A Perfect Forever (Leap of Love Series, Book 1) (2 page)

Maybe she should have come home a bit more often. Or maybe she should have insisted that they come to visit her in Switzerland.

The thoughts ran through her head, and she could not make sense of them. Nothing made sense right now to her. It was almost impossible to think.

The silence of the house was stifling. Hearing her mother's voice right now would make things so much calmer. Now Amelia was unsure if she would ever feel that type of calm in her life again. 

Setting the tiny porcelain figure back on the mantle, Amelia closed her eyes. The scent of pine and cinnamon was still there as it had been throughout her childhood.

She opened her eyes, knowing that from now on, things in her life would never be the same.

*

The reading of the will was extremely formal, despite the fact that the only people there were Mr. McGill and Amelia. Amelia was an only child, and her father's brother sent word that he would not be there since he recently came for the funeral.

Mr. McGill's office was not plush or overly comfortable by any standards. He had a lovely secretary who looked to be somewhere around Amelia's age. She was polite and smiled kindly as she led Amelia into Mr. McGill's personal office.

"Amelia, so good to see you this morning. Please have a seat."

He was so welcoming and warm that Amelia did not have the heart to lash out the way she wanted to. How could the reading of a will be a pleasant experience, as it seemed the lawyer was trying to make it out to be?

Amelia took a seat in the cherry wood armchair. She folded her hands in her lap and prepared for the unexpected. Smoothing her hair back, she waited for what was next.

Several papers were stacked in front of Mr. McGill, and he peeled the first off the top of the stack.

Reading all of the formalities was making Amelia want to reach across the table and snatch the sheet right from the lawyer's hand. Instead, she maintained composure and waited as patiently as she could until he read what was on the sheet.

The first two pages were nothing but technical jargon about the structure of her father's company and the structure of her mother's business. All things that Amelia did not readily understand. Then there was the reading of all of the businesses her parents owned individually and collectively. Amelia listened, and had no idea that her parents had amassed such a fortune together.

For a brief moment she felt fortunate that her parents had done so well, and afforded her a comfortable life free of care and worry.

There was a bit about who would take over her father's everyday functions and who would take over her mother's business. Amelia could not believe that there was anyone who would want to take over the brothel. It seemed like the kind of place that should just die off and fade away now that her mother was gone.

Mr. McGill cleared his throat. "Now that I have completely bored you with all of the specifics and minutiae of business structuring and hierarchy, let us get to your parent's personal wishes for you."

Amelia perked up. Finally the part she had been waiting on.

The lawyer's eyes scanned over the paperwork. With a sigh, he began talking.

"As I have bored you enough with all of the formalities of reading a will, here is what is most important. Your mother left control of the brothel to a Marilyn Halford, but you will maintain ownership as a full partner with Ms. Halford, with your percentage being seventy-five percent.

"Your father's businesses are to be run by his brother. You will receive a trust set up with thirty percent of the proceeds deposited for you bimonthly. I will oversee all of those transactions."

Amelia began to sit up, ready to go.

"Thank you so much for all of your help, Mr. McGill."

"Wait, Amelia. There is more."

When he spoke, his right eyebrow raised slightly. Amelia looked on curiously.

"All right. I'm listening." She sat back down in the wooden chair.

"I do not ever remember you going to California. Have you ever wanted to travel there?"

She was not sure where he was going with his line of questioning, but answered anyway.

"Not necessarily, Mr. McGill. Why would you ask?"

"It seems your father has left you a controlling interest in a lucrative gold mine in California."

Amelia shook her head. "And I assume you will be overseeing the money there as well?"

"Actually, I have been designated as the trustee over your parents' estate. But this one is all yours. Your father has stipulated that you sell the house in Boston, move to California, and marry in one year."

Amelia felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.

"What? This seems a bit preposterous. I do not understand."

Mr. McGill laid the paperwork down on his desk, and folded his hands. "What it means is that you have full ownership in this mine. Your father asked that you sell the house here and move out west to start a new life. That includes getting married and when you do, you will be the owner of that gold mine, free and clear."

"And if I do not marry? What then?"

"There will be provisions made, and it will be business as usual. But let us not think about that avenue. We will be prepared for things to go the way that your father mapped out for you, Amelia."

She rose abruptly from the chair. Extending her hand, she waited for the lawyer to shake hers.

He did. "Amelia, this is the chance for you to live life on your own terms. There are no women who own a gold mine, let alone a business. That is mostly a man's work. So imagine the doors that will open for you if you go out west."

So here was that freedom and opportunity that Amelia had longed for since childhood. That it came at the cost of her parents' death was hard to deal with, but Amelia knew that she only had one option at this time in her life.

The skies in San Francisco were clear today. It was a phenomenon that Amelia was coming to appreciate. There was normally an overcast sky, but today was beautiful. The sun was shining and birds were chirping. People were out strolling and enjoying the day.

San Francisco was a bit like Boston. Both were cities on the water, and Amelia loved the fact that she could still go and watch the ships sail out to the ocean. San Francisco was also a political hotbed now, but in a different way than Boston. In Boston, there was a more stringent look on politics. People in the west seemed to be more willing to live outside the rules.

The new city was growing by leaps and bounds, and was very diverse. Amelia had never actually lived somewhere where there were so many different races and ethnicities living freely among each other. Not even in Switzerland. It was actually refreshing, and it fed her need for freedom.

Moving across the country was no easy feat, but she had moved to another country at one time in her life, so she figured moving west should not be too much more of a task.

Her father's brother had accompanied her on her journey, and helped her to get established in a quaint home close to the heart of the city. The thought of settling anywhere else other than the city was unthinkable because she had heard wild tales of cowboys and wild outlaws riding around on horseback, randomly killing at will.

