by Poppy Flynn
“Seriously, Cody? You know as well as I do how stiff that latch is. How do you figure it locked itself on its own? You ask me, them others don’t have the first clue about the realities of stuff like that. According to Ellie, one of ‘em’s reckoning on having you put in a whole fancy modern kitchen once you’ve tied the knot.”
“A new kitchen?” Ezra scoffed. “Don’t they realize…”
Cora, Carly, and Sheri chose that moment to put in an appearance. It didn’t skip Cody’s notice that they all three looked around as if they expected to find food already made and not like they expected to be working on it themselves.
“Did I hear you mention a new kitchen?” Carly said, scooting up close to Ezra and batting her baby blues at him. “That is just the best idea!” she continued as if she was stroking his ego… little did she know. Cody sat back in his chair, half amused, half horrified to see where this would go. “That old Aga needs replacing with something from the twenty-first century.”
“You know we live off-grid,” Ezra said, and if Cody wasn’t mistaken, his brother was trying hard not to roll his eyes. “We need to consider the draw everything has on our turbine and solar electricity sources.”
“Well, I’m sure we can have proper electric installed, can’t we?” She carried on, completely oblivious that what she was saying was in direct contrast with how they had chosen to live their lives.
“Um, it’s not that easy, since we’re in the roadless area.” Syrus came to his younger brothers rescue with a sardonically raised eyebrow. He might have been trying for sarcasm, but if he was, they certainly didn’t pick it up.
“Don’t be silly,” Sheri chimed in. “It’s only roadless until you guys put some tarmac down. How hard can that be?”
Carly beamed and nodded her agreement. None of them seemed to notice how all three brothers had fallen silent and now looked at them in shock and astonishment as they chattered away about getting their own cars and being able to go shopping.
It was Cora who had a little more about her. Cody could almost see the gears ticking over in her head as she overshadowed Carly and Sheri’s conversation by proclaiming, “Where’s Ellie? I told that lazy girl breakfast was her responsibility after she let us all down with dinner last night.”
So that was how she was planning to play it, huh? Well, two could play at that game, he decided, coming to a snap decision on how to pursue things. Little did she know it, but Cora had just given him the perfect opening.
“See now there’s a funny story there, Cora,” he began, blandly. “Tono was just saying how Ellie spent the entire afternoon helping him with Blaze’s foal… after she called him from the phone in the office. He says he clearly heard Ellie tell you it was an emergency. But that’s not quite the same story as the one you came to me with, is it?”
Cora blanched but recovered herself quickly. “Oh, well, I um… I must have misunderstood,” she said, excusing herself with a haughty shake of her blonde hair.
“Don’t quite know how you can misunderstand the word emergency when it’s told to you,” Tono remarked with obvious skepticism. Cody caught the older man’s eye and gave him a surreptitious shake of the head.
Tono backed off and Cody looked back at Cora. “Anyhow, since she’s not available to make breakfast, perhaps you could whip up a batch of those delicious pancakes?” he asked, innocently.
“Really, you already had them once this week. Don’t want to spoil you,” she replied, side-stepping his request.
Ezra was quick to catch on. “Or Sheri could make a batch of those breakfast muffins. Either would be great. We’ve got time, since we’ve taken the morning off.”
“Oh, um, I’m not sure if we have enough ingredients,” Sheri hedged, throwing a desperate look at her sister.
“Well, start on one or the other. I’m not eating burnt oatmeal again,” Cody said firmly, his tone brooking no argument.
Syrus looked down at the overalls he’d fetched from the utility room and gave Cody a wink.
“Oh, and Carly, do you think you could fetch your sewing kit and just do a quick patch job on these, please?” He held up the garment to show her. “I need them this afternoon.”
“I… I…” She was clearly struggling to find an excuse, but Syrus just continued to look at her expectantly.
“I don’t really have time,” she finally muttered, weakly.
