The Arrangement Ch. 03

He needed to have a long talk with the heir apparent to his businesses and fortunes, and figure something out before this whole tenuous situation blew his fragile family apart for the second time in his life.

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The next few days after their conversation were both difficult and easy for Peter. Peter and Millie were back on speaking terms, but Josephine kept her distance from him and only spoke to him enough to say hello and goodbye. He noticed that she always made sure that they were never alone in any part of the estate. He figured that she didn't want him to corner her like he did in the garden.

He couldn't help but watch her, and a few times he caught the hard look that Millie directed to him before she covered it with a slight smile. He would return it sheepishly and set out of the room in the opposite direction of whatever way Josephine headed.

The first Thursday in July began bright and hot. The doors to the house were closed by 9:00 a.m. to keep the air conditioning inside. Josephine was busy working in the shade of the front garden planting new beds of multi colored cosmos. Stephen was off at a board meeting, and Maryse was on vacation in Majorca for the next two weeks of Peter's summer vacation.

Millie realized too late that she needed to make a trip to the local market and to the farmer's market before the sun became too treacherous to be out doing work in the day. Just as she shut the back door to speak to the driver to escort her to the town, Peter came downstairs.

He looked around and called out to Millie to no response. He proceeded out the back door to see one of the family cars go down the drive. He figured that Millie was going into town and wouldn't be back for some time. He walked for a bit on the property before heading to the front where he spotted Josephine.

He carefully stepped around the waist high boxwood hedges that bordered the estate manor and approached her as noisily as he could. Josephine heard the commotion of feet moving towards her on the brilliant green lawn and stopped her planting to turn around and see the smiling face of Peter Baker. She issued a small smile before returning to her work.

Peter stood for a short while watching her while she meticulously worked on the planting of the flower bed. She was quite good at gardening & probably would become a fine horticulturist or landscape architect.

He stood there studying her movements, when he was jarred out of his reverie by her voice. "Did you need something Mr. Baker?"

"Hmm...Oh! Um, I'm sorry for being inarticulate. I just noticed that we are the only ones on the grounds at the moment. Your mom and a driver have left for town and it seems that we are quite alone on the grounds at the moment." Peter replied while smiling down at Josephine.

Josephine looked at him for a moment then responded, "The groundsmen are in the maze on the south quarter, trimming the hedges. We aren't alone Mr. Baker." With that, she turned back around and continued digging a fresh hole for another start of flowers.

"Can I help?" asked Peter. Josephine paused in her work and stood up. She barely came up to chest. He peered down intently into her large brown eyes, surveying her pensive look with amused interest. Josephine frowned at the smile that played on his lips, and mentally shook herself from staring at her employer's son. He was incredibly handsome, and wasn't shy in showing his interest in her. She remembered her mother's warning and steeled her resolve to not let him get under her skin -- or clothes.

"Quite frankly, Mr. Baker, I think there are better uses of your time than helping the help. So please tell me why you are asking me such a silly question." replied a flustered Josephine.

Peter openly laughed at her gumption. He knew he had it bad -- if it had been anyone else on the staff that spoke to him in such a manner (except for Millie), they would have been fired on the spot and escorted off the property. Once he stopped laughing, he replied, "Well, to answer your question, there is not much for me to do, and I'd rather help a beautiful woman on a bright summer morning, than waste away doing nothing in the comfort of my family's home."

As Josephine stood considering his words, he stepped closer to her and whispered, "Besides, it would be lovely to engage such a tempting woman as yourself in conversation." Peter smiled down into her flustered face and caught her lovely eyes. They flickered with something that looked like curiosity with a hint of whimsy. He liked curious.

Before she could answer Peter's bold words, she felt his hand embrace her elbow lightly. "Please, I'd like to help you Josephine. What is the harm that can happen?"

Knowing that she was falling under the spell of his hypnotic blue eyes, she gulped audibly and moved to politely remove her elbow from his hand. He held onto her elbow tighter, and bent down to her ear "Please sweet Josie?" She was almost flush with his warm large body. She could smell the light citrus scent of his expensive cologne.

