture that Xander had not seen in a long time goaded his appetite, summoned him, almost begged him to return to the room and take charge of her slim fragile body within his grasp.

  ‘I don’t understand, Signore Angelo,’ Arazia repeated, only this time having left her seat upon the bed to stand by Xanders’ side at the window, she too now resting her eyes upon Margareta’s beautiful naked body.

Turning to respond to the Maid, Xander was immediately met with the expectant eyes of Arazia, her exposure to the sight in which Xander himself had been a witness to forcing her to part her lips and lick them slightly with an overwhelming feeling of excitement coming over her. Xanders’ eyes sparkled in the flickering light, his chest rising and falling with each breath that he now took as before him Arazia took a hold of the button at the top of her blouse and began unfastening it, then the next one just as slow, until finally she had released them all and now pulled away the fabric with both her small thin hands.

Looking back across the way to the bedroom where Margareta was laid, Xander took a forced intake of breath as he felt the warmth of Arazia’s hand tuck itself down the front of his jeans, sliding easily behind the fastened zip and top button. And, although the action could not have been done by him himself, Arazia had managed to do it without any trouble before taking a firm gentle grip of his hardening cock; half aroused by the vision of Margareta, while the displaying of an ample portion of pert breasted flesh, hardened dark nipples and almost the same milky white flesh as her Lady’s daughter’s body, she rubbed at him slowly.

Standing in almost an eternity of soothing, sensual awareness that the Maid was being masturbating him, it was soon time that he had to make a move – any move – in which to show Arazia that he was not being so selfish as to let her do all the work for his own selfish gain of achieving an orgasm. This was not what Xander was, or how he behaved in such a situation where it was clear they both found an attraction to one another in an arousing state of pleasure.

  ‘Wait,’ Xander gasped, pulling her hand free of his trousers, only for her to try and push it down again. ‘It’s okay, I just need to get these off and then you can carry on.’

The words gave Arazia a reason to pause and give off the most erotic mischievous smile that Xander had ever seen on any of the girls’ faces he had had the pleasure of making love to, or indeed, just to spend a night fucking them until the early hours of dawn. Arazia had all the hallmarks, and more, of the past lovers in which Xander had bedded, and yet, there was something very sincere about her actions and body language that would otherwise register ‘Familiarity’.

  ‘There, now we can…!’

Cutting Xander off with a finger to his lips to shush him, Arazia lowered herself down onto her knees before rotating her head to see exactly what size of long, thick and girthed penis she was about to take into her mouth. A slight gasp gave a moment of concern to Xander, but with comprehension that the sound was directed at his cock and nothing else, he tilted back his head and relaxed to the gentle moist, warm suckles and long drawn out rubs that collaborated in Arazia’s blissful technique of pleasuring him. The low and stifled moans that the feeling gave Xander were welcomed and rewarded with deeper lengths of his cock being taken into her mouth and along her moist wet tongue that wrapped, licked and forced the foreskin back and forth. The quickening actions eventually bringing the hardness to a twitching pulsating throb that now told Arazia that he was nearing orgasm brought her to stop, but only for a brief moment as Xander looked down at her expectant face, nodded and whispered for her to go on and finish his first wave of copulation that would fill her mouth with his warm salty cum.

  ‘It is so hard!’ She gasped, again taking it in, but now thrusting her head back and forth to finally receive the contents of his well filled Man-Sack.

With the sensation building throughout his whole body as he stood above the young woman, he turned his head around to the window where he looked over to gaze upon Margareta’s nakedness. It was the sight of her now repositioned body on the bed that had his mind imagining that it was she who was knelt before him, she who was taking his Man-Dong deep into the back of her throat and, her who was about to feel the full length and thickness of his manhood deep inside her wet, moist cunt.

In a single instant, with the reaction sound of Arazia moaning with loudening pleasure, the sight of Margareta’s pussy on full display and the overwhelming feeling of his cum rising up through his shaft, Xander gave out a loud stifled groan that released him from his erotic thoughts.

Looking away from the window and down to Arazia, Xander marveled in the feeling as several long jets of semen erupted from his cock and squirted to the back of the young woman’s throat, her managing to take the whole load adding to the intense excitement that had him shooting more. By the time he had finished, Arazia had swallowed half and allowed the rest to escape from her mouth to run down her chin onto the milky white skin that now shone and glistened with soaked wetness.

  ‘Wow that was a lot of spunk!’ She remarked rising to her feet and for reasons unknown to Xander began fastening her blouse, only for him to nod once more and silently lead her to the bed.

  ‘Why don’t you take off the rest of those clothes and lay down?’ Xander whispered softly but with a dominant hint that brought excitement to her.

Looking down at the cock that she had just sucked Arazia saw to her surprise that it had not done that which others had done after she had pleasured them with oral sex and gone limp, but had somehow remained hard enough for Xander to now concentrate on pleasing her. This was not thrown to one side, nor was it denied of Xander not to indulge himself either, but was greeted with the young woman tearing off the rest of her clothing and within moments pushing herself back across the bed and only too happy to enjoy the actions which he was about to carry out on her.

  ‘You have such a beautiful body, Arazia you have the most beautiful mouth, tongue, lips…’

With no words or reply, Xander shed the rest of his own clothes and made his way onto the bed where he squatted down between her legs, pulling them apart and marveling at the trimmed fine hairs surrounding the tight shaven lips that were to be the focus of his attentions for the next several minutes. With small gentle kisses along the inside of both legs from her knees, he made his way down to the hot confines of an excited twitching crotch; the feather-like touch of Xanders’ tongue was trailing down the smooth skin as though delicately licking and teasing each and every goose bump, each follicle of invisible hair and each erogenous point leading to Arias’ Honey Pot of Bliss.

Further into the recesses of her groin Xander kissed, lapped and sucked at the flesh, his eyes showing a fevered temperament that had been ignited by the very sensations of his overwhelming orgasm, and yet, the temporary taming of such a feeling had given him the power to abide by the animalistic code in which to lap at the young woman’s flower flaps with keystroke precision and effect; each lick ending at the tip of her love button, each lap going deeper into the doors of her cunt, while each small gulp that he allowed himself swallowed the start of love juice that would have him tossed into a sexual frenzy of wanting more, as the deeper his overextended tongue would go, the more it would trigger her inner depths to squirt and drip.

  ‘OOOOH! That feels so fucking good!’ Arazia bleated, the small of her back arching upward to allow Xander to engulf more of her peach shaped pussy around his wide open eager mouth.

This was the moment of separation; where there could be a moment of clear thought brought down on the situation and where the thought could bring around the urge to reposition his body as to take her with the pulsating length of his cock, to finally inject the young woman’s body with powerful long thrusts deep inside her sapping wet hole.

  ‘Do you want me to take you, Arazia? Do you want to feel me deep inside of you? Do you want me to fuck you?’

Still half delirious from the long and exhaustive eating of her pussy, she tried hard to raise her head and answer the question: the answer to which Xander already knew the answer.

Lifting himself up onto his knees with ease, he took a hold of his swollen cock in one hand, the excess length falling heavily across Arazia’s stomach and bouncing on the reacting muscle tone that showed off a fine outline of her well-shaped body. The short, frequent tensions of her excitement a sure sign that it was now time for to push himself into the rim of her open pot and slowly force his length inside her depths, until at last the sensation again approached and had him fill her love canal with his seed.

  ‘I’m still…!’

With a half listening ear, as well as the half concentrating adjustment to his cock that was being teasingly rotated around Arazia’s seeping hole, Xander was unable to stop the first long thrust that tore its way along the very tight confines and deep into the wanting pussy which was untouched, unstretched and unbroken by any other man’s organ or object – Arazia was still a virgin!

Giving out an agonizing scream of pain that filled Xander’s ears and rang through the very nerve endings of his brain as a warning that the entire House hold would have heard the sound, Xander pulled back quickly, taking himself out and gazing down at his cock that was still hard. There on the end were the remnants of Arazia’s’ hymen, the blood dark, clotted, and wet as it had been forcibly broken, torn and ripped wide open but certainly not severe enough as to discontinue – if she didn’t want him to. Her undeniable pained expression displayed the brief passing agony of her lost virginity; that silent momentary hold-back of shocked breathlessness and the dilating pupils that brimmed few tears until finally the conscious conquering of mind over matter brought forward an eager chasing of that one favored secondary feeling which had fire blazing through each and every vein throughout her body.

  ‘I’m sorry, Arazia, I didn’t think that you were…I mean…!’

As the silence fell upon the whole room, the waiting for any reaction of the loud scream from anyone around the rest of the House was the first priority of Xander’s, especially as it was a member of Lady Agrusa’s staff that he was alone in his bedroom with. It was only after a few minutes of learning that nobody came charging through into the bedroom that they both knew they were safe, and that nobody could have heard the root curdling noise except them themselves.

  ‘Maybe you should…’

Arazia reached over to take a tight grip of Xanders’ wrist, before guiding his hand over to her now dry breast.

  ‘Yes, maybe I should just lie down here while you finish what you started…You want to finish, don’t you, Master Angelo?’ She asked, half expecting a refusal and for Xander to ask her to leave.

Running his fingers through his hair and giving a refuted deep sigh, he searched his mind to find the one thing that would replace his train of thought and help resume the great feeling that Arazia had given him up until the moment he had broken her in to his length and girth.

  ‘I tell you what, how about we jump in the shower and you wash my back!’

The suggestion was not eagerly accepted, nor was it denied to the point where the awkward silence was that which showed a more different approach to brushing someone off at the slightest hint of a problem they didn’t want to talk about. The idea was simple, and as far as Arazia was concerned, it was the perfect solution to an otherwise embarrassing situation where she had not been completely up front with Xander by letting him know of her purity.

  ‘Alright,’ she answered finally, ‘but none of that Water Sports shit while I’m washing my hair, Okay? I’m not ready for that kind of kink yet, but maybe later I could be convinced.’

Leading the way into the large en-suite bathroom, both Arazia and Xander grabbed a towel before throwing them over the top splash rail and climbing through and into the wet floor shower cubicle. Once inside Xander turned on the shower and stepped under the high jet spray to wet his short dark hair before he took a hold of Arazia’s hand and pulled her toward him playfully. With a gasping moan at the changing temperature of the water from freezing cold to warm covering her body, she closed her eyes and laughed out loudly while Xander took hold of a small shampoo bottle and squeezed a blob of the contents into the palm of his hand.

  ‘Here, let me soap you up,’ he said teasingly.

Turning around to face away from him she lifted her long hair and pulled it over her shoulders to help him work the gelled liquid into the scalp before he began massaging the suds deeper into and through her hair. With the enjoyable sensation alone that she felt with the head massage, Arazia was starting to become aroused, as was Xander, too. When he had finished washing her hair he told her to close her eyes while he washed the soap out and then she could do his. It was when she took the shampoo in her hands that Xander saw something in her eyes, not soap, not water, but something that had him think of a feeling he had experienced some time ago back home in England, and obviously it was something that had Arazia asking what it was that was wrong?

  ‘Nothing, I was just…Never mind, come on it will be sunrise soon and I really want you to see it with me after I’ve made you cum.’ and that was it, the first and last time that the matter was discussed.

As with the feeling that Arazia had experienced with Xander, now Xander felt it too; the deep probing thin fingertips that massaged their way through his short cut hair and rubbed across his scalp while the warm water rushed over his battered and bruised  body. Mixed with the suds it forced the goose bumps up across his skin, hairs stood on end and the sensation spread down, across and around his whole body to eventually reach his extremities which stirred and twitched into an excited frenzy that hardened his cock to its last state of erection. Rinsing his hair off with the shower head Arazia didn’t have time to acknowledge that all of the soap suds were gone before he turned quickly with both hands grabbing hers he pushed and pressed her against the shower wall, positioning himself behind her with his hardness. Finding the opening of her tight slit with the feel of his helmet parting the smooth warm lips he pushed, first with a slight thrust to get inside, and then with one final thrust that took his length as far and as deep inside her as he possibly could before being stopped by the unused tightness that restricted his length. Arazia gasped out with surprise at the first intake, then gasped with excited pleasure and pain at the second, but finally Xander was inside her and now he had to make the experience as pleasurable as he could for her – for now she was a woman.

For near on twenty minutes, Xander fed her pussy as much as he could of his shaft, changing and switching side’s, even body positions so that she could feel exactly what it was like to have a lover who could make her cum too – and she did, numerous times. The hot steamy water fell for what seemed forever before finally, with a stiffening spasm sending Xander into a much deeper sense of ecstasy, Arazia felt the first forceful blasts of sperm exit his penis and spray deep inside her stomach, to slowly run back down her pussy walls and trickle out onto the inside of her legs. After the fourth and final squirt had left his body, both he and Arazia stopped and breathlessly made their way to the shower wall before leaning against it to catch their breath.

  ‘OH MY FUCKING GOD! That was…incredible,’ she gasped out the best way that she could between pants.

Xander was glad that she was happy with the performance, although what was to come next in the form of an apologetic brush off was something that he was neither looking forward to saying, and certainly something he was in two minds on whether or not to follow through with.

  ‘How in the hell do you do that, I mean, she said you could but…I mean, you know, there aren’t many men who can do that, are there?’ Arazia praised while hesitating during mid-sentence.

If Xander had not heard the young woman’s error during her statement, then the night would have ended in a perfect way for them both. But, he had heard the little mistake by way of Arazia giving away the one thing that made his mind up for him in which to give her the brush off. But first, first he needed to know who this “She” was?

  ‘Who said I could do what?’ He demanded turning off the shower.

Arazia was suddenly engaged in her own pity of messing up the one true exhilarating experience that so many women would have sacrificed anything and everything for, but now it was too late to take back the remark which could so easily have been averted.

  ‘Well?’ Xander demanded again, only this time gathering the energy up enough to rush over and take her by the wrists once more, though this was not in any way an act of sexual foreplay.

  ‘At Oxford, some young woman was giving us a blow by blow account of you and her…doing it.’ She finally answered pulling her arms free of his tight grip.

Moving away from her he thought for a moment before shaking his head. ‘What woman? What was her name? Where was she from? Where is she now?’ Xander’s face now showed an undeniable ire.

In all fairness there were too many questions for Arazia to answer all at the same time, and something that was within a time span of a couple of minutes before Xander was to throw her out of the room to finally get to the truth out of her was not looking too promising.

  ‘Okay, let’s start again. Who is this woman?’ He re-approached the situation.

Arazia covered herself up, putting an arm across her breasts, her other arm stretched a shaking hand down to cover the soreness of her well worked Cunny, while Xander stood with hands on his hips in front of her.

  ‘I don’t know her full name, I just know that she liked to be called Tasha, that’s it, that’s all I know. We were dorm girls at Oxford, she was hardly there and when she was all she went on about was this young guy she had met who was the “Dogs Bollocks” of the John Holmes world…’

  ‘Hang on,’ Xander interrupted her with a puzzled stare, ‘what makes you think it was me that she was talking about?’

It was this question that Xander now anticipated a very long edged stab in the dark guess; as there were many men, both young and old who could perform just as good and for just as long as he did.

  ‘If you believe that I am just a Maid in the services of Madame Agrusa, then you are more stupid than I thought!’ She replied giving a knowing look that had Xander slightly worried.

  ‘Then you know who I am…Who I really am, I mean?’

Nodding her head Arazia reached forward and grabbed the bath towel from the splash railing before she covered herself up and turned to face him. ‘Master Xander Barisa-O’Neill, you are the heir to one of the most famous Houses in the world…’

  ‘Then you also know that by just having this knowledge that they could have you killed? So why take the chance on revealing that knowledge?’

The sudden laughter that erupted from Arazia was enough to show Xander that she didn’t care, or that she had not covered each and every base for a time where she was discovered to hold the information, which without a doubt was just as deadly as a High Guard contract out on your head.

  ‘My Father was one of the most respected men of Sicily, and his long line of associates entrusted him with many secrets that could have ended their lives, too, but he was very smart and wise until he died at the good age of seventy-three. You think that because I know who you really are that I would try and blackmail you, or sell the information onto the highest bidder, don’t you, Master Xander O’Neill?’

In Xanders’ mind this was one of the many possibilities that he had not ruled out, though, to be honest, he was in no frame of mind at the time to rule it out entirely; many people, including those in England who were aiding him, had made sure that he was taken to the safety of San Martino delle Scale in Palermo. Already having two fatal casualties to his name, Xander was not in the mood to make Arazia victim number three.

  ‘So, what is this?’ Xander demanded, he too reaching out for his towel and flicking it over his shoulder before walking calmly out of the shower and back into the bedroom.

  ‘La mia iniziazione al womenhood,’ Arazia replied with a mischievous purr.

  ‘La mia…what?’

Walking up to Xander slowly while pulling her towel open, she gyrated her body teasingly while acting out a provocative dance, until she was finally stood in front of him with the towel now tossed to the floor in a heap. ‘As I said, what all of this is about, is my initiation into Womanhood, Master Xander O’Neill.’

Xander was beside himself, his mind trying to work out a puzzle that was never meant to be worked out. It was the craziest answer that he had ever heard; many of the women from his past sexual encounters had used metaphors and silly lame examples unusually depicted as savored or satisfied outcomes, but this that he was hearing from Arazia, this was something completely new to him.

  ‘Really, is that what you call a quick lick and fuck in your world? An initiation to womanhood is far more than that Arazia, though you are so naïve to even see it, aren’t you?’ Xander explained with a nodding of his head that annoyed the young woman enough for her to turn her back on him and start stamping her feet on the floor angrily.

  ‘You can say all you want, but I know what Tasha told me was true and now, now I am a real woman because your Manhood has enabled me to ascend to a much better place.’

Laughing out loud Xander grabbed Arazia by the arm to turn her around to face him and, it was this action that caused a slight misunderstanding on her part, as with sharp reflexes she grabbed a hold of his wrist and pulled him over her shoulder into the air before flinging him to the floor – hard. Xander was not impressed.

  ‘Holy shit Arazia, what the fuck?’

Realizing what she had done, she immediately dropped down onto her knees and began to comfort him, her hands checking his chest and head for any injuries he may have sustained when hitting the floor the way that he did. Of course, Xander’s full advantage over the moment came as to make his move against the woman and render her harmless by wrapping his arms around her neck and shoulders so that a full head lock would leave her powerless.

  ‘I don’t like this position,’ she gasped.

Xander was in pain from his injuries. ‘This isn’t foreplay Arazia, if you try to move I will hurt you, do you understand?’

She understood the words, but the true value of them was empty and meaningless: Xander didn’t mean what he said – it was a warning that carried nothing but an empty threat to scare her.

  ‘It sure feels like it to me…Oh yes, it does!’ She said with a gasp as with the small of her back she began to feel Xander’s hardness throb and extend while it made its way across her dampened skin.

Releasing her from the hold he pushed her forward and away from him. ‘Are you going to play nicely or do I have to put you across my knee and spank you like the naughty little Paroxinate bitch that you are?’

Shocked by the revelation and amused by the prospects of Xander taking her in hand, as well as anticipating the painful pleasures of stinging sensations in which would follow each slap across her naked buttocks, Arazia chuckled while standing to her feet and assuming a position in front of him that would encourage the punishment even more. But Xander was at a point in his enquiry that had distilled any further sexual antics – or so he had thought.

  ‘Do you want to hurt me, Big Boy?’ She whispered with a slow teasing lick of her lips that had Xander looking deeply into her eyes with a near ended surrendering smile.

In a moment of complete and utter loss of control Xander rushed to his feet to grab out at Arazia, but, before he could get a hold of her the door of the bedroom swung open to let in the light from the landing and with it a long dark shadow that cast itself across the room carpet.

  ‘Che cazzo sta succedendo qui?’ The demandingly loud booming voice of Margareta filled the room. She didn’t look happy at all.

Shocked and surprised Arazia made her way to the bed quickly to cover herself up with the top quilt and hide her nudity from the unexpected guest, though Margareta herself was without a gown or the modesty of underwear.

  ‘What the hell Margareta! You come barging in here like you own the fucking place…’

  ‘And you didn’t see it coming? You’ve been standing at your window watching me lay on my bed half the night, and you didn’t even think of inviting me over for a taste!’ Margareta replied shaking a finger at Arazia, as if she was her Mother telling her off.

  ‘A taste! Watching you, are you fucking serious?’ Xander gasped.

  ‘I’m talking to Arazia, not you!’ She cried out in a low voice.

Margareta’s words both surprised and offended Xander. ‘What the fuck!’

Closing the door behind her Margareta walked casually up to Xander where he stood near to the bed and without warning pushed him back onto the sheets. At the very same moment he landed Arazia, who was now shedding the blanket took a hold of him, pushing his arms into the soft mattress so as he couldn’t move. It was now with a wide smile across her face that Margareta jumped up through the air and straddled the helpless guest while positioning herself into a comfortable position across his masculine thighs.

  ‘You’ve been a naughty boy, Master Angelo Swan, and in this House, if you have been naughty, you have to be punished!’ She whispered reaching her hand down between her legs to his swollen member where she took a firm hold and began rubbing it up and down slowly.

  ‘We have rules that should never be broken here at San Martino delle Scale, would you like us to teach them to you, Master Angelo?’ Arazia gasped as her eyes lit up with Margareta’s soft strokes.

