Amethyst Purple Pt. 03

"Is it just the four of you there? It must be a small Inn."

"Yes, it's basically just a converted farm house, there are three guest rooms. But another guy just came in while I was calling you, Mrs. Parsons is checking him in now."

"So, what's tough about this assignment? Are you having trouble with the workers?" Ted asked.

"Well, the company has potential and it was growing, up until the original owner died about ten years ago and a Board of Administration was appointed to run it. I'm afraid it has been bled too far to recover. I'm most likely going to have to recommend that the Underwriters cut their losses and walk away from this one. I've been advised to talk to one of the long time employees tomorrow to get his take on things and if that doesn't work then I don't think the company can survive. The sad thing is that I think the entire area relies on the plant for their economy, this town will take a hit if it goes under."

"Look, I know how you think, don't let it get too personal. If the company can't be salvaged it's going to go under even if your bank pumps more money into it. If you recommend further investment and the company fails the bank will be weakened by the loss. Basically what I'm trying to say is if you feel the company is a lost cause it won't be your fault if you recommend the bank pull their backing." Ted commiserated.

"I know, thank you. I'm going to go, the Nakano's just came in, I'm going to see if they want to ride into town for supper then get ready for bed. I'll see you Saturday, my flight is supposed to land at 7:24pm."

"OK, I love you, I'll see you at the airport Saturday night."

"Love you." Marti returned.

Thursday, January 4, 1996

Luray, VA

Ralph Fuller was 48 years old, when he was 17 years old, he was the third employee hired by Marvin Waxler. He was the most senior employee currently at Waxler Manufacturing and now that he had the opportunity to share his opinion he proved to be a repository of knowledge about the company and its operations. Marti could tell that not only was Ralph saddened to see the company failing, he was irate at the mismanagement and the fact that no matter what he had attempted, no one was willing to listen to him and try to turn the company's fortune around.

After spending the entire morning on Thursday meeting with Ralph, Marti spent the rest of the day interviewing the Production Section employees. By the end of the day Marti was sure of a couple of points: Ralph Fuller was well liked and respected by the entire workforce at Waxler Manufacturing, he seemed to have a firm grasp of how the company had operated under Marvin Waxler's leadership, he was a more than capable manager at the company and that under his leadership the company just might have a legitimate chance of survival.

Marti made it back to the BnB in time to call her Director at work to discuss her recommendation of installing Ralph as Chief Operating Officer of Waxler Manufacturing as a prerequisite of the bank's further financial support and together they developed their tentative proposal.

After supper and Mrs. Parsons had retired to her bedroom, the four boarders sat in the common room exchanging friendly conversation and passing the last couple hours before bedtime.

"Where do you live, Mr. Connoly?" Hiromi Nakano asked.

"I have a brother and sister in Tupelo, Mississippi and any mail I get is delivered to an apartment I keep there but I really don't live in one place for very long. I stay on the road at least three weeks out of every month, and often longer than that."

"I see, that must make it difficult on your family."

"Yes, my ex-wife held the same opinion. I was only gone a week or so each month while I was married, still it was more than she could accept so she found a part-time 'husband' to keep her company while I was on the road."

"Oh, how dreadful." Hiromi responded dolefully.

"Not at all, I had several part-time 'wives' at different places I regularly stopped on my routes, myself. I couldn't blame her, it was my fault she was lonely while I was away. Eventually we agreed that we were wasting one another's time and mutually agreed that we'd be better off splitting and going our own separate ways. Now she meets me at a hotel or my apartment when I'm back in Tupelo for a day or two. I think her new husband knows or at least suspects that we're seeing each other but he figures he slept with her enough while we were married that he can't say too much now." Lucas chuckled.

Marti listened to the exchange and internally she was saddened to imagine how loveless and lonesome such a relationship would be and shuddered.

Ichiro noticed her slight shake and spoke. "Are you cold, Mrs Kilgore? You looked like you had a shiver."

"Yes, I am a bit chilly, I think I'll go on up to bed. I have a lot to finish tomorrow at the plant so I can make my flight back home on Saturday."

Suddenly she missed Ted and wanted to hear his voice but she still had no signal on her cell phone and she didn't want to call him on the common room phone with the other three boarders listening in on her conversation. Maybe she'd be able to come back down and call Ted after the other boarders moved to their respective rooms later. As Marti mounted the stairs to the second floor she didn't notice Lucas Connoly watching her exit with his lips curled into a confident smile.

