Judith (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 3)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Stop being an ass and help me.” Jude told her she was. “I don’t want a baby, dumb ass. I want a kid. Like Tracy.”

  “You want someone to pull out when you’re bored and need someone to go with you.” Remi started shaking her head. “Yes, that’s all you’re talking about. I’m sure if you got a kid like Tracy, you’d find out that it’s a lot of work to have them want to go anyplace with you. Tracy is driving soon, and I’m betting I don’t get to have fun with her much more. She’ll be hanging with her own friends then.”

  “That kid worships you.” Jude told Remi she did her too. “But she’s not mine. I want what you have.”

  “I’d like to tell you that’s sweet, but it’s not what you want. I mean, think about what you’re saying to me. You want a kid. You want to go shopping with it. You want to have fun. What about what this kid is going to want?” Remi frowned like she was confused. “Tracy trusts me not to leave her at the side of the road when we’re finished with lunch. You haven’t mentioned the child staying with you. Twenty-four seven. That’s what you get when you have a kid. Also, you neglected to mention things like shopping for her. Or buying food so that it’s in the house when you’re not with her. What do you think this kid is going to do when you’re wrapped up in your work and can’t be going out with her? Usually, kids start out as infants and grow into the children that Tracy and Abe are. Are you really that bored you want a child to rear? Or do you want to handpick someone to be your companion?”

  “I don’t know now.” Jude stood up and helped Remi up. “I’m not going to be any good at raising a family, Jude. I don’t want babies around. I don’t want to even think about having one either. I love my life the way it is. I get to make food for the restaurant, then watch to see if people like it or not. From what you’re saying, this kid will also judge me.”

  “Yes, they do. I am incredibly lucky in that I have Tracy now. In a couple more years, she’s going to be off to college. Maybe find a man to love her, as well as have children of her own. Not for a long time yet, but it’s in her future.” Remi nodded. “Also, what if you find your mate and you find out he hates kids? And especially the one you picked up to have lunch with you. What will you do then?”

  “He will not come between me and my child.” Jude laughed when Remi shouted about that. “Okay, you’ve made your point. I need to think about what I really want in life, and understand there are consequences with my choices.”

  “I was serious when I told you to take Tracy when you want someone to hang around with. Abe, too if you want. He’s the best person to have a long discussion with. It doesn’t even have to be about anything in particular. Abe is smart, and he has all sorts of opinions on a great many things.” Remi asked if she was serious. “About Abe? Yes. He goes out with Duncan’s grandda a couple of times a week. Even his grandma comes over and gets him when she’s onto her next big project.”

  “I think I might take you up on that. I mean, really. He’s a great kid, and he is smart.” Jude nodded. “All right. I’m ready to figure this out now. What’s going on with the lines? I’m sure you’ve not only figured it out, but you also know how to fix it.”

  “Look above you.” Jude watched the line she was set to watch as Remi watched the lines coming between the two rooms. As soon as she saw what Jude had found after coming here for a couple of days, Remi looked at her. “I don’t know where he lives when he’s not stealing boxes from the line, but I have to put a stop to it. I wonder if other faeries are living in this place that are making it their home.”

  “I’d say there are. He isn’t incredibly sneaky about his theft, is he? I mean, he didn’t bother hiding himself when he noticed I was looking at him.” Jude told her how he’d been in the break room when she’d been there. “Did he speak to you?”

  “No. I think he’s realized I’m the queen and he’s afraid of me. I’m also thinking if he’s having to steal whatever he takes, he needs a job as well.” Remi asked her what she had in mind. “It’s why I brought you along with me. You can talk to him without him being terrified. I was hoping he’ll speak to you easier than he would me.”

  Remi waited for the faerie to come out on the line again and yelled at him to meet her in the dining area. When she winked at her and left, Jude wondered how this would end. Remi wasn’t a straight to the point speaker. It took her longer to tell a joke than anyone wanted to wait for the punch line.

  After about twenty more minutes of watching the line, Jude made her way to the office and sat at her desk to await Remi. She’d have to leave here soon, she realized. Duncan had been called out of town right after he’d left the house. He’d not have been able to make the meeting this morning, even if he’d been able to leave on time. Sometimes it sucked to be in charge of large operations. Smiling, she wondered what he’d say when he returned, and she told him about the faerie.

  She didn’t know his name. However, what she did know about him was a lot. He’d been stealing things from right off the lines for some time now—about ten years, she thought. It wasn’t just food either. He’d been taking supplies to make things as well. It was why she thought there was more than just the one of them in the building.

  Yesterday’s inventory showed that there were six bags of cotton filling missing, as well as ribbons of silk and scissors. Also, several bags of weaving material were gone. It didn’t seem like a great deal daily, but adding it up over the last ten years, it had amounted to a great deal. As soon as Remi entered her office, Jude could tell that whatever was going on, it was going to continue.

