Sighing, Emily looked over the papers that Miguel, the foreman for her family’s estate for the last thirty years, had given her again. Looking at numbers, Emily was beginning to have a bad feeling that her uncle had been lying about a lot of things. Several months ago Emily had asked her uncle to see the estate’s books due to some concerns. He did follow her dad’s example in the fact that they wrote everything down, and would die before using a computer or most forms of technology. Emily had thought that he was withdrawing an awful large amount of money, but the notes by the withdrawals did seem plausible. Looking at the figures again, Emily could easily see that the large amounts of money that he had pulled out of accounts to cover the cost of things needed around the estate is twenty times more than what was actually being given to the estate to help keep everything running. With these papers, Emily figured that roughly over four hundred thousand dollars was missing.
Slumping in the chair Emily did not think that her day could get any worse. She initially left the mansion early this morning to avoid a rather nasty man that her uncle wanted her to marry. Last night her uncle had ordered her to be dressed and ready to meet Lord Rotterford for brunch this morning. Emily and her uncle had the same argument several times over the last few months. Her uncle was wanting to parade her around to all of his rich friends to marry her off. Each time he tried to introduce her to a friend that he considered acceptable, they were worse than the previous one. Emily had zero interest in getting married currently, and she definitely was not interested in marrying anyone that her uncle considered a friend. Emily wanted to marry for love like her parents, and she refused to settle for anything less.
When she left the house early this morning, Emily did not want to chance her uncle tracking the chip in her car, so she went to the barn to spend time with her mare Millie. She even left her cell phone in her room just in case he tried to get someone to track her using that. While hiding out in the barn and visiting with Millie and the other horses, Emily began to notice that a lot of equipment, and other items seemed to need to be repaired or replaced. Emily went to look for Miguel to inquire about having equipment and other things updated or repaired. Once she found Miguel they began talking and that is how she ended up in his office looking over the records that he had been keeping.
Already knowing the answer in her heart, Emily asked the question that was burning foremost in her mind. “Has my uncle seen these,” she asked as she passed Miguel the papers back.
Standing and taking the papers Miguel nodded his head. “Yes Miss Emily. He knows. He is the one that has been asking me to find more and more ways to cut costs. Many of the problems that we have been running into are due to your uncle buying cheap equipment, letting go of good workers, and not providing proper care for the animals,” Miguel said as he put the papers back into the box he kept them stored in.
“I am so sorry,” Emily said as she stood up shaking her head. “I recently found out that he was blowing through my father’s money, but I had no idea that he was neglecting everything
around the estate. All of the books in the office show that he is pulling out large amounts of money for items, projects, and help around here. I wonder where the money is actually going since the books in the house are not matching,” Emily said as her brow creased.
“I’m not sure Miss Emily, but I do know that it has not been spent here.”
Standing and dusting off the back of her jeans, Emily placed her hand on Miguel’s shoulder sympathetically. “Thank you Miguel,” she said quietly in a reserved voice. “I am so sorry that you had to make do with so little for so long. I wish that you would have let me know sooner,” she squeezed his shoulder lightly trying to offer some support and an apology. “This is my fault too for not being more involved. I know I shut down when my father passed away. I am so sorry that I have let all of you down. I thought that my uncle was taking care of the estate.”
“No Miss Emily,” Miguel said, shaking his head. He took his hat off of his head and began to nervously fiddle with the brim. “I know that this is not how you and your father would have wanted the estate kept. I should have come to you a long time ago. I will admit that at first I thought maybe money was a little tight, and I did not think anything of his requests. As things continued to get worse, I also saw more and more of his temper. I have been afraid to speak to you for fear of him finding out. Your uncle is not a good man.”
Nodding her head Emily said, “I am beginning to see that. I do not blame you, and I promise that I am going to look into this as soon as possible.” She began walking toward the entrance of the barn. “Thank you again for showing me all of this. I probably need to head back to the house. I know my uncle will already be furious with me since I did not follow his orders and meet Lord Rotterford this morning.”
Nodding and heading toward the horse stalls Miguel said, “Be careful Miss Emily. Your uncle has a very nasty temper. Be careful pushing him.”
Waving Emily smiled back at Miguel, “I will. He cannot do anything to me. This is my estate and it was left to me in my father’s will. I have only allowed him to help me. If he does not confess and make things right, I will tell him he has to leave.” With that final statement Emily peaked out of the barn door to make sure that the coast was clear and started making her way toward the rear entrance of the mansion’s kitchen.
Miguel nodded and smiled at Emily’s last words, but deep in his heart he had a bad feeling that things were not going to go the way that she thought they would.
Stretching as he returned to his human form, Gabriel smiled as he looked at the large deep pool created by a mountain stream. He took a few quick steps forward and dove perfectly into the clear water. With a single breath he was able to reach the middle of the pool. The water felt amazing rushing past him as his powerful arms and legs carried him forward. Coming up for air he took a deep breath and looked around. This was usually the only place that let him have a few minutes of peace. The water was freezing cold, but because of his wolf it felt amazing after the punishing workout he forced on himself this morning. Gabriel and his wolf, Conri, were beginning to feel more and more restless the longer they went without finding their mate. They had reached a point that they were rarely talking. They could still feel each other but Gabriel did miss conversing with Conri and always feeling him in his mind.
