Keeping Company Ch. 03

"The tenancy agreement with your folks was fine the last time I looked."

That provoked her. She stood and paced, knitting her fingers together as she did.

"Why are you doing this? You know I want to remain part of the group. I came here to confirm that with both of you and take whatever punishment was necessary for my stupidity earlier."

"It was never your stupidity, Beth. It was ours. Perhaps one day you will mean what you say, but then again, I have doubts. The one thing I won't allow is for you to use the children against us. We would all rather see you took them and your boyfriend and do what they do in those old westerns. Disappear into the sunset."

Beth stopped pacing; her stare became a gaze as her cheeks flushed a distinct red.

"You all hate me that much?"

"Far from it, Beth. We all love you too much to tie you down with a bunch of old folks. You're young and you need people your own age to grow old with. Amy has arranged for both the children's college fees so you will never have to put anything aside for them. However, if you have more children then we expect you to foot the bill for his or her education."

We both saw her wince at my remark. When I glanced out the window, the guy had left the car and was leaning against it, smoking a cigarette.

"I think your ride is getting impatient."

By the time I had turned away from the window, Beth had her coat in her hand. Mandy walked with her to the door but when Beth leaned in to give her a kiss, Mandy took a step back and shook her head before closing the door.

Mandy rested her head against the door for a moment before coming back into the room. I waited until the car left the car park before I took the collar off.

"If she had asked why we stuck a PI on her, would you have told her?"

Shaking my head answered her question up to a point.

"How would she have felt if she found out her own folks phoned Amy and told her that she was seeing an old boyfriend she paid to have flown down here. I'm grateful they recognized him and tipped Amy off. She needs her folks but I wonder if she will ever realize it herself."

"Which of the girls do you want me to call?"

This time I looked at her and smiled.

"None, give slave an evening off. It's time for me to show slut she can't win every match we have."

Her eyes seemed to distance for a moment but the smile that came back seconds later told me enough.

"You're a man. Of course I can."

*******

We all sat in one of the conference room at Amy's law firm. It was strange to see us all in one place in broad daylight. We let Amy introduce her friend Annabelle Foster, although we knew her as the Realtor woman. It was odd to see her but it was on Annabelle's insistence. When Amy said that wasn't possible she told Amy why. By the end of the week we all turned up and waited.

Annabelle took hold of the remote and held it to her side.

"Thank you for allowing me to do this. I understand it's unorthodox in two ways. You told me what you were looking for and as a realtor that's what I'm supposed to find. Plus my main point of contact was supposed to be Amy, yet I asked her to bring you folks together. Like I said, unorthodox."

Her thumb pushed one of the buttons on the remote and the screen to one side of Annabelle showed an aerial view.

"I've looked around and couldn't find anything that ticked all the boxes on your list. I did notice the top of that list was privacy. I know I'm going way outside my remit here, folks, but I wanted to run this by you all. This is the Lazy Z Ranch situated an hours drive from this very office. It hit hard times when the slump came but they hung in there. Folks, this could well be the answer to your search."

Again her thumb pushed down on the remote and a square appeared over one section of land.

"In total its seven thousand acres, a farm house, various outbuildings and stocks. It's been owned by the same family for close to a hundred years. The family doesn't want to sell but they are looking for investors. In return for you investing in the ranch they will offer you a hundred year lease on this stretch of land."

Annabelle clicked the remote again and the square magnified.

"That's twenty acres of land set in the middle of the grazing land. Total privacy all around and I do mean total. You'll find nothing but cows for well over a hundred acres in all four directions. The family is happy to site a cabin in the middle and get a road run up from their farm house to your cabin on condition that the road isn't wired off. That land has to remain free for grazing."

Another click showed an overlay of a road from the main farm house directly to the plot of land in question.

"Folks, you can't get much more private than this. One road leads in and out and nothing but grass and cows for miles. The utilities will be laid the same time the road goes in and the cabin will be built to your specifications."

We all saw the hard sell coming.

"These are good people who don't want to sell off plots of land to survive, only to never get it back when the economy turns itself around again. This way you all get what you want. The Colson family gets a much needed silent partner and you folks get more privacy than you could ever wish for."

Everyone asked good questions and Annabelle did her best to answer our questions. After another hour we said we would be in touch. It was only when she left the conference room that all hell broke loose. It was plain to see that Amy, Wendy and Carol wanted this. When I turned to Mandy and asked her, she told everybody 'I go where you go'. It was a slam-dunk.

Amy and Mandy got stuck into the legal and financial side while Wendy and Carol pulled laptops open and set about looking into the history of the ranch and designers for the cabin. As for me, I got off my ass and went to visit the Colson's. They were a nice bunch of folks, three sons working the ranch plus one in the army and two daughters. It seemed Mr. and Mrs. Colson didn't have a TV, so needed something to do at night.