  “This is Patch. Patch, you’re with the queen now, so behave yourself.” Patch nodded, then bowed to her. “Patch has a wife and three children. Also, by his count, there are about four hundred families of faeries living in the upper levels of this place. He’s been helping them out by getting them supplies to set up a home.”

  “Why are you the only one taking the things? I’d think with four hundred families, you’d be working all the time doing it alone.” He looked at Remi before bowing to her again. “Patch, I’d like to not have to tell the king about this if I can get it taken care of today.”

  “They be older, my lady.” She asked him what he meant. “The others, the others in the pip. They’re no longer able to work. The places they worked at, me too, have been closed down. The faeries, they’re not useful to many anymore.”

  “Where did they work before coming here? Where did they work that has closed down?” Patch told her about the greenhouse that had been closed up for some years now. They all had worked there and didn’t know anything else to do. “They have only ever been greenhouse workers—is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Yes, my lady. They don’t know how to do nothing else. Most of them, me included, where born in the building that served the greenhouse. When it was closed down, it nearly killed all of us until we found this place. It wasn’t nothing like it is now, so I’ve had to help them all move several times when the work started up here.” He looked at her like he was thinking it was her fault. “I don’t know what to tell you about the stuff I’ve been taking. But we were here first.”

  “So you were. Yes, I can see that. All the families here, are they willing to work for a living?” His face was so bright with excitement; she nearly smiled with him. Then his face seemed to sadden. “I’ll not lie to you if you do the same for me, Patch. I have work for you and your people—more too if they need it.”

  “What kind of work are you saying to?” She told him of the great greenhouse she had at the castle. “We’d be working for you, my lady? At the castle?”

  “Yes. The greenhouse will be magical, of course. I will need all of you there to pick what is ready and help with the management of the seeds we have. Some of them are as old as we are, Patch. They’ll need special care from incredibly special people.” He said he could do that. “I know you can. I’m counting on it. Also, there will be food and things
that can be used for homes for all of you. I’ll make sure of it. The things they have here—do you think it will take a great deal to load them up and take to their new jobs?”

  “No, my lady. We can take care of that. When do you want us to start?” She told him as soon as they were all settled in the greenhouse. “My lady, this is most wondrous. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Tell me you’ll do a good job. Because the things that are grown in the greenhouse will help a great many people. Fruits and vegetables will be readily given to humans that would die without the proper foods. Older humans that have no way to grow things as you would do, because they’re only humans and don’t have the energy they once had. Or, and this is true in most of the cases, they no longer have the soil to work the seeds into.”

  “That’s just terrible. Terrible so much.” She didn’t bother correcting his English. Patch might be one to take offense to it. “I’ll gladly tell the others we’re moving. If you could mayhap get us a conveyance, we can move out of here today.”

  “I can have a truck for you today. However, I need to go to another appointment. You can work it out with the others, and I’ll be expecting you to come by the castle once everyone agrees to help us out.” He said he’d do it. “All right then. Thank you for your help, Patch. You’ll make a wonderful foreman for us.”

  Making her way to the garage to get into her car, she told Remi how to handle the move. Remi was laughing so hard at the things Patch was telling her that she was repeating it all to her. The little man was making some small demands about the move that had them both nearly in stitches, laughing so hard. He wanted each person to have a shoebox to have their things put into so they’d not be hurt. Also, he wanted cotton to wrap any delicates in. Remi was giving him everything he needed to make the move go easier on them all.

  Jude walked into the attorney’s office right on time. Tracy was already there with Abe, having gotten a ride from Grandpa. He said he’d go on home now, and the attorney asked if he’d like to stay and listen. Grandpa was incredibly happy to do so since he had a lunch date with his favorite children.

  Whatever was going to happen here today, the attorney, Mr. Shelby, was excited about it. As they were taken to the room for the reading, Duncan joined them. She’d never been so happy to see him as she was in that moment. His meeting, he told them, had been canceled. Thankfully.

  ~*~

  Abe didn’t know what to expect with this. He watched Tracy for her reaction, and when she was calm, so was he. So far she’d been very calm, and he was glad for that. Mr. Bloom had been a good friend to him, someone he could talk to without worrying he was going to judge him afterward.

  “You’re a smart boy, aren’t you?” He didn’t answer him, knowing that if people found out how smart he really was, they’d make fun of him. “You should tell them parents of yours. They’ll get you into some classes that won’t leave you snoozing on the sidelines.”

  “I love living with them. I don’t want to be turned out again.” Mr. Bloom asked him if he really thought they’d do that. “No. But I don’t want to have to worry that they will. It’s what my parents did. They didn’t like that I was smarter than them. So when they went to prison, and I went to the home, I met Tracy. We needed each other.”

