Fated Absolution (2 page)

At least she hoped she did, it would be just like Butt Hole to send her out here on a wild goose chase just to make her look stupid. They had done that once before, set up a luncheon with someone at a nice restaurant and when she had gotten there the man had no idea who she was or what she was doing there.

“Oh, yes Miss Harm, we have been expecting you. Please stand ready and I shall endeavor to get this opened for you momentarily. Just follow the drive up to the house and I shall meet you there.”

‘
Endeavor
?
Momentarily
? Who are these people, and what century are they from?’ As the gate slowly opened to reveal the manicured lawns she whistled under her breath, ‘figures, she thought out loud, ‘I just bet there’s a house to match all this expensive yard work’.

Maddy drove the one mile up to the biggest house she’d ever seen. When she parked her car as far away from the garage as she could, ‘don’t want the other cars to get jealous of you baby,’ after patting the hood, she grabbed her Wal-Mart bag, and the file she was to have Mr.

and Mrs. MacManus go over and sign. She almost left her laptop in the car, but decided to bring it in case there were any changes that needed to be made to the document since she had written it. She could make them at once and not need to come back out anytime soon, provided she could use their printer. The firm did not help out with gas money when they sent her out on these extra little duties.

She was met at the door by, one could only assume the butler, a man named Duncan, and led to a very nicely appointed office/study. There were windows everywhere, covered now against the late evening sun. The room was done in earth tones, blues, golds, teals and reds, and soft materials and textures. Several chair groupings and tables were scattered about the room, with large plush pillows scattered about the room’s rug covered floor. Along the other walls were shelves, brimming over with books, pottery and pictures of groups of people Maddy assumed were family. The desk, however, was a mess; papers piled high on it, on the floor around it and even on the one other chair that sat facing the massive sucker.

“How on earth do you work in this mess?” She asked the room in general. As she walked to the business side of it and taking into consideration what anyone might think, she started straightening it up. Duncan told her that his Lordship was running behind and would be here as soon as his mate was free. ‘Weird terms buddy.’

Maddy didn’t have a clue why she was doing it other than she just knew that if it wasn’t done soon, she’d be insane within twenty minutes, or at least insane-er. Organizing came to her as naturally as breathing. She first took a quick inventory of what the paperwork consisted of, bills mostly and a few household repairs, noting in the back of her mind that everything had been paid for within days of the receipt. After that, it was a simple system of putting things where it belonged. She never noticed the beautiful furniture all original pieces to the house and the original owner the previous Master of the realm nor the antique carpet that drew the eye to it and the books, rather it all faded to the background of what she was doing.