Xander had shrugged off the shocked feeling, as his cock was a sure sign of that, only to be replaced with an uncontrollable cascade of pleasurable feelings filling his entire body. The two young women were thorough in their techniques of having him become hardened with each and every touch, every stroke and caress that made contact with his now very sensitive penis.

  ‘Rule number one: No guest shall go unsatisfied on their first night,’ and with this Margareta raised herself high enough to clear the tip of his hardness before lowering down and guiding the thick bulbous helmet into her waiting tight depths.

A stifled gasp indicating that she had not taken something so big before had Xander turn to Arazia and give an acknowledging nod before she released her grip of him and positioned the now free hands on each of Margareta’s hips. At the same time Arazia leant forward and began kissing Xander, first with a sequence of pecks that searched for various parts of his face, until finally she found his open mouth to push her tongue deep inside while sucking passionately at his warm breath and probing soft, long wet, smooth tongue.

  ‘J-E-S-U-S, you’re big!’ Margareta gasped between squats, lifting herself again to push down harder onto the impaling cock that made her inner walls run with shudder after shudder of streaming love juice.

Keeping himself focused on riding the pussy that was taking enjoyment in its pleasure, Xander slid and entwined his tongue around Aria’s, while at the same time he removed a hand from Margareta’s hip to go looking for Aria’s wide open sex pot and gradually push a single finger into her silky smooth hole. The low quickening breath and needing tongue that wrapped itself around his, made the knowing that she was becoming more turned on and horny better for his own shuddering near jizz shots that he calmed immediately with the pinching and nipping of Margareta’s waist to slow her down.

  ‘Don’t you dare cum just yet! I want to feel every solid inch of you inside me before you cum!’ Margareta warned with a look of absolute ruthless passion burning in her beautiful Italian soft brown eyes.

He had no intentions of Cumming just yet, especially as this moment was one of the first he had ever experienced where two beautiful young women had agreed to share his uninhibited passions and wild Animalistic craving’s in which to satisfy their needs. Never before had he become the sexual prisoner of the opposite sex, not in England, never in Europe, not anywhere, but what he was going through right there and then was something that every red blooded male on the planet would swear to being absolutely electrifying.

  ‘Why don’t you swap over?’ He gasped pushing Arazia’s head away gently to look at Margareta’s exquisite luscious body bouncing up and down upon him.

Almost lost in the moment of pure ecstasy, Margareta’s face was twisting at each intake of his length. Her hands pushed down on Xanders’ scarred chest and tender bruised stomach, her legs quivering, eyes rolling and her lips trembling to the painful pleasures that consumed her womanhood.

  ‘I want it all,’ she moaned, her eyes opening to show a look that Xander had only seen once or twice before that night, but all the same he had seen it before and recognised it to be that of “Bliss”.

Conceding to the fact that Margareta was never going to give up the riding seat to Arazia, he gave a gentle squeeze of the Maids hand to get her attention, and then with a smiling wink he pulled her head back down and started to kiss her passionately. As the kiss became quicker, faster, more heated with passion, he started to push his hips up to meet Margareta’s, until together they were fucking one another at such a speed, that Margareta was gasping, throwing her head around and clawing at Xanders’ chest with uncontrollable raw passion and desperation to cum.

  ‘OH MY GOD…OH MY GOD, I’m Cumming!’ She shrieked out so loud that both Arazia and Xander feared that this time somebody in the House must have heard, and that at any moment the door was again going to be flung open by the security men – or worse still, that of Madame Angila Agrusa.

As the first powerful squirts of thick love juice began to rush its way down and cover Xander’s throbbing helmet the hot liquid feeling had his manhood twitching, until all of a sudden, as Margareta was sure that the orgasm she was feeling had finished the forceful jets of Xanders’, spunk shot up the full length of his shaft and out into the depths of her pussy to collide with an even bigger, more powerful orgasm that had Margareta arch herself backwards to try and control; her legs, arms, stomach, chest and breasts shook and trembled all at the same time with each additional orgasmic thrust that Xander made, while he himself shuddered underneath the sweat covered body which was once the promised untouchable young woman he had rejected only a few hours before.

As the feelings from them both subsided and faded enough so as to untangle, Margareta swayed once to the side before collapsing onto the bed by the side of Arazia, who herself was now catching her breath in order to sit back and allow her orgasm which Xander had given her by masturbation to simmer. As for Xander, his pulsating throbbing cock was red and sore with the vigorous attention it had been given by the young tight pussy riding it into an almost unbearable crescendo of untamed excitement.

  ‘Well, I for one will remember that rule,’ Xander gasped before erupting into painful laughter from both the healing wounds and exhaustion, setting off the two women, who found just enough energy of breath in and giggle.

For the next forty-five minutes the three of them lay close together, huddling up and staring out of the large open window as the sun rose from behind the Sicilian hills to shine its warmth across them. As it lit up the whole room with sunlight Arazia leant across the bed to the small upright cabinet to take a hold of Xander’s mobile phone before snuggling back up and stretching out her hand with the phone to take a photograph.

  ‘Everyone say Fuck Yeah!”

The night had been long, tiring and exciting for them all, especially Xander, who was now feeling the strain on his body. With a quick slap of his hands across the buttocks of both women he reminded them that in less than an hour the whole House would be woken with the smell of breakfast and Madame Agrusa’s voice shouting them all downstairs for the day to begin, and it was this expectation that had Arazia jump from the bed first in a fit of panic as to get herself ready and rush downstairs for to help prepare the breakfast with Mr. Lesean and the others before she was missed. As for Margareta, her strenuous efforts at rising from the bed were met with Xander pulling her by the hands until she was up onto her feet and standing half asleep in front of him.

  ‘I really do need to go back to bed…But I can’t!’ She moaned.

  ‘Shower, that’s what you need to wake you up,’ Xander recommended leading her into the bathroom and turning on the taps into the “Cold” position. ‘Come on under you go, get that energy flowing back inside you.’

The shock of the freezing cold water had Margareta jump about in a hilarious volley of jumps, skips and even turns that made Xander breathless with excitement. It was knowing that she was wide awake that he conceded to readjust the temperature of the shower and join her under the water; massaging his hands across both her shoulders and back to discard the liquid, applying the soap gel and lathering it up while gently caressing and kissing the warming skin.

  ‘That feels great, Master Angelo,’ she complimented.

  ‘It loosens the muscles so that you can at least make it out of the room,’ he replied, his attention distracted by the sudden sound of the bedroom door being knocked hard. ‘I think there’s someone at my door!’

Margareta turned off the shower and waited for a few seconds. ‘It’s your wake up call.’

Quietly climbing out of the shower Margareta tip toed to the bathroom door where she heard voices outside in the hallway, to which she signaled to Xander to shout and tell them that he was in the shower. This seemed to be the only way in which to get them to leave him and return downstairs where they wouldn’t see her leave and return to her room in just a towel. Xander agreed with a nod before shouting to the callers, and with an acknowledgement being shouted back through the door, Margareta gave him a long, lingering passionate kiss before leaving him on his own to finish off getting ready.

By the time Xander made it to the dining table for breakfast, both Madame Agrusa and Margareta were finished eating, as were Giuseppi and Micheli, who sat across from him with staring eyes.

  ‘Ah, Master Angelo, so glad you could make it for breakfast, there is fresh coffee on the table and bacon there on the hot plate. How did you sleep?’ Madame Agrusa said while pointing out the coffee and bacon before putting him on the spot with a question that should have seemed pretty much straight forward.

  ‘I…I erm, well…’ He stammered.

  ‘The bed was to your satisfaction I hope?’ Madame Agrusa added to a very amused Margareta.

  ‘The bed was fine, thank you,’ Xander replied grabbing out for the coffee pot, only to be met with Margareta’s hand which was also reaching out for it blindly.

  ‘My apologies, please, you take it,’ Xander apologized pulling his hand away quickly.

Taking a little drink of her coffee Madame Agrusa looked between both Xander and her daughter, as did the two brothers, too. The shortness of time between Xander arriving at the table and finally filling his cup with coffee had brought about a strange sense of tension in the air, though for Margareta, this was something that was as normal as the sun rising each and every morning over San Martino delle Scale.

  ‘Is there a problem, Mother?’

Breaking her stare away from Xander and taking one last final drink of her coffee, Madame Agrusa put the cup down slowly and carefully onto the table before clearing her throat with a slight cough.

  ‘With you Margareta, there is always a problem, which in this case concerns Master Angelo.’

The tension which had become slight from the start had now intensified with dread and unsurities as to what the Lady of the House meant.

  ‘Master Angelo!’

  ‘Yes, the young man sitting across from you. He is the one you threw out of your room last night and put to great inconvenience. Had you telephoned ahead of your arrival I would have seen to it that our guest would not have been exposed to your disgusting display…’

Margareta immediately jumped to her own defense. ‘Disgusting display, Mother, are you serious? I was naked, what the hell’s wrong with that?’

Turning to Xander with a vacant expression Madame Agrusa shook her head. ‘I can only apologize on behalf of my daughter, Master Angelo, she is quite the…’

  ‘Goddamn it, Mother! I am quite capable of apologizing myself, and I don’t need you, or anyone else for that matter making me out to be a complete bitch like you.’ Margareta was furious with her Mothers choice of words.

  ‘Then prove it to me,’ the Mother returned with an almost challenging tone.

Staring down at the table for a moment with a long drawn out sigh Margareta searched her mind for calm before looking back up and directly at Xander. ‘My apologies, Master Angelo, if I caused you any such inconvenience, or indeed embarrassment with my early return home, I am sorry.’

This was something that Madame Agrusa looked upon as odd, but all the same, it was something that she had missed from her daughter’s attitude since she started spending time away from home for long lengths of time. In the circumstances, and as she had asked her to apologize, Margareta had done just that and this was good enough for the matter to be closed – for now.

  ‘Alright, now, I have to talk with Master Angelo alone for a while. Micheli, could you take your brother and sister into the grounds, we will join you as soon as we can before our trip into Palermo. I’m sure Margareta has a lot to catch up on from her time away at University, haven’t you, Margareta?’

Without giving an answer Margareta rose from her seat and grabbed a slice of toast from a nearby plate before walking out of the dining room along with Micheli and Giuseppi, when the doors to the room were closed and Madame Agrusa knew that her and Xander were finally alone she, too, rose from where she was sat and made her way around the table to sit beside the now nervous young man.

  ‘My security informs me that they heard strange noises during the night, do you know anything about that, Master Xander?’ She asked in a tone that Xander was sure that she was asking because she was neither sure that it involved him, nor definite that it was coming from his bedroom.

Placing the cup of coffee up to his mouth Xander blew into it calmly. ‘I’m sorry, Madame Agrusa, no I slept like a log all night. I’ve not been able to keep my eyes open very much these past few weeks, but if it helps…’

  ‘No matter, I’m sure it was an isolated incident.’ Madame Agrusa interrupted, her face showing a more important matter at hand that she wished to discuss. ‘I have news back from England, it was the wishes of your Aunt Melissa, that she be brought home and buried here at The House of Swan. The final preparations are being made by her husband and the staff of Lupo Cresta Aumento, which would mean that you yourself attend. Unfortunately, as you are incognito and it is this House that protects you from those of…Anyway, it is our duty to compile the guest list in honor of your Aunt. Once this is complete, it will be our duty to make the formal list.’

From one concern to an even greater one Xander came over strange for a moment; the mention of his Aunt Mel was a thought in the farthest part of his mind, as the time spent from crying himself to sleep the night before had pushed the sadness away, so much so, that he believed he would not be hearing Lady Melissa’s name again for quite some time.

  ‘When you say “Our Duty”, you mean…’

  ‘Yes, I mean our two Houses, Master Xander, and believe it or not there are men and women out there who are considered friends, rather than the enemies who have brought this great loss and tragedy down upon us. Will you be up to making the list with me, maybe this evening when everyone has retired to their rooms, we can share a bottle of wine and compare our lists together?’

The look that came from Madame Agrusa was brief, but all the same it was a look that contained a certain amount of personal attention also. If Xander didn’t know any better he would swear that she had a hint of lustful thoughts in mind for the evening get together.

  ‘Cocoa would be better, don’t you think, Madame Agrusa?’

Agreeing with a wide smile she rubbed her hand across his knee before leaving it there for a moment.

  ‘Tell me, Master Xander, are you enjoying your stay here at San Martino delle Scale?’

Xander nodded. ‘It is a beautiful place that you have here, the sunrise was most spectacular…Astonishing even.’

Moving her hand a little further up his leg Madame Agrusa gave a little gentle squeeze while biting at her bottom lip. ‘Maybe we could watch it rise together one morning before you to leave.’

The suggestion was certainly not dismissed as innocent, nor was it accepted as a provocative or be it sexual suggestion that required an immediate answer. Even so, from the body language and signs that were being sent from the Lady of the Manor, Xander’s conclusions were not complete.

  ‘I would certainly not rule that out Madame Agrusa, after all, you’re hospitality has been very much appreciated and I am very thankful.’

Leaving the conversation on a high note – especially where Madame Agrusa was concerned. Making their way out of the dining room and on through the back kitchen door to meet up with the two men and Margareta, they found them standing around the Crocket hoops deciding on whether to play the game or not. As Micheli was the first to see both his Mother and Xander exiting the House, it was he who dropped his mallet first while kicking the ball through the hoop. Giuseppi was infuriated by his brother’s actions and immediately set about chasing him around the lawn trying to catch him. 

Walking across to Margareta, Madame Agrusa waved her forward with a beckoning hand while the two brothers stopped and turned to Xander. Giuseppi’s eyes were filled with a more than an ample amount of high energy, which his brother Micheli lacked with a more sincere gaze of tiredness.

  ‘Master Angelo, would you be so kind as to entertain us with your presence and support?’ Giuseppi called out waving a discreet hand toward Micheli, signaling him to make his way around Xander and make his move in which to hold him still before carrying out a very childish prank on the unsuspecting guest. The discreet signal did not go unnoticed by Xander, however, as he knew only too well that the two prankster brothers were up to no good, although the nature of their trickery was completely unknown and, only by eluding them, or becoming their victim would he find out.

  ‘You boys play fair now, do you hear?’ Madame Agrusa shouted out taking a hold of Margareta’s arm and leading her quietly over to the swimming pool where they both sat by the still water only a couple of feet away from where the Croquet hoops now stood untouched.

  ‘Am I in trouble, again Mother?’ Margareta asked crossing her arms.

Nodding her head slowly from side to side Madame Agrusa gave a solemn look. ‘Not at the moment, though the day hasn’t finished yet! No, there is something that I need you to do for me…For the House, I mean, and it is very important that you proceed with caution.’

Margareta saw her Mothers’ answer as ominous, as she did with all the requests that her Mother asked of her, but deep down she knew that there was something else about the way in which she had been given something of a quest that would be for the House – San Martino delle Scale – as would her two younger brothers, too.

  ‘Really Mother, anyone would think we were the Cosa Nostra or something just as fearful…’

  ‘Come ti permetti! Your Father would turn over in his grave hearing you speak in such a way, if it wasn’t for him, you and your brothers would be nothing more than…Oh, forget it, I’ve changed my mind.’ Her Mother suddenly became angry with Margareta’s reaction at the suggestion.

Having turned away from Margareta to avert her eyes and diffuse her anger at the mention of her husband, she gazed down at the sunlight hitting across the water of the swimming pool, slices that became momentary slices of memory to the old woman, her thoughts wandering to a time when both Micheli and Margareta were but very young babies surrounded by the love of both their parents.

Palermo, San Martino delle Scale Prime – 1972

  ‘Times have changed quickly in the past year or so, Salvatore, so much so that even our allies are in cahoots with the idea of destroying us all,’ Vincenzo Smulik spoke up from the silenced room in which both Madame Agrusa and her husband, Salvatore stood over the cribs of their children.

Salvatore was an older man in the footsteps of Vincenzo, forty-five and much older than Madame Agrusa who was only just into her twenty’s.

  ‘I have arranged a meeting with the rest of the families to try and put the bad blood between us in the past Vincenzo, but I fear that it may already be too late to save this thing of ours…!’

  ‘What are you saying Salvatore, that the Cosa Nostra is now to become nothing but a bedtime story for those of our children and their children? We need to seek help from all of our allies, or we will not be spared, we will be hunted down and killed.’ Vincenzo was scared and Madame Agrusa knew this to be a true fact for the way in which he looked with pity at his wife.

  ‘For two years now, the sickening war has taken many good men, including my dear brother. If there is a way to end this, then we must at least try Vincenzo, or so be it, I will step down as Confidante to the Corleone’s and take my chances in America.’ Salvatore exclaimed with desperation in his voice.

Madame Agrusa was panic stricken with her husband’s suggestion. ‘America, but that would mean giving up everything that we have here in the Province, our home, our families, friends…’

  ‘Angila, my sweet Angila, we have come a long way since the days where our families thrived. The whole world has become such a smaller place that even now we fight among our own, while the Clan of Corleone becomes weakened by traitors. We all knew that this day would come, and that when it did, you yourself know what it is that you have to do.’ Salvatore explained the best way he could to his wife, while at the same time signaling to Vincenzo for him to go and prepare the car for his trip into Palermo.

  ‘The Twelve Houses, Salvatore, what if they cannot protect…’

  ‘The Twelve Houses will protect everyone, everything and more, Angila you just have to have faith and wisdom in everything that they stand for. I leave our children in your capable safe hands, so that when they grow up they may never have to suffer the anguish that so many of those we have lost to this deep and embittered war has brought on them. I will always love you Angila, you and our beautiful children.’ And that was that, Salvatore turned and walked away.

San Martino delle Scale – Present Day

Turning to the three young men Madame Agrusa was suddenly faced with both Micheli and Giuseppi wrestling Xander to the ground, before both of them picked him up and carried him helplessly over to the very edge of the swimming pool. With a loudening laugh they raised Xander up in the air for a few silent seconds, and then threw him into the cool clear still water.

  ‘Oh My God, Micheli, Giuseppi, what are you doing to Master Angelo?’ She screamed, looking down into the water to make sure that Xander was alright and that he hadn’t hit his head on the tiled bottom.

Like two reprimanded school boys, Giuseppi and Micheli inched their way up to their Mother before lowering their heads slightly, though keeping their eyes focused behind her and giving a slight smile.

  ‘So you think this is funny, do you?’ Madame Agrusa cussed.

  ‘Mama!’ Margareta suddenly yelled as from behind her Mother, Xander took a hold of her by the shoulders and for a brief poised moment gave her a mischievous grin that stated his intentions.

  ‘Don’t you dare…? ’

Before she could get any further words of warning out to Xander, she had hit the refreshing cool water and was now splashing about with heated rage, until eventually, with a second thought brought to her by the uncontrollable laughter of both her sons, Margareta and Xander she gave up and joined in.

  ‘Okay, everybody in the swimming pool, right now!’ She demanded playfully.

With this Giuseppi and Micheli ran and caught Margareta before dragging her over to the poolside and pushing her in, while Master Xander ran fast across the grass and launched his body up in the air to finally land hard on the water to create a large wave that for just a second, took Madame Agrusa back under the water.

The thoughts of Salvatore had disappeared completely by the time Madame Agrusa heard the loud splash of Margareta being forced into the pool, followed by the simultaneous sounds of both Micheli and Giuseppi, too. In no time at all the five of them were treading the refreshing water around the pool, splashing and laughing with no cares at all to the world events unfolding; the United Nations deepened with problematic Civil Wars, the US in crisis talks with Russia, and the United Kingdom facing their first large scale military move against the Middle East. As far as Resheen was concerned, they too, were in crisis throughout the regions; Evermore and Borello’s rebuilt town were again at disrepute, only this time over land. The City of Redstone and Seacliffe, as well as breaking down in talks of peace, had inadvertently caused Valencia to ‘Lock Down’. Times were getting volatile and dangerous once more.

  ‘Oh dear, Mother, you’re not wearing…!’ Margareta howled out before silencing herself with a hand over her mouth.

Madame Agrusa caught the forced meaning of her daughters words before looking down at her top and seeing that there at the front of her thin laced dress the detailed darkness of her areolas and long thick stemmed nipples were on clear view to the world, something that became obvious to Xander at that same moment that, the Lady of the House had never dared to do before.

  ‘Are they hurting anyone, Margareta?’ She asked shrugging her shoulders with a radiant smile growing on her face.

Nodding her head and laughing even more, it had become a welcome change of personality that was far overdue its arrival. ‘I was just saying Mother, here, catch a hold of this!’

Throwing an inflated rubber ring over to her, Madame Agrusa looked at it puzzled before throwing it to one side and quickly making her way toward her daughter with intentions of splashing and ducking her under the water clearly showing on her face. The fun was welcomed by everyone, especially Master Xander, who throughout his stay at Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa, had only played in the swimming pool with his Mother once or twice – and at the tender age of only five, it was now that he remembered just how much he missed the unity and spirited behavior of a real family.

After an hour of playfully dredging their way around the pool the exhaustion became obvious to both Xander and Madame Agrusa, more so to Xander, who through the soreness of his healing wounds had become cramped and so jumped out of the water wielding a painful expression that was met with great sympathy from Margareta and Micheli.

  ‘Are you alright, Master Angelo?’ Margareta enquired with concern.

