by Katie Dowe
“That’s it,” without warning he reached out and grabbed her, catching her off guard and causing them to tumble into the white powdery snow. He took the brunt of the fall, cushioning her with his body. “No one calls me a chicken and gets away with it. Not even you.”
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered.
“You’ll see,” he brought her head down and took her mouth with his. The cold was forgotten or the fact that they were outdoors as his tongue touched hers and she melted into the kiss.
*****
She wore fire engine red silk that had a high square neck and a dip in the back that reached just above the curve of her derriere. It was figure hugging, so much so that she could not wear underwear beneath it. Matthew felt his loins stir as he saw the imprint of her nipples and knew that if she had not been going out with him he would have forbidden her to wear it.
“Do you think of driving me crazy when you order these outfits?” he asked her wryly as he knotted the red silk tie at his neck.
“Of course,” she walked over to him and finished doing it for him, her scent enveloping them both. “I think about you whenever I buy anything, about your reaction of seeing me in them but best of all I love when you take them off me.”
“If you don’t stop I am going to be taking this one off you right now.” He threatened her, his hands closing around her waist and bringing her in close to feel his arousal. “Do you feel what I am talking about?”
“Hmm,” her coral lips parted and her tongue snaked out to touch his lip.
“Cara,” he groaned.
She danced out of his arms suddenly. “Okay we have to go.” She said blithely looking at the thin gold watch at her wrist. “What time did you say our reservation was?”
“Come here you tease!” he said with a husky laugh as he pulled her back into his arms.
*****
The restaurant looked unassuming from the outside but the interior made up for it with its quiet opulence and welcoming ambiance. They were greeted effusively by the owner himself: Pierre Beaumont a tall tanned raven haired man with a goatee and a charming manner. He directed them to a corner booth and instructed a waiter to bring them the wine list.
“Another of your investment?” she asked as she looked around. There were couples sitting at tables, dining and laughing with the soft music playing in the background.
“Sort of,” he told her with a smile. He handed the wine list back after placing the order for a bottle of Chateau Latour and leaned back to look at her. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and I am glad you are my wife.” He murmured.
“You really know how to make a girl feel good,” she told him.
“I thought of buying you another piece of jewelry but I was afraid you would tell that it was too much. So I decided to take another route.” He gave a nod to someone behind her. Cara turned around and gasped in surprise, her eyes wide. It was the Maitre D holding a life size portrait of her. She remembered taking the picture. She had gone to a dinner party with him held by an associate of his and she had been wearing a silver gown that came way above her knees. Her hair had been caught up on top of her head and diamonds glittered at her lobes and around her neck. He had told her she looked like a dazzling monument of beauty. He stood up and took the portrait from the man and brought it closer. She read the inscription written at the bottom: ‘There are no words to say how much I love you, no treasure on earth to place before you. I love you will just have to do. Your husband Matthew.’
She placed the portrait against the wall and before everyone in the restaurant she wrapped her arms around him and showed him how she felt.
Chapter 6
March came in with heavy snow falls and a bomb scare at the exclusive school that the Logan’s children attended. It happened the first Friday afternoon in March and almost sent both Matthew and Cara and the other parents into a tailspin of panic.
It was Mrs. Morgan who received the call after she was getting ready to gather the children and the teachers in the auditorium to remind them about spring break and the social they were planning. She had sat down with the accountant and he had told her that the playground needed upgrading, spring would be here in a few weeks and the children would be required to do outdoor activities.
She answered the phone in her usual cheerful professional manner but her expression changed to one of fright at the voice over the line. “There is a bomb in the auditorium,” the voice whispered eerily.
“Excuse me?” she asked in her most authoritative voice.
“There is a bomb in the auditorium and it is set to go off in twenty minutes.” The voice said again.
Mrs. Morgan slammed the phone down, her hands shaking and quickly dialed 911. She pressed the intercom and trying to be as calm as possible she instructed the teachers to gather the students and take them outside to the pavilion and then she called the parents.
*****
Cara answered her phone this time and Mrs. Morgan felt herself sag with relief. “Mrs. Logan we have a situation.” She quickly told the woman what happened.
“I have to call my husband.” She said and hung up the phone immediately.
By the time they got there the police and SWAT team was already there and had swarmed into the building. Parents had arrived to collect their children and were scurrying to grab their kids and go. Matthew and Cara checked to see if their kids were okay before sticking around to find out what was going on.
It took the SWAT team ten minutes to find out that the call was a prank call and there was no sign of a bomb in or outside the perimeter of the building. The detectives spoke to the Principal to find out the exact nature of the conversation. They left shortly after that and after being grilled by Matthew.
“Mr. and Mrs. Logan I don’t know what to say,” Mrs. Morgan stood there ringing her hands. It was getting a colder by the minute and they had bundled the children and put them in the vehicle.
“I am going to have to do some damage control.” She looked like she wanted to cry. “I suppose you won’t be sending the children back here.”