"I'll agree on one condition. Keep your hands to yourself." she responded briefly looking at his hand on her elbow before staring into his flaming blue eyes.

"I'll do my best, but that will be a challenge." smiled Peter down into Josephine's face as he gently removed his hand from her elbow and took a few steps back to show her he meant no harm.

"Right, You'll need some gloves, I happen to have a spare set and an extra trowel." she responded in a businesslike manner. After she handed him a pair of leather gloves, and the trowel she bent down to resume her digging.

"Start here. When you dig, make sure the well of the hole is bigger than the lip. It ensures that there will be enough air around the planting to allow the roots to breathe and expand outward." instructed Josephine. Peter bent down and did as she instructed next to the hole she dug.

"Take the planting out of the little container, and gently separate the roots. This will help it root easier into the ground." She proceeded to show him what she meant, and he took a planting and followed suit. They worked together for an hour just barely finishing up the bed until they heard a car pull up.

The driver stepped out of the vehicle and hurried to let Stephen Baker out of the back of the stretch limosuine. He took a look at the two youngsters, and repressed his smile. He gruffly spoke first to Peter before turning his head to address Josephine, "Just what in the hell do you think you are doing working with the help? We pay her to do this work, not you! Get in the house and meet me in my study. We need to talk about this immediately. As for you young lady, it would behoove you to remember who's employ you are under. I do not pay you to have my son doing your job. Don't stand there looking silly, girl. Get back to work!"

"Now wait a damn minute, father! I asked her if I could help and convinced her to let me help. She didn't put me to work, I wanted to work by her side!" shouted Peter as he threw the gloves to the ground.

"Peter, get your ass in the house now. As for you young lady, get back to work in the west side gardens." instructed a red, visibly angry Stephen.

"Yes sir." quietly replied Josephine as she picked up her basket of tools, and grabbed the thrown gloves & trowels and scurried away from the scene of the two men.

Peter watched Josephine quickly walk/run away from him & his father. Even in his anger he could still admire her plump backside.

"Inside, now." responded Stephen quietly to his son, shaking the young man out of his reverie. Peter glared at his father before marching directly inside the manor into his father's study.

Stephen walked into the study a minute after his son and closed the door behind him. He sat down heavily at his desk, and ran a hand over his face and sighed.

"Listen, I know that you are upset with me, but you need to hear me out." started Stephen.

"I don't need to hear a fucking thing you have to say old man. You were a complete and utter jackass to Josephine. She deserves an apology!" shouted Peter.

"You are right, I was an ass, but there is something that you need to know about Josephine & Millie." responded a suddenly sullen Stephen.

What are you talking about?" Peter asked, slightly perplexed by his father's composition.

The normally powerful Stephen Baker, III looked defeated and hesitant. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, with his shoulders hunched over. He looked like a man struggling with the truth. An awful, terrible truth.

"Son, please sit." stated Stephen.

Peter was slightly alarmed by this, and sat down on a leather couch as instructed. He heard his father mumble something to himself, and sigh, before turning his reddened gaze on his son.

"Peter, I know I haven't been the best father, or a man that you would want to take any type of relationship advice from. Especially since your mother and I don't act like any normal married couple." started Stephen.

Peter became a bit flustered by his father's admission. It was the first time either of his parents mentioned that their relationship was one of convenience, rather than of genuine passion and love.

"Father, what are you trying to tell me?" responded Peter, becoming quickly irritated with his father's dallying.

Stephen peered into his son's eyes. They were the same blue as his wife's eyes -- clear, open and when angered, like ice. He took in his son's angry appearance, noting that he would grow older to look exactly like himself, with blue eyes instead of his own green eyes.

"I...I'm sorry to tell you this, but you must keep your distance from Millie's daughter Josephine." Stephen whispered.

This was the last thing that Peter expected -- he expected the usual diatribe of "we're not like them.." and the other type of garbage that he had to listen to from his snooty country club friends and their racist parents. He didn't expect the exact same rhetoric that came from Millie to come from his dad.