  ‘Just a little cramp, that’s all,’ Xander replied pulling off his soaked shirt and throwing it down to the ground unaware that his wounds inflicted upon him from Lord London were now clearly visible.

  ‘Dio mio! Che cazzo è successo a te, Maestro Angelo?” Giuseppi exclaimed rushing from the pool to where Xander stood completely oblivious.

  ‘I don’t…!’

  ‘He is asking what happened to you, Master Angelo. Christ! Who did that to you?’ Micheli gasped.

Realizing that the sudden exposure of bare skin with additional scars and stitches was not one of his best moves, Xander started to cover himself up with his arms the best he could. His reaction was of shame, although Margareta and Madame Agrusa attempted to make light attention of the matter by intervening with a distraction of interest, but this failed to pull the eyes away from Xander.

  ‘Micheli, Giuseppi, will you go and tell Mr. Lesean that we are ready for light refreshments and some of his delicious cakes, please?’

Now feeling a little embarrassed by the two brothers prodding and poking at his scars, Xander gave a low sigh that had them take a step back. Realizing that they were crowding their guest and making him feel this way, Micheli gave a friendly slap on the arm to Giuseppi.

  ‘Lemonade and cake, Guiseppi, come on we can take a look at Angelo’s war wounds later.’

Giving a slight smile of appreciation to his brother, Xander made his way over to the poolside where he took a hold of a towel draped loosely over one of the Sun Loungers and wrapped it around himself.

  ‘The feeling will pass Master Angelo, but in the meantime, you must give them time to heal. I am sorry about Micheli and Giuseppi, their curiosity, not to mention their pride makes them a little…How do you say…Protective.’ Madame Agrusa said this while taking a hold of the towel and helping Xander pull it around his shoulders. ‘You will have to tell them eventually who the horrible person who did this to you is, however, or they will never allow you to rest until you do.’

This was completely true, as Xander had gained so much respect from the two brothers that he could not be ignorant of the facts in which had brought him to their family home.

  ‘Wait here with Margareta and I will get you a clean shirt from the House, and you could do with a clean set of dressings for those cuts that have opened, too,’ Madame Agrusa insisted making her way back to the House and disappearing inside.

As soon as she entered the building Margareta moved closer to Xander, her hands reaching out to touch the scars which were already healing, while from the House Arazia made her way out toward the pool with a tray of refreshments and cakes. Seeing the two together she gave a quick backward glance to the house, to make sure there was nobody else around.

  ‘These scars didn’t look so bad this morning, Master Angelo, such is the shock of seeing some of them bleed…Had I known…’

  ‘Had you known Margareta, would you have been any more careful with your fevered actions?’ Xander spoke out in an out of character way, his voice deeper, more masculine and definitely more dominant sounding.

Margareta gave an awkward smile, her eyes looking over to Arazia who carefully placed the tray on the poolside table. It was when noticing Margareta fussing over Xanders’ stomach that she immediately thought that he had hurt himself getting into the swimming pool.

  ‘Oh My God, are you alright, you’re side is bleeding,’ she exclaimed taking out a small white crested handkerchief from her petticoat.

Intervening and assuring the Maid that everything was fine and that there was no need to worry, Xander put out his arm and proceeded to push Margareta gently out of the way so that Arazia could get a good look at the wounds which he had been given by Lord London’s wrath. And, at first the sight was received with the normal response; the wincing away, the hands covering the mouth and, to finish off the body shuddering which had Arazia turning away with an almost disgust for the sight that had befallen her eyes.

  ‘I do so hope that whoever gave you these scars, Master Angelo, that they are ten times…One hundred times worse off, if at all they are not dead already!’ Margareta responded with an unnatural hint of hatred in her voice.

  ‘I have no idea what has happened to the man that inflicted this on me, but I do know that one day I hope you’re right and that he does get the justice he deserves. For now though, I just want to get myself better and return home.’ Xander replied dreamily.

Margareta’s hands were still continuing to brush over the wounds as if she was trying to analyze them herself and ascertain whether or not they were getting better or, if they would at some point in the not so distant future burst open like a few others.

  ‘Here we are, Master Angelo,’ Madame Agrusa announced as she suddenly appeared without any of them being aware that she had returned from the House with the clean shirt and dressings for Xander.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of her Mother, Margareta turned away to Arazia red faced and embarrassed from her personal observations of Xander’s scars. Only when the Maid gave her a reassuring smile did she turn to see her Mother taking off Xander’s towel and dabbing the dry cotton wool around the bleeding wound to clean it.

  ‘That doesn’t look all too bad,’ Angila said with a confident smile.

  ‘They’re not gunshot wounds!’ Arazia exclaimed leaning closer and blocking the sunlight.

Turning around to stare into Arazia’s eyes with a completely blank look, Madame Agrusa slowly started to shake her head from side to side. Straight away Arazia recognised the look and smiled back nervously before excusing herself from their company.

  ‘Cazzo cacciatrice! If your Father was here today, he would have all of the House staff back in line. If I had my way I would have them all fired!’

Margareta was shocked by her Mothers’ choice of words.

  ‘Mamma, do you really need to use that kind of language in front of our guest?’ She complained.

Madame Agrusa giggled to herself while applying the plaster across a large piece of bandage that covered several of the scars on Xanders’ stomach, including the one which had been weeping with blood from the over exhaustion from swimming around in the pool on his back.

  ‘And when did YOU decide to become all so Virgin Mary, young lady?’

Margareta thought for a second. ‘Since I realized there is more to life than being a Royal pain in the arse!’

It was now that both women started to giggle.

  ‘Posso partecipare a questo agnello griglia?’ Xander spoke up with a very bad attempt at his Italian.

Unable to answer for the fact that they were both in fits of hysterical raptures of laughter, it was when both Micheli and Giuseppi returned from the House that they too began to laugh at the poor attempt that Xander made. And, in his inexperience of the language, Xander failed to hear the two brother’s short outbursts of almost insulting remarks under their Mothers and Sister’s uncontrollable actions.

  ‘Ho detto qualcosa circa l’elemento nella finestra?’ Xander shouted, his intention being that of asking if he had said something funny, but in his lack of dialect brought everyone to their backs on the lawn in fits of laughter that actually brought tears to Madame Agrusa’s eyes.

  ‘Please…Please, Master Angelo, please don’t say anything else…!’

  ‘My apologies, Angila, I wasn’t aware that I had pronounced the words wrong! Maybe I should study a little more on the basics, or something that will assist my joining in with the conversations.’

Calming themselves down a little before wiping away the stray tears of joy from their eyes, Margareta approached Xander with a greeting hand that patted him on the shoulder.

  ‘Master Angelo, I would not worry too much about speaking our language, after all, it took Micheli all his time to speak it, and even then it was thanks to Mamma he could actually pronounce Pee-Pee!’ Margareta teased playfully.

Micheli was aware that his sister was only joking and brushed the sibling insult off with his very own friendly attack on Margareta, to which his Mother and Giuseppi began shaking their heads and smiling with a knowing look on both their faces. And though the joking made Xander feel a little better, the thought of his words played heavily on his mind: Had he said anything that would have been taken as an insult?

Calling them all over to the poolside for a drink Madame Agrusa sat down in her Sun Lounger while taking a hold of a large towel which she wrapped around her shoulders before starting to undo the small buttons of her blouse. Clearly visible to everyone, including Xander, who was trying hard to avert his eyes, Margareta led him by the arm to two empty loungers that faced toward the pool and sat him down.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking, Master Angelo, and if I were you I would think of the consequences!’

Xander was taken by surprise. ‘I…The thought was…!’

Slapping him gently on the back Margareta gave a puzzled look. ‘But you were thinking of it?’

Suddenly the conversation was becoming more and more frustrating, as the young woman by his side began to encourage him to take things a little slower and, eventually he would have the perfect time and opportunity in which to strike out. Of course, Margareta was talking about his attackers who had left him wounded and scarred, not as Xander believed about her Mother and taking the opportunity in which Madame Agrusa would, he feared, want nothing more than the chance to be taken.

  ‘Hold on a second. Who exactly are we talking about here, Margareta?’ Xander finally asked.

  ‘The people who hurt you, who are you talking about?’ She replied baffled and confused.

Giving a loud burst of laughter Xander shook his head with relief that it was not looking upon her Mother’s half nakedness that she was referring to, which not only lifted a lot of pressure from his shoulders, but alas, it also gave him the time to relax and dry off from the time spent in the pool.

  ‘Are you looking forward to visiting Palermo, Master Angelo?’ She asked, her hand reaching out for the sun cream that was by the side of his lounger.

  ‘As a matter of fact I am, I hear the  Piazza Pretoria is one of the most breath-taking sights to visit, while The  Quattro Canti, one of the major center pieces of Palermo exists for many of those who frequent Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa back home to boast about.’ Xanders’ reply brought something more than a feeling of caution to both Margareta and Madame Agrusa, especially as the young man had not been to Palermo before.

  ‘You know your history, Master Angelo maybe you could enlighten us with what you and the others at home have heard of The Quattro Canti?’ Angila exclaimed leaving her lounger and walking over to both Xander and Margareta.

At first Xander was showing signs that he was not in the mood to answer, but then, when Micheli and Giuseppi wandered over while pulling the sun loungers behind them, it was with a growing smile that Xander sat forward.

  ‘Alright,’ he began searching his mind to find the perfect place to start. ‘The Quattro Canti is one of the most famous landmarks in Palermo, with its design alone…!’

  ‘Actually,’ Madame Agrusa abruptly interrupted, ‘I have seen The Quattro Canti so many times and learned first-hand of its history, Master Angelo, so maybe you could tell us what those of your House say of our little building in the way we can understand, please?’

It was now that Xander knew exactly what Madame Agrusa was driving at, not that it took much for him to work out the somewhat confusing point of anxiousness in her tone.

  ‘Very well, Madame Agrusa, as you wish. The Quattro Canti has a secondary geographical place in the points of all “Houses”, not just San Martino delle Scale, Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa, Lupo Cresta Aumento, or Casa Di Grigio. The Quattro Canti, or The Four Corners, was one of the only few places where more than three hundred years ago, The Sanctum of The Order could conduct business without intrusion. It is said that when the life of the boy enters the journey of the man, he will do so when he accepts one of the corner’s as his direction.’

Micheli, Giuseppi, Margareta and Madame Agrusa sat with silent fascinated looks on their faces as Xander revealed the information which the Lady of San Martino delle Scale asked him to share. The sudden silence from Xander, though unnoticed for a few seconds brought only Margareta to raise her glass aimlessly to her mouth and take a small amount of freshly squeezed orange juice, and then with a loud refreshing sigh she begged Xander to continue.

  ‘Yes, please go on with your interesting story, Master Angelo,’ Madame Agrusa agreed with almost the same enthusiasm as what a child would have for going to a place that they neither liked or hated.

  ‘Alright, what would you like me to talk about?’ Xander asked, believing that the information told on The Quattro Canti was ended.

  ‘Tell us about The Pisan Tower, what do you know of that?’ Madame Agrusa piped up before anyone else could intervene with another place of interest within the city.

Xander glared at the old woman in a way that Margareta believed could have frozen her to ice in an instant; her thoughts were clouded with the remnants of the early morning intimacy that she had shared with Master Xander, the Tremadale still fresh in her mind – and body – though struggling to understand why this gentle and passionate young man would be looking down upon her Mother like he became an enigma that she would have to work on and find out herself.

  ‘Is there a problem, Master Angelo?’ She asked softly, so as not to raise suspicion to herself.

  ‘Everything is fine, isn’t it, Master Angelo?’ Her Mother answered the question for him.

Breaking his eyes away from the old woman Xander grimaced slightly before looking at the ground and then turning back to the expectant four faces who wanted him to continue his story.

  ‘The Pisan Tower is a magnificent medieval structure which has brought together many people, or as you yourself will recognize, Madame Agrusa, those of The Brethren, The Brotherhood and those of The Apulian Sacra Corona Unita. The history of such a palace of great Majesty and, of late its steep rooted controversy in matters of the state, has become a monument of both strength and velour; strength in the ways of good triumphing over evil, while valor heralds from those men, women and children who have seen heavy loss between each House, each Order and, as far as I am aware, the loss of eight Houses in less than one hundred years! The full Twelve Houses, of course, whether they are combined still or not, it is The Royal Palace in Palermo which stands the real test of time. The world is wanting to see change for the good, and as such it has been the formalities of certain Clans, to take away vital roles over such a short time; The Cosa Nostra, The Illuminati, The Masonic Order and, even The Paroxinate League combined, with deconstruction of the entity being the key skill, because the idea, once after thought cannot be scratched, tarnished, or destroyed. The level of our Houses, both Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa and San Martino delle Scale – The House of Swan – are the only two elements in place to bridge a superior gap in alliance’s, therefore…!’

  ‘Enough!’ Madame Agrusa shrieked at the top of her lungs to bring Master Xander to an abrupt and premature silence that he found hard to understand.

Standing to her feet she gave a dramatic shiver before insisting that both Micheli and Giuseppi take Margareta into the House and get ready for their trip into the city. At first, and for the first time, Micheli questioned his Mother, asking what Master Angelo had said that resulted in her sudden change of mood. Of course, his Mother made the excuse that she had a headache and that the excitement of the frolicking in the pool had not helped in keeping the pain from getting worse.

  ‘You did have fun, didn’t you, Mother?’ He asked, hoping that the reply was not going to be anything else other than a confirmation that she had had fun.

  ‘Of course, Micheli, I have not had that much fun in many years. Come along now, take your Brother and Sister inside and get yourselves ready to take our guest into the city.’ She confirmed with more than what he expected to hear.

Left alone with Xander, she waited until the three were out of sight before walking over to the foot of the lounger and standing in front of Xander, quietly at first, and then giving a deep sigh.

  ‘You are quite an educated young man, Master Xander!’ She said in a low voice, breaking for the first time the agreement of his changed name.

  ‘Thank you, Angila, but I really do owe it all to my Mother and Aunt Mel,’ Xander replied laying back in the lounger and looking up at her with a knowing smile.

  ‘So, you realize that you know more than both my sons and that of my daughter combined don’t you?’

Xander nodded. ‘I rather much guessed that, though it is none of my business to ask, or to know why that is the case. The trip to Palermo, my arrival here, all of this is no coincidence, is it?’

Xander was now taking the lead in what he had no idea was unfolding before him.

  ‘As a matter of fact, Master Xander, you being here is a great coincidence. Agent Carter’s major role in taking you to America would have led you here sooner or later, though the strange detour between Holland and Belgium was a little unexpected. Tell me, who was it that attacked you in Amsterdam?’

Not everything was making sense to Xander; the thought of going to America had played on his mind many times before, as did the visits to Amsterdam’s Houses, but one thing stood out among all else and that was Agent Carter – hadn’t she been captured and killed?

  ‘An answer for an answer, Madame Agrusa, do you agree?’ Xander exclaimed quite excitedly.

Taken by surprise she hesitated her reply for fear that she would be committed to something that in any other circumstance would have rendered her vulnerable, but alas, she agreed: An answer for an answer for as long as it took for them both to come to terms with the situation.

  ‘Alright, Master Xander, tell me who attacked you in Amsterdam?’ She asked sitting down with him.

  ‘The bastard who attacked me is known as Lord Kasabian London, he is a Law Lord and keeper…’

  ‘Yes, I know who he is, Xander, your Mother had very little nice things to say about him when she was alive. According to your Father, Lord London took away the sanctuary of many Houses, both here in Europe and in England, too.’ Madame Agrusa interrupted.

Her words sunk in quickly, each sentence, each paraphrase, and each notable insinuation that brought further questions to his mind. The one main question at the moment was why, if Lord London was causing so many problems for the Houses, then why didn’t they stop him sooner? But this was something that he was not in a position to ask for fear that the deal he had just made with Madame Agrusa ran low on the really important questions he needed to know right now.

  ‘The seal of Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa when I was a boy, the insignia of “The Sanctum of The Order” used to hang proud in the Valkyrie of the House, so why was it moved here?’ Xander asked, composing himself.

Perturbed by the mere mention of the seal, Madame Agrusa warned Xander that they could not talk outside like they were and that they would have to return to the House and get ready before the others became suspicious of their absence. Xander agreed, but pointed out that they would continue with the questions after their visit to the city, and Xander would be told the whole truth. Agreeing with a low nod, Xander grabbed out at her arm and pulled her down toward him.

  ‘No more walking on egg shells. No more secrets, do we understand one another, Angila?’ He spoke out in a serious tone that seemed to perturb her.

The forceful action and deepened tone of Xanders’ voice made it very clear that he meant every word of what he said, and, as Madame Agrusa feared the repercussions of not being honest and open with Xander, she made a solemn promise that as soon as they returned from Palermo, she would tell him anything he wished to know. This was not what Xander wanted, however.

  ‘No, that’s not good enough!’ He barked suddenly.

  ‘I don’t understand if you don’t want answers from me, then what is it that you do want?’

Standing to his feet and facing her, he tilted his head to the side and looked her straight in the eyes.

  ‘Full disclosure, nothing more, nothing less than everything that this House has in its records, have we got a deal Angila?’ Xander replied reaching forward and taking a group of fallen hairs from her eye and moving them back behind her ear gently.

Turning to look at the swimming pool by her side she turned away from him purposely.

  ‘You are asking for something that will lead to something you will not like to find, are you sure you want to take that risk?’ She warned.

  ‘That is the risk I will have to live with, as far as you are concerned, my time here is on getting better and stronger so that I can return home for whatever pompous fucking ceremony they have planned for me. To be honest, I don’t want to be a Lord I just want to be me…’

Turning back quickly and taking a firm hold of his arm Madame Agrusa shook her head frantically; her whole body was suddenly shuddering with anxiety and fear of some kind.

  ‘You are supposed to be intelligent, Xander, and yet you are so blind and acting like a stupid little boy of twelve! Your wishing to be normal will only take you to places where the wounds you received by Lord London will welcome you again and again, until eventually it will consume you…and finally kill you! I cannot agree with what you want of me with a blessing, though I can do as you wish me to do as Lady of San Martino delle Scale. Someday soon Master Xander, you will learn the truth of why so many people, good people, like myself and Agent Carter have agreed to protect you and give our lives so that you don’t have to…’

Interrupted by a loud shout from the House by Micheli to let her know that they were ready and waiting to set off to the city, Madame Agrusa placed a finger to her lips and told Xander to follow her back to the House to prepare for the journey.

  ‘So, we have a deal?’

  ‘Yes, Master Xander O’Neill, we have a deal, but on my part it is done under protest.’

Xander nodded his head briskly. ‘Very well, I understand that you do not wish me to take this route, though I must point out to you that there are more than eight thousand Houses out there around the world who would be willing to assist me through freedom of choice.’

Not saying another word between one another, Xander made his way up the lawn toward the House, and as for Madame Agrusa, she kept a good couple of steps back from him until they reached the doors of the kitchens where Xander invited her inside ahead of him politely.

  ‘Thank you. Master Angelo, I will go and get ready for our trip.’

Noticing the sudden change between conversations outside by the pool and now back at the House, Xander’s wisdom told him that maybe all was not right at San Martino delle Scale, or maybe it was just how he had overwhelmed Madame Agrusa with the amount of knowledge he possessed before letting anybody know just how much he knew. There was also the fact that from Angila’s very own admission, he knew more than the two sons and Margareta combined, which, if this was true, then he would need to keep his conversations light between the three from now on.

Excusing himself to go get prepared for the trip into Palermo himself, Xander stopped Madame Agrusa for a second in which to ask what would be best worn on such an occasion?

  ‘Dress light, Master Angelo, jeans, T-Shirt, slip on shoes, that kind of thing…You won’t be wearing them long I shouldn’t imagine, not if Micheli and Giuseppi get their way!’

Thanking her he continued on his way to his room where he was surprised to find Margareta standing with a very mischievous smile painted across her face, something that Xander was well aware of, and, one which he had to resist hard against – for the time being anyway.

  ‘Can I help you get ready?’ She asked cheekily.

Reaching out for the door handle while moving Margareta to one side out of the way gently, he turned to look into her deep brown eyes; his initial contact taking in every starlonial detail of the deep colors that seemed to drag him inside and make him yearn the sight in which caused the small rising sensations of great feelings fill his entire body.

  ‘I…I need to get ready, maybe…!’

  ‘It’s referred to as “The Tremadale”, an ancient gift from the gods. Maybe, I could help you with that tension?’ She added, pointing a steady finger to his crouch.

Looking down Xander noticed that which Margareta was looking and pointing at – a bulging erection.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Look, maybe later, Margareta, I think that this is important going into Palermo’

  ‘It is very important, but so is my appetite, you understand, don’t you?’ She replied with an almost blackmailing tone that had Xander on the offensive.

  ‘You wouldn’t be fucking with me now, would you, Margareta?’

The licking of her lips and short low groans she gave while rolling her eyes had Xander in a whirl of doubt, a brief momentary lapse and eventual conceding to the ways in which the young woman had now successfully seduced him into dragging her into his bedroom, slamming the door closed with his foot and rushing her over to the bed where he assisted her in relieving the very little clothing she wore to be discarded to the floor. Within seconds the two were wrapped around one another, entwined, naked and making love like they were strangers having just met for the very first time.