  “I don’t know your new folks that well, but they don’t strike me as the type that wouldn’t be shouting to the mountain tops bragging on you a little.”

  Abe had grinned, but he wasn’t sure what to do. Even now, all these weeks later, he’d still not told them.

  Now here he was in an attorney’s office wondering what the older man had left him. Not that he wanted anything. He wanted the friendship to continue, but it was over now. The elderly man had passed away in his sleep.

  “Abraham Dante.” He looked at the well-dressed man when he said his name. “Mr. Bloom thought a great deal of you and your sister. But he especially loved you. He said that had he had a chance to have any children he wanted, he would have picked you and your sister, Tracy. He was a good man, too, you know.”

  “I know. He and I would have talks all the time about how things worked when he was younger. I loved him so much.” The man nodded. “He didn’t have to leave me anything. I just liked being around him. Whatever it is, it won’t mean as much to me as having him as a friend.”

  “I think he said you’d say that. But what he left you is his house, and the property surrounding it. Also, you’re going to be the owner of all his vines. Did he tell you he was a winemaker?” Abe said he’d shown him how it worked. “Yes, Mr. Bloom told me he did that. Said you’d understand things he told you and how to make it work, so you didn’t have to work all that hard.”

  “That’s a lot of vines. Don’t you think?” Mr. Shelby told him it was. “I’m just a little boy. I don’t know how to do enough yet.”

  “That’s why he’s going to have your dad here help you. There are also people that will help you learn the job so you’ll be as good if not better than he was at it. Mr. Bloom told me if anyone could make it work, it would be you.” Abe was touched by the thought of the elderly man. “After we’re finished up here, I’ll go over the contracts with you and your dad so you can start on it as soon as tomorrow. The people working the winery are happy you’re going to be running the place for him.”

  Mr. Shelby looked at Tracy. She, too, said she didn’t want anything from Mr. Bloom. But Mr. Shelby told her that it was his pleasure to tell her what she’d been left by the older man.

  “He left you his money. All of his shares in all his companies too. You both are very wealthy. He figured that by the end of this year, both of you will have turned what he left you into so much more.” Tracy asked about his family. “There is no one to fight with you over what he’s done. They’re all gone, his family. There weren’t any children from his union with his wife either. He was a good man who was never blessed, he called it, with anyone he could call his own until you two came along.”

  “I don’t understand.” Abe looked at Tracy and thought she was dense if she didn’t get that she had all the money. “I’m incredibly happy with what he’s done, but we just met him at Christmas. I don’t know how we could have made an impression on him that quickly, do you?”

  “Mr. Bloom made all his money when he was in his late sixties. His wife had passed on by then, and it seemed that anything he touched turned to gold. Even when he tried to make himself lose money, he would triple whatever he’d put into it. And a good thing too.” He winked at Abe. “As of this morning, when the paperwork came to me, you’re worth more than seventy million dollars. Ms. Tracy, you are worth a little more, but he said you’d be sharing with your brother anyway, so he made sure you had plenty to do that. He has plans for you both, as a matter of fact. Nothing that will take away the money, never that, but he wanted you both to be able to go to college and not have to worry about money. He also wanted to make sure you both lived close enough to your parents so you could go to them for not just advice, but hugs too. Mr. Bloom told me that Tracy gave the best hugs he’d ever had.”

  By the time they were finished with the will, Abe was terrified. Not of the money, but that someone was going to ask him what all had been said at the meeting. By the time they were having lunch, Grandpa with them, he was starting to realize that this was real and that he was going to be running some very wonderful companies. As soon as his food was brought to him, he turned to his parents and told them what he’d promised Mr. Bloom he would do.

  “I need to be retested for school. I didn’t do it right.” Dad asked him what he meant. “I’m smart. Too smart for me to be in fifth grade. I have trouble, you see, paying attention when I know more than the teachers do. They never let me go and do homework that was in the higher grades, so I’d have to stay where I was and not do anything like I wanted.”

  “So, you dumbed yourself down for the classes you were in.” He nodded. “All right. We c
an take care of that in the morning.”

  “Are you mad at me?” Mom asked him why he’d think that. “I don’t know. The teachers at the home said I was a showoff and didn’t like it when I had the correct answer. Even when they didn’t have it right. They were forever mad at me.”

  “I’m not. Not at all. I’m thrilled to death that you are smart. Now I don’t have to help you with your homework.” Abe laughed and said he’d help her. “You might have to, you know. I never got to go to school when I was made. I took college classes, but I never went to grade school or above.”

  They talked about it all through lunch and on the way home. He had a lot to think about, and Abe was going to make sure that Mr. Bloom hadn’t done anything wrong by leaving them the money. He was going to make it show for something good.

  At least he hoped so.

  Before You Go…

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  Kathi Barton, a winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio, with her husband, Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband, who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance, with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. aaronskiss@gmail.com.