"What the hell are you talking about? Why are both you and Millie saying the same thing? What is the meaning of this, this tripe? What is wrong with me trying to have at least a friendly relationship with Josephine?" shouted Peter, standing up to his full height.

"Peter, sit down! Just hear me out. Look it has nothing to do with anything about her skin color, if that is your concern. Son, Millie, and by extension Josephine aren't just our maid and gardener. They are technically our family. Millie is a relative of your mother's side of the family." stated Stephen sullenly.

Peter felt like he had been punched in the stomach. "Family? How?" he asked as he staggered back to sit heavily on the leather couch.

Stephen closed his eyes and sighed. "Back during the founding of this nation, many of the old money families like ourselves and your mother's family had slaves, and a considerable number of them. Millie's family was owned by your mother's family. The problem came into being when your mother's grandfather raped Millie's grandmother." said Stephen. Peter sat there completely stunned.

"Their 'union' birthed Millie's mother." said Stephen as calmly as he could. "That's a fucking lie." breathed Peter. "I would believe this more if it came from your side of the family -- the bunch of fucking theives, but not mom's side of the family. Great grandfather was a damn abolitionist for Christ sakes!" yelled Peter, standing once again to his full height, and hurling spit in his anger and passion.

"That's because the man felt guilty for his actions. He was a slave owner who never intended to take and bed a slave, until he forced Millie's grandmother. Hell the man had the same reaction to her as you had to Josephine -- he had to have her. It was bad enough that she was his slave, but the threat of being punished or sold off to another place that could be ten times worse than the treatment she was used to kept her from speaking out. His guilt is what got him." continued Peter.

"Once he found out that she, Margaret, was pregnant, he knew it was his child. He explained to his wife what happened, and he promised to care for Margaret and her entire family as his own. He gave Margaret to another slave and they bore Millie. Long before he died he emancipated all the slaves, but made provisions for Margaret and all her children in his will. Millie herself married a black man, and bore her beloved Josephine. Millie always knew that her grand father was her mother's rapist and master. " stated Stephen as soberly as possible, ignoring his son's angry outburst.

Stephen sighed, before continuing with the sad tale. "Millie grew up knowing the history between her grandparents. Her grandmother was never the same after the assault -- and raised both her daughter and grand-daughter to be careful around white men, especially in their homes."

"You simply cannot have a relationship with Josephine, other than a friendship. She's your blood, and family to you, just like Millie is." rambled Stephen.

Peter sat down stunned. Josephine was his cousin? 'SHIT!' thought Peter. He couldn't get close to her, outside a friendship.

"Father, how do you know this? Why didn't anyone tell me before I saw her and started falling in love with her?" asked a thunderstruck Peter.

"Because it was hard for me to come to grips with as well. I've promised an oath to your mother to not let this type of thing out -- a family secret as this could devastate her and her 'social standing'. We both know how much that nonsense means to her. Anyway, it wasn't long after your birth when Millie came to us. The two women both knew the family history & Millie took on reponsibilities here, namely you. She did not inform us right away of her own child until we found out about her by accident.

"Not long after Millie began working for us, your mother realized that I had fallen hopelessly in love with her own cousin. Naturally she became extremely hurt, and angry. She informed me that I could never touch Millie again, unless I wanted a very messy public divorce. I chose a life of silence, pining for a woman I could never ever have.

"I took one look at Josephine and knew that if you were anything like me, that you would have to suffer in the same manner -- never able to take the woman you are hopelessly in love with in public. Never able to show her how much she means to you, and that without her, you're nothing. I'm so sorry to let you know this Peter. I'm sorry to have passed on this family curse to you." responded a clearly heartbroken Stephen.

During the exposure of the family secret, Peter buried his head into his hands. There was simply no way that Josephine was his blood. There must be some sort of lie, or half truth to the story. He had to be able to see her, and touch her, and feel the softness of her lips pressed against his own. He simply had to have her!

"Son, I know that you think I'm a liar, but it's true. Ask Millie if you don't believe me. Just don't tell Josephine. She still doesn't know this family's shameful past." spoke a despondent Stephen to his distraught son, Peter.

