A ROCKY PATH
LAURALYNN ELLIOTT
Published by Lauralynn Elliott at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Lauralynn Elliott
Cover Art by Anya Kelleye
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. All people, places, and events are purely products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
Emily Adams brushed her long, dark hair behind her ears in a gesture that had become a habit in recent weeks. She looked up anxiously at the huge mansion, for it couldn’t be called just a “house”, and almost jumped back into the taxi. The house was made of stone and was three stories tall. There was probably a basement level, which would bring it to four stories total. She had never set foot inside a house of that size before. The taxi had crossed a stone bridge, which matched the house, over a small river in order to get to the house. There were lamp posts alongside the bridge as well as in the front of the house. The whole property screamed rich.
‘This was a bad idea,’ she thought. ‘I can’t do this!’
She had lost her husband six months ago in a car accident, and now she was without any family, except assorted aunts, uncles and cousins whom she had never seen before. Her apartment in New York had constantly reminded her of Tom, and the life she had before her world had come crashing down around her. She hated her job at an accounting firm, so she was miserable whether she was at work or at home. She was twenty-nine years old, already widowed, and already unhappy with her life.
She had been posting her resume online, hoping to just get away from the memories and misery, and someone finally responded. When she got an offer from Rebecca Winslow, a well-known author, to come to a small town in Maine and work as her assistant, she jumped at the chance. But now, looking up at her new residence, she suddenly felt small and inadequate, afraid she wouldn’t be able to do the job she had come to do. She and Rebecca had talked on the phone and corresponded by e-mail several times in the past two months. She already felt like she knew Rebecca, but what if she was different when they met in person? Or what if her new employer didn’t like her after meeting her? You couldn’t pick up body language or expressions through phone calls and e-mail.
Suddenly, out of the house burst two large Labrador retrievers, one black and one yellow. They came bounding up to her, their tongues hanging out, happily greeting their visitor. Behind them, more slowly, but still seeming to “bound”, came a tall, thin attractive woman with short, blond hair. She looked to be in her mid-forties. Emily had to smile.
“Hi, I’m Rebecca Winslow,” the blond woman said, extending her hand in greeting. “I’m so glad to finally meet you, although I feel like we know each other already.” Her handshake was firm, almost like a man’s.
“I’m Emily Adams. I’m really glad to meet you, too. I was feeling really overwhelmed and a little scared when I arrived, but your two friends here suddenly put me at ease!”
“Yes, sometimes people are a little intimidated by the size of the house at first, but when they meet Casper and Jake everything seems to be a little more down to earth. I promise you, we aren’t the typical “rich with the great big house” people. I just love having all the room and being able to roam about and decorate everything as I please. And since I can afford it, well……” She shrugged.
Emily smiled and said, “I don’t feel so scared now. I took one look at the house and almost bolted.”
“I’m glad the boys and I could put you at ease!” Rebecca laughed. “Let’s get you all settled in your rooms, and then I’ll take you for a little tour before dinner. Then after dinner, if you aren’t too tired, we can go over some of the things I have in mind for you to do.”
Emily followed her new employer into the house as a young man came out and went over to the taxi to retrieve her bags. Her apartment had been furnished as part of the rent, so she didn’t have any furniture or large items to bring with her. The stuffy suits that she was required to wear at the accounting firm were hanging in the cab and she almost hoped the driver would take off with them, so she would never have to look at them again. Ugh. But she supposed she would have to dress up when she was working for Rebecca, so she was probably stuck with them. When Emily dressed up, she preferred feminine, lacy things. And when she wasn’t dressing up, her favorite clothes were t-shirts and blue jeans. She was petite, only 5’ 3” tall, and 115 lbs. She was very curvy and very feminine looking, but she worked out often with weights and did aerobics every day, so there was a lot of strength hidden beneath the deceiving helpless little girl look. She hoped there was a gym nearby.
As soon as she walked into the house, she was overwhelmed by the beauty of it. The walls in the foyer were deep red with white wainscoting halfway up. There were antique brass candleholders, converted to electric lighting, hanging on the walls. There were also pictures of dragons, wizards and warriors in antique brass frames. She loved the theme.
They went up the stone staircase, turned down the hallway to the right, then to the third door on the left. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever learn her way around this house. Then Rebecca opened the door to her room and she was suddenly breathless.
“I had these rooms decorated especially for you, but I didn’t know you that well yet, so if there is anything you want to change, or even if you want to redo the whole thing, please let me know and I will have it done. I love to decorate and it was so much fun to do this room, just guessing about what you might like,” said Rebecca.