The railroad brought great opportunity out west for expansion and a chance for a new life. And when Amelia arrived, she immediately wanted her slice of that new life.

Once she was settled in, she began the search for the space that would house her dream. She wanted to start a finishing school for girls. It would be the perfect thing to keep her busy while she was supposed to be finding a suitor for marriage.

Thinking about the events of the past few months kept her mind busy while she was on the train to California. Amelia was not exactly sure how she was supposed to make all of this happen. Living in a new city was not a foreign concept to her. Starting life over on her terms was familiar. At nineteen years old, she was practically an old maid. All of her friends in Boston had been betrothed to a suitor at this point in their lives. They had lavish weddings planned, and huge mansions to move into.

Amelia, on the other hand, was a single woman, practically orphaned, living in a new city, and thinking about starting a career versus finding the man she was supposed to marry.

She had never really thought that love would be for her. She did not even know what it felt like to be in love. She had heard about it, read about it in books and poems, but never felt it.

All of her childhood friends grew up giggling about falling in love and fantasizing about their weddings. Amelia never had those dreams. She wanted to see the world and learn what life was like outside of Boston society. As a young girl, that was not an aspiration she could openly share. Women were not supposed to have dreams or goals. They were not supposed to aspire to live outside of what their husbands provided for them. And girls certainly were not supposed to want anything of their own.

And everything that Amelia wanted in life was outside all of the things she was supposed to be. Maybe it was something that she got from her mother. Lulu la Rue had not come from much. When she was an orphan at age thirteen and living on the streets of Boston, she learned how to take care of herself. She was not the type of woman who wanted to depend on anyone, because she had experienced what it was like to be let down. Amelia did not know much about her mother's family or her mother's upbringing. Lulu would get a distant look on her face every time Amelia asked, so Amelia stopped asking.

Lulu would play the doting wife in public, as prim and proper as she could be, but behind closed doors she would convince Amelia that she could be anything she wanted to be, despite what society said about being a woman.

Being the owner of a brothel was not exactly the kind of thing Amelia aspired to do, but the idea of having her own money and not living completely off of her trust funds or her soon-to-be husband's money was appealing.

Once she allowed herself to appreciate all that she learned from the boarding school in Switzerland, she decided that she too could start a school for girls. Girls like her who had dreams to live outside of their husband's shadows and girls who wanted to travel the world like she did.

Her afternoon stroll led her to the building with which she would soon become very familiar.

Staring up at the building, she looked at the place that would soon be Ms. Amelia's Finishing School for Girls.

Her heart swelled with joy. There had been something good to come out of tragedy. She had sold the Boston house, gave a sizeable amount to each of the maids and the butler for so many years of hard work, and set out to move west.

So far, things were working out in Amelia's favor.

*

"Alfred! Alfred!" The very sound of the high-pitched shrill of Mrs. Sharp's voice was enough to bring on a headache when Amelia heard the sound.

"Yes, Mother."

The petite woman appeared in the doorway. She never changed. Her hair was always pinned meticulously in a severe bun directly on top of her head. Amelia marveled at her ability to get the bun exactly in the middle of her head. Standing there in the doorway, her face was contorted in a way that looked as if she was dissatisfied with life in general at all times.

"We have dinner plans tonight. Mrs. Henson and her husband have invited us over at five o'clock."

Alfred looked at Amelia, those deep brown eyes looking to her for some sort of support.

"Mother, Amelia and I had plans this evening."

Mrs. Sharp's jaw drew tighter. She stared at Amelia before the remnants of what was supposed to be a smile spread across her face.

"Well now, we would not want to interrupt your plans, now would we?"

Amelia grimaced. Mrs. Sharp always spoke using the term "we" although there was no "we." It was usually just her on her own making things difficult for her son and for Amelia.

"Really, Alfred. It is not a problem. We can go to dinner tomorrow evening. It sounds as though your mother has something important for you to do."

Amelia gently tapped Alfred's shoulder. She looked out of the corner of her eye at Mrs. Sharp, who despised that when speaking to Alfred, Amelia usually referred to her as “your mother.” It was no secret that Mrs. Sharp did not care for Amelia. She said that she could just not understand how a woman would move across the country on her own, and why on earth Amelia would consider working when her parents left her so much money.

Her money was not the kind of thing that she discussed with anyone other than her uncle and Mr. McGill. She did not even discuss finances with Alfred. It was one of the things that was a point of contention in their relationship. Alfred felt that as the man, he should know just how much of an inheritance he was coming into when marrying Amelia. He said that it was his place to know about the ins and outs of the things that made the very money they would spend to fund their lifestyle.

Amelia of course did not agree. She had only known Alfred for a few months, and she thought that was something that she could eventually explain to him.

She looked over at Alfred, waiting for him to decide to spend the evening with her and not his mother. Mrs. Sharp and her overbearing nature was another point of contention in their relationship. As a widow, she often laid the guilt trip on Alfred pretty strong, so he usually ended up giving in to her demands. It was the kind of thing that was not so much of a problem at first, but as of recently, it had begun to get under Amelia's skin.

Mrs. Sharp's invitation to dinner was more of a demand than an invitation. And the fact that she had not thought to open the invitation to Amelia, as Alfred's fiancé, made matters even more strained.

"Dinner starts at five." Mrs. Sharp turned to walk outside of the parlor.

"Mother. I did not say that I was going."

Mrs. Sharp whirled around. "Are my ears deceiving me, my dear son?

Her icy blue eyes were practically burning a hole through Alfred.

He tried to soften his approach. "Mother," he said standing up so that they were face to face.