As soon as Xander knew that Margareta was satisfied and he had calmed down his erection, the two kissed before Margareta left him to finish getting ready and meet the others downstairs. It was a quick cold shower that had him refreshed and back on track with his thoughts of what he had to face, what questions were to be asked of Madame Agrusa. And, he had even deliberated a speech for if and when the others wished him to answer for the way in which his storytelling around the swimming pool earlier had upset their Mother, to a point of her change in both mood and attitude.

  ‘The car is waiting outside Master Angelo, have you got everything that you need?’ Madame Agrusa declared on Xanders’ appearance at the top of the stairs.

  ‘I think I have.’ He answered taking a pair of sunglasses from the top of his T-shirt and slipping them on before making his way to the front door. ‘Is everyone ready?’

Informing him that everyone was waiting in the car for them, Madame Agrusa walked up to him with a steady hand that rested on his arm. Silently she looked him up and down while occasionally straightening parts of his clothes; pulling away parts of dust and hair that had fallen onto his shoulder and then giving a very deep and alluring smile.

  ‘Your Mother would have given anything to see this day arrive, Xander, she loved you so very much, and so did your Aunt Melissa…’

  ‘I know,’ he whispered dryly, turning to the door and exiting the House.

Micheli and Giuseppi were restless after having been ordered to wait in the car along with Margareta, who they swore blind was on some sort of quest to wind the two of them up with taunts about University. All three complained about the rising heat that wafted through the windows and into the confines of the long vehicle. Alas, Xander and Madame Agrusa were now there and the driver could at last take them into Palermo without any further delays.

  ‘The city is not that far, and if you wish we can stop for lunch first, I know this beautiful restaurant in the backstreets where they serve the most exquisite lasagna…’

  ‘Lasagna, Mother, Master Angelo doesn’t want Lasagna, he wants real food, don’t you, Angelo?’ Margareta objected to the surprise of her Mother.

Xander thought it best if he spoke up to avoid any ill feeling between the two.

  ‘Lasagna is fine, though there is something that I would like to try, if that is okay with everyone?’

Both Giuseppi and Micheli were puzzled, excited to hear what it was that he was thinking.

  ‘Ah,’ Madame Agrusa cried clapping her hands together, ‘it would seem we have given you an extra added fetish from our great country, Master Angelo!’

Begging to know what this fantastically unknown extra fetish was, Micheli huddled close to Xander and begged him to whisper it into his ear while his Mother was tending to Giuseppi’s many questions. As a show of his liking for Micheli, Xander revealed the answer quietly, though not so quietly enough to keep it from Margareta’s ears that had her gasp with dislike.

  ‘Disgustoso. That is your extra added fetish? I thought it was maybe the Strade del Peccato, or maybe a, how do you say, Strip Club!’ Margareta responded to the disapproval of her Mother, who now gave a single tap on the drivers shoulder for him to pull over to the side of the road.

  ‘Let me tell you all, right here, right now, that I will not tolerate this behavior. Master Angelo is our honored guest and he deserves more than our respect, do you understand?’ She cried out at them.

Micheli and Giuseppi were suddenly quiet and nodding their heads in silent  agreement, while Margareta was screwing her face up and only too ready to speak her mind, until Madame Agrusa saw this and beat her to the mark.

  ‘And you, Lady, don’t even think about opening that filthy mouth again. Let us make this day special for Master Angelo, after all, it is he who will be making some very tough choices today after he has been initiated through Il cammino degli uomini. Now, let us continue.’

This said the driver was instructed to carry on to Palermo. Throughout the twenty minute drive the five of them talked about the small villages and little towns in which they passed through on their way, while Margareta’s eyes hardly ever left those of Xander’s the entire journey. Occasionally looking across to see her, she would quickly look away, only to return her gaze and smelter in the way in which he smiled, laughed and grimaced at the things in which her two brothers and her Mother made comment on. Some would call her attentions upon Master Xander “Idolizing”, while others would refer to it as “Falling in love”. Either way, as Madame Agrusa had accepted the word of Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa’s Master, the two could never openly declare their secret liaisons whilst under the roof of San Martino delle Scale – more to the point was the fact that Margareta’s House, just like Xander’s House, had so many dark and potent secrets that had waited and bided it’s time to destroy the rebuilding reputations and traditions.

  ‘Master Angelo, can I ask you about your Mother?’ Margareta asked suddenly.

  ‘My Mother…Yes, of course, what is it?’ Xander accepted the question.

Madame Agrusa was curious as to why her daughter wanted to ask a question about their guests Mother, as Margareta had only met Maria once during her visits to the House when she was very young.

  ‘Your Mother was beautiful and kind, but, she never once mentioned you, only her other son…’

  ‘My Brother…’

  ‘Margareta, have you forgotten your manners?’ Madame Agrusa cut in before Xander could say anything else, while both Giuseppi and Micheli looked at one another with a look of dread far more than that of fear itself.

  ‘Madre,’ Micheli cried out suddenly.

All of a sudden there was a strange knowing resting in the car where Margareta, her Mother and Xander were concerned and it was a knowing, or perhaps an inclination that was about to get out of hand if someone didn’t face it with the facts as they now were.

  ‘Brother you say? Then why do you have the exact same scar that he has on his back. Are you both twins? Oh, that would be so awesome if you were.’ Margareta squealed with excitement, her thoughts purely on the premise of a very wild sexual introduction.

Looking over to Madame Agrusa and receiving a discreet nod Xander shifted himself around to face Margareta while reaching out to take a hold of her hands in his, after a few moments in which to take a deep breath and to find the right wording he squeezed them together gently.

  ‘The reason I have a scar that looks like the one you remember, is because it is the very same scar, I am Master Xander O’Neill, not Master Angelo Swan. I am so sorry for the charade, Margareta, but it is very important that I become someone else for a little while.’ He confessed with sadness.

Looking around at all the other faces in the car it was the realization that everyone, all except her, knew of the deception which hurt more for the thought that she was not trusted enough to carry the secret also.

  ‘You all knew!’ Margareta gasped. ‘You all knew and yet, you never once thought of telling me. Am I really that much of a disappointment to you, Mother, Micheli, Giuseppi, and you, Master Twat?’

Arriving at that moment in Palermo, Margareta demanded that the driver stop the car and let her out. Of course, Madame Agrusa attempted to apologize for the situation and beg her daughter to stay with them until the matters at hand were completed, but Margareta refused to listen and rushed out of the car as soon as it pulled over to the side of the busy street.

  ‘Let her go, it’s alright, she will calm down,’ Giuseppi said sitting back down in his seat and readjusting his collar.

At first his Mother was about to ignore the call of judgement and action, but then, as she knew only too well, as both Brothers’ knew only too well, Margareta would eventually calm down and come to her senses. As Xander didn’t know, however, it was the reassurance from the three that would stop him from exiting the car too and taking pursuit of the young woman to make sure that she would be alright and not become confused enough to wind up sharing her new found information with any others.

  ‘You’re absolutely right, she’ll calm down, just give her time.’ Madame Agrusa confirmed to Xander’s relief before she too left the car to stand on the side walk.

As the three men left the car together to join her, Xander noticed Madame Agrusa having lit up a cigarette and was smoking it with very few breaths in between each desperate drag.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Xander enquired.

  ‘As well as can be expected under the circumstances, Master Angelo, and admittedly that with Margareta was not an expected situation I had anticipated at all.’ She replied before continuing to drag hard on the cigarette.

Leaving her to finish the cigarette, Xander turned to the two men and asked where they were going to visit first, to which Madame Agrusa reminded them that the added extra fetish of Master Xander’s should be addressed first. And with a steady finger that pointed across the street to a small Café they all made their way over the road carefully and entered the building to be shown to a table by a tall male waiter. This was “il caffè di Palermo” one of the most famous of all eateries in the city.

  ‘Master Angelo, would you like to order, please?’ Madame Agrusa asked quite unexpectedly.

Looking across to Micheli and Giuseppi, Xander was told not to ask them, but to at least try and make the order of the food in which he had come to enjoy while in the country.

  ‘Buongiorno, posso avere un piatto…un piatto di toast e una tazza di cioccolata calda, per favor?’ He spoke out confidently.

Madame Agrusa was impressed, so impressed in fact that she began applauding Xander while at the same time, both Micheli and Giuseppi sat with surprised faces before joining in with their Mother.

The waiter congratulated him with a gentle pat on his shoulder before taking the remaining orders from the others around the table. Once he had completed his job he informed them that they’re food and drinks would be brought to them very shortly. Silence had fallen like a sudden mute of voices, the three men and Madame Agrusa sat staring at everything, except one another, until Micheli took in a deep breath.

  ‘So, Mother has you hooked on French Toast and Hot Chocolate, Master Angelo,’ Micheli exclaimed with a pleasing and knowing smile.

Indeed the added extra fetish was that of French Toast and Hot Chocolate, and here at il caffè di Palermo, there was no more satisfied customers than those who requested the very same order.

  ‘I guess it didn’t take that much convincing, Micheli, especially when Mr. Lesean explained the differences of the bread and toast…’

  ‘Ah, Mr. Lesean, he got to you, too! Do you know, Master Angelo, there are only two people I know of who have never fallen for that very same spew of sales from Mr. Lesean. Even my friends who visit have the unfortunate scarring of becoming lovers of French Toast and Hot Chocolate, just like you.’ Micheli laughed with amusement that had Giuseppi agreeing with nods and giggles.

  ‘Consider me a victim of good taste then, because I am hooked.’ Xander admitted looking over to a very quiet Madame Agrusa, who was on frequent occasions glancing around her as though searching for someone she knew, or expected to be waiting there at the Café.

  ‘Did I pronounce it correctly?’ Xander asked, suddenly knocking her train of thought and distracting her attention toward the door.

  ‘Erm, yes, it was fine. I must say you have picked up our language very quickly and learned to speak it very well, Master Angelo.’ She answered bemused. ‘One may suspect you knew it all along.’

Attracting the attention of Micheli, Madame Agrusa asked him to pass across the basket of bread that sat by his elbow, to which he handed over just as Giuseppi took from it two pieces and proceeded to pull small pieces off and eat them. This in turn his Mother did before offering Xander the basket. With a hand gesturing refusal, Madame Agrusa put it down in the middle of the table before looking perplexed while staring at the Café entrance. ‘Margareta!’

All eyes turned to the door where Margareta stood with hesitation on whether to enter and join them at the table, or turn away and leave. To the relief of both Madame Agrusa and Xander, she decided to join them and take a piece of the bread immediately upon sitting down.

  ‘Well, here we all are at last. Did you have time to clear your head my dear?’

The disappointment was still showing on Margareta’s face, the anger burning still in her eyes, the expression of wanting to ask so many questions but for the wounded feelings still as raw she held back from saying anything.

  ‘I will take the silence as a sign that you’re still thinking about it, but never mind, we can have this meal and then get on our way to Quattro Canti, Master Xander is expected!’ She exclaimed not in any way pushing the subject of Margareta’s sudden mood change.

The waiter returned to the table where his confused count of plates and cups was cleared up in a matter of moments, when Madame Agrusa revealed that they had a late guest who would like to order. In a show of gratitude to the puzzle, he told Margareta that she could have the very same order for free, which, with objection her Mother insisted that the order made by her daughter would be added to the bill. Margareta was again unhappy by her Mother’s intervention of the matter and threw down the bread onto the table.

  ‘God damn it, Margareta, start acting like the bloody Lady that you are, or I swear…’

  ‘Swear what, Mother that you will have me sent away? Well, good luck with that, I’ve already beaten you to it – I leave in the morning for Florence,’ Margareta bellowed at the top of her lungs so loud that everyone in the Café could hear her every word.

Completely astounded by the way in which her daughter was behaving, Madame Agrusa gave a very playful glare before standing to her feet and excusing herself and leaving the Café. Xander was in a way sympathetic to the old woman’s reaction, but he himself knew only too well that the Sicilian’s were very proud people, and to go chasing after her while Margareta was herself fuming over the whole situation would only add to the atmosphere.

  ‘Is there anything that I can do to help, Margareta?’ He asked for fear of having his head bitten off.

For a very long poised moment she sat staring at him, her eyes showing nothing that Xander could read or make any sense of, not until she opened her mouth and started to speak.

  ‘The truth, you can start by telling me the truth, Master Xander O’Neill,’ she replied without as much as a regret of her words or naming of the young man whose life was in danger by many of the worlds’ Orders.

Attempting to intervene and ask his sister to lower her voice, Xander waved a hand and told Giuseppi that everything was fine. Asking for a moment alone with Margareta, both Giuseppi and Micheli made their way outside to find their Mother, while inside the Café Xander moved around to sit close to the one person that deserved more than an explanation of what was going on.

  ‘Can I ask you something, Margareta? You know of my Mother and Father, and of who and what they both were, right?’ Xander began. ‘If I told you that one of the men who was entrusted to my parents’ estate was the same person who attacked me and gave me these scars, would you then know why I have come to Sicily under these unfortunate circumstances and pretenses?’

Margareta thought for a moment. ‘But someone so powerful as your Father would never have let this happen, I am so sorry about your Mother, Master Xander, but, I cannot believe that your Father has let you down so much…’

  ‘My Father died, Margareta, they say it was a heart attack. The House of Cacciatore Svegliarsi is in limbo until I can return and claim the place of my Father as a Lord…’

  ‘Your Father is a Lord? Oh My God, I have been away a long time,’ Margareta gasped with shock at hearing Xanders’ news. ‘And what about the man who attacked you, is he still trying to hurt you now, or has he been dealt with?’

This was very much a grey area for Xander, all he knew was that Lord London had been captured and taken into military custody, according to Staff Sergeant Maynard who filled him in back at Court-St Etienne. Nevertheless, telling Margareta that he was no further a threat to him or anyone else now, gave him a further sense of hope in one day returning to Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa and being able to get on with a normal life there. Xander explained briefly the whole story, or as much as he could without confusing her too much with the politics and heroics of David and his Aunt Mel, whose name still managed to bring a stray tear to his eyes.

  ‘Your Aunt Melissa was a wonderful woman Xander O’Neill, she loved you very much and I do not tell you this to deepen your sadness, but to let you know that it is the truth. It would appear to me that my Mother gave up on trusting me a long time ago, the day that my big mouth ended with our Father’s fleeing the country for their very lives. She was bitter and angry with everything that I did after that day; each time she saw me happy, she saw to it that I was weeping. As soon as I was old enough to leave San Martino delle Scale, I took a University Course and left my Brother’s to look after the kind and loving part of our Mother…my Mother, who had fallen in love with the wrong man, and paid the price by her alone joining The Sanctum of The Order. My Mother believes I know nothing of our true roots, but the fact that I know everything and more, I no longer hate her, I respect her more than she will ever know, if that makes any sense to you?’

Margareta was deep and thorough with her explaining, even deeper than Xander would have imagined in any other circumstance. But far from the objectives in which he was heading for. there still remained a cause for concern; Xander’s link to his Mother and now Lady Melissa Cartwright had become built, interlaced and entwined with Madame Agrusa’s only daughter who was trying to tell Xander that she was not the person her family thought her to be.

  ‘My Mother, Maria, she was killed at Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa when I was twelve…’

  ‘No, your Mother was killed here in Palermo, who told you she was killed in England?’

Confused by the statement Xander thought hard before answering while Margareta explained herself.

  ‘Your Mother was at San Martino delle Scale on the night before she was…!’

Suddenly silenced by the presence of Madame Agrusa and Margareta’s two brothers, Xander was ordered to stand up and follow them outside, and when Margareta attempted to stand also, she was told to stay where she was. The conversation had been noticed by Micheli, who in turn returned to his Mother to inform her that Xander was asking questions about Maria Cartwright-O’Neill.

  ‘Come with me if you want to know all the answers, Xander, Margareta will have to remain here, however, I’m afraid she may be a distraction for you. It is for your own good.’ Madame Agrusa spoke as though the compassion and Motherhood in her whole body had been drained out of her.

Doing as he was asked Xander leant down to Margareta and reassured her that he would be fine and that there was nothing for her to worry about, but sadly Margareta didn’t believe him; she didn’t believe her Mother, either.

  ‘Where are you taking him, Mother?’ She demanded attracting unwanted attention from the other customers who glanced over with concern.

  ‘One hour Margareta, be home in one hour.’ And that was that, Madame Agrusa, Xander, Micheli and Giuseppi were gone from the Café and down the street out of sight in moments.

Sitting for a little longer in her seat staring at the untouched plate of French Toast and the now cooled cups of Hot Chocolate that had been brought, she called over to the waiter who had served them with a quick wave to attract his attention. On arriving at the table she handed him a small piece of paper and asked for the bill. Unfolding the paper discreetly he looked down and read it.

  ‘I will do my best, Lady Agrusa. I will have your bill in just a few moments.’ He replied before walking back to the counter and picking up the telephone.

After a further couple of minutes the waiter returned with the piece of paper that Margareta had given him and handed it back to her with a smile. ‘Thank you, Madame Agrusa, have a good day.’

Making her way outside calmly into the busy street she took out the piece of paper and opened it to read the contents: 1119, Piazza Vigliena, Baroque Square.

Now she knew where Xander was being taken, and by the address that she was now reading to herself it was quite clear that there were only two possible reasons he was being taken by her Mother; to be initiated into “Ordinis Sancti” or to face a death brought forward by those that Margareta knew only as “i fratelli di luce” – The Circle of Light.

Arriving at Piazza Vigliena – The Four Corner’s – Madame Agrusa instructed Xander to enter the building’s far left entrance, a small blue door that was peeling of paint, stiff to open and even harder to close behind him. Once inside and the door closed back up again, Micheli pointed to a long passageway that was lined with burning torches perched with brass brackets along its walls. It was this passage in which the young Master Xander would have to walk down alone.

  ‘The Right of Passage…Is this…!’

  ‘You must walk to the end of the passage, once you reach the end, you will know what to do,’ Micheli instructed him. ‘Good luck, Master Xander.’

Leaving him to walk down the dim lit passage by his own accord, Micheli left him the very same way they had entered, the only difference being the door having a wooden beam placed behind it so that Xander could not leave – the only route of exit was to walk straight forward down the passage.

Now alone, Xander began to walk precariously down the passageway, his heart beating fast and hard as each lit torch he passed radiated great heat that only added to the sun licked warmth his body had felt outside in the Sicilian sunshine. Each step he took echoed endlessly it seemed, while in his mind he started to remember things that Madame Agrusa had previously denied him ever visiting Palermo with his parents.

San Martino delle Scale, Sicily – 1976

The hot summer winds had already begun their fast descent across the mountains and hills of Sicily, bringing the tourists and travelers passing along the coastal roads, towns and villages to set up their long vacation homes, lodges and villas, for those who were rich enough to be able to afford such luxuries. The San Martino delle Scale Villa stood at the top of the second highest mountain in Sicily that overlooked the bare essential landmarks of the capital city, Palermo, though the existence was neither mutual or welcomed by those who could be spotted staying at the large home of Signore Salvatore Agrusa and Signora Angila Agrusa; their story of wealth and fortune having become cloudy to the best of the island’s residents, while for those who knew Salvatore personally, the truth was considered a deeply guarded secret which would constitute ‘Vows of Silence’ upon anyone, man, woman or child coming across it.

Arriving at the foot hill of the driveway that was steep and almost impassable, Lady Maria Cartwright-O’Neill, Master Xander O’Neill and the driver of their vehicle made their way up and around to the main doors to be greeted by a very young looking Lady Angila Agrusa and her husband, Salvatore, who were overjoyed to meet their guests.

  ‘So glad you could make it Lady O’Neill, and who have we here?’

Salvatore looked down at a young boy, his hair straightened with the spit and short nimble fingers of his Mother, while in his eyes the unsure stares of a giant of a man looking down at him, brought a little nervousness that was neither frowned upon nor accepted.

  ‘This is my son, Xander, he is so excited to be here, aren’t you Xander?’ Maria declared introducing him to Salvatore and Angila. ‘And please, call me Maria, I am not really one to stand on formalities.’

It was agreed that they use their Christian names instead of titles in nobilities, as was the agreement that both Salvatore and Angila not hang on the whim of going to any trouble preparing their rooms as any specialized ceremonious attendees would have them do; as far as Maria was concerned, she was just as excited as they were to be meeting for talks about the future of the country.

Making their way inside the large Manor House, they found themselves a seat inside a well presented lounge, making themselves comfortable they each looked around one another. But it was Salvatore who prepared to talk first.

  ‘Sicily is changing so quickly, Lady…I mean, Maria. The way that our two nations have overspent countless finances in the witch hunt that they call progress, we here in Palermo have lost more than our fair share of our children, wives and husbands. Can I ask if you are here to give support through your House…Cacciatore Svegliarsi, I believe?’ Salvatore spoke up while waving to one of his House staff to bring him and his guest’s refreshments.

Maria hesitated. ‘Actually, I am not here under representation of Cacciatore Svegliarsi, Salvatore…’

  ‘I don’t understand, the meeting of all the Houses is this evening, if you are not here to represent the House in which your husband commands, then…’

Asking for a moment to put Xander down somewhere that he could rest after his long journey, it was Angila who offered to put him upstairs with Micheli and Margareta while the two could talk. It was during this brief moment of Xander being taken away by Madame Agrusa that he remembered his Mother and Salvatore moving closer together as he was cradled in the woman’s arms. As they left the stairs to turn onto the hallway his eyes glared at the dimming light of the room in which he had left his Mother alone, and in those final few seconds he saw with his own eyes his Mother and Salvatore embrace and kiss passionately.