Friday, January 5, 1996

Luray, VA

Marti woke with a compelling sense of loneliness and reached out her arm but realized, as consciousness reasserted itself that she was alone in the queen size bed.

"One more night alone and I'll be able to sleep in my own bed tomorrow. With Ted." Marti thought then roused herself and began getting dressed for her day.

She spent the entire morning with Ralph Fuller, digesting sales and cost figures for Waxler Mfg before breaking for lunch. While they shared a table at Waxler Mfg's snack room to eat their lunch, Ralph chronicled the history of Waxler Manufacturing and the company's growth since he had been hired as a budding teen Blacksmith. Marti spent the rest of the afternoon reconciling the figures she'd obtained from Ralph and working on the initial outline for her formal report for the bank's underwriters.

At the end of the day and after bidding farewell to the employees she had worked most closely with, Marti began her commute back to the Inn but when she left the building she was shocked by the bracing cold wind that escorted to her rental car.

"One day I'll learn to listen to my husband. Now I wish I'd brought warmer clothes." Marti mumbled to herself as she waited for the heater to warm up in the little Geo. She glanced at the dark gray, almost black, low-lying clouds and began to grow concerned about the weather this far from home.

As Marti pulled onto the country road leading back toward the Bed and Breakfast, what at first appeared to be a small sparse cotton ball landed on her windshield but when it melted onto the glass she realized it was a large, fluffy snowflake. A mile farther down the road, the lone scout snowflake was joined by a battalion of its comrades. When Marti parked at the Inn the snow was falling steady but not heavy and the bone-chilling wind had completely died away leaving a surreal, almost vacuum of no-sound. Marti found the seemingly unnatural calm more disconcerting than the brisk, icy wind had.

Inside the Inn, Marti made her collect call to home and heard her husband accept the charges.

"Hey, Doll, how're you holding out?"

"I'm ready to come home, it's started snowing here. I don't look forward to driving in it tomorrow. I don't have the highest confidence in this crappy car they rented to me and the back roads between here and Charlottesville were sketchy when they were clear and dry on Tuesday."

They talked for about fifteen more minutes and when Marti noticed out the window that the snow had stopped falling.

"Well, the snow has stopped, maybe it'll hold out until the plane gets off the ground tomorrow before it begins again. This is beautiful country but I really don't crave being snowed in here."

When they finished talking Marti decided to go into town and stock up on snacks at the little market and eat an early supper at the diner in case the snow began again.

Marti couldn't help but be awed by the beauty of the freshly fallen snow on the farmland and surrounding mountains. She was reminded of Thomas Kinkade paintings she'd seen. When she got back to the Inn, she found Mrs. Parsons and the other three boarders sitting in the living room, talking about the most obvious subject.

"I'm glad to see you made it safely. We were a little concerned when you weren't back when you usually are." Mrs Parsons said, relief evident in her voice.

"I figured I'd stock up on everything I'd need on my drive tomorrow so I don't have to stop anywhere until I make it to the airport. I got snacks and a full tank of gas so I'll be ready first thing in the morning. I'm sorely tempted to leave now and get a room near the airport but it'll be full on dark by the time I could get packed and out the door and with the weather I'm afraid to chance it."

"In the best of conditions it's an hour and a half drive to Charlottesville from here, with snow on the road it could be three or four hours of driving in the dark, you'd be ten o'clock or later getting there tonight if you make it safely." Mrs Parsons continued. "It's best you didn't take the risk."

"I know, I had already decided that, but thank you for your concern."

Sometime during the night, Marti woke with a chill. She drew her comforter closer around her neck but was confused at how cold the air in her bedroom felt to her cheeks. Eventually she drifted off to sleep again and slept until morning.

Saturday, January 6, 1996

Luray, VA

Marti was shivering when she woke again, the gray light behind the window testifying that morning had arrived but the air around her bed was icy cold and she remembered waking in the night to the cold. Quickly, she dressed in the warmest clothes she had brought on her trip and went down to the living room where she found the Nakanos and Lucas Connoly sitting in front of the lit fireplace with Mrs. Parsons. Marti nearly ran to warm herself at the hearth.

"I'm so sorry, dear," Mrs. Parsons began. "We have gas heat but when the power goes out it does no good. It needs electricity for the thermostat and to run the fan so when the power is out, the heat is out and we have to resort to burning wood. The problem with that is that the heat from the fireplace never quite makes it into the bedrooms. I have a wood stove in my bedroom but the fire Marshall and my insurance company won't allow me to have them or fireplaces in the rental rooms. I was telling the others that I have a few more quilts and blankets I can give you but I'm afraid you all might be more comfortable if you came out here and slept on the sectional tonight."

