FIFTEEN | A LOVE CHILD

I returned to the courtesan quarters in a daze. Was Ian really going to punish me as he said? He knows it was not my fault. He looked furious, not just at Mason but also at me.

I quickly changed into plain clothes before my mother or aunt got suspicious. Everyone who was around my age was in the common room in the quarters, listening to every single word that Julia's grandmother had to say. She was a superb storyteller and the oldest member of our community.

"Which battle is she talking about?" I asked Lydia.

"The Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna."

"Ugh! I will go take a nap."

The old lady's voice boomed through the hallway as I walked away.

"...the King and his father had returned victorious. The Battle of Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as the emperor of the French. And that was the War of the Seventh Coalition in 1815. The Allies exiled Napoleon to a remote island called Saint Helena, where he died six years later."

"Didn'