Piazza Vigliena – The Four Corner’s – Present Day

With beads of sweat falling from his forehead down into his eyes Xander tried to wipe away the liquid sweat, only to rub the salty residue deeper into his already blurry vision that cascaded into shimmers of unfocused light spears and spectral misfit shapes. The thinning passageway was beginning to close in, and the uneasy feeling came over him that he would not make it to the end pushed to the very forefront of his mind.

  ‘Master Xander O’Neill,’ a voice of a man called out to him. ‘Are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light?’

The voice echoed in the stillness, its dialect recognised as that of fluent Italian, though the recognition of its sound so very familiar to Xander. Was this Micheli, or Giuseppi, even? The heat was playing with his mind – maybe – to a point that he was starting to go delirious with only a thought that he was hearing a man’s voice known to him.

  ‘Are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light, Master Xander O’Neill?’

Suddenly stopping where he was, Xander looked around him to see where the voice was coming from, but no matter how hard he tried to find the source he could not see any trace of anyone.

  ‘Whose there? Who are you?’ Xander demanded.

  ‘Walk…Walk and become a part of the light, Master Xander O’Neill, and tell me, are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light?’ The voice was now insistent on his reply.

  ‘Yes, I accept my place on the road to the light.’ Xander finally answered weakly as he continued his way forward toward the end of the passage.

  ‘Do you accept the light into your heart? Do you accept the light of God to guide you and inspire you to all levels of good? Do you accept your place within The Sanctum of The Order?’

Stopping for a moment he bowed his head. ‘I accept.’

Falling to the ground Xander began finding it hard to stand. Weakly he raised his head and looked forward where he saw that the door at the end of the passageway had opened, and there in front of him stood a tall man in a darkened robe, his head lowered to the floor as though waiting for Xander to reach him.

  ‘Who…Who are you?’ Xander asked the robed figure.

  ‘Before you step through this door fratello Xander della casa di cigno, do you reject the lies and the corruptions of Satan, and accept the true faith of God into your soul?’

Xander suddenly realized what this was that he was being subjected to, but could this be true? Brother of The House of Swan was this what Madame Agrusa was speaking of on his arrival to San Martino delle Scale? Was he to be a part of The Sanctum of The Order, to take over from his Aunt Mel and bring all of the Houses together?

  ‘I accept the true faith of God into my soul and I reject the lies and corruptions of Satan.’

With this said the robed man raised his head and pushed back the hood to reveal himself to the shock of Xander, who, seeing that the man before him was not only someone he knew, but someone who had been reported to have being killed a long time ago.

  ‘Salvatore!’ Xander gasped almost breathlessly.

   ‘Mio figlio welcome home.’ Salvatore welcomed him with outstretched arms.

The heat of the passageway and the anxiety that Xander had been feeling became overwhelming, so much so, that as Salvatore made his way up to Xander, he watched as the young man fell forward to the floor unconscious. Immediately rushing over, Salvatore picked him up effortlessly in his wide arms and carried Xander to the door, where after knocking three times the door was finally opened for them.

On the other side of the door a brightly lit room with six other cloaked figures stood in an almost perfect circle around an insignia that was encrusted with all manners gold leafed pressings, jewels and set into the floor. Upon this insignia Xander’s unconscious body was laid down carefully by Salvatore, before he took a step back and waited.

  ‘Who speaks for this Brother of the Order?’ One of the other cloaked figures spoke out demandingly.

  ‘I do,’ Salvatore Agrusa replied.

Taking from under the dark robe a golden chalice that had the very same insignia as on the floor inscribed on it, the figure passed it around the circle of others until it reached Salvatore. Holding it up in the air he closed his eyes.

  ‘We offer this sacred blood of Jesus Christ to our Brother, Xander O’Neill, so that he is given life of rebirth and, the light of wisdom to fill his soul.’ Salvatore chanted before kneeling down and lifting the young man’s head up to help him drink the contents of the chalice. ‘Accept the blood of Jesus Christ, my son and accept the life and wisdom, my Brother.’

Xander nodded his acceptance as with a smile, Salvatore turned to the others before giving a silent nod. Leaving Salvatore to tend to Xander they left the room. A couple of minutes passed before Xander regained consciousness to see Micheli, Giuseppi and Angila come walking into the room to greet him. Realizing that he was no longer in the long thin passageway he glanced around quickly to see where the cloaked figure, Salvatore, was. But he was not there, not in the room where the others were now standing over him asking if he was alright.

  ‘Where did he go?’ Xander cried anxiously.

  ‘Who, Xander, who are you looking for?’ Madame Agrusa enquired puzzled and concerned.

  ‘My Father…Where is he, where did he go?’

Having both Micheli and Giuseppi lift Xander to his feet, Madame Agrusa led them all out of the room to a large dark oak door that would lead them back onto the streets outside Piazza Vigliena. The way was a lot less busy than the main entrance with very little crowds to raise concern of Xander’s state in which looked worse than what it really was, though the dehydration which had caught Xander inside that thin passageway was as real and as daunting as any fear could have been.

  ‘Don’t worry little brother, you’ll be alright.’ Micheli reassured him.

After a few minutes in the fresh air Xander was able to walk by himself at the side of Micheli and Madame Agrusa, who in turn glanced back and forth at him with both a look of sympathy and that of guilt.

  ‘We will take him to il caffè di Palermo, he can get something there that will help him…I think we can all be doing with something to calm our nerves!’

By the time the four of them arrived at the Café, they found to their surprise sat down at a table was Margareta, sipping at a cup of black coffee while staring out of the window. Upon seeing her Mother and then Xander being helped by her two brothers, she called to the waiter and asked him to assist them bringing the young man inside out of the heat.

  ‘He is not used to this hot weather,’ Margareta cried using her hands to fan a cooler draught over Xanders’ face in the hope that it helped him.

Rushing away the waiter brought back a large jug of cold water and a glass that he filled to the top before handing it to the almost unconscious young man, telling him to sip at the water and not to gulp it down. Then with a rising smile he excused himself to tend to the other customers.

  ‘I saw my Father,’ Xander whispered.

  ‘It’s the heat, Xander, sometimes the effects make you see things that aren’t really there…!’

  ‘Bullshit, Mother!’ Margareta barked loudly. ‘I saw him too.’

Putting on a face that clearly showed that she was not happy with her daughter’s outburst, Madame Agrusa demanded that Giuseppi escort his sister out of the Café and give her time to calm down. With an immediate comeback from Margareta, however, she shrugged her shoulders and pushed her brother’s attempts of taking a hold of her away before shouting the one thing that stopped Giuseppi, and which had her Mother slapping her hard across the face.

  ‘Mio Padre è tuo Padre, Maestro Xander,’ she yelped while seeing her Mother swipe her hand through the air and suddenly make contact with her cheek. The action was swift and just as painful.

Knowing that they had all attracted unwanted attention, Micheli took a hold of his Mother by the arm and guided her to a nearby empty table that was also by the Café window before turning to his sister with a raised poised hand. Her daughter was poised in a very deadly move, if only to defend her honor by initiating an attack on her own Mother.

  ‘Margareta, please, for the love of god!’

Managing to calm the inner anger of the pain from her face, Margareta threw both her hands up in the air while looking down at Xander sitting helpless at the table sipping at the glass of water. At that very moment she became emotional, tearful and confused to the fact which hit her so hard that she too had to find a seat next to him and her Mother. The morning had been eventful; Xander’s initiation, her sudden change in behavior and the incident in which only Master Xander and herself had come to witness – the sighting of Salvatore Agrusa.

‘Why didn’t you tell us the truth?’ Margareta whispered calmly.

Madame Agrusa knew that the question was directed at her and her alone, though Giuseppi took it upon himself to answer from his point of helping take Xander to Piazza Vigliena along with Micheli.

  ‘It is the custom of our families to guide those of our friends…’

Placing a gentle hand onto Giuseppi’s shoulder Madame Agrusa gave a warm smile. ‘It’s okay, what your sister is asking is not why we took Master Xander to the initiation, but…Well, there is something that both you and your brother Micheli should know.’

Intrigued by the sudden interruption that had the smile fall from Madame Agrusa’s face, Micheli was taken over with concern that what he and his brother were about to hear was not only important, but was also serious enough for their Mother to keep from them. Even so, standing before her would not help the news to be taken any better and so, they both pulled up a chair each and sat down.

  ‘It pains me very deeply to say this, though all three of you are old enough now to know the truth. My husband…Your Father, Salvatore, didn’t die in America, I lied to protect you all, to protect this family and not have to go through the scandals brought from those wishing to discredit him. Salvatore is alive and he is here in Palermo, as Margareta has said…’

  ‘He told me not to hate you for the deception Mother and for the love of my Father, I granted that wish,’ Margareta interrupted.

  ‘Thank you, Margareta, that is very kind of you,’ Madame Agrusa smiled.

  ‘But what I did not grant was the deception of Master Xander, who he himself only found out today who his real Father was, and that his and our Father are of the very same. How could you Mother?’

Unable to find the right words in which to explain, Madame Agrusa broke down weeping. By her side, Micheli and Giuseppi bowed their heads with nothing to say at the shocking news that would now bring a great change in their relationship and friendship with Xander, and most notably, with their Mother who had withheld truths that they should have been told a long time ago. As for Xander, the overall shock had him fall much further into the dark abyss of his emotions, guilt and regret.

  ‘Things were a lot different seventeen years ago…’

  ‘Oh please, don’t start trying to build your fucking ethical bridges now Mother. All that you had to do was tell us the truth, that way we would not be having this argument today.’

  ‘And you really believe that it would have been that simple, Margareta? You have no idea what your Father and I had to sacrifice, do you? For you, you’re Brothers and the House which we live in.’

Under the circumstances it was quite clear, that no matter what Madame Agrusa said, Margareta would not accept it, and why would she, her Mother had lied to her before?

  ‘You should forgive your Mother!’ Xander gasped exhausted.

Turning to him Margareta gave a cold look that showed the full extent of her anger. ‘Really, is that what you are going to do, is it?’

Attempting to rise from his chair but failing by clambering back down Margareta rushed to him with concern.

  ‘Be still, Xander, you’re still weak from the heat of the passage…!’ Margareta hushed herself with a guilty look falling about her face, and this was obviously something that Xander picked up on straight away.

  ‘What passage would that be Margareta?’ He asked.

Now on the spot and feeling the eyes of everyone on her, Margareta tried desperately to change the subject. First with the concerned speech of both her brothers marching him off like they did and then with the fruitless searching of all Palermo to find the four of them before returning back to the Café. This however was nothing short of wasted words that fell upon deaf ears as to find out what exactly she meant by “The Passage”, the one that obviously Xander had been subjected to during his initiation.

  ‘Fine,’ she conceded, ‘I found out where you were and made my way there. At first, I thought that maybe I had gone to the wrong address, but then I saw the others in their robes. Entering the building through a side door I came to the small open windows that looked down on you in the passage…And that’s when I saw my Father helping you out into the room behind him.’

 The detailed description satisfied Xander’s curiosity, while for Madame Agrusa, the story was not as welcomed as it could have been; Angila knew that throughout the history of The Sanctum of The Order, no woman had ever been allowed – in many cases by law – to attend, or to look upon the secret ceremony as it was being performed. Strict guidelines and rules forbade that of a woman to even know the locations of such ceremonies that pursued the “Road to Manhood” of so many young men around the world.

  ‘You do know what you have done…’

  ‘I know what I saw was my Father, who according to you and your Cronies should be dead and buried in a country that we have never had the choice of visiting. What I can also say with all honesty is that from the mouth of the horse, Xander is my brother and you’re just an old lying slut who knows how to lie and keep secrets from her own children. Have I left anything out?’

Allowing Margareta to get her anger off of her chest, Madame Agrusa asked Xander if he was well enough to travel, for which he nodded and put down the glass of water back onto the table.

  ‘Micheli, if you would be so good as to phone Henry and tell him to come and pick us up, we will put all of this behind us until we get home. There is no need airing our business in front of total strangers like this, would you not agree, Xander?’

Nodding his head and not saying a word, Xander looked at Margareta, noticing that she was in many ways angry, not just at her Mother, but also at him, too. His thoughts alone were of how to apologize to her, while at the same time the countless questions that he was wanting to ask were causing him to get a very painful headache that screamed out to be soothed by painkillers.

  ‘As we have all calmed down a little, it would be worth knowing that Master Xander has been given the invitation of Lord Desmond Cordell of Milan, Giuseppi’s dear Uncle, so with a little luck we should be hearing from him tomorrow.’ Angila smiled waving to the waiter and ordering a bottle of sparkling water to take away with her.

As this came as a complete surprise to everyone around the table, not to mention Giuseppi himself, it was Xander who first demanded to know what was going on and why he was being invited elsewhere around the world at such short notice. Of course, this was something that Angila tried to put off for their family chat upon arriving back home at San Martino delle Scale.

  ‘But Uncle Desmond cannot be trusted, Mother, you said yourself…’

  ‘I was obviously mistaken and besides, you caught me at a bad time when asking about where his loyalties were. Personally, I think it would be good if Master Xander was to go spend a few weeks with your uncle in Milan, Giuseppi, and maybe you could join him, you know, get him settled in and familiar with the surroundings.’ She exclaimed in poor manner that begged the question of what the real reason for the sudden change in heart was about.

Angila would not have another word said, or the matter of Lord Desmond Cordell discussed while sat in the Café awaiting transport back to the House. Occasionally Micheli and Giuseppi would make very little conversation between one another, while Margareta would keep asking her Mother where Henry was and what was keeping him so long in turning up, but other than this, it seemed to Xander that the whole morning’s activities had somehow taken its toll on hospitality.

Finally, with a long press of his car horn Henry arrived and picked them all up. Having been told to make a speedy journey back to San Martino delle Scale, Henry wasted no time in beating the traffic lights and traffic out of Palermo City, before making a quickened shortcut through the outskirts of the surrounding towns and villages, rather than going through them. It wasn’t long before the car drew up outside the main doors of the House, the staff members inside coming rushing out to see if any of the occupants of the car needed a hand with anything that they had picked up in the city, only to discover the thunderstruck faces and sad expressions making haste into the House, to finally sit down and resolve the situation.

  ‘Will you want refreshments bringing to the Sitting Room, Madame Agrusa?’ Arazia asked giving her usual awkward curtsy.

With a low grunt Angila shooed her away with a theatrical wave that definitely told the Maid that she was in one of her rare moods, where refreshments and snacks were the furthest things from her mind.

After everyone was inside the Sitting Room and sitting, standing, lounging, even lying down comfortably, uncomfortably or just ready to say their peace and leave. Madame Agrusa raised her hand to her head and pushed her soft trembling fingers through her hair.

  ‘Okay, who wants to start first?’ She asked looking around to see and hear that everyone wanted to take up the opening speeches of questioning. ‘Okay, listen, settle down. One at a time, alright, Micheli you go first as you have obviously been the quietest this whole time.’

Standing up in front of everyone he forced his hands into his pockets quickly and turned to Xander, who was sitting on the sofa next to both Margareta and Giuseppi.

  ‘The way I see things right now, we have done everything we were told to do when it came to our friend and guest, Master Xander, so why should we change things and send him away as if…As if he has the plague or something that is dangerous to us?’

Asking him to sit back down Madame Agrusa handed the floor over to a very anxious Giuseppi, who at first made a moaning sound as to not wanting to get up and speak, but for Margareta passing comment on there being more than one person in the House who wished for Xander to move on and leave them alone.

  ‘I am with my brother, Micheli, why chase Master Xander away for something that is not his fault? If you all believe that our Father is alive, then why hasn’t he tried to make any contact with us? We only have Margareta’s word for it, no offence Sister, but sometimes you see far more than what is really there!’

Margareta did not take offence at her Brother’s statement, much rather sighed at the thought that he and Micheli were missing the whole point of the argument where it concerned Master Xander and their home.

  ‘Margareta, would you like to add anything to the conversation?’ Angila asked, knowing only too well that her daughter would be taking most of the evening up with her many axes to grind and demands wanting to be addressed by both her Mother and Master Xander combined.

  ‘Actually Mother, I’m fine!’ Margareta replied to the shock of everyone in the room.

  ‘Excuse me?’ Her Mother gasped in disbelief.

  ‘I said I’m fine, I believe I’ve said all that I had to say earlier, so, if there’s nothing that anyone wants to ask me, then I believe it is Xander whose up next.’ Margareta made haste almost to get the young man in front of them.

Thinking it strange that Margareta had turned down the opportunity to speak her mind and get all of the tension and questions off of her chest, Xander stood up and asked her again if there was anything that she wished to talk about, whether this was to do with her Father, Mother or him. But again, with a swift shrug of her shoulders she nodded her head from side to side before focusing all of her attention to the floor where Xander now stood.

  ‘Well, I’d just like to say that your hospitality has been above and beyond that which I ever expected. Making me feel welcome in your home and taking good care of me, teaching me the rules and, well, I just want to say thank you and whatever you decide in wanting me here or not I will always appreciate it.’

Sitting back down next to Margareta, Xander gave her a quick glance before turning back to her Mother who was now making her way over to the fireplace.

  ‘Well,’ Madame Agrusa sighed, ‘it would appear that it is left up to me, again, to speak and for all of you to listen, if that is alright with everyone?’

With no reply just the intense stares from everyone around the room, she cleared her throat and made a mental note in which to start off. In her own mind there was a feeling of paranoia that had built up inside her, it was festering and growing in size as to why her children and Xander didn’t want to speak any more about the whole Palermo matter.

  ‘Alright, maybe I should start at the beginning…’

  ‘That would be a very good place to start, seeing as starting from the end would not explain our Father’s strange disappearance and sudden reappearance here today.’ Margareta piped up sarcastically.

  ‘Your Father, Salvatore Agrusa, he was a very proud man who wanted nothing less than a good life here in Palermo. His Father and Grandfather were simple Farmers who were ran into the ground by old traditions and old ways that were neither welcome or needed, but somehow your Father made that all better. He took over the building companies of Sicily, put many men to work and had food on their tables at the end of each working day. When Micheli was born, we knew then that through a short time we would have to defend the rights of the family, and so, our decisions on certain associations became simple; The Sanctum of The Order and those of The Twelve Houses came together and so became our greatest friends, allies, and for some of them our greatest enemies. San Martino delle Scale was built by the business which your Father was trying hard to leave, while from every country around the world he was being forced to surrender to the many unspeakable things he had to live with. Your Father and me, we somehow drifted apart and found solace and affection in our work, our associates and those friends who considered us much more than our own country did at the time. Xander was conceived through the manner of deep affections given by his Mother, Lady Maria Cartwright-O’Neill, and unfortunately were not brought to light until his fifth birthday. Margareta was born just two years later after Xander, and it was this new building of compassion that your Father made the decision to break all ties from The House of Swan. Unfortunately, the country was overwhelmed by those wanting to destroy the Cosa Nostra, and so, using the cover story of your Father escaping to America seemed the only way to stop them taking away our home and putting me into prison.’ Madame Agrusa explained with tears in her eyes clearly showing the pain which she was feeling in telling the story that was supposed to be told to the four, well before this point in time.

For a good while after she had revealed all to everyone while the room remained silent. The three young men sat tight lipped, as did Margareta, except for the occasional sniffle that she made when looking up to see her Mother weeping and looking sorry for herself in not sharing this family secret.

  ‘Are you trying to tell us that Salvatore Agrusa, our Father, was Cosa Nostra?’ Micheli suddenly called out into the silence.

Madame Agrusa nodded to confirm. ‘Salvatore and his best friend Vincenzo were the two main men here in Palermo who established the businesses and, with their hard work day and night brought the people of this country together. But there were so many arguments with others over profit and land that a war was inevitably declared, and so, within just twenty years your Father went from a respected man, to that of an Outlaw who had brought shame upon Sicily.’

Xander listened with great interest, his attention settling on the best friend of Salvatore’s – Vincenzo.

  ‘My Mother, she mentioned Vincenzo a lot when I was young,’ Xander spoke up.

Madame Agrusa fell silent for a moment before standing and walking over to the window to take a brief look outside before returning to the fireplace.

  ‘Vincenzo Smulik, he was Salvatore’s right hand man and Confidante. Together they built half of Sicily on what had been left after the war and with the help of the Corleone Clan, brought function and stability back to the people. I believe Vincenzo died some several years ago in Turkey, though the details were never given as to how or why he died. He was a good man, as was my husband, Salvatore, too.’

Micheli and Giuseppi were speechless as to the information that they were now being given, much of it for the very first time.

  ‘Are you saying that our Father was Cosa Nostra?’ Giuseppi gasped, again.

Nodding her head Madame Agrusa turned to the large wall mirror that overhung the chimney breast above the open fire and proceeded to pull it to one side and reveal a large wall safe. All four faces became filled with surprise as she then opened up the safe and took out a small leather bound book.

  ‘San Martino delle Scale was one of the very first Houses built by your Father’s businesses, it has a total of nineteen bedrooms, including one extra that is hidden and inaccessible by anyone, except the one who is in possession of the key that opens the lock. This book was handed to me on the day that your Father left for his last call of business, before he had to disappear, and, with strict instructions to hand it over to his son as soon as they were initiated into The Sanctum of The Order…’

  ‘Xander,’ Margareta exclaimed.