Aaron MacManus, his Lordship, was a very well respected as well as feared Master Vampire. He had fought and won a duel to take over this realm some six years ago from Carlos Santchez. The fight was a horrific one and lasted a good deal longer than either vampire had thought it would, both of them giving everything they had to win. But in the end Aaron had decapitated Carlos, killing him and inherited the house, the grounds, subjects and the mess on the desk. Not one bit of this matter when Maddy was in a zone.

~~~

Maddy was crawling on the floor under the desk with twelve neat piles of paperwork in front of her when Aaron walked in, Sara close on his heels. There were also two piles on the chair and three across the sofa seat that she had dragged over when she needed sub files to the ones on the floor separated and six more on the desk. Neither of them said a word, but watched the woman. Her hair had come undone and she had ink smears on her face and hands, in the gabardine pants and silk shirt crawl around and listened to her talk with herself.

“Ah ha! Thought you could hide from me did you? Well, too bad. Who keeps papers from the eighteen hundreds? Shit! You don’t go there, you go over here. I think I need to have my head examined, this has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Well, maybe not
the
dumbest, there was that time I took that homeless man in to the hospital to have him looked at, the ungrateful turd. How was I supposed to know he was going to squeeze the crap out of my boob when we’d not gotten but ten feet down the road? Had that bruise for awhile, didn’t ya dummy? But dumb, yep, this is pretty dumb.”

“Are you referring to the fact that you’re talking to yourself, or going through papers that don’t concern you?” Aaron watched in stunned silence as she picked up her conversation where she had stopped and continued working on the piles.

“Both I suppose. But the talking to myself usually frightens people enough that they run away from me rather than ask me to explain myself. You know come to think of it, that happens a lot. I haven’t the foggiest notion why, I guess it’s better than talking to the wall or this nice sofa here, my talking to myself I mean.”

The girl hadn’t looked up nor stopped doing what she was doing, when she answered Aaron. He could feel her embarrassment and thought it was odd that she didn’t seem to let it bother her.

“I see. Well, as it is our house, we won’t be leaving, so that leaves you explaining what exactly you are doing on the floor with the papers from my desk. Unless of course the sofa does talk to you…it doesn’t does it??”

“No, sadly it doesn’t. Can you image the stories it might have if it did? Like, ‘oh my, Ms Chair, did you see that woman’s butt, it was so huge’ then the sofa would have to answer, ‘oh no, Sofa honey, she was sitting on my lap and I couldn’t see a darned thing’. I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said I was an escaped loony person and this is the one thing that calms me? Or that I have a paper fetish and this is my fix for the week? Hummm, I think I like that reason. No?

Well, the truth isn’t much better. I’m Madison Harm with the Schaller and Schaller law firm, but please call me Maddy. I’m here to have you go over the Midland contract. Surprise! I’m a lawyer.”

Aaron was flustered when she stood up. She was very tall and extremely beautiful. He didn’t know why that should shock him other than when he had called the firm holding the properties he wanted to inquire about the woman on the phone indicated that the lawyer coming out had been with the firm for some years. He grinned at her apparent embarrassment. Aaron could hear Sara behind him still laughing. When she had to hang onto his shoulder to keep from falling over from her hysteria, he simply put his arm around her and led her to the couch.

‘Great now they’ll call in the guys with the straight jacket and butterfly net. Might be better than where I am at now.’ She was talking to herself again and Aaron wondered if she did that a lot. He figured she must for she was as comfortable with that as she had been with her embarrassment.

Aaron walked over to his now perfectly set up desk. She had put all the pens in a neat row, all facing the same direction, as was the stapler and tape dispenser. His computer, which he had just purchased two weeks ago, was out of the box and set up to a program he’d never seen before it looked like an accounting spread sheet. The trash can was overflowing with neatly folded, yes folded bits of paper and gum wrappers. He looked at her, with a cocked eyebrow.

“You fold your trash? Maybe I
should
call your firm and tell them that you’ve been folding my trash and going through my papers and have you fired.” A hand on his hips, Aaron was a formable man and he knew it.

“Wouldn’t do you any good to complain, they already think I have a screw loose or two.

Actually, they’d just add more time onto my sentence and I’d be there another forty years or so.”

Maddy grinned back as she spoke, thinking he wasn’t so bad for a rich guy.

“Stop teasing her Aaron. You know that you are happy this has been taken out of your hands. Someone had to take over this desk or Duncan was going to take a match to it.” The woman walked closer to her with her hand extended. “I’m Sara MacManus, this is my mate Aaron. He has been working on that desk for nearly six years, so if he doesn’t thank you, everyone else in this house will. Now he won’t complain about it anymore nor will he be calling your boss, unless it’s to tell them what a great job you’ve done already.”

