The Billionaire of Aspen Estates (The Concord Series #1)

by M.D. James

  Chapter 5

  “Your black eye is looking better,” Jonas told Elias as his footman helped him get ready for school.

  “Don’t remind me,” Elias replied. “This eye almost got me fired. It doesn’t look good for a footman to have a bruised face.”

  “So, you’re still not going to tell me what happened?” Elias ignored Jonas’ question. “I know it was a fight with Charles, because his face is all bruised up too.” Elias made eye contact with the boy but neither confirmed or denied anything. “Well, I hope you gave it to him good,” Jonas added.

  “You don’t like Charles?” Elias asked, finally breaking his silence.

  “Do you?” Jonas asked as if he’d be surprised anyone liked Charles. “He’s a weasel.” They both laughed as they finished getting ready.

  Since the fight, Kathy hadn’t said a word about what happened or why she was upset that night. All of the other servants had their own suspicions and kept a close eye on her to see if they could find out if theirs were correct.

  “Don’t you want some breakfast,” Madeline asked Kathy, who sat quietly just waiting to begin work. “You know, you should just talk about it.”

  “Talking does no good,” Charlotte added. “Men will be men. They take what they want, and it’s our job to give it to them.”

  Everyone turned around in shock at her words, but the truth was they all suspected she had her own secret relationships, and had probably given men what they wanted more times than she could count.

  Bruce entered the room and informed everyone that breakfast service would begin.

  At Breakfast, Jonas asked his Uncle if he could spend the weekend at Timothy’s house.

  “I don’t know about that,” Uncle Martin replied but Jonas kept pleading. Once he knew who Timothy’s father was, he agreed…if only to get in good with a powerful man. “Remember, though, Cousin James will be coming back next Monday and will need you here to sign those papers. We have to make sure you get what you deserve, after all.”

  Something about the way his Uncle said those last words made Jonas’ skin crawl. He decided not to read too much into it and instead thought about what a wonderful weekend he would have with Timothy. He still had to get through the week, but at least he had something to look forward to.

  At school, Timothy was more distant that usual. Jonas didn’t get the chance to talk to him until lunch time. “Are you alright?” he asked, but Timothy claimed everything was fine. Even though Jonas didn’t believe his friend, he decided to tell him the good news about the weekend. If anything would cheer him up, that would. “My Uncle said I could stay the whole weekend at your house!” he said excitedly.

  It did seem to perk Timothy up. “Really, that’s great!” For the rest of the day, Timothy was back to his old self and no longer focused on his love for Jonas or his jealousy for Rachelle. He would have Jonas alone for two and a half days. He couldn’t think of anything better.

  The rest of the week went along without a hitch, until Friday morning came around.

  “Wake up, sleepy head.” It was Elias’ morning ritual to wake Jonas, which generally took a mixture of shaking and calling to him.

  When Jonas finally crawled out of his plush bed, he continued his normal routine.

  “Oh, great! Bruce is going to have my job!” Elias exclaimed as he noticed he had tracked in some ashes. “I probably left soot all over the house by now.”

  Jonas looked around and didn’t notice anything but a single piece of charred paper. “It’s alright,” he told Elias as he reached down to pick the charred remains up. “It’s only one piece.” As he looked at the paper, he noticed the backside was mostly unharmed, and he could see his own handwriting. It was a piece of his letter to Bartzen.

  “What is it?” Elias asked when he saw how intently Jonas was staring at the charred scrap of paper.

  “Where did this ash come from?” Jonas demanded. He didn’t mean to sound like he was ordering Elias to give him an answer, but he couldn’t help it. Elias told him that he had been emptying the soot from the servant’s fireplace earlier that morning.

  Jonas didn’t explain what the piece of paper was. He needed time to think about how it got in the servant’s fireplace, and what it all meant.

  He kept to himself most the day, but once he got to Timothy’s house, his friend pried it out of him. “What’s bothering you, Jonas?”

  After holding it all in for so long, that’s all it took to get Jonas to spill all of his feelings. He told Timothy all about Bartzen and how he had been writing him, but never got a reply back…and how he found part of his letter to Bartzen burned. “Bruce must’ve lied about mailing all of my letters. That’s why I haven’t heard from Bartzen. Why would he do that?”

  Timothy didn’t know what to tell his friend, so he just sat and listened while Jonas continued his rant.

  “Bartzen was the only true family I’ve ever had. We were friends, we were brothers…we were more than that even. I love him.”

  Jonas’ last words sparked a hint of jealousy in Timothy, but more than that it made him feel like he and Jonas were more alike than he had previously believed. Before he had time to think about it or talk himself out of it, Timothy leaned over and kissed Jonas on the lips. He told himself that he was doing it because he wanted to comfort his sad friend, but if he was being honest he knew it was just because he was in love with his best friend.

  For a second, Jonas’ eyes locked onto Timothy’s and he let his friend’s lips remain on his. Then his gut reaction set in, and he pushed Timothy away. “What are you doing?” he cried out in disgust. “I’m not a fag!”

  Before Timothy could defend his actions or try to calm Jonas down, Jonas demanded to go home. Timothy left the room and told his parents that Jonas was sick and needed to go back home.

  The grounds were quiet as Timothy’s father dropped Jonas off at Aspen Estates. Jonas wasn’t in a mood to talk to anyone, so he quietly entered with the intensions of going straight to his room, unnoticed. On his way to his room, though, he heard his Uncle talking loudly with Bruce.