  ‘Yes, but not because Micheli or Giuseppi could not find any same route to become Brothers’ of The Sanctum, but because Salvatore forbade them to be exposed to such barbaric and inhuman tortures that the enemies of the Cosa Nostra carried out. This book is his legacy and with the legacy there comes a much needed strengthened presence of caution, one which could bring the complete shutdown and destruction of the belief that Salvatore hoped to reach in his lifetime before he died.’

Handing the book over to Xander, the two Brother’s moved closer and watched as the young guest opened it up to look inside; its pages almost as perfectly preserved as the day that the journal was bought, its writing’s in both Italian and English bringing Xander to struggle with some of the sentences, while all this time Margareta sat with her legs crossed rubbing her hand down her shins to her feet.

  ‘There’s some kind of a map on the inside covers, do you know where that is?’ Xander whispered rotating the book in a complete circle between his hands.

Madame Agrusa waved to Micheli to help Xander identify any known landmarks that appeared on the map in the book, while she walked casually over to a small pine desk and took from it an old worn atlas that she handed over to Giuseppi.

  ‘Use this it shouldn’t take much to find out where the place on Salvatore’s map is. I was told to keep this close by, just in case this day came and certain questions were asked about the book.’

Together, Micheli, Giuseppi and Xander searched through the atlas to try and pinpoint where the drawing was in the world, and starting with Sicily was the first logical idea. While the young men did their searching, Margareta and Angila sat side by side one another, occasionally glancing over to the others and yet, not at all talking to one another until finally Margareta gave a yawn.

  ‘You’re tired, Margareta!’ Angila whispered.

  ‘Yes, tired of all the lies and deceit,’ Margareta replied, her words not spoken in malice or in anger, but in a way that her Mother could well understand to be justified against her.

  ‘I gathered that much at the Café, but you and your Brothers have to understand the implications and dangers that now come hand in glove with all of this, especially now that the truth is out.’ Angila said taking a hold of the throw-over blanket from behind the sofa and offering it to her daughter.

Rejecting the cover at first, Margareta quickly became shivery and finally asked for it to warm herself up by wrapping it around her shoulders. Angila gave a warm smile of knowing that she would have eventually asked for it, as only a Mother knew the habits of her children.

  ‘Do you want to tell me about your Father?’ She asked, her voice showing a slight defense against her being evasive or stubborn in her reply.

Margareta turned and looked over to Xander and the others. ‘He looked well.’

This was good to know that she had taken note of Salvatore’s health, but it was very little information in which to paint a picture in her mind. So, with a more sincere and probing voice Angila began to ask if he had talked to her?

  ‘We talked for a couple of minutes before he had to…He asked how you and my brothers were and if I was enjoying University. I asked him when he was coming home…’

  ‘And is he…’

  ‘What, coming home? No, he told me that he is in the very same situation as Master Xander at the moment and only he can change that in time. I guess that’s why I’m so angry with you, Mother, that and the fact of Xander. Up until today I had no idea that I had another Brother so you’ll have to excuse me while I come to terms with the whole bonding thing.’ Margareta replied with a half tone raised in the agitation of self-awareness that she had slept with her Mother’s guest – Who also happened to be her Brother, too.

Moving up to her daughter and cuddling into her, Angila reassured her that everything would be alright and that there was nothing to worry about for the moment. But it was these kind words that set Margareta off crying, attracting the attention of the three young men for a slight moment before Angila gave a polite signal that it was okay.

  ‘Do you know what I think? I think that we need to have a girly talk. Why don’t I get Mr. Lesean to make us up some nice warm Hot Chocolate and sit in the Drawing Room, just us two, nobody else, what do you say?’

Margareta stopped crying, wiped her tears away from her eyes and nodded silently. ‘That would be good, Mamma.’

Excusing them both from the others’ company, Angila and Margareta stood up and made their way into the kitchen where they found Mr. Lesean and Arazia sitting at the Breakfast Bar reading through the days newspapers, occasionally pointing to one or two news reports that had Mr. Lesean giggling.

  ‘I am so glad someone’s in a good mood, Mr. Lesean, Miss Arazia could we have two of your heart mending Hot Chocolates, please?’ Angila requested both hers and Margareta’s drinks while their more than silent entrance surprised both staff members with a start.

In an attempt to apologize to his Mistress, Mr. Lesean was told to forget it and to act as if it did not happen, for which he thanked Lady Agrusa and began instructing Arazia to fetch him the Hot Chocolate and bread from the food store. Hearing that he had asked the Maid to fetch the bread, Margareta made the awful mistake of pleading with her Mother not to let him make French Toast.

  ‘Che cosa è questo, non è pane francese, but you love French Toast, La signorina Agrusa, are you not feeling…Oh, my apologies,’ he announced realising that Margareta’s eyes were red and swollen from the tears she had been crying.

  ‘Just the Hot Chocolate, Mr. Lesean, if you please, thank you,’ Angila replied sitting her daughter down at the table and stroking her arm gently. ‘Miss Arazia, why don’t you join us after Mr. Lesean has finished with your services?’

Margareta was somewhat perturbed with the suggestion that the Maid of all people, especially Arazia, was to be offered a seat with them at this time of her emotional state.

  ‘Mamma, why are you asking…?’

  ‘Well, my dear, it would seem that while there is wisdom in the minds and hearts of all Mother’s, it is sometimes prudent to have a mind and heart that does not share the same circles of judgement. Don’t worry, whatever is said here in the kitchen will not go any further, I promise.’

As much as a surprise it was to Margareta, so too was it to Arazia, who in her short walk over to the two made a knowing glance of questionable remark to Margareta, though, almost visible to her Mothers’ line of sight could not make any positive or negative reaction for fear of alerting her Mother to any actions or signals. Instead, Margareta gave a warm smile and welcomed her to the table.

  ‘Now, Miss Arazia, my daughter and I would like you to join us in a girly talk, if that’s alright with you?’ Angila announced in an almost condescending tone.

With an automatic reaction of looking back to Mr. Lesean who was preparing the Hot Chocolate, the misinterpreted action was met with a loud gasp of error from Madame Agrusa, who immediately called over to the chef.

  ‘Where are my manners, of course, Mr. Lesean, could you make that three Hot Chocolates, please…And one for yourself, too, if you would like to turn in for the evening?’

Accepting the additional orders Mr. Lesean continued his preparations, while at the same time Arazia sat down and looked over at Margareta with sympathy and concern.

  ‘A girly talk, Madame Agrusa’

  ‘Yes, a girly talk, my daughter is feeling a little disheartened at the moment and I thought we could find a way to cheer her up. In my experience the best way to do this, is to talk about it, with both an immediate family member and one other from outside the family…Well, you do understand, that much I do know, so let us wait for…Ah!’

  ‘You’re Hot Chocolates, Madame Agrusa, will there be anything else this evening?’ Mr. Lesean said bringing the tray over to the table and setting it down carefully between the three women. ‘The young men in the Sitting Room, will they want something a little stronger, do you think?’

Angila thought for a second before showing a knowing smile. ‘Alright, Mr. Lesean, but not too much, I have to have them up bright and early in the morning.’

Confirming with a nod, Mr. Lesean left them to their hot drinks while he went to tend to Micheli, Xander and Giuseppi in the other room. His loud clicking heels becoming feint in the hallway was monitored by Madame Agrusa who, as soon as they became silent as to him having gone, she turned to Arazia.

  ‘Micheli tells me that you’ve just finished University in England, Miss Arazia, is this true?’ Angila asked.

  ‘Yes, for three years, I studied House Keeping,’ Arazia answered taking a hold of her cup.

Angila was less than impressed with the course title, though in retrospect of past services to the House and her duties, the dwelling on a non-prestigious post was shrugged from her shoulders.

  ‘Are you feeling alright Margareta? I mean, you looked so happy this morning when I last saw you’

  ‘I’m fine, Arazia, thank you for…’

  ‘Oh, Margareta is just being modest and polite, aren’t you my dear?’

Margareta didn’t know how to react; inside she felt the real woman screaming violently to get out and say what she really wanted to say, so as to get it off of her chest and from her mind, but this, especially in the company of her Mother was impossible for so many reasons and one of those reasons included Arazia.

  ‘That’s right, I’m sorry, I am a little upset Arazia,’ Margareta replied coyly.

  ‘Maybe we could talk sometime, if that would be acceptable with Madame Agrusa?’

Angila twitched slightly, for what reason both other woman did not know, but it was a movement that could hardly be dismissed as something trivial or irrelevant under the circumstances.

  ‘I don’t think my Mother would mind if we talked from time to time, would you Mother?’

Putting the conversation back in Angila’s hands with a direct question, there followed an almost uncomfortable silence that was taken as an objection rather than a carefully considered acceptance in which to give permission.

  ‘Your parents are from Palermo, are they not Arazia?’ Angila asked abruptly.

  ‘Yes, Madame Agrusa, they are,’ Arazia replied shifting in her seat.

  ‘Your Father, he is also Sicilian?’

Wondering where the line of questioning was being steered towards Arazia gave a low gentle sigh.

  ‘My Father was the Confidante to Vito Ginelli, Madame Agrusa, before the war began that is. My Grandmother was killed in the nineteen-seventy-eight blitz on the capital and my younger brother and me had to flee to England, where unfortunately, my Brother died of pneumonia six months before I came back home to find my Mother ill with the same condition.’

Hearing Arazia’s quick briefing of her family line in such graphic detail, Margareta reached out to her Mother and gave a look of disappointment, pity even, that she had one of her own House staff almost humiliate themselves to benefit the customs of a bureaucracy, one which neither Angila or Margareta were now any part of, and who would in all probability never will be.

  ‘I’m sorry Arazia, I have no idea what came over me and you have my deepest sympathies, for both my behavior and that of your loss. My husband, Salvatore, he was a man of honor, just as your Father was before the wars began. I’m pretty damn sure that if it wasn’t for the wars, then both your Father and my husband would still have a home here in Palermo.’ Angila explained after apologizing to the young woman who was now looking – and probably feeling – like that of Margareta when first she came into the kitchen and sat down.

The three women sat and talked for a good while, drinking their Hot Chocolate, reminiscing over old times when they were younger and drawing their conclusions on many different fads, past, present and possibly future that they would love to indulge themselves in. And, as much as Arazia knew that many of these things she would never be able to afford or buy, she shone in the brief time as if she could buy the whole world to the marvel and happy smiles of the two other women.

After two hours Angila was starting to wonder how the three young men were getting on with the map reading, and if they had found out where it was that Salvatore had drawn down in his little leather book as to baffle everyone, including her too.

  ‘Have we found our buried treasure yet?’ Angila called out entering the room rather noisily with both Margareta and Arazia in toe. ‘You’ve been at it long enough.’

Micheli rushed forward to greet Arazia, who was making a beeline for Master Xander and Giuseppi, to which Margareta noticed only too well before giving a slight frown. Angila, too, had noticed a change in her daughter’s character as soon as they entered the room to face the three young men.

  ‘Could I be wrong?’ She whispered under her breath.

  ‘Wrong about what Mother?’ Giuseppi asked inquisitively.

Realising that he heard her mumbling to herself, she put on a brave face and walked over to him with outstretched arms. ‘Could I be wrong, or are you three getting on famously with this little puzzle your Father left you?’

Not thinking anything else about it, Giuseppi revealed that he nearly had the map traced down to a place outside Vienna, while Micheli had pointed to Berlin and, Master Xander presumed the place was here in Sicily over the mountain range behind the west wing of the House. And in a couple of minutes, Madame Agrusa’s whispered loud thought’s became nothing more than a faded memory to the true facts which she repeatedly questioned herself about, over and over again.

  ‘Is there a prize for the winner, Madame Agrusa?’ Arazia exclaimed excitedly holding up the book.

  ‘Only if you can guess where the location of the map is, my dear,’ there came the reply from a very weary Angila, who was keeping her eye on both Xander and Margareta, as well as on her two sons and Arazia frolicking about around the sofa.

  ‘I can tell you all that it’s nowhere near the places that you think it is!’ Arazia cried out suddenly.

Suddenly all eyes were on the Maid who was on a natural high with being a part of the group.

  ‘Alright then smarty pants, where is it?’ Micheli asked giggling with doubt as to her ability to know.

  ‘That depends on what I get for guessing it right, doesn’t it, Micheli?’ She teased with pouting lips and hurriedly hid the book behind her back out of sight.

  ‘I will give you Micheli’s horse if you get it right, Arazia,’ Giuseppi laughed seeing that Giuseppi was not so happy his brother was wagering his horse.

‘And I will give you Giuseppi’s Jodhpurs and riding helmet, too, if you tell us where the map is on the atlas, dear Arazia.’ Micheli cried out, not having his brother beat him on the bet.

Turning to Master Xander, Arazia’s wide smile and giggle fell from her face and began to show an even deeper, more sincere expression that had Xander himself frozen to the spot while looking deep into her beautiful brown eyes.

  ‘And, you Master Angelo, what would you wager for a poor young House Maid?’ She whispered.

Xander stood staring at Arazia, her eyes set firmly on his awaiting an answer, perhaps one which was of sensitivity, kindness or just something that would measure the depth in which her gentle passion that very morning would, if anything substantiate itself as being equal.

  ‘What would you want me to wager on such an important find Arazia, money or perhaps your own weight in gold? How about I wager your life against the location, if you are right, then you will be killed…However, if you can solemnly promise to keep this a secret, then I will allow you to live until you are an aged old woman with only this as a dream to comfort your thoughts of a long life.’

Arazia began to laugh nervously at first, and then, as she saw that Xander was beginning to smile, she laughed uncontrollably while pointing her finger at him. All the while believing that he was joking with her, as the others looked on with deeply troubled thoughts as to know that this was no joke, nor was it something that Master Xander had said in pure jest as to add to both Micheli’s and Giuseppi’s wager remark.

  ‘How about…!’

  ‘How about you take that wager Arazia, I do believe that you will not find a better deal than that in this game of chance, do you Margareta?’ Angila interrupted, suddenly finding some compassion for the young woman who she had failed to realize as a threat to the House knowing such information.

  ‘It’s the best deal Arazia…Please, take it!’ Margareta pleaded.

Looking around her at the others Arazia noticed that everyone in the room had become serious all of a sudden, while Xander himself remained standing before her with a dropping smile and outstretched hand that beckoned for the leather bound book held in her hands.

  ‘What’s going on, it’s just a map in a book, isn’t it?’ Arazia begged for acknowledgement that what she was holding was nothing more than a pranked search for fun.

  ‘Arazia, I need you to listen to me very carefully, because what I am about to tell you will depend very much on whether you live or die! Do you understand?’ Master Xander said pushing her down onto a seat in front of him.

Arazia nodded her head to confirm that she understood what he had said to her.

  ‘The map in the book is very important to us…to me. It is a legacy from my Father who you know through your connections with your family. Now, if you tell me where it is in the atlas, I swear that you will live, but only if you promise to keep this information to yourself, do you understand?’

Arazia was becoming scared, so scared in fact that she began to piss herself while sitting on the chair; the warm yellow liquid ran through her black nylon acrylic trousers, down the insides of her covered legs, until finally leaking its way through the tanned dark cushions to drip onto the carpet below with a loudening splatter that alerted Angila and Margareta instantly.

  ‘Oh, Jesus Christ, Mother! ’ Margareta yelped out, only to be told to be quiet.

  ‘Do not interfere Margareta, this is House business.’

Arazia attempted to stand from her seat, but seeing this Xander pushed her back down hard to now sit in her own urine.

  ‘I want to go home, to see my Mum…!’ Arazia cried, the tears welling up in her eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry Arazia, but we can’t let you do that, not now, not unless…’

  ‘Unless what?’ She begged.

  ‘Unless you tell me where the map is on the atlas, as soon as you tell me, I’ll make sure you are taken home to see your Mother, have we got a deal?’

Confused, scared and very upset, Arazia held out the book for Xander to take a hold of, but he pushed the book back and pointed down at the pages showing the map and raised his voice. ‘Tell me?’

Cowering away from his loud voice Arazia took a hold of the atlas and pointed. ‘Rome. It’s in Rome.’

Quickly checking along with Giuseppi and Micheli, Xander had them both confirm that it was the same as in the leather bound book before turning back to Arazia with a more relaxed look.

  ‘Leave her alone!’ Margareta cried out rushing over to her and standing in front of the now terrified young Maid. ‘Arazia is my friend and you will not fucking dare hurt her, Master Xander O’Neill.’

Looking over to Madame Agrusa for some form of acknowledgement, Angila gave only a tired shrug of her shoulders before walking out of the room and leaving everyone to sort out the problem; Arazia knowing only too well that what she had seen, what she had heard and, now the identity of Xander, she could not be trusted – Arazia was a Maid – and as she could not be trusted there had to be some form of action taken: her death, which Margareta was not prepared to see happen, or Arazia becoming a more stable resident within The House of Swan.

  ‘Your friend Margareta, and by that you mean, if her silence fails and becomes a threat…’

  ‘Yes, I will vouch for her, please, don’t kill her Master Xander!’

Turning to both Giuseppi and Micheli, Xander waited for their responses, to which both nodded in favor of their sister’s defense. Finally nodding his head and waving a hand he told Margareta to go and find Arazia a room in the House where she will be comfortable and help her clean up. In an attempt to thank Xander, she found only a refusal as he turned away from her and walked over to the two brothers standing near the open fire.

Helping Arazia up from her seat and out of the room Margareta was met by her Mother who directed a hand to the lobby where she then invited herself to accompany them both upstairs and find a room for their new guest.

  ‘What will happen to me now?’ Arazia asked, her whole body still trembling with fear from the unexpected experience.

  ‘Now, you come with us and get out of those wet clothes, my dear,’ Angila spoke up while rubbing her arms. ‘After that, you can have a nice hot shower, something to eat and we will all sit down and talk like civilized human beings.’

  ‘I mean…Will they kill me?’ Arazia stuttered.

  ‘I very much doubt it…’

  ‘But Master Angelo…Xander, whatever the hell his name is, he said he was going to kill me!’

Angila took a firm hold of Arazia’s shoulders before turning her around to face her on the stairs.

  ‘As I was saying, I very much doubt it. If Master Xander was going to have you killed, you would be dead already. For some reason he chose to save you, to make you, and that my dear is something that is very rare here in Sicily. Now, let’s go get you cleaned up.’

Continuing on their way upstairs and finding Arazia a room that she would have all to herself, the three young men in the living room were fixed a drink by Micheli, who had walked silently over to the mini bar at the back of the room. His change in character was so very clear to Xander and Giuseppi.

  ‘So, now we know where the map location is, what do we do next?’ Giuseppi asked taking a small swig of the whisky he’d been handed.

  ‘You don’t do anything, except stay here at the House and wait until I make contact with you with instructions,’ Xander said making a very presumptuous call.

  ‘Excuse me?’ Micheli returned with a puzzled look. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something…?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Xander smiled arrogantly, ‘That’s right, would you be so kind as to tell me why San Martino delle Scale is an open House for those who were your Fathers’ enemies?’

Giuseppi was stunned by such a statement. ‘Enemies, what on earth are you talking about, we don’t have enemies, Xander, this is the eighties, not nineteen-thirties Downtown Chicago, for Christ’s sake!’

Putting down his glass of half-drunken whisky Xander made his way over to the sofa and picked up the leather bound book before waving the two of them over to him, and with a couple of flicks through the pages to find the right place he handed it to Micheli while sitting back down in his seat. The two of them began reading a hand written passage that gave three family names, one of which was Lesean and, the other two the surnames of staff members who worked at the House through the day.

  ‘What exactly does this prove? I mean this book was written nearly twenty years ago,’ Micheli came to the defense of the names within the book.

  ‘I need one of you to arrange a meeting with your Uncle in Milan, settle the ground for me so that I can fix the problems with our two Houses…’

  ‘Our two Houses, you mean Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa and my Uncle’s House in Milan?’ Micheli exclaimed handing the book back to Xander.

  ‘No, I mean your Uncle’s House and San Martino delle Scale, it IS the House of Swan, isn’t it?’

Micheli became silent, angry, but silent to the reply that had Giuseppi walking away to the window with his hands up in the air with bewilderment. Disbelief filling their faces with such a heavy force that you could only just hear the heart strings snap around Micheli’s chest.

  ‘The way that I see it, Giuseppi, both your Mother and Father have not been straight with you for one reason or another. I would prefer to think that they have been protecting you against some sudden change in the Order’s, while a part of me says there is another reason for the deceit. Those names in that book are there for a reason and, until it is better known that the bitter feud against the family is well and truly over, we concentrate on finding out the truth.’ Xander explained sliding the book into his inside jacket pocket and leaving the two brothers alone to think in the Sitting Room.

Outside Xander came face to face with Margareta, who had been sent downstairs by her Mother to fetch water and light snacks for Arazia – tonight it was the Maid who was to be waited on.

  ‘Why did you do such a thing to Arazia, Xander?’ She whispered so that her brothers could not hear her.

Pulling her to one side Xander made sure that they hadn’t been seen, or that one or that both of the brothers had not made an attempt to leave the room in search of him. It was the long pause between the confirmation and the fact that they were alone, his first words spoken worried Margareta.