“We are not taking them from here Mrs. Morgan,” Matthew surprised both women by saying. “We are going to get to the bottom of this.”
*****
Jennifer rushed out as soon as they got inside the hall and hugged them tight to her before helping them off with their jackets.
“Auntie Jen we had a scare at our school,” Joel told her, his eyes bright with excitement.
“And there were lots of police men there,” Jeremy piped in, jumping up and down.
“I was not scared one bit.” Janice said using her best grown up voice. “But some of the other girls were scared and I told them that they did not need to be scared.”
“You were very brave,” Jennifer told them soberly. She looked up at her brother and sister in law who were getting out of their coats. “I suppose we will be looking for another school for them?”
“I don’t want to leave please daddy!” Janice said turning to her parents.
“Me neither!” both boys chorused. “We love our school.”
“We are not moving them,” Matthew told his sister. “We will discuss it later,” he told her firmly as she opened her mouth to protest. “In the meantime let’s go get you something to eat and then off to bed with you. Too much excitement for one day.”
*****
Marissa called her the next day. “I am glad that I let Denzel stay home after the funeral. I doubt we can stand anymore excitement. How are the kids?”
“They are more excited and less shaken up. They love the thought of the police cars and ambulance turning up.” Cara said with a laugh.
It was Saturday morning and she had gotten out of bed leaving Matthew there fast asleep. They'd had a hard time settling them down to go to sleep last night and Jennifer had hovered over them until Matthew had told her shortly to go to bed.
“Who do you think did it?”
“The police ar
e investigating so we will know eventually.” Cara went into their sitting room and sat in one of the couches and curled her feet underneath her. “How are you?”
“I am actually feeling okay. Denzel and I went to the museum yesterday and spent the whole day there. I am thinking of going to the farm this weekend and I am inviting you and Matthew and the kids to come with us and also Jennifer. I know it is the end of winter but the kids could go outside and explore and look at farm animals. I have invited Janet, Christine and Daniel because Bobby will be working this weekend. What do you say?”
“I will have to talk to Matthew and find out what he has planned. It would be nice for us to get away after all this.”
“I was in bed last night just staring up into the ceiling and thinking about John and what we had together. It is hard to move on honey and everywhere I go in the house I see something that reminds me of him. It is going to take me a long time for me to get over him.”
“Understandable.” Cara murmured not wanting to think about living without Matthew. “How are the children with you now?”
“The son calls me to check if I am okay but not the daughter of course.” Marissa said with a careless laugh. “Which is fine by me.”
Cara looked up and saw her husband framed in the doorway. “I will talk to you later girl and let you know what is happening.”
“Why are you up?” he asked coming over and sitting next to her pulling her into his arms.
“I could not sleep really.” She snuggled into his arms loving the warmth of his skin under the t-shirt he had put on. “When I got the call I started trembling and did not know what to do. Can you imagine if it had been another call? I keep thinking all the time I was there what kind of sick mind would want to make a call like that?”
“Someone who has nothing to do and who thinks that scaring people is cool.” His arms tightened around her. She had called him and he had no idea when he had left his office and jumped into one of the vehicle parked there.
“I thought you would have wanted to move the children,” she murmured looking up at him.
“That was my first thought but I figured wherever we put them there will always be something happening. It is going to be the same as long as it is the children of wealthy parents. I am going to be doing my own investigation as well. I am not going to leave anything to chance.”
*****
They made an outing of it. Matthew said they would spend the night but they were leaving the next morning early so they set out early in the afternoon. The children were excited to be going to a farm where they would be seeing animals. Matthew had driven the SUV and Jennifer was sitting in the back with the children secured in their car seats.
“Do you think there will be horses there mommy?” Jeremy asked taking his eyes off the rabbit jumping up and down on the screen he and his brother and sister were watching around the back.
“I want to see cows. I was watching something where a little girl was milking a cow and she was not scared.” Janice said.
“There will be horses and cows and other animals there but you will not be milking any cows honey,” Cara turned sideways to look at her disappointed daughter. “There are people there who know how to do that. You can watch however.”
They got there at three thirty in the afternoon to see that Christine and Daniel who had come up with Marissa and Denzel were already there. It was a large spread and looked more like a ranch instead of a farm. The main building was one story and spread over with several acres.
The children raced off towards the railings to look at the horses that were prancing around. “This is quite a place,” Matthew commented as they walked towards the corral where the horses were. “And it’s very peaceful here with no neighbors near to you.”
“John spent a lot of time here on weekends even when I did not want to come,” Marissa said looking around. “I am not exactly a country girl and the worst thing about it is there is no internet connection and no cable television just the regular channels. I remember the first time he brought me here I almost went stir crazy!” she laughed as they reached the railings where the children were staring at the horses in fascination. “I am learning to appreciate the quiet beauty now.”
“I would live here,” Cara told her.
“You would live here without having internet connection on your phone or your laptop?” her husband looked at her, his eyebrows raised skeptically.