“I love it!” exclaimed Emily. She had been expecting just a regular bedroom, but this was a suite of rooms. The door opened into the bedroom. The bottom half of the walls were painted a dark forest green with a cream colored chair rail bisecting the wall and the top half was papered with English ivy. Not plain, but not too busy, either. The bed was huge, a king size, and the comforter also sported English ivy, and it looked so comfortable, Emily was tempted to lie down right then amongst all the fluffiness and go to sleep. Past the foot of the bed, there were two steps down to a small sitting room. There was a gas fireplace and two comfy looking armchairs, with small tables beside each one. A perfect place to relax, read a good book, and sip a cup of tea!
“I don’t know what to say!”
“Say you like it,” Rebecca said, smiling.
“This is wonderful. I can’t believe you‘re putting me in such beautiful rooms. I wasn’t expecting something so generous. Honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing about these rooms.”
Rebecca smiled. “I’m so glad you like it. I wasn’t sure, but I was hoping you would. You haven’t seen the bathroom yet.”
Emily went through the door adjoining the bedroom. She was once again awed by what she was seeing. There was a huge tub, big enough for four or five people. She saw that it had jets, so it was a spa tub. It was black with stone tiles surrounding it. There was also a huge shower, as well as the other normal fixtures, all in black. The walls were papered with cavorting dragons. This woman had the strangest mixture of tastes, and yet it all somehow worked. She loved it.
“You know, when I was in my apartment, my living room wasn’t much bigger than this bathroom. I’m not used to all this luxury. You’re too kind.”
Rebecca laughed. “Don’t think I don’t have ulterior
motives! I plan to make you work hard for me, so I want to keep you happy. Jamie will bring your bags up in a few moments. Why don’t we finish the tour of the house?”
They went through so many rooms that Emily’s head was spinning. She was going to need a map! There were numerous guest bedrooms and baths on the second floor. On the first floor, there was the formal living room, the more casual family room, a library, game room, large dining room, family dining room, kitchen….it went on and on until Emily knew she was going to have to start leaving bread crumbs along the way.
“I know it seems overwhelming at first,” said Rebecca, “but you’ll get used to it, I promise. We’ll wait until after dinner to see the third floor. That’s where my offices are and where we will do most of our work. But I do want you to see the basement before we have dinner.”
They went down a flight of steps and walked into a world of delight for Emily.
“A gym!” she exclaimed. She rushed to each exercise machine, admiring the quality.
“You mentioned in your resume that one of your hobbies is working out. This way you won’t have to go to a gym. We have all these weight machines as well as the treadmill over there, and here is the big screen television where you can play exercise videos. All this equipment is brand new. We had all this done about six months ago. We all thought we could use some extra exercise. But it turns out, now, that Jamie is the only one who uses this room.”
“Who’s Jamie?”
“Well, he lives here, and he does a little bit of everything for us. You’ll meet him at dinner tonight. The entire household will be eating together tonight.”
“I can’t wait to meet everybody. This is great! I know I’m going to love it here.” She was overwhelmed by this place. But she really felt good about being here.
“Emily, you may use this gym as often as you like. As I said before, the only other person that uses it is Jamie.”
She opened a door and went inside, turning on the light. There was a huge screen, with a row of three sofas facing it. A projector stood against the wall behind the sofas.
“A theater room! This is great. And look, a popcorn popper just like they have at the movies! I feel like a kid in a candy store.” She began to wonder if she was acting too childish about everything.
“We all like to have fun. All work and no play….well, you know the old saying.”
Emily smiled. She felt like she had walked into a dream that she wanted to never wake up from.
Chapter Two
Dinner was a very enjoyable experience after living on frozen dinners for so long. There was an abundance of seafood, her favorite. One thing she noticed was that there was no alcohol served at dinner. No wine, no cocktails….nothing. She thought that was very unusual, but apparently this household just didn’t drink. She didn’t either, so it was not a problem for her.
Rebecca was a widow, just like Emily, with no children. But her nephew, Sam, lived there with her. His mother, Rebecca’s sister, had died of cancer. His father was not to be found. She also got to meet the housekeeper and cook, Sally, and her son, Jamie, who did odds and ends around the house, acting as butler, chauffer and whatever else was needed. He was in his mid twenties, like Sam, and quite handsome. His short, dark hair and his green eyes were a contrast to Sam’s longish, blond hair and light blue eyes. Emily was very surprised that Sally and Jamie ate dinner with the family, but was very pleased. Her estimation of Rebecca Winslow kept going up. This lady was no snob!
“So, Rebecca, tell me a little bit about this house. Is it very old?” asked Emily.
Rebecca laughed. “Yes, actually it is very old. About 200 years old, as a matter of fact. It has really held up well through many generations. These stone houses are almost indestructible. The original family that lived here was McCulloch. They were a Scottish family who came here in about 1800 and built this house. I bought it from one of the descendants. I’m the first person to own this house who wasn’t part of that family.”
“Wow, I would have never thought the house was that old! It looks so new inside,” said Emily.