  “No. He’ll sign the papers Monday, and then I can be done with that sniveling brat of a nephew. You don’t know how hard it is to act like I love and care for the boy when I see my horrid sister in his face every time I look at him.”

  “And, what’s to become of him once he’s signed the papers?” Bruce asked.

  “I’ll keep him around just long enough to ensure everything is in order…and then I’ll get rid of him.”

  Jonas couldn’t stand to listen to any more. Everyone he cared about in this new life had betrayed him. He felt as though he was living in a house of lies, and the only thing he wanted was to get far away.

  He ran up to his room to pack a small bag so he could run away. He didn’t know how, but he would try to make it back to the last place he was happy…Bushton Hall, where he could be with Bartzen and Ms. Pommeray.

  “What’s wrong, Master Jonas?” Jonas turned to see Elias standing there.

  “What? Are you spying on me now too?”

  Elias was hurt by Jonas’ accusation, but got him to open up about what was going on. Jonas told him about what he heard his Uncle saying to Bruce and how he knew Bruce had lied about mailing his letters. “So, your plan is to run away?” Elias asked.

  “Well, I can’t stay here. I won’t!”

  The footman could see Jonas was adamant, and agreed to help him. “I have a little bit of money saved up and no one knows you’re here yet, so we’ll sneak you out to the train station and get you home.”

  ‘Home’…Jonas liked the sound of that. As soon as it was completely dark, they snuck out and make their way to the train station, where Jonas gave Elias a hug. “Thank you for everything. I will miss you, you know?”

  “And I’ll miss you, Master Jonas.” Elias watched as Jonas boarded the train and it left the s
tation before heading back to Aspen Estates.

  KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

  “What is it at this time of the evening?” Ms. Pommeray yelled while heading to the door. “You’ll wake up the children…” She stopped mid sentence as she saw who was standing on the other side of the door. “Jonas, my boy! What are you doing here?”

  He told her all about everything he had been through since he left, and she told him that he was always welcome at Bushton Hall.

  “They’ll come looking for me, you know?”

  “Well, let them look!” Ms. Pommeray answered with agitation. “I’d like to see them try and take you from my cold, dead arms. That’s the only way they’ll get you back!” It made Jonas smile to hear her be so protective of him.

  Instead of waking Bartzen up, he decided to just go and get in the bottom bunk of his old room. No one else had moved in yet, so the room was just as he left it.

  As Bartzen got up and started doing his morning push-ups, Jonas surprised him. “Can you keep it down? A boy needs his sleep, you know?” Jonas told him as though he had never left.

  It took Bartzen a second to realize it wasn’t a dream. When he saw that it really was his old friend, he was overcome with joy. He pounced on top of Jonas and told him how happy he was that he was back.

  After the shock wore off, he asked why Jonas never wrote him back. That’s when Jonas told him the same story he had told Ms. Pommeray the night before. Since Bartzen could read the letters Jonas had written him, Jonas tried to re-tell them in person. He wanted to make sure Bartzen knew how he felt.

  The rest of the weekend went on as though Jonas had never left. Billy was still there trying to get under Jonas’ skin, and Crystal still had a huge crush on Jonas.

  Martin didn’t realize his nephew had run away until Sunday night when Jonas didn’t come home. After searching for him all over, the only place left to look was Bushton Hall.

  Charles and Martin reached their destination just as the sun was setting for the evening.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Martin pounded on the door until Ms. Pommeray answered. “Why Mr. Concord…what are you doing back here?” Although she tried to act clueless, Martin was very shrewd and could tell she knew very well why he was there.

  “Enough with all that…just bring my nephew out!” he ordered.

  Ms. Pommeray insisted that she didn’t know what he was referring to. She even threw in a threat about how she’d have his hide if he lost poor Jonas.

  Jonas’ Uncle was tempted to just burst in and search the premises himself, but decided instead to come back the following morning with the law on his side.

  As he walked away, he turned back to see a face peaking out the side of the window at him. He was sure that it was Jonas.

  That night, Jonas was upset. He had hoped that his Uncle would just never come looking for him, or at least never find him. Now that Uncle Martin had shown up, Jonas knew he would be back in the morning and not give up until he took Jonas back to Aspen Estates.

  Bartzen and Jonas stayed up talking most of the night. They lay together on the bottom bunk, with Jonas resting his head on Bartzen’s chest. Jonas’ body was shaking, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he was scared of his Uncle or of being this close to Bartzen. He had never felt like this before for another boy, but there was nowhere he’d rather be than in his best-friend’s arms. Bartzen caressed his hair as Jonas fell asleep. As they woke up, neither boy got up. It was never spoken, but each knew they were in love.

  Their time together was short-lived, though. As soon as the sun rose, Martin was back with reinforcements.

  “I told ya…he’s not here!” Ms. Pommeray insisted, but the police threatened to have her arrested if she didn’t produce Jonas.

  “I’ll go with you,” Jonas told his Uncle in a defeated tone as he emerged from the doorway. “I need five minutes though.”

  He first took Bartzen back to his room to tell him goodbye. “I promise that we’ll be together again,” he vowed. The two boys looked into each other’s eyes that were both filling with tears. Jonas hugged Bartzen as tightly as he could, kissing his best friend’s neck as he did. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Hearing Bartzen echo his feelings overcame Jonas. He lifted his head and found his best friend’s lips. The two kissed, slowly. As they parted, they knew that wouldn’t be their final meeting.

  After thanking Ms. Pommeray for her help and kindness, Jonas made his way outside to the car, resigning himself for whatever fate awaited him at Aspen Estates.