“Of course I would. I am sure, especially in the spring and the summer, it’s a spectacularly beautiful place. I think about baking pies and milking cows and riding up into the hills breathing in the clean country air.” Cara said enthusiastically.
“You would be bored within two days.” Matthew predicted putting his hands around her waist and resting his head on hers as they looked at their children chatting and pointing.
“As long as you are here I would have no time to be bored,” she told him softly.
They were so caught up in each other that they did not see the pained look on Marissa’s face but Jennifer and Christine saw it.
“Okay guys let’s go and explore inside, I am freezing out here.” Christine said briskly going forward to get the children.
The interior was elegant and the furnishings simple. There was a housekeeper, a chef and a maid who stayed in the small three bedroom cottage at the side of the house. There were also men who tended to the farm who stayed in the outhouses near to the barn where the animals were housed.
They were told that dinner would be served within ten minutes and were shown where they would be spending the night. The place consisted of eight bedrooms and six and a half baths and huge fireplaces in the living room and the dining room. The bedrooms were large and simply furnished with pale tan wood making up the majority of the furnishings in the house. They washed up and came back into the dining room feeling ravenous as they sat around the large dining table.
The meal consisted of a large roast beef, sweet baked potatoes and baby carrots grown right there on the farm, fresh vegetables with apple dumplings which tasted so delicious that the children asked for more! And fresh creamy milk that had been acquired only that morning and left out in the snow to get cold with strawberries added to give it a sweet taste.
“If I stay here for two more days I would have to go to a gym,” Christine groaned as she patted her full stomach.
“There is a natural gym right on the farm. All you need to do is to go outside and start doing some farm chores and you are good to go,” Marissa told her with a laugh. “We are going to take the children and let them look at the animals.”
*****
“I want to touch the ducks,” Janice insisted as they went by the pond where the ducks were swimming leisurely along. They had been in the barn where they had seen the farm hands mucking the stalls and had helped to carefully collect the eggs that had been laid. Janice had turned up her nose at the pigs and the smell coming from them and when she was told that bacon and ham came from them she swore she would never be eating them again.
“You can feed the ducks honey but I am not sure you are allowed to touch them.” Her father told her gently. She was holding onto his hand tightly and Joel was walking alongside his mother while Jeremy had his hand tucked safely into his aunt Jennifer’s.
“What do we feed them with?” she asked wonderingly looking at the mother duck along with her babies and not paying them any mind.
“With bread,” Marissa told her. “I brought some with me.” She handed slices of bread to the children and they went closer to the pond to toss the bread to them. The adults stood there and watched them as the ducks picked up the pieces of bread and ate their fill.
Afterwards they went up to the crest of the hill that overlooked the vast expanse of terrain and the many fruit trees lined up. There was also a large greenhouse where the vegetables were taken from for cooking purposes and to sell to the various grocery stores and supermarkets around the area.
They went indoors when it got dark
and the wind howled around them. There was a large fire in the fireplace and huge slabs of cured beef and vegetable sandwiches and hot chocolate with cow’s milk with foam on top.
The excitement finally caught up with the children and right after they were nodding off. Janice shared a room with her brothers and the others were allotted rooms for themselves.
“Tired?” Matthew murmured as she snuggled close to him and closed her eyes.
“Pleasantly so.” Her hands crept up his warm skin beneath his shirt.
“I thought you were tired.” He murmured huskily as she touched his nipple with her fingers.
“Never too tired for this,” she told him, softly kissing his chest.
“In that case,” he pulled the shirt over his head and reached for her.
*****
They went by the acronym: PPFFE (Poor People Fighting for Equality) and they were a group of self acclaimed rebels who went around fighting and talking against the rich in society. An arrest had been made because they had actually targeted another school several miles away.
Cara saw him standing at the window looking over the gazebo when she came into the bedroom. He had been late getting in from the office and she and Jennifer had read the children stories and made sure they went to bed even though Janice had been asking for her dad. He had come home and gone into their rooms and made sure they were okay before he went into his bedroom.
She came up behind him and rested her head against his back. “Penny for your thoughts.”
“No money necessary.” He said with a tinge of amusement in his voice. “Is it wrong for us to have all of this?” he nodded towards the grounds itself.
“I don’t think so.” She moved around to face him. “What’s going on?”
“They caught the culprits who made the threats at the school.” He told her briefly what the detectives had told him. “Apparently they believe that they are not getting a fair chance in life.”
“And somehow you are wondering if there is something you should be doing more than what you are doing now.” She said shrewdly. She stepped back and looked up at him, his dark green eyes and the stubble on his strong jaw and the hair falling down his forehead. He was her hero and her lover and she admired him so much. “Carolyn and I grew up in a neighborhood that was extremely poor but then again you know that and our parents taught us to work hard to achieve what we wanted in life. We wanted things because we used to sit up at night and plan what we would do if we ever have a million dollars at our fingertips.”