Hank took me out to the piece of land they would let us lease; I took a few pictures of the scenery as Hank set about marking out what twenty acres looked like so I could get a clearer picture in my own head. We both understood that if we did eventually put pen to paper, everything would be surveyed, but you got the impression that Hank was old school.

To this man his word was his bond. Hank Colson insisted I stay for dinner. Just before we sat down to dinner Mandy turned up and Hank insisted we stay the night. Other than her initial greeting, Mandy did what she does best; she watched. I liked these folks and smiled to myself when Meredith Colson leaned over to me and commented on the fact that Mandy didn't say much. I did of course get one of those looks when I explained Mandy was very shy and needed a while to get used to strangers.

We both felt real awkward when one of the boys gave up his room for the night so Mandy and I could stay over. Although, he blushed when Mandy leaned into him and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a thank you. As we lay together I asked her opinion.

"Nice folks. All church goers. We could have a problem with Laurel though, she's a submissive."

"Do you think her folks know?"

"Doubt it, she hides it well. The problem is she knows I am and if I'm with you she has figured out what you are as well."

I wasn't about to ask Mandy if she could be wrong. Before we slept we decided to let the girls know and let them decide if it could be a problem. The noise coming from the kitchen at four thirty in the morning was a gentle reminder that this was still a working ranch. By the time Mandy and I got downstairs the only ones left in the house were Meredith and Laurel.

Poor Mandy nearly had a heart attack when her breakfast was put in front of her. She did her best and I'm grateful that Meredith didn't think she was insulting her cooking when she left half of it. Annabelle Foster brought the rest of the girls up with her and Hank, Amy, Mandy and Annabelle went and sat in the kitchen for a couple of hours. Everyone was smiling when they came out. It meant all that needed to be done was the paperwork.

I took Wendy and Carol with me to see the site; the posts were still in the ground so they could see what we got for twenty acres. They barely glanced at the posts because the view won these two over. It took another couple of weeks to come up with the contracts and sort out other issues. We only went back once before the signing, to let the Colson's see what we planned to have built on the land. To us it was a need to do thing.

We may be getting the privacy we wanted and the idea that we leased the land rather than buy it appealed to us all. When we were gone, to the Colson's we would be a blip in their history as those crazy rich folks who built a cabin on land they never truly owned. But the girls were forward thinkers. Once the last of us died the group would too. Our experience with Beth taught us never to repeat past mistakes, there would never again be an offer of membership on the table for anyone.

But what would be the point of owning something none of us could use when we were dead? Sound morbid? I'm sure to many it would, for the likes of Wendy the factory will live on, as would the law firm that Amy was a partner in and Carol-Anne Mackenzie and her company along with Mandy's accounting firm. All employed people that needed those jobs and would be taken care of when the owners of those companies retire or die.

But what we all looked at when Annabelle came up with the Lazy Z Ranch was that we could have our privacy. The Colson family would see to that. A hundred year lease meant nothing to us; we would all be long dead by then. But the silent partnership in the Ranch kept the ranch and the family alive and that meant everything to us.

The girls had found an architect who would design a self-sufficient two story cabin; solar panels on the roof, water storage tanks built underground that stored rain water. It would then clean and purify it for use as drinking water. We all knew that the road in was a necessity but this way no utilities had to be piped in. The whole family liked what we wanted to do.

Hank did suggest we put a wind powered water pump in as well. They would test for water and if they found some then it would be fine as a back up for the water storage tank. If not then use the water pump as a back up to the solar panels to generate electricity. So within four weeks of Annabelle Foster's presentation the contracts were signed. Six months later we held a cook out at the cabin and invited the whole Colson family.

*******

We were the most silent partners Hank and his family could ever wish for. They re-invested in the farm with updated machinery, trucks and breeding stock. They also found time to send Laurel off to veterinary college and most of all; they cleared the debt with the bank. For our part, we popped in to see Hank and Meredith once in a while and found ourselves still there for at least one meal.

The cabin didn't need a security system, being slap in the middle of a ranch and surrounded by nothing but fields and cows. With the only road in and out going past Hank Colson's place they all knew when we were in or away. When the cabin was empty Hank would either send one of his children up once in a while to check or drive over himself.

There were times we never saw any of the Colson family unless we invited them over. We also made sure we kept away at times like round-ups, although we always seemed to get invited to family birthdays and wedding as the children got older. We all attended Meredith's funeral five years after our first cook out at the cabin. Hank followed his wife a year later and most said it was old age. We all knew it was a broken heart.

Jonathan became the head of the Colson family. He came to visit straight from the lawyer's office. We all sat and talked. He offered to make the land deal permanent and we thanked him but wanted to honor the agreement we had with Hank. He told us he had a talk with his father a few weeks before he died, about us. Hank told him to leave us be, don't ever invade our privacy and above all, be honest with us.

None of us at the meeting knew why he was saying this; although it was clear he was struggling with himself over it.