  ‘San Martino delle Scale has a traitor Margareta, did you know that?’ He revealed suddenly.

Shocked by Xander’s statement she nodded her head. ‘I don’t understand!’

Taking the book from his jacket Xander flicked through the pages to the last few pages of entry, when eventually finding what he was looking for he handed it over to an expectant Margareta.

  ‘There, the third paragraph down.’

Starting to read she found nothing at first of the journal entry, until suddenly reading out aloud the fifth and final line: ‘…And though I have tried my hardest to reconcile with Vincenzo over his and Angila’s illicit affair, my own gut instincts tell me that he will not take too kindly to my withdrawal of his services at San Martino delle Scale. Already having been warned from the Operators within the Corleone Clan of Vincenzo’s undermining of my authority here in Palermo, it is with regret, that my wife has also betrayed San Martino delle Scale…Oh my god! ’

Taking back the book and returning it to his jacket Xander told Margareta to go and tend to the task that her Mother had sent her downstairs to do, while he went upstairs and talked with Arazia, asking which room it was that she was staying in. Without any delay Margareta gave him directions with a couple of hand signals before doing exactly what he suggested and disappeared into the kitchens to find Mr. Lesean.

Finding the room that the two women were in Madame Agrusa sat right next to Arazia on the bed brushing her long black hair and complimenting on her keeping it in such fine condition, the small chatter giving way for him to walk inside the room and sit opposite them both without being seen or heard for a good long while.

  ‘I wish that I could have hair like this again,’ Angila said with envy.

  ‘It’s really not that hard to manage…I think it is because I have it tied up all day long while I’m here, Madame Agrusa, and that’s…!’

  ‘Angila, please, call me Angila. After all, you are not a Maid anymore.’ She interrupted with a sudden tug of the brush that had Arazia yelp out with pain. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?’

Arazia stood up quickly and turned around to Angila, her eyes immediately meeting Xanders’ as she did, but not stopping or pausing she focused on the old woman who was now sitting expectant, but totally unaware of Xanders’ presence in the room.

Grabbing the back of her head with a soothing hand that rubbed at the soreness, Arazia gave a distinctive angry look. ‘You meant to do that!’

Objecting to the accusation Angila, too, rose to her feet and stared hard into the young woman’s eyes before giving a slightly devilish grin.

  ‘Let’s get one thing straight here, Arazia, I’m the Lady of this Manor, and while I give the orders, you’ll do exactly as I say, do you understand?’

Arazia nodded her head; As Xander had threatened her earlier in order to get the information he needed out of her, Arazia had no idea where he stood in all of this, and so she agreed and apologized.

  ‘That’s good,’ Angila purred. ‘Now, as soon as we have that jumped up British prick out of the House, we can get back to some normality. Everything can go back to normal…My normal! I will get in touch with my people and see to it that Xander bloody O’Neill is put out of our misery for good.’

Arazia was shocked. ‘Master Xander, but he is to bring back the Houses…!’

  ‘You stupid fucking cunt, do you really think that he’ll succeed where his Father failed? Only those standing against the Corleone Clan can put together the damage that Salvatore did and I intend to stand on the winning side of this war…’

  ‘War, what war?’ Arazia gasped.

  ‘You see and that’s why you are the Maid in this House, Arazia. There are things that are happening around here that are of no concern of yours, and anything that is, well, it’s beyond your understanding child. When you are made tonight, you just nod, say yes and don’t ask any silly questions. Got it?’

Arazia was beside herself, upset, scared, confused and without a doubt she was wondering when Master Xander was going to say something, especially now as he had overheard Angila’s traitorous statement against him.

  ‘I…I don’t know,’ Arazia answered bluntly.

Angila was now quite taken aback by the sudden change in the young woman’s tone, one which had her raise a hand in the air to be poised for striking down at the now cowering young woman’s face. Of course, as the hand descended, Master Xanders’ hand came up to immediately stop it in mid-flight.

  ‘What the…!’

Turning around Angila was surprised to see her House guest stood with his eyes almost penetrating hers, as she relaxed her hand and stepped back enough to confirm that it was Xander that had stopped her.

  ‘I think that’ll be enough, don’t you, Angila?’ Xander growled.

  ‘Master Xander, oh, I didn’t know you were there. This little insubordinate was just giving me some lip so I decided to…!’

Without a word to Arazia, Xander flicked his head to one side to indicate to the young woman to leave the room. And, at first, with disapproval, Angila reached out to grab at her top to stop her.

  ‘Let her go! You and I need to have a little chat.’ Xander intervened pushing her hand away.

Feeling helpless Angila sat back down on the edge of the bed, her head lowered and her hands resting, trembling upon her thighs, she nodded weakly.

  ‘The book that Salvatore left for me, have you looked at it, Angila?’

  ‘Some of it, though even that is just lies and my husband’s attempts at tearing this whole family apart. His ignorance and better judgement were always used for the good of the House and the business he conducted throughout the country, and I believe that it was because of this that they had him killed…!’

Angila stopped as from the bedroom door Margareta returned with the food and drinks that her Mother had sent her to get, only to be faced with her Mother sat in a state of conflicting guilt.

  ‘They, Angila, you mean “They” as in you, don’t you?’ Xander exclaimed with a deep and demanding voice that had Angila jump slightly.

  ‘Does it matter who “They” are, when you look on the surface of it all, you’ll find that the ones pulling the trigger are the very same people you look upon as the trusted friends who are liars, cheats and killers. Am I right, Master Xander?’

For a moment Xander thought to himself, his mind already made up on Angila’s fate and reprimand, but far less sure whether he would consider himself as the one who was “Just”, or the one who was the very same as the traitors who had infiltrated San Martino delle Scale successfully enough to get to Salvatore.

  ‘Vincenzo Smulik, you and he were having an affair, weren’t you?’

Angila broke down in tears.

  ‘Mamma,’ Margareta gasped. ‘What is Master Xander talking about?’

The truth about the illicit affair between the two was not known to have been revealed to anyone, except for Salvatore and a select few others outside the Corleone Family Clan, though the whole account in which Angila remembered herself was not as black and white as the leather bound book described either.

Between the tears and sniffles it was revealed that Vincenzo had tried to reason with Salvatore to give up the businesses that they had both created and ran for more than fifteen years at the time, but, with stubborn madness, it was that of Salvatore who went against his own people, including Vincenzo, to make peace with the enemies of the Corleone Clan. This being said, the excerpts of which both Margareta and Xander had read were referred to as being “lies absent of truths that were better left in the past.”

  ‘The enemies of the Corleone Clan came to San Martino delle Scale to talk with the three of you, didn’t they?’ Xander cried taking out the book and turning to a page which detailed the meeting.

Again, Angila repeated her previous reply by saying that ‘they are the lies  which are absent of the truth’, unfortunately forcing Xander to get angry.

  ‘No more bullshit! This book details the men and women who were present that same evening that both Salvatore and Vincenzo were “Made” by the Corleone Clan and several other Clan’s which stretched the whole distance of Sicily, so where in here will it pick up on your betrayal to San Martino delle Scale and your husband?’

By the time Xander had finished asking Angila the question which had been burning in his mind for a long time now, both Giuseppi and Micheli had made their way upstairs to find out what was going on. Upon entering the room they found to their horror that Angila was in fact making a confession – a confession that had never been told to anyone in the entire House before, until that evening.

  ‘The Corleone Clan “Made” Salvatore, but they would not “Make” Vincenzo, nor recognize his efforts. As the businesses grew and the profits broadened in the direction of San Martino delle Scale, Salvatore decided he was to get rid of his best friend Vincenzo, send him away to the America’s and keep the best part of life here for himself. It was me who told Vincenzo the truth and from it he went to the Corleone’s and warned them that their enemies would destroy them if they didn’t intervene and assist him. Of course, the war between the families had already been going on for two years, though the difficulties did not land upon the steps of San Martino delle Scale, because it was my husband who kept all of these Clansmen in work. Eventually…Eventually, I made my way to Palermo and talked with one of the Confidantes of the Corleone’s Clan and made my first of several statements against my husband while my affair with Vincenzo blossomed. I had no idea that Salvatore knew, he hadn’t been near me for many months, so it made my rendezvous with his best friend easier and all the more exciting. On our last meeting together, Vincenzo told me that Salvatore had been forced to leave the country and take refuge in America, where he would have his own interest laid down for him…’

  ‘Your affair brought the enemies of the Corleone’s knocking at your doors, were you so naïve to believe that the whole structure that Salvatore built would never be brought down?’ Xander cried out, his arms waving about frantically.

Angila gave a wide smile, one which not only irritated Xander and the two men, but also Margareta, too.

  ‘Is this some kind of fucking sick game to you Angila?’ Xander shouted while rushing over to her with rage in his eyes. ‘Because of you…Oh My God…!’

Suddenly hit with realization, Xander stepped back from Angila as if she was infected with some incurable spreadable disease that once touched could never be ridded of. It was this reaction that Giuseppi questioned only the once, but it was that once that was enough for the others, including Angila to become very concerned about and to question also.

  ‘My Mother, Father, Aunt Mel, David, me…This whole game that you’ve been playing has brought us all into serious danger, hasn’t it? It is no longer those of the Corleone’s Clan, but all of those who want to take back what was rightfully theirs in the first place, just like the Basques of Spain. You brought the House of Cacciatori into a real family feud, making my entire family targets…But why would you do that?’ Xander cried out.

When asking Giuseppi to contact Michelle Carter, Micheli stepped forward and told him that they had sworn not to contact her unless it was a dire emergency. It was Margareta who suggested contacting her Father, Salvatore, to plead with him to come out from the shadows and try and help them with their problem. Unfortunately, vigorously shaking his head Xander objected.

  ‘That’s what they want…That’s what Vincenzo wants, isn’t it, Angila?’

Angila remained silent while looking around each and every one of them.

  ‘But if we have Father here, then they will see how strong we are together…’

  ‘They want your Father here, so that they can finish tying up the loose ends that Vincenzo failed before he went into hiding. The House of Swan is the only one thing in this world holding them back, am I right Angila?’ Xander revealed.

Nodding her head slowly Angila repositioned her posture on the bed.

  ‘The House of Swan was underestimated by many people, including that of your Father. It is not the most powerful, yet, but it is certainly one which your Mother set up to be powerful one day. And so that you know, that day will never come to pass, Master Xander O’Neill, because when you die, so does the legacy and the entire bloodline.’

Demanding that Angila be watched at all times while he went back downstairs and thought of a way to contact home – to contact David, and finally get a message to him without anyone else intercepting it, Margareta volunteered with a more than satisfied look about her face to do the honors. Agreeing, Xander had everyone else leave the room and meet him downstairs while he talked alone with Arazia.

At first the young woman was a little afraid to talk with Xander, especially as he had threatened to kill her downstairs earlier. Eventually, however, she stood with ease and asked him if she could do anything to help, for which Xander had an idea that he believed could work.

  ‘Do you really want to help, Arazia?’ He asked sincerely.

Confirming with a smile she took a hold of his hand and brought it up to her face where she kissed his palm gently and with a deep sigh led it back down to rest by his side. ‘Whatever you need, I will do for you and Margareta.’

Leading her downstairs into the sitting room where the others had congregated around the open fire, he instructed Giuseppi to go and bring Mr. Lesean from the kitchens so that he could be brought up to speed with the happenings and going’s on so far. It would be the job of Micheli to take some notes on the ideas for them to sort through at a time when the first plan of action was put into play, and Arazia’s job to carry that action out for them and to get ready at San Martino delle Scale’s for its visitors and guests.

Mr. Lesean arrived with Giuseppi just in time for Xander to inform them all that he intended to invite the locals into the House, a statement which had Micheli tell everyone that the whole idea of San Martino delle Scale, was to keep them all outside.

  ‘What are you scheming, Xander?’ Giuseppi asked puzzled.

  ‘I’m going to bring “The Sanctum of The Order” back to Sicily, The Twelve Houses are going to be restored, and peace will be declared between all families and their allies. Now, who has a mobile phone I can use?’

And just like that, with a show of confidence and determination Xander took out the leather bound book and flicked through the pages to the very back where he found the names of every Family, Clan and Organization member.

  ‘Wait,’ Mr. Lesean spoke up suddenly, ‘are you telling me, that after a long and bitter war between all the families here in Sicily, that you’re just going to phone these people up and have them make peace with those that they consider to be their enemy? Just like that. Is that what you are trying to tell us, Master Xander?’

Xander nodded before looking back down at the book and speaking aloud to Arazia the first name on the list for her to write down. ‘While The House of Swan is still standing with its Master, I believe that the other Houses will come together in peace…’

  ‘Peace! And how do figure that? These people will have enough guns and explosives to level this House and half of Sicily, and I for one don’t wish to alarm anyone, but the fact that we are still inside rather scares me.’ Mr. Lesean added.

  ‘A ceasefire will be agreed upon, of course, while we discuss the future of the other eight Houses being allowed their allocations. Once these allocations have been made, we won’t need to be scared of any guns or explosives, Mr. Lesean.’

A ceasefire would be the hardest of all to have put in place, but nevertheless, once there was, it would give the Clans and Families the perfect opportunity to hear Xander out. It would be that of ‘Honor’ that showed the others of his trust and loyalty, while safety and hospitality of each Clan and Family Head would be Xanders’ pitch of selling the idea of continued peace and loyalty throughout the rest of the Houses.

  ‘I have found it,’ Arazia exclaimed waving the phone book around in the air.

Taking the number down Xander dialed it into the mobile phone which Giuseppi had handed him and stood listening whilst it rang.

When the phone was answered shortly after the number had been put in, the voice on the other end was pretty much unexpected in the way that a very young girl asking who it was had the telephone taken from her immediately by a much older woman.

  ‘Hello, who is it?’ She asked cautiously.

Introducing himself Xander asked to speak to the man of the House, Mr. Travorni. This name appeared to scare the old woman and as quickly as the phone had been answered, it was hung up without another word. Finding it strange how the woman reacted in such a way, it was Micheli who walked forward and asked for the mobile from Xander.

  ‘No offence, Master Xander, but if I received a telephone call from someone speaking English, I too, would most probably hang up on you too.’

Everyone in the room except for Xander laughed at the statement that they all believed was fair to be said in the circumstances, though the matter in which the calls were being made, it would stand to reason that someone of a local dialect be the one to make the call list.

  ‘Alright, Micheli, I will agree on one condition. That you and your brother do the calls but stick to a script as much as you can, is that okay with you?’

Nodding their heads and taking hold of both the mobile phone and book they began to go through each one along with Arazia, finding out the numbers and addressing the people with a managed script that would encourage them to attend the House the following day. All but one was contacted on the list by the end of the evening, before Xander called it a day and told everyone to turn in for the night, with only one of the names on the list considered to be the most important of them all.

  ‘That’s them all except for Mr. Gigganelli, we tried four times but he didn’t pick up. Shall we keep trying him, or…’

  ‘No, that’s okay Giuseppi, we’ll try contact him in the morning.’ Xander said taking the mobile phone from him and placing it down on the coffee table. ‘You and Micheli turn in for the night and I will see you first thing in the morning.’

With a strained smile the two brothers bid everyone goodnight before making their way out of the room. Arazia stayed behind while Mr. Lesean made his way over to the table and picked up the leather bound book, an action that had Xander telling him to leave it where it was and to go make some supper for both him and Arazia before they, too, turned in for the evening.

  ‘This book, it is your Father’s, correct?’ Mr. Lesean said, his seeing the book on the table almost certainly making it out that he had seen it before.

  ‘That’s right it belonged to Salvatore Agrusa, why do you ask?’

  ‘I know of this book and I know that your Father was a man of honor, Master Xander O’Neill. Though I do not wish to interfere in this quest that you are on, it would be wrong of me to neglect telling you that it is not the only one that Salvatore wrote.’

Walking over and taking the book in his hands Xander handed it to the man.

  ‘This was given to me by Madame Agrusa early this morning, just this one, so, if there are others then where would they be? Hidden in the House perhaps or in the trusted keep of someone he has been given instructions?’

Mr. Lesean stood and thought for a moment. ‘His private chamber would be the only best place to keep anything from prying eyes, maybe you should try there.’

As soon as Mr. Lesean had told Xander his thoughts, he made his exit back to the kitchens where he began preparing supper for both Xander and Arazia. The two of them, however, were locked in their own thoughts as to where the Private Chamber of Salvatore would be located in the House.

  ‘Angila…I mean, Madame Agrusa would be the only one who knows of such a room in the House, Master Xander. I fear, however, that with the way in which she has betrayed the House, there would be no forthcoming answers from her.’ Arazia said with sadness in her voice that even Xander agreed.

  ‘What if Madame Agrusa didn’t know where the Private Chamber was and only one other person in this entire House did, who do you think that person would be?’ He asked looking around the room as though trying to find some clue, or maybe even a way to get into a secret hidden room where they stood.

  ‘If it was me, I would have someone who I trusted enough not to tell anyone’

  ‘And that person would be?’

  ‘Margareta, maybe,’ Arazia took a wild guess.

Shaking his head Xander walked around the room searching everything; every picture frame, ornament, curtain, wall fixture, everything was checked and double checked to see if there was some lever, mechanism or button to open up the door, wall mount, or secret doorway to an elevator that would lead them into a second room.

  ‘There are too many rooms in this House to be going around checking them all tonight, Master Xander, maybe if we had the others to help us we could find it quicker?’ She gave a loud sigh dropping down onto the sofa.

Refusing to involve any of the others in their little search for Salvatore’s secret hiding place, Xander too, slumped down onto the sofa and thought hard and deep on where the location would be.

  ‘What if the secret room is not in the House?’

To Arazia, Xander didn’t make any sense; why would Mr. Lesean say that there was a secret room, if it wasn’t inside the House? What would be the point of somebody telling another that there was something, when all the while there was nothing?

  ‘Stradvansing, of course, how could I be so blind not to see it?’ Xander cried out with a giggle that scared Arazia half to death with fright.

  ‘Stradan…!’

  ‘Stradvansing, it’s an old English custom where the beholder is given the key by a random person, though that random person has no knowledge of the true lock, or hiding place in which the key fits…Here, I’ll demonstrate…’

Shying away from Xander’s attempt at taking a hold of her hand, he gave a low smile before attempting again, only this time when taking a hold of her hand he raised it to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss. It was now that Arazia knew from the look she gave into his cerulean blue eyes, that he was neither going to kill her, or hurt her.

  ‘What you said before…’

Xander hushed her words with a soft kiss on her lips, then a much deeper, more passionate kiss that had her whole body fill immediately with an overwhelming electrical feeling of excitement. From Arazia’s lips Xander made a small wet trail down her chin, under her neck until finally meeting the top of her blouse where he stopped for a moment.

  ‘Supper, do I cancel or do we eat?’ He asked mischievously, knowing only too well that Arazia’s answer would be returned in the exact same way of his, if the question was indeed asked of him under the same conditions.

  ‘Oh you’re eating alright, but it’s not going to be supper, Master O’Neill.’

Jumping up from the sofa and pressing the buzzer upon the wall near the sitting room doors Xander waited for Mr. Lesean to answer the intercom, while with his free hands he discarded his footwear and clothing within just a few seconds.

  ‘Yes,’ there came the reply from Mr. Lesean. ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Master Xander, Mr. Lesean…I erm, could I please cancel that supper…’

Whether it was through the request or through the giggling voices as well as small and snappy kissing sounds that went over the microphone, Mr. Lesean confirmed with a not so happy acknowledgement that had both Xander and Arazia holding back their laughter, just long enough for the intercom to be switched off and give back the room now to only themselves.

  ‘You are a very naughty boy, Master O’Neill!’ She purred discarding her own clothes onto the floor at the side of her while staring across at Xanders’ whole nakedness.

Locking the doors to the sitting room Xander and Arazia spent the whole night together, making love with both passion and ferociousness until at last the sun came up and shone through the large bay windows into their eyes.

  ‘I need to go,’ Arazia cried jumping from the sofa and grabbing her clothes.

  ‘No you don’t, you don’t work here now, remember?’ Xander exclaimed taking a firm hold of her wrist and pulling her back toward him.

Feeling uncomfortable with the sudden change of events, she asked him what she was to do about work, money and being able to support her Mother?

  ‘The House will find something for you, but it won’t be that of being a Maid. Besides, you’re helping me, aren’t you?’ Xander replied with a cheeky grin.

And, although the moment was welcomed with smiles and laughter, Arazia couldn’t help but feel strange with the whole thing. ‘Am I your toy?’

Xander leapt to his feet angrily. ‘What?’

Sitting up and looking deep into his eyes Arazia bit her tongue. ‘Sorry, that came out wrong.’

Xander didn’t accept it – he couldn’t accept it, not something that was almost certainly directed at an insulting metaphor which he could not forgive.

  ‘Do you think that I’m having you become a prostitute, Arazia?’

She could tell from his eyes that he was both furious and saddened by the assumption, though putting it like Xander did was only a polite way in which she believed his intentions were; she had heard of so many Houses where the Master’s and Lords had forcefully enrolled young Maids to be a part of their sinful Private Functions, but later found themselves being left to fend for themselves in the streets. That in their misery had turned them into drug addicts, or even murdered by the very same people that they used to serve drinks to during birthday parties and other celebrations.