With her mind working and going through all of the information that she had just learned, Emily was a little startled when she opened the kitchen door and was quickly bombarded by one of the maids. “Oh, thank goodness you have returned Miss,” Mary dithered as Emily snuck in through the kitchen door. “Your uncle has been in a rage for the last two hours since you were not here to meet Lord Rotterford this afternoon. We were starting to worry that you had left permanently,” Mary said while ringing her hands. “Don’t start with that again,” Lucy said, shaking her large wooden spoon at Mary and rolling her eyes. Lucy was the head cook, and she had always looked out for Emily. “Grab her jacket and hang it up in her room,” Lucy said, gesturing with the spoon. “I told you she was just hiding out till that horrible man was gone,” Lucy said as she turned back to stirring the pot that she had on the stove. “I
Emily took a deep breath as she approached her father’s former study. She used to love coming to this room when she was a little girl. It did not matter how busy he was, her father, Lord Farrington, would always make time for her. He would sit her on his lap and let her help him look over contracts and paperwork. By the time that she was eight years old, she knew more about how to manage the estate, shipping crops, and other financial matters than most adults. Most children learn how to read using books made for children or computer games. Emily learned how to read by sitting in her father’s lap and reading through contracts, supply lists, and other paperwork he had on hand. Her nanny would fuss all the time that she was not getting a “proper” education for a young lady. Her father would pretend to agree for a while and shoo Emily off with her nanny and various tutors to get her proper education. He
“I'm sorry sir,” Emily heard George, their old butler say. I have not been able to locate Miss Farrington.”“Well look harder! Do you have any idea what her stunt today could have cost me? I--”Emily quickly knocked and opened the study door to save poor George. He had been with their family since her father was a baby. He did not deserve to be berated for her little rebellion this morning.Looking toward the study door her uncle’s eyes quickly zeroed in on her. “Where the hell have you been? I have been looking for you for hours,” Emily’s uncle raged at her. “You were supposed to be here for lunch to meet your fiance!”Trying to rein in her temper, Emily replied in a calm manner, “I&rsqu
Gabriel and the others quickly made their way through the caves that the pups traveled through. They were easily able to follow their scents to see which route the pups had taken that morning. Gabriel had Marcus stopping and checking that various shields and spells were still in place as they traveled through the caves. Thankfully, with everyone focused on their mission and alert to possible attacks, Marcus and Sarah were not wanting to engage in idle chatter. Normally the two of them would never miss a chance to try to get under his skin about something. They had all grown up together. They knew that he was the Alpha King and they respected his position, but they were also not afraid of him like so many others. Gabriel was focused on the mission of getting Sebastian back, but his mind was also filled with other thoughts and worries. Gabriel had to make sure that he was not leaving the valley and to
Emily looked at the screen on her phone again to check the time. It was now just a little after 2:00 in the morning. She knew her uncle would be back up in a few hours to get her, but she could not find the motivation to pack. Everything that happened yesterday and that her uncle said kept replaying in her mind. When he first locked her in her room she had cried from the shock, pain, and unfairness of it all. How had things gone so wrong? Once she had collected herself she had raced to her cell phone to try to call for help, but of course her uncle had been smart enough to have the service turned off. She had no way of knowing when he had the service turned off on her phone since she had left it in her room all day yesterday while hiding out. He probably had it turned off when he realized she had left it in her room on purpose. Now her phone was nothing more than an expensive clock and music player.
At 6:00 sharp Emily was standing ready in the center of her bedroom when her uncle flung open her bedroom door with great flourish. Seeing her standing there packed, dressed nicely, and ready had the smile slipping off his face. Seeing the smile slipping off his face brought a smile to Emily’s face.“Good morning uncle. I hope that you slept well. I followed all of your instructions. I have everything packed and ready just like you asked me. I’ll ask Lord Rotterford if I can have the rest of my belongings shipped to his estate later since I only had three suitcases to pack everything in,” Emily finished brightly gesturing to the three suitcases lined up neatly beside her.Emily watched as her uncle’s face turned bright red. He opened and closed his mouth twice before he could grit out through clenched teeth, &ldqu
Are you here yet? Gabriel sent to Axel and Megan. He, Sara, and Marcus were just now coming up on the old witch clearing. They referred to that clearing by that name because centuries ago a coven of dark witches used to meet here and perform rituals that required sacrifices, typically human or some form of magical creature. The Witch's Council that came into power 500 or so years ago, had since outlawed the use of black magic. They had spells set to monitor if anyone uses black magic. If you were caught you could be stripped of your powers. Yes. We will be there in three minutes. We got here a little early and did some scouting around Rotterford’s. We might have overheard something interesting. Megan replied. Is it about Sebastian?