“When I bought it, there was still a lot of the old furniture and odds and ends here. I totally redecorated it. I guess you can tell I like wizards and dragons and other fantasy creatures.”
Emily grinned. “I would have never guessed.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “You would think she would have grown out of those things by now. After all, she is ancient!”
Emily could tell he was teasing his aunt. She looked over at Jamie, but he was just sitting there with a sullen expression on his face. She wondered what his problem was! Anyway, Sam was pleasant enough. She hoped that she would get to know everyone in the house a little better and that they would all like and accept her.
“Emily, if you ever want to see some of the old things that came with the house, please feel free to explore. There’s a room in the basement just for storage, and all those things are in there,” Rebecca said.
“Thanks. I may take a look. I think it would be fun to see all those things that are from a different era.”
The time passed very pleasantly, and when dinner was over, Emily was aware that she had eaten more than was usual for her.
“I’m afraid I overdid it with the food tonight. I’m not used to such wonderful food. Sally, you’re going to make me fat!” said Emily.
“Thank you, miss. And I doubt that you’re going to get fat with all that exercise equipment downstairs.”
“I’ll certainly need to exercise every day if you keep feeding me like this. Thank you so much for the wonderful meal.”
Rebecca said, “Yes, thank you, Sally. You have really outdone yourself tonight. Everything was excellent. Now if everyone will excuse us, I need to go over some things with Emily.”
Rebecca led Emily up the stairs to the third floor. They were followed by the two dogs. Emily reached down and gave each of them a pat.
‘It’s a good thing I’m in shape,’ thought Emily. ‘All these stairs!’
They walked into a large office. Rebecca familiarized Emily with everything in the office and showed her where her desk was. It already had a laptop computer as well as everything one would need to be a writer’s assistant….or anything else. She wasn’t going to have to go out and buy one thing, not even a pen.
“I’ve found that I just don’t have the time or energy to do everything anymore. I really need some help. That’s why I hired you. I need someone to do a lot of paperwork, and I’m glad you have an accounting background. Although I have accountants to do my major accounting work, I need you to do a lot of the day to day bookkeeping that I used to do myself. You will also be my social secretary. I get asked to do a lot of book signings, and other public appearances. I need you to take care of those things for me. Also, and this is very important, I need you to proof my writing.”
“What? You mean, I’ll be reading your books before anyone else?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean. The editor will do the final proof, but I want two sets of eyes on the manuscripts before they’re sent in. That’s why it’s very important that I trust you. I have good instincts, and I felt good about you as soon as we talked on the phone and especially now that we’ve met. I feel like you’ll always be honest and trustworthy. We’re going to be a team. And good friends, too, I think.”
“Rebecca, I’m happier right now than I’ve been in a very long time. Your generosity has overwhelmed me. I promise that I’ll do the best job for you that I possibly can. Anything that you need me to do, I’m ready to do it.”
“Good, that’s what I like to hear. Now, why don’t you roam around the house and grounds before bed, and get familiar with things without me hovering around you? You have free rein around the house. It’s ok to go outside and explore. We have lots of the lamp posts around the grounds, so it isn’t completely dark in most places. We have no alarm system, so you don’t have to worry about when you can come and go.”
“Thank you. I think I’ll t
ake a walk outside. When do you want me to start in the morning?”
Rebecca thought a moment. “How about eight o’clock?”
“That sounds great. I can get up about six every morning and get a good workout in. So, how do you want me to dress for my job?”
“Just jeans and a t-shirt. Who else will see us, anyway? And, Emily, about those suits I saw Jamie carrying in…why don’t we take those to the Goodwill store? You and I need to go do some major shopping soon. We don’t do “stuffy” around here!”
Emily grinned. She was really going to like working here!
* * *
After dinner, Emily decided she still wasn’t that tired, so she figured it was a good a time as any to explore. First, she checked out all the bedrooms that weren’t occupied. There was such a variety of colors and styles in each one. Rebecca had such eclectic taste. Some rooms were flowery, some were very masculine and austere, and some were frilly and feminine. She shook her head in amazement. This woman…she was different than anyone she knew.
When she was done with the second floor, she went up to the third floor. She knew this was mostly composed of office space, but she hadn’t seen all of it the day before. She was surprised to find a very comfortable sitting room with big fluffy chairs and sofas. There were bookshelves on two of the walls. Opening off the outside wall were a pair of French doors. She opened them and stepped onto a small balcony which sported two chairs and a small table. She was thinking what a great room this was as she was stepping back in. She was surprised to find Rebecca sitting on a chair. At her feet were Casper and Jake.
“I see you have found my private haven,” she said with a smile.
“I’m sorry. I thought I was allowed to explore everywhere. I didn’t mean to intrude upon your space.”
A Rocky Path Page 1