"Charlie told dad once that you were all swingers and perverts and we should get rid of you before we became a laughing stock. Dad beat the crap out of him that night. I have never seen my dad so angry at anyone, let alone one of his own sons."

Jonathan couldn't continue, the memory of his father still strong in his mind. His wife held onto his hand for a moment before she spoke.

"Hank told us all to leave you folks be. He warned all of us he would disown any of us that confronted any of you folks. He said that you had your reasons and to leave it at that."

Mentally I'm sure we were all thinking about what we needed to pack up now and what to come back for later.

"The thing is we need your help. Dad did what he could and Mom, God bless her soul, covered things up so nothing became public. But we've run out of time. The family knows why we are here and agree with each of us. Even Charlie says his sorry and didn't understand like he should have."

Wendy's voice pierced the hurried speech being made by Jonathan's wife. "Wait a moment. What are you talking about?"

By now Jonathan had regrouped and took over again from his wife.

"My dad wanted to come to you folks."

This time he looked directly at Mandy.

"When we sent Laurel to college we didn't know. But you did, didn't you? We love our sister but she came of age when she got there and fell in with the wrong crowd. Dad said you're a submissive, that's why you knew what Laurel was. Mom went to see her and got her head straight enough for her to finish college. She's a vet now."

Both husband and wife looked at each other one final time. We all watched them clench there hand tight together once more before Jonathan looked at me.

"We, the family, have come to ask you to take Laurel in. Let her live here when you folks live in the city. None of us know how to handle our sister the way she is. We could make things worse and we don't want that for our sister. She's blood and we want to protect her."

Carol stood. "Now wait a minute."

Jonathan held out his hand to stop her.

"I trusted my father with everything. I loved that man and would have died for him had he asked. He told us all when he turned on Charlie that the one group of people he trusted outside his family was each of you."

The pause wasn't for effect, it was clear to see what he was about to say hurt him deeply. He just could find another way.

"We don't know what a submissive is. Jodie here looked it up on the internet and told me I was best not knowing. We could damage her by trying to protect her. With you folks she would be safe. My dad trusted you and to this family that's the best recommendation anyone could have, so I'm asking again. Will you folks look after Laurel for us, give her what she seems to need and keep her safe?"

Our time with Beth still hung over us and to agree to this would mean we would have to change our own agreement. As I turned to Amy who was looking at Jonathan, her question made us realize we had so little time to decide.

"When is she due back?"

"Her plane lands in an hour. Charlie is at the airport now, waiting for her."

Even a quick glance at the girls showed me the turmoil this had given them. We all liked the Colson's. Hank and Meredith had been our closest friends. We had already talked to Hank about setting up a building and kitting it out as a permanent animal hospital for Laurel when she came back, as this year's injection of funds into the Lazy Z Ranch.

His death hit everyone hard and other than the funeral we kept clear of the Ranch so that they could grieve. It was Jonathan that phoned Amy and asked if we could all be at the cabin today since he had something important to the family to discus. We just assumed it had to do with the hospital building.

Mandy stood up and looked at both of them. "Do you all really understand what it is you want from us? What makes you believe she is what you say she is?"

Jonathan went to speak but Jodie placed her hand on his shoulder to stop him. She stood and walked toward Mandy. Once face to face she held out her hand, Mandy watched and instinctively held hers out as well before Jodie led her to a couch at the other end of the room. Both sat and talked in whispers and it was clear Jodie was trying to help her husband.

Being amongst us and talking about his sister like he was clearly placed a great deal of strain on him. I signaled for him to follow me and we went for a walk around the cabin. We talked about the new stock that had arrived last week. The building that would be up and working a month before round-up and Jonathan's eldest getting ready for senior school.

As we rounded the cabin for the third time, Wendy was waiting for us and signaled us inside. All the girls including Jodie stood waiting for us in the middle of the room. She looked at Mandy and she in turn looked towards Jonathan.

"The rest of the group is leaving soon but I'm staying. Laurel can come here for now and I will talk to her and find out her needs. She has needs Jonathan, that doesn't make her a freak. Your whole family is welcome to visit Laurel as often as you wish to but you must phone ahead first."

I'm not sure he expected conditions.

"I'm taking a week off work, what I can't leave to my staff I will do from here and we will meet here again at the end of that week. The final decision will be your sister's, Jonathan."

His wife walked to him and once again stood by his side; their hands sought and found each others before their fingers once again interlocked. With a reassuring smile from his wife Jonathan nodded his head and thanked us all before leaving. The rest of the girls and I packed up and left an hour later. It's been Amy that has phoned Mandy every day. Each of the girls had gone there for the day, although they all returned that same evening.

We are all due there tomorrow evening after work for the weekend. None of the girls has talked to me about what's going on and that worries and assures me at the same time. All I do know is that the vote is on Sunday. What happens after that I'm not sure any of us want to take a guess at.

The End.