“Really?” Syrus feigned surprise. “It won’t take long, compared with that huge pile you gave us the other day, and besides, what on earth else do you have to do?”
“But my show starts…” The words started out as a whine, but Cora jabbed an elbow into Carly’s ribs to shut her up. Like they hadn’t already heard the incriminating evidence.
“You may as well sit here and do it while Cora and Sheri start breakfast,” he suggested smoothly, gesturing to a chair.
“Yes,” Cody agreed, with a nod to Cora. “And please make enough for Tono, as well.”
To their shock, Carly stomped her foot like a child having a tantrum.
“But I’m going to miss my first show and it’s just getting to the best bit!” she grumbled with an exaggerated pout.
Syrus switched on the charm he was famous for. “Come on Carly,” he cajoled. “You had that huge pile done in just half a day. I’m sure this will only take minutes, and then you can get on with the rest of your day,” he said with a wink. It was clearly lost on Carly, who was fuming.
“Oh, stop going on at me, like I know anything about mending shit! Ask Ellie to do it, she was the one who did the last lot. Can I go now?”
There was silence for a couple of beats and all eyes were on Carly after her admission.
“I see.” Cody responded coolly. “And just what else did Ellie do that one of you took the credit for?”
Carly jumped up from her chair, almost knocking it over in her hurry.
“Look, I don’t have time for twenty questions. My show already started, and I can’t record it since everything out here so damn backwards. It’s bad enough that I have to watch it through all that static.” She made for the door, but Ezra got there before her and blocked the doorway.
“Perhaps you’d better come up with those answers a little bit quicker then,” he said with a dangerous edge to his voice, refusing to budge, even when she tried to squeeze around him.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, what? She did everything, alright? Are you happy now? Can I leave?”
“Not quite,” Cody replied with quiet menace in his voice. “Perhaps you’d like to elaborate a bit more.” It wasn’t a question.
“Seriously?”
“Carly…” Cora’s voice held a warning, but her sister was far too annoyed to realize just what she was saying. Or maybe she honestly didn’t care.
“What Cora?” she asked, holding her arms across her chest and jutting out a hip belligerently. “I never even wanted to come out to this godforsaken place, but you persuaded me. You said this would be an easy ride. That we’d all bag a wealthy husband and be sitting pretty and all because your last ‘get rich quick’ scheme didn’t work! Well, what’s the damn point if we can’t enjoy it in any way?”
Cody was aware of his brothers and even Tono sucking in a shocked breath and thought he even detected a quiet expletive. Carly appeared oblivious, and she hadn’t finished either.
“It’s a fucking ball ache! There are barely any creature comforts, we can’t go shopping and the closest town is so backwoods there’s nothing to do even if we could get there. This whole idea is a damn joke.”
She turned from her sister, who had paled significantly, to Cody. “Ellie did all the damn cooking, okay? The fancy beef thing, the pancakes, the muffins - all Ellie. She made the chili too, but Cora dumped a load more chili powder into it and she didn’t even have the decency to warn me or Sheri before we ate it either!”
“What about the day she got locked in the stables?”
“Sheri told me we had to do that. Ellie threatened to tell you we’d
taken credit for the stuff she did, so it was supposed to keep her out of the way.” She smirked as she said it and Cody could see the outrage in his brother’s eyes. “Worked too,” she added flippantly.
Cody surged out of his seat, his composure quickly diminishing. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?” he shouted, clenching his fists at his side. “She could have been seriously injured or worse!”
“Wasn’t though, was she.” Carly scowled as if the whole thing meant nothing to her. And maybe it didn’t.
“Your ankle seems remarkably well healed, I notice.”
Carly rolled her eyes. “You lot really are so bloody gullible! I only turned it a touch. Cora told me to play it up to keep Syrus away from Ellie when she was scared from being locked in the stables, ‘cos he’s the softy who would have been all over her in concern.”