Peter raised his head out of his hands and stared into his father's eyes with his own bloodshot orbs. "I'll never have the chance to love her properly. She should know the truth." said Peter evenly.

"No! Why should she know this family's injustice upon her's? All it will do is cause more pain! Don't you get that? Not everything needs to be told! Not everything is absolutely necessary for everyone to experience! Your mother would agree with me, and you know that we rarely agree on anything!

"If you ever thought you could fall in love with Josephine, your cousin, then you cannot tell her something this heartbreaking! You can't tell her that her employers are her family too! That would ruin any notion of goodness coming from you whatsoever. It would ruin your chances of having at least a friendship with her." shouted a frantic Stephen.

Peter weighed his options, and realized that in the disgusting, sick twisted scheme of everything, that his father was probably right. It would hurt not only Josephine, but also his Momma Millie. He was still perplexed about his father & Millie's relationship, so he asked him, "So what of you and Millie? She knows that you know about our family's continued indiscretion. Why did she go along with this? And why didn't you say anything to her about how you feel towards her? And what the hell did you mean by 'again'?"

Stephen looked away at a far wall containing legal text and sighed before responding to his son's inquiry. "Millie knows that I've been and will be in love with her. In every woman that I have an affair with, I replace their faces with hers. It's her body that I see, and it haunts me everyday. I'm not as brave a man as I need to be son. I can only love her behind closed doors and in shadows and whispers. She's scared of me because she fears that what happened to her grandmother will happen to her with me again. Unfortunately, her fears are justified, as I've tried once before to have a moment and simply hold her."

Stephen's tears coursed down his face as he recalled the events of that night, almost 20 years prior.

"She was right in this room, dusting the bookshelves. I happened to be on my way into the kitchen to get something to eat when I saw her alone. I walked into the study, and closed the door behind me. She didn't realize she was alone with me until she heard the click of the lock. She stopped cleaning, and turned to see me -- the man who constantly followed her with his eyes." started Stephen.

"I started to justify my actions to myself -- rationalizing that I 'just wanted to have a little chat with her' to 'see how her day was going'. In my heart I knew I wanted much more from my sweet Millie. I approached my desk and asked Millie to sit down. She looked at me warily before sitting in a chair on the opposite side of my desk. I stood and moved directly in front of her. I remembered watching her chest begin to heave with her fear. I took it to mean that she was intrigued by me." he rambled on, remembering that night so long ago with perfect clarity.

"I tried to reassure her, so I reached out for her arm. She flew out of the chair, and stumbled onto the ground. She backed away from me as quickly as she could as I advanced on her in the guise of wanting to help her up. When she fell, her uniform flew up high on her legs, and I caught a glimpse of her soft brown thighs." he ended in a slight whisper. He blinked slowly and focused his eyes on the carpet, remembering where she landed, an the shade of brown of her soft skin.

"Anyway, I somehow ended up on the floor in front of her. She was whimpering incoherently because I was coming closer to her, and she was backed up against the couch and was in too much shock to get up again and run for the door." he continued in a hollow voice. The memory of his actions a fresh pain to his heart. He didn't see the look of rage dawning on his son's face.

"I got close to her, and rubbed the tears from her face, trying to console her. It was then, in my stupidity, that I tried to kiss her, thinking foolishly how that would make her feel better. Her beautiful eyes went wide with fear as our lips touched. I kept touching and kissing her while she whimpered and cried at my assault." said Stephen as the memories of their encounter both enlivened and broke his heart. He didn't feel the tears falling from his eyes, streaking his cheeks. He took a deep breath and continued his confession.

"I whispered to her how beautiful I thought she was, and that she had the power to make me into a very naughty man. I told her things that a man in love with a woman would say, except that I was her employer and not her lover. I was giving to her the very horror that had been visited upon her grandmother. Times may have been slightly better, but a bad reference for not doing 'everything' an employer said was akin to starvation for many black women who worked as maids." stated Stephen. He sighed and resumed his own sad tale.