"That's OK, I won't be here tonight, I'll be leaving as soon as I can get packed, my flight is supposed to leave at 4:45 this afternoon."

"Oh, dear, you haven't looked outside yet, have you? You'll never make it to Charlottesville in this weather and the news on the radio said all the major airports on the East Coast have been shut down or will be by lunch time. I'm afraid we'll all be here for another couple days at least."

Marti walked to the front door and opened it, stepping onto the covered porch she was stunned by what she saw. Where she remembered parking her car there was only a large pile of snow sitting beside two other similar piles of snow and she couldn't even see the road only a dozen yards beyond through the gray-white wall of falling snow. Her heart fell with the realization that she wasn't going to make it home tonight after all. With nothing else she could do to change her fortune, she stepped back inside and closed the door then made her way to the telephone beside the fireplace.

Ted answered on the second ring and accepted the reversed charge. "Hey Doll, things don't look too promising, do they?"

"I'm afraid not. The snow is already half way up to the second step outside and the cars are completely covered already. We have no power here and I don't know how long the phone lines will be up. It looks like I'm going to be here for a few more days."

"The power is out? Do you have heat? Can you cook there? Do I need to hire a dog sled to come rescue you?"

"Would you? Please?" Marti answered with a smile. "No, we have gas heat but it needs electricity to work so we're burning wood for heat now and we have plenty of quilts and blankets so I'm pretty comfortable.

"OK, just be careful and don't try to drive until the roads and the weather are clear."

After Marti and Ted ended their call she turned and sat on the sofa, drawing her feet underneath herself and joined the conversation around her. Later that afternoon, actually early that evening, Marti witnessed a phenomenon that not only had she never before witnessed, she'd never even heard of before. Mrs. Parsons brewed a pot of coffee and everyone sat on the covered front porch, everyone except Lucas Connoly wrapped in a quilt for warmth, with a large steaming mug, watching the falling snow. Suddenly, through the dark gray abyss they saw what could only be flashes of lightning but the accompanying thunder seemed hollow and impotent, barely heard in the colossal vacuum of attenuated sound. After the abbreviated surrealistic light show was over everyone moved back into the living room and the warmth of the fireplace.

Mrs. Parsons disappeared for several minutes before returning with a stack of board games and a couple decks of playing cards. The rest of the evening passed with rolling dice, paying rent, buying properties and not passing 'Go' as punishment for the inopportune roll of some small plastic cubes before everyone returned to their bedrooms with extra quilts for their beds.

Once again, Marti awoke shivering during the night. This time, however, she collected a pillow and two of the quilts from her bed and walked down the stairs where she found the Nakanos curled up together, asleep on one side of the pit sectional so she made her nest on the opposite side and slipped into blissful sleep, warm in front of the smoldering fireplace.

Sunday, January 7, 1996

Luray, Va

Marti drifted just under the surface of consciousness, pleasantly warm curled up with Ted huddled up to her back with his arm draped across her side, his warm breath on her neck below her left ear. She lay there for several minutes lost in the comfort and warmth she shared with her husband in this 'almost' world between asleep and awake. Suddenly her eyes shot open. Ted was four hundred miles away, in Knoxville, Tennessee, he couldn't be snuggling with her in Luray, Virginia! She rolled over and shoved the body lying beside her onto the floor and jumped up.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Lucas Connoly lay sprawled out on the floor fully dressed in a sweat suit with a look of total shock on his face.

"What happened?" Came a voice from behind her.

Marti turned and looked at the Nakanos, who had been roused from their sleep on the other side of the sectional sofa.

"I don't know, I came down here last night because my room was too cold and you two were already asleep there. I just woke up and Mr. Conolly here was 'spooning' with me. I was shocked at his audacity and shoved him onto the floor."

"I apologize, Mrs. Kilgore, I... I don't even remember coming down stairs, let alone lying down beside you. I promise I have no intention of offending anyone here and I certainly would never force myself on anyone." Lucas Conolly stammered contritely.

"I guess there was no harm done, we're both wearing too much clothing for anything improper to happen. I suppose I just reacted to the unexpected shock. I'd just appreciate not waking up with an unknown and unapproved bed partner again in the future." Marti replied.