The sound of Syrus slamming his fist down on the tabletop made them all jump. He had a face like thunder, and it almost looked like he might have done more if Cody hadn’t given him a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder.
Cody shifted his focus to the other two, who had remained shockingly quiet as their younger sister threw them all under the bus. He changed tactics.
“Have any of you seen the envelope I left for Ellie?”
He watched their responses carefully.
“Urgh! I know nothing about any damn envelope,” Carly screeched. “Can I go now?”
He gave Ezra a brief nod and the minute his brother stood to one side, Carly barged past him and stomped all the way up the stairs. Cody sucked in a deep breath. “What about you two?”
Sheri’s eyes were wide, and she shook her head rapidly. He turned a hard gaze on Cora, who refused to look him in the eye.
“Well, I’m sure Ellie must have picked it up, since it was addressed to her.”
“You’re right. Can you check her room, please, Ezra… if that’s okay with you ladies?”
Sheri just nodded hesitantly, but Cora put her nose in the air and said haughtily, “It’s your house, I’m sure you don’t need our permission to do that.”
Ezra gave a sly smile, like a spider who had just caught a fly in his web, as he turned and walked out of the room.
He returned a few minutes later, with the opened envelope and the cash.
“Well, just look at what I found in Cora’s room,” he said smugly, waving it in front of him for everyone to see before throwing it onto the table.
“What were you doing in my room? That’s my private space, how dare you,” Cora screeched indignantly.
“But I just asked if it was okay and you both agreed,” Cody replied with a cock of his brow.
“But I thought you were talking about Ellie’s room,” she spluttered.
“Well, imagine that! It’s really is quite annoying when you deliberately let people jump to the wrong conclusion, isn’t it?” he said throwing their deeds back at them.
“Still. Like you said, it’s our house, so…” he let the words trail off.
“Unbelievable!” Syrus stood up and turned to the sisters face on, all traces of the sympathetic, indulgent soul he usually was long gone. “You nasty, vicious, thieving bitches. Get your bags packed and hope I don’t decide to report you to the sheriff!” he bellowed. “I don’t want to set eyes on any of you again.”
“B… but how will we get out of here?” Sheri whimpered.
“Well, I think I can help you out there, ladies, since I’ll be off back to Libby shortly,” Tono replied smoothly before he turned and looked first at Cody, then Syrus and Ezra.
“And if you boys hurry, you should be able to catch Ellie at my house before she leaves. Not that I’m sure any of you deserves her, the way you’ve allowed things to happen, but I’ll accept that you were all well and truly hoodwinked, so I guess that’ll be for her to decide.”
Chapter Eleven
Since a quick look around proved that Tono seemed to live mostly on convenience food and things that could be grabbed on the go, Ellie went to work on stocking his cupboards and freezer with a few meals and treats. The vet had been nothing but good to her from the first moment she’d met him, and even though it had only been a week, it was still sobering to realize that he was the closest thing she had to a friend.
She threw together a quick stew that she could freeze in single portions and made a couple of individual lasagna’s, then went on to a few treats that would last well or could also be frozen.
Since Tono still hadn’t returned when she put the last tray in the oven, Ellie switched on the laptop, which she’d put on to charge that morning, with the intention of looking up her travel options. She really didn’t have any idea where she should head for, and if she was honest, the thought of just sticking a pin in a map and seeing where it would take her didn’t really appeal to her all that much. She was almost tempted to see if there were any opportunities for work here in Libby, except she didn’t think she could bear to come face to face with Cody, Ezra or Syrus going about their business. And it would be even worse if she were to bump into them hand in hand - literally and figuratively - with the trifecta.
Trying not to let the reality of her situation get her down all over again, Ellie logged into the Wi-Fi and was immediately inundated with a slew of messages in her email box from Gran’s solicitor. Oh great! There was probably more to pay on Gran’s debts. Was she responsible for them as the only living relative, or did things like that get written off? Ellie honestly had no idea. Well, they couldn’t have what she hadn’t got. They’d already taken everything of value.