  ‘Well, are you? Am I to be your toy until you leave and then be passed onto another for their darkened pleasures?’ She finally plucked up the courage and answered the question that Xander was waiting to hear.

Sat staring at Arazia, Xander forced himself to silence before reaching out for his trousers, which Arazia took a hold of first and pulled toward her. The vacant look on her face bore down on Xander while slowly changing from nothing into a gradual smile that widened. He was now unable to stay Poe-Faced any longer, and finally he erupted into laughter before grabbing a hold of Arazia around her waist.

  ‘I’m sorry that I have made you feel this way Arazia, truly I am, but there are a hundred and one things that I really need to do before I can return to England, my home…’

  ‘But the answer to the question…’

  ‘You have your answer. You’ve always had the answer, Arazia. My Sister will take you in under her wing and you will be found a legitimate work place and given a fair income and allowance per month. The House of Swan is now yours to live in and be happy, if it is not enough then I will have the best florist’s in Palermo bring you all of their most beautiful flowers for you to dance around. For now, however, you do realize that there are people out there who do not take kindly to my going home, don’t you?’ Xander interrupted with a cascade of smiling compliments that lifted her spirit and allowed her to breathe easy once more.

  ‘There is one other thing that I wish I could have, Master Xander…!’

No sooner had Arazia spoken than the doors of the sitting room were being knocked on by Mr. Lesean with his discreet three knock pause was a well-known trick around the Houses, but only known to so few Master’s and Lords in times of emergencies, very much like this one.

  ‘Get your clothes on, quickly now, we are about to have visitors.’

Managing to dress fully and unlock the doors before they began to position themselves near to the largest window facing out toward the swimming pool, both Arazia and Xander stood apart from one another while pretending to examine the leather bound book, and for Arazia to translate some of the Italian for Xander. When the doors were finally opened by Mr. Lesean, two very surprised pair of eyes found nothing odd in the slightest, although, Mr. Lesean was seen picking a pair of discarded thin cotton panties from the back cushion of the sofa before discreetly placing them out of sight under the breakfast tray.

  ‘You have a guest, Master Xander, shall I show them through?’ Mr. Lesean revealed, dab-handily slipping the panties into his coat pocket before turning to Madame Agrusa with a cup of her morning tea.

  ‘Who is it, Mr. Lesean?’ Xander asked hoping that Angila would not see the results of his discrepancy by turning and catching Mr. Lesean.

  ‘The gentleman has introduced himself as Lord Billington, Sir,’ Mr. Lesean replied with a nod of his head that beckoned a discreet word in private.

  ‘Lord Billington, you say? Hmmm, can you describe him?’

  ‘He’s a fat bastard with a short fuse and very little hair on his head!’ A man’s booming voice sounded out as he made his way through the door and surprised them all, especially Madame Agrusa, who through the sudden unannounced entrance almost lost her morning tea to the floor.

  ‘Oh my god, how dare you raise your voice…!’

  ‘Madame Agrusa, this is my friend, Lord Seamus Billington, Seamus you fat bastard, this is Angila Agrusa former Lady of the Manor.’ Xander introduced them both as he took a hold of Arazia’s hand and led her over to the sofa. ‘And this is Arazia she is the new Confidante to Lady Agrusa, Margareta Agrusa who will be replacing Madame Agrusa very shortly.’

Seamus was delighted to meet both women, but confused too much as to ask about the two Lady Agrusa’s change in management, as was Angila herself who just curtsied silently before leaving the room to climb the stairs back to her room.

Asking Mr. Lesean to prepare some drinks for the three of them left in the room Xander sat down next to Arazia and waved a hand to Seamus to be seated across from them. The troubled look that hung from Seamus’s face told Xander that there was something wrong back home in England, something that would need immediate attention, as always in times of crisis which Seamus in his wisdom shared.

  ‘It’s so good to see you, Seamus, but I have to ask, how did you know that I was here?’

Seamus gave a thunderous laugh that set Arazia off giggling. ‘I didn’t, my boy, it was when I arrived at the airport and bumped into my old friend Jonny Mac… Anyway, he told me the oddest story that I have ever heard in my life, one that led me here where Lady Melissa is to be buried.’ He revealed with very vague details.

  ‘That’s right, Aunt Mel and my Mother had San Martino delle Scale change its name to The House of Swan, while the Orders passed on their…Oh, I’m sorry, I haven’t even asked how you are Old Man.’ Xander paused his explaining and put the pleasantries forward of his reasons for being there.

  ‘Master Xander, I must tell you before the others arrive, I believe that your life is in danger! That’s why I came a few days ahead of the funeral, to warn you and help in any way that I can.’ Seamus hurried his words of warning while taking out of his trouser pocket an already dampened handkerchief coated in body sweat before wiping his forehead.

  ‘Whatever do you mean, Seamus?’

  ‘The Four Houses, Xander, haven’t you heard?’

  ‘The House of Justice is in temporary control…!’

  ‘My arse it is! The House of Julius was voted in after two of The House of Justice’s Lords were forced to sign trumped up confessions leaked to the damn press, it was an embarrassment that was fast-tracked by your friend Lord London and his band of merry arsehole’s, excuse my French, Miss.’ Seamus finally revealed with an apology to that of his tone and language in front of Arazia. ‘Could I have a drink of water perhaps, Master Xander?’

Shocked by the news from home Xander stood up and paced around a few steps before signaling to Mr. Lesean to prepare a drink for their guest. The news of The House of Julius was not good at all; The House of Julius had very few involvements in the daily structure of politics and world affairs, although the fundamental differences in the Public Orders were beyond count. Placing the House into such a place of power would cause some catastrophic repercussion’s which would include a substantial strain on the World Markets, including that of the Global Economy combined.

  ‘My Aunt Mel told me that there were originally Twelve Houses that fed the whole world with balanced equality…’

  ‘Master Xander, The Twelve Houses no longer exist, they are broken and have never been attempted to be fixed again…Hang on, that’s why you’re here in this god forsaken place aren’t you, no offence Miss,’ Seamus gasped.

  ‘The Twelve Houses will be brought back together, Lord Billington you and I know that only too well. The Sanctum of The Order, the true line of the Houses and the combined strengths of every nation on the planet…’

  ‘It’s a fucking dream that your Mother and her Sister had when they were nothing more than Petticoat Maids, Xander, I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. At the moment we have greater problems going on back in England, and unless you relinquish your title to Wolf Wake Manor, Lord London is going send the whole world into economic slumber.’ Seamus was irate, angry and most of all he was anxious in only a way that a man pushed to the edge could be.

Having remained quiet all of this time while the two old friends talked and shouted at each other, Arazia rose from her seat and beckoned Xander over to her with a discreet waving finger.

  ‘Your House is all that you have Xander, if you give that away to Lord London, it would mean your Mothers’ work will never be finished, My Boy.’

The title of Cacciatore Svegliarsi Villa was much more than a title, both Seamus and Xander knew this, but so did Lord London, who was so desperate to take a hold of it that he attempted to take his life. What Arazia was not aware of, what she didn’t know, what she wasn’t aware of going on behind the doors of The Four Houses, was the only thing keeping her alive – sane at the least – the fact that the world balanced on much more than Government’s and Royals.

  ‘I will return home at once and put this whole thing right, Seamus, you have my word on that as a Cartwright,’ Xander promised turning to the door to see both Giuseppi and Micheli beckoning him with a discreet wave to come outside. Excusing himself, Xander left the room.

  ‘We have guests, Master Xander,’ Micheli exclaimed telling him of four men dressed in dark suits standing patiently at the front door.

Thanking him for letting him know Xander asked Micheli to go and keep Lord Billington busy while he spoke to the newly arrived visitors. In not knowing Seamus as he did, Xander chuckled to himself in the thought that it would be very interesting to see. Seamus was a man with a somewhat outlandish sense of humor, maybe even childish sometimes, but he was also human in every term of the word.

The morning had given Xander one surprise, though the feeling that he had inside was that the day ahead would undoubtedly bring many more.

  ‘Good morning Gentlemen, I trust you have not been waiting long?’

The four men began talking in a thick Sicilian dialect which Xander had problems trying to decipher, except for a couple of stray, possibly absent words that had him, again, chuckling to himself.

  ‘Mi soddisferebbe se si parlava in inglese, signori,’ Xander addressed them both with a smile.

Asking the men to speak in English, the moment before confirmation was intensified by one of the four men shouting and raving at the others before spitting down at the floor and leaving the House in what could only be described as a “Pissed Off” mood. The three remaining men, however, waited for their colleague, associate or partner to leave and then turned to Xander and bow.

  ‘Apologies, Master Xander O’Neill, we have arrived to talk with you on that business in which you say can change the Province and…Rebuild those of The Twelve Houses, is this correct?’ The eldest of the three, who introduced himself only as Sebastiano, replied in his best English.

This was the plan that Xander had constructed and as far as those who were to turn up were concerned, the rebuilding process was the main goal in which to end the wars between the families and Clans in Sicily.

  ‘That’s right, Sebastiano, may I ask who you speak on behalf of during these talks between you and myself?’

Asking to talk somewhere a little more closed and private, Xander agreed with a swift nod before asking the three men to follow him through into the living room where Lord Billington, Giuseppi, Micheli and Arazia were surprised to see the guests being lead in by Xander. The three men were also very surprised and even less prepared than anyone would have imagined one such private gathering of Sicilian Families.

Welcoming the three men inside and leading them through the hallway into the room where the others were, the visitors looked somewhat surprised.

  ‘What is this that you play, Master Xander?’ Sebastiano demanded.

  ‘These are my Family, Signore Sebastiano, over here Giuseppi, Micheli, Arazia and standing with his mouth open by the window is Seamus.’

The introductions were made quickly, while the atmosphere simmered to that of a more bearable calmness which settled each man. After this was done, it was now time for Xander to talk about the plan in which he had to rebuild The Sanctum of The Order, to finally bring peace back to Sicily before any further bloodshed was made to make a point. Firstly, however, Xander needed to know who he was addressing and who Sebastiano represented between the eight Families and Clans.

  ‘I represent the Corleone Clan, Master Xander, which for many years now has looked at many ways to end the feud between other Families and Clans. What we come here to see is something that has never been attempted before.’

Having placed Xander on the spot Sebastiano clicked his fingers and turned to one of the other two men who had accompanied him to take a hold of a folded piece of paper which he then handed over to Xander. Reading through it quickly Xander noticed two things, the first was that it was in English and the second was that the signature at the end of the document was that of his Father’s.

  ‘This was dated three weeks ago,’ Xander exclaimed handing it to Micheli.

Asking that the two men leave him to talk to Xander alone, Xander himself asked everyone on his side for some privacy while he talked with Sebastiano, too. At first, however, Giuseppi and Micheli advised against it, but then, with a wide smile and gentle pat on Giuseppi’s shoulder he assured them that it would be alright and that there was nothing to worry about. Agreeing with hesitation, the five men and Arazia left the room and closed the door behind them. The atmosphere immediately fell to a deafly silence.

  ‘Master Xander, I understand that San Martino delle Scale has been handed over to you, so as far as any past problems that existed between our Houses, I can assure you that they will be, how do you say, written off.’

This alone made Xander a little uneasy. ‘San Martino delle Scale is now The House of Swan, of which there is no discrepancies in which to speak of, or none that I know of myself.’

With an almost smug grin filling Signore Sebastianu’s face, it became only too clear that there was much work to be done in resolving the problems that the Families and Clans had experienced over the past several decades. Peace was the only answer, and if peace could not be found within the time Xander had with the Corleone Clan’s representative, then something else had to be put into play to ensure the safety of everyone inside the House.

  ‘Is there something you find amusing, Signore Sebastiano?’

Xanders’ tone changed from a warm, friendly and partially unsettled voice to one which was immediately received as insulting by the guest.

  ‘Excuse me, I don’t…’

  ‘The way I see it Signore Sebastiano, you came here today to deliver some kind of message am I correct?’ Xander demanded. His standing in front of the man was more than adequate to signify his authority in the House – his House. ‘If this is true, then what message is it you have for me? A letter, or perhaps a threat that would bring not only those of The Four Houses down upon Sicily, but, also the re nero della casa di Grigio himself into play…’

Signore Sebastiano was suddenly feeling uncomfortable, scared and slightly uneasy by the mention of The House of Grey High Guard. His clumsy attempts at wrestling into his jacket pocket for his handkerchief resulted in him giving up before pleading with Xander for a glass of water.

  ‘Water, Signore Sebastiano, water is what I see you sweating from your brow. Water is the precious gift that will be taken from every corner of Sicily when the blood of the Families and Clans spill from this day forward, unless of course…!’

Anxiously awaiting Xander to complete his sentence with some indication or answer as to a resolve, solution, or just to allow him to speak up and explain, Signore Sebastiano begged his pardon.

  ‘The Corleone Clan is willing to accept negation’s with the other Houses, but we have conditions for this delicate transition, customs and initiations have to be made from both sides. If you agree to these terms, then we will sit down with The House of Swan, and any others to discuss peace.’

  ‘Hai la mia parola, Signore Sebastiano, it will be The House of Swan which will give you and the Corleone Clan the right of passage for peace.’

  ‘Then you have my word, Master Xander, that the Corleone Clan will give you the chance to bring peace within our two Houses.’

And that was that. Xander had negotiated hard, almost ruthlessly with one of the main players who would be reinitiated into “The Sanctum of The Order”, and now he had to find a way to have the rest of them accept negations. Of course, his current predicament back home in England would place an unwanted wedge between those others who were prepared to arrive at San Martino delle Scale that very day to talk, like Signore Sebastiano had done, but this was beyond his control.

  ‘The others, the Families and Clans here in Sicily, have any contacted you to put their opinions forward, Signore Sebastiano?’ Xander asked fishing for any signs that there were others out there willing to speak of peace.

  ‘The war between those outside The Sanctum of The Order is widespread and still as bloody, Master Xander. I am afraid that the reach of our Clan is not as extensive as it once was, but I am sure…’

Suddenly alerted to the sound of raised voices from outside the room, both Xander and Signore Sebastiano rushed out into the hall to find both Micheli and Giuseppi holding two men up against the wall in what looked like an attempt to break both their arms. Ordering the two brothers to let the men go, Signore Sebastiano recognised them to be from one of the other Families in Palermo.

  ‘These two…Gentlemen are refusing to surrender their weapons, Master Xander,’ Giuseppi growled stepping back from one and straightening his clothes that had been ruffled during their short aggressive scuffle.

  ‘Le nostre armi sono la nostra protezione’ one of the newcomers cried.

  ‘Hai tutta la protezione di cui avete bisogno qui in San Martino delle Scale, Signore Puppinuzzu,’ Signore Sebastiano replied with his arms opened wide.

Catching very little words between the two Xander looked first to Micheli, then to Signore Sebastiano, until finally he starred straight at the man who had been released by Giuseppi with a confused look.

  ‘I am here on behalf of my Family who are from the Provincia of Palermo, we bring weapons only for protection, Signore Xander,’ the man spoke up before walking toward both Xander and Signore Sebastiano.

  ‘That’s quite alright, you may keep your weapons…as long as they remain concealed and do not come out until you leave, that is my only condition.’

The two men nodded. ‘We talk alone with you and one other…’

  ‘No, you talk with everyone in this House, except Mr. Lesean, who will be only too happy to get you anything that you need. Now, if you will all follow me I will show you to the sitting room where we can be more comfortable.’

Leading the men to the room Xander gently pulled Seamus to one side and waited until everybody had left the hallway.

  ‘I know this is a little beyond what you are used to Seamus, but I really do need your support in there when the negotiations start. Peace is the goal and, well, if we can, there needs to be a truce between them all.’

Seamus understood the importance of the talks that Xander had arranged; his time within the British Government had brought him many similar confrontations where those groups and organizations believed that they knew better, but when all was said and done, everyone that was present in San Martino delle Scale were just normal, ordinary people who wanted nothing less than peace – and peace is what Xander was going to achieve.

  ‘Gentlemen are we all sat comfortably? Then let us begin,’ Xander shouted out walking into the room to see that they had all found themselves a seat. ‘Firstly, let me inform you all that San Martino delle Scale is now under the control of The House of Swan, and it will be myself, Lady Margareta Agrusa, Micheli and Giuseppi who run the day to day business. There are no third parties here, so if there is anything that you need to know, share or get off of your chests, then this is the time to do it.’

Signore Puppinuzzu leant forward in his seat. ‘You have taken control of this House, Signore Xander, but how…Why?’

The first question of the day that had to be asked and it was one which Xander was neither prepared nor ready to answer. How could he answer such a trivia question without involving the name of his Father, or reveal that the House had been breached by Madame Angila Agrusa through her betrayal in so many ways that it would bring more conflict and harm than good?

  ‘Signore Puppinuzzu, I understand that there are many questions,’ Xander began to explain. ‘The reasons why we are all here today, however, are not to discuss San Martino delle Scale, or the reasons behind its management change, but to reach a mutual and beneficial truce between those Orders and that of their people. Of course, I for one would be willing to explain the tiring reasons that have brought about not only the change of ownership, but the change of name also to this great House here in Palermo, though I only need to make you aware of one unfortunate problem that I, myself resolved!’

Whispering among themselves the guests agreed that the negotiations continue without any explanations and that Master Xander carry on with his proposals in which to bring together the eight Houses in a time of war, and finally put a stop to the killing. It was now that the ball was truly in Xanders’ court and should he falter or stumble across any ground that he was not familiar with then he would need Lord Billington, Micheli or Giuseppi to intervene and make it work.

The talks went on through most of the morning and much that was said had made the Families and Clans happy, though there were few agreements met where the rankings of the Houses were concerned. Eventually, with a long deep sigh Xander gave a smile to each man across the room.

  ‘The Sanctum of The Order will begin its celebrations of peace one week from today and in the meantime, I would like you all to arrange a meeting with your own Families, the Clans and overseas Organizations to confirm a mutual cease fire on all sides effective immediately. Micheli and Giuseppi will be your points of contact from hereon in, as Madame Margareta Agrusa herself will take over ownership of The House of Swan. Now, if there is nothing else, I will bid you all a good day Gentlemen and thank you all for coming.’

What Xander had achieved in just a few hours was noted down as an historical day of world change, while those in the room knew that he had fixed something that others had failed to fix before throughout the decades of bloodshed between all Families, both there in Sicily and across the world, too.

  ‘Signore Xander, I would like to thank you for your time and your patience in sitting with us hot headed men during such talks. As a token of our appreciation we would like to give you this…’

Taking from one of the two men he had arrived with a small item, Signore Sebastiano handed Xander a small thin envelope and placed it into the young man’s hand. Xander looked perturbed, worried slightly, though he was thankful to the man handing him such a mysterious gift – as a gift.

  ‘Don’t worry, Signore Xander, it is not a bribe, though I would recommend that you open it in private. Ciao.’ Signore Sebastiano whispered before leaving with the two men out into the hallway.

Finally, after the last guest had left, Xander was approached by Mr. Lesean.

  ‘Having been to many of these meetings before with Madame Agrusa, Master Xander, I could always notice the moment when she needed nothing more than a good strong drink. I therefore recommend that a single neat whisky is in order to loosen the tension and excitement.’

Mr. Lesean was right in his observations. ‘I think whisky all around Mr. Lesean would make this moment a little less overwhelming one.’

Agreeing with a smile he left the room for a few moments before returning with a tray filled with glasses and a large bottle of twenty-five year old whisky from the cellar, to which he poured the drinks before making his way back to the kitchens.

  ‘Wait,’ Xander exclaimed taking a hold of Mr. Lesean’s arm. ‘Grab yourself a glass and pour a drink too, Mr. Lesean, you’ve earned it.’

Mr. Lesean was hesitant at first, but eventually conceded and poured himself a drink before raising his glass with the others in the room.

  ‘Gentlemen, Arazia, I’d like to make a toast. To the future of San Martino delle Scale, The House of Swan and to The Sanctum of The Order, may peace stay within all of our Houses and never a day to pass where we spill the blood of our Brothers and Sisters.’ Xander declared drinking the entire contents of the glass down in one gulp, his face cringing with the hot and bitter aftertaste that hit the back of his throat.

In unison the others shouted out “To The House of Swan,” before they too put their glasses down with the same cringing facial expressions as Xander.

Taking Xander to one side Lord Billington asked if he could have a couple of minutes alone with him before they continued with the day. Waving a silent hand at Seamus, Xander walked out of the sitting room and into the hallway, but Seamus insisted that it was somewhere quiet and private that he wished to talk to him somewhere in the House where nobody could disturb them.

  ‘Is everything alright Seamus?’ Xander asked with worry.

  ‘Yes, everything is fine, Xander, I just need to talk to you in private that’s all. Nothing to worry about, my dear friend.’

Leading his old friend across the hall to the back of the House and into a large Conservatory at the rear, Xander offered him a seat before closing the door.

  ‘What’s up Seamus?’

Immediately upon turning around Xander found to his horror two men who were standing by the side of Seamus with guns to his head, a sight that had Xander hesitantly inching forward while keeping direct eye contact with one of the gunmen. Within moments from out of nowhere, he felt the hot sensation of a strike about the back of his head before suddenly everything went dark. The voice of Seamus became the last thing he heard before the blackness rendered him unconscious. ‘I’m sorry my dear friend, I am so sorry…’

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