What Marti didn't tell the others was that the real reason she was so upset was the way her body had been responding to Lucas' closeness and his warm breath on her neck with no hint of morning breath. She was turned on and could feel the dampness in her crotch.

When they looked outside, the snow was still falling, although not as thickly as the day prior but the surface of what had fallen had drifted level with the porch. They still couldn't see the road beyond the parking lot of the Inn but not because of falling snow. The roadway was lost beneath a solid plain of white that successfully obscured every detail of the landscape it covered. The sky was still dominated by slate gray clouds and the same unnatural absence of sound lent an air of bizarre eeriness to the environment.

Excusing herself, Marti went to her room to get a change of clothes and hoped there was enough water left in the water heater for her to clean up and get dressed. When she removed her panties she was embarrassed to find that she was wetter than she could remember being since college. It only took her a couple dozen strokes through her labia and across her clitoris before she exploded in orgasm. When she settled down she dragged the warm washcloth across her still-sensitive pussy and cleaned the moisture from her thighs before dressing in warm clothes and returned to the common room with its heavenly fireplace.

Sunday was spent much like Saturday had, board games and card games, roasting marshmallows on sticks in the fireplace like they had in middle school. Only the Nakanos had never roasted marshmallows and Hiromi was as thrilled with the new experience as a middle school girl. Mrs Parsons and Marti shared the kitchen, cooking for the group, thankfully Mrs. Parsons had a well stocked root cellar, filled with home canned foods and a large chest freezer on the porch full of meat that had been butchered from her own livestock. As long as the outside temperature stayed near or below freezing there was no worry that anything in the freezer would thaw. The gas stove and oven in the Inn was old enough that it operated just fine with no electricity and there was both a gas grill and a charcoal grill on the back kitchen porch they could use so no matter how long they were snowed in they'd be able to eat.

Sunday evening, Mrs. Parsons made a large pot of hot chocolate and whipped a bowl of heavy cream to top the mugs and everyone again sat on the front porch watching the falling snow. This time Lucas asked Marti if he could share her blanket and sat beside her on the porch swing. When the mugs were empty everyone returned to the sectional and began another game of 'Phase 10'.

As bedtime approached no one even acted like they were going to their bedrooms and all three sections of the sofa were converted to impromptu beds. The married couple once again curled up under their quilts in the same spot they shared the night before and Marti lay down in her previous nest leaving the central section, farthest away from the fireplace for Lucas.

Shortly after everyone grew still Marti thought she heard a light gasp from beneath the covers on the opposite side of the room followed by a very quiet giggle. Glancing over, she could make out slow rhythmic movement of the quilt in the firelight. Soon, the rhythmic movements began increasing in both frequency and amplitude and the giggles changed to quiet moans, grunts and gasps. Marti was surprised, the quiet Japanese couple didn't seem to be exhibitionistic in any manner but here they were, obviously having sex in the same room with two relative strangers. Marti lay still, daring not to move despite feeling an impulsive urge to reach between her own thighs and attend to the compelling need she, herself, felt. As Ichiro's and Hiromi's coordinated dance began to intensify, Marti heard rustling from the third section of the sofa. She slowly turned her head in the direction of Lucas' reclining form and in the dim light from the fading fireplace she could see the oily glint of his eyes alternately gazing first at her then at the copulating couple under their quilt; she also recognized a subtle shift in his covers about his midsection, rising and falling slowly in the flickering light. When Lucas noticed Marti looking in his direction he locked eyes with her and didn't look away again but the once subtle movement under his quilt quickened. Abandoning caution, Marti reached down and slipped her right hand under the waistband of her lounge pants and beneath her panties, not stopping until she reached the furnace hidden under the layers of fabric. She began caressing herself, dipping her fingers inside her fevered pussy and using the moisture to graze across her clitoris for the second time that day. The Nakano's were forgotten as Marti and Lucas stared into each other's eyes from across the room while they each masturbated. When she heard the universal sounds of impending orgasm coming from the still obscured couple her own climax seemed to accelerate, still she didn't avert her eyes from Lucas'. Only seconds after the couple reached their goal, icy fire rushed through Marti's body and she held her breath in an attempt to conceal the evidence of her voyeurism. At nearly the same instant, Marti saw Lucas tense up in his release beneath his quilt. Everyone lay still in the quiet for several minutes before Lucas rolled back his quilts and disappeared up the stairs toward the bathroom at the end of the hallway.