With a sigh, she saw he had left an increasingly more urgent email almost every day for the past five days, asking her to ring him. Well, that wasn’t going to happen since she didn’t have a phone and she wasn’t going to feed quarters into a payphone and have everyone listen to her private business.
She eyed Tono’s landline. There was no way she was going to use it without his permission and run up his bill, but she wondered if he’d mind if she gave his number to the lawyer and asked him to ring her back on it. She could give him a window of time for a return call, that way he wouldn’t be harassing Tono after she had moved on.
Biting her lip, she eventually sent off a quick email. If he didn’t get back to her within the admittedly rather short timeframe she’d specified, at least that was on him and he couldn’t complain that she hadn’t at least tried.
She still wasn’t prepared to hear the telephone ringing insistently almost immediately. Surely that couldn’t be the lawyer already?
She looked suspiciously at the handset and then cautiously picked it up. She could hardly not since she’d told him she’d be here.
“Hello?” she said, hesitantly. “This is Ellie speaking, how can I help you?” She hoped that sounded both friendly and professional enough, should it be one of Tono’s customer’s calling.
“Ah, at last,” a disembodied voice replied with obvious relief. “This is Mr. Harper at Lansdowne, Harper and Grieves. I’m your Grandmother’s lawyer.”
“Yes, I remember, Mr. Harper,” Ellie said politely, then waited for him to fill her in.
“I’ve just been tying up the final pieces of your Grandmother’s estate and putting all her affairs in order, when I came across something that we really should have addressed already.” There was a brief pause as if he was waiting for her to speak, but she wasn’t sure what he expected her to say, so she stayed silent.
“Er, well, the thing is…”
Here goes, Ellie thought in consternation. This is the bit where he tells me that his fees haven’t been covered or something.
“There’s a Trust Fund that should have been administered some time ago, but with your Grandmothers ailing health it seems to have been overlooked.”
Ellie frowned as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Trust Fund?” she repeated inanely.
“That’s right. It’s the residue of your parents’ estate which was placed in trust until you reached the age of twenty-one.”
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“A Trust Fund,” she said over again, still not quite understanding. Trust Funds were something rich kids had. She cringed when she realized how idiotic she sounded and scrambled to cover herself. “I’m sorry, I’m not aware of one.”
“Well, I can only guess that your Grandmother imagined you were too young to be privy to such information when you first became her ward. After that, her dementia issues undoubtedly meant that she wasn’t of sound enough mind to inform you of its existence.”
Ellie scowled at his words and wanted to deny them, but she held her tongue. Unfortunately, he was probably right, although she had the distinct impression that he was trying his best to make sure that his neither he, nor his firm were held accountable for the oversight.
“Anyway, since it’s come to my attention, I need to get it signed over to you. Can you come into the office?”
“I’m afraid that’s not an option right now, Mr. Harper. I’m currently in Montana and I’m in the middle of… relocating. Is there another option?”
There was no way she was driving all the way back to Washington State to end up right back where she’d started.
“Oh, well in that case, you can provide your own lawyer’s details then he can notarize the paperwork and I can set up a secure payment, via his credentials, for the funds.”
Like she could afford to hire a law firm! Would it even be worthwhile? She hated to ask, it seemed unseemly, but she needed to know if this entire process was going to end up costing her more than she got back.
“Just how much are we talking here, Mr. Morgan?”
“Well now, your parents had paid off a good portion of the ranch and had never missed a payment.” He droned on, and Ellie wished he’d just get on with it. She would have encouraged him to spit it out, if it didn’t seem so avaricious. “And additionally, the residue has been excellently invested over the past… well, almost fifteen years, so it has accrued a considerable amount of interest.”
Okay, so perhaps she’d have a little left over by the time she’d paid all the legal fees. That would be nice. Maybe give her a bit of a breather while she looked for a job.