“Sure. Whatever. Hummm…well, if you want me to finish up, it’ll only take me about five more minutes. These just need to be put into the files, then into the drawers.”

She dropped to the floor again and proceeded to put each pile into the folder she had already neatly labeled. The filing cabinet had also been set up, the hanging files color coded, labeled and waiting as well. Opening one of the filing cabinet drawers she started dropping neat stacks of paper into each labeled slot. The top drawer was in alphabetical order and color coded as well, all by month and years.

“I’m sorry were late, well that’s not really true. And I do thank you for this. I hate paperwork, and that mess was overwhelming.”

Aaron stood over her watching what she was doing. She knew just where each piece of information was and her fingers went to them immediately. Once she had lain the paperwork out she knew where it went in the drawers. Simple once she had everything sorted out.

“Here let me get the contact for you, and you can go over it while I file this crap, I mean your papers away. Overwhelming? Yeah, I can see that. I hate it too, paperwork I mean. But once it’s cleared away it’ll be easier for you to put the little bits in their home now.” She had stood up again and pulled the fat files from under her bag and handed it to him. She’d also brought a copy for Mrs. MacManus as her name was on the contract too. Sitting back down she continued, “The property you’ve asked about is in receivership, meaning that in this particular case the owner has died and the family, his grandson, in this case actually can’t pay the past due taxes much less the mortgage. The original owner died about eighteen months ago and was already two payments behind on the loan and even more on the taxes, so even if the grandson comes up with the back taxes, he’ll be over two years into back payments by then. Also he’s asking entirely too much for the property, you should offer just over the lien amount, about one percent, I think.” She was still sitting on the floor with her feet under her, having finished all but two of the files.

There was a knock at the big door and in came, well they flew really, two kids and the man from the front door. He was carrying a very large tray overflowing with plates and glasses.

He sat it down of the credenza and helped the children with each a plate of cookies.

“Careful Miss Lizzy, you do not want to dump it on the young lady. There you go Master Mac, mind your feet, please. May I get you anything to drink Ms. Harm?” Mr. Duncan had been directing these two for some time it seemed to Maddy, much as a general would his troops.

“A glass of water would be awesome, thanks.” She grinned at the little boy, Mac he’d called him and winked at the girl Lizzy when they fought over serving her their plate of cookies she intervened. “Sorry guys, but I don’t like cookies.” She told them quickly before she wore them.

“You don’t like cookies? Are you nuts! Everybody likes cookies. I think you’re just funning with us. Nobody doesn’t like cookies.” The little boy said with a wicked grin.

“
Aaron Colin MacManus”
Sara shouted. “Say you’re sorry right this minute! People have the right to dislike whatever they like without being ridiculed by you. You don’t like a great many things and no one calls you nuts, do they?” His mothers face showed she was shocked and embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, but geez lady, how can you not like cookies?” He didn’t look the least bit repentant. Maddy looked over at their dad when she would swear that he growled at his son.

With a mental shrug, she turned to answer Mac.

He was gonna be a heartbreaker, if he wasn’t already. He looked like a small replica of his dad. His eyes had to be the darkest shade of blue she’d ever seen, almost black. His hair dark and wavy hung slightly over the collar of his light green polo shirt. His shorts were dark green and baggy over long legs and scrapped knees. The little girl was stunning, just like her mom. Her hair and eyes were the on the opposite spectrum of the boys, her eyes were light blue and hair the color of honeyed wheat, and straight as a poker, it hung in two braids that had been through a couple of windstorms by the look of them. She was taller than her brother, but wouldn’t be much longer if the height of their dad was any indication. She was wearing a dark green polo shirt and light green shorts.

“I don’t like that they’re crunchy. Now, a good cake, or better yet a cupcake with about a ton of frosting, hummm, I’m in heaven. And I absolutely love chocolate; I don’t even care what it’s on or how it’s served, just give it to me. And my absolute, mostest favorite thing of all time is pie. Oh I love, love, love pie!!!” Maddy grinned at them; he still had a look of absolute horror on his face.

“My Aunt Sam owns a bakery. She makes the bestest cakes and pies in the whole world.

You should have her make you a pie sometime. I bet she would.” Lizzy had moved over in front of Maddy and was touching her necklace that hung just inside and below her shirt opening.

When she accidently got a little chocolate on Maddy’s collar Lizzy looked up. Maddy winked again Lizzy pulled the chain up and looked at the pretty stones.

“Maybe I will. Wait, ‘Sam’s Baked Goods’? Oh yeah, you’re right, they are the best. My Grammies favorite was the Boston cream pie. Sam makes the very best.”

Maddy took the locket that accompanied the stones and opened for Lizzy, then handed it back. Her Grammie had given her this locket and chain; the stones she had told her had come from her mother and the locket from her father, it was a gift to and from each other she’d told her.