Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“There’s more?” Portia asked.
“Are you employed?” I shot back.
“Dear God,” Lou moaned when Portia’s expression again gave us the answer.
“You know what that means,” I noted.
“I also know you two can talk to the trustees,” Portia returned.
“What does it mean?” Daniel asked.
“We can’t and you know it,” I said to my sister. “You also know you’re supposed to report to them, Portia, if there’s a change in your employment status.”
“I’m taking a break.”
“Fine. Your life. Your choice. But you know if you do, your stipend reduces.”
“It does?” Daniel looked down to Portia. “To what?”
“It’s preposterous,” Portia snipped, to him, to me, to the universe.
“It’s what Dad wanted.”
“You and Lou could do something.”
“We can’t.”
“You haven’t tried.”
“And should we now?” Lou demanded irately. “When you’re putting your sister in a dead woman’s bed and fucking with her mind? Is it now we should step up for you, Portia?”
“What’s the matter with you?” Portia asked snidely to hide her shock and dismay that Lou was growing a backbone when it came to her.
“I’m tired,” Lou retorted. “My head hurts. I’ve been trying to prove how much you mean to me for nearly fifteen years, and I, too, am done.” She stood and turned to me. “I’ll call the trustees.”
“I can do it,” I replied.
“No.” She glanced at Portia. “This time, I’ll do it.”
And without another word, she stormed out.
“How much does your allowance reduce?” Daniel asked.
Portia glared at him.
“She gets two thousand pounds a month until she’s gainfully employed and then it’s up to Lou and me how much we’ll augment that,” I shared.
Portia turned her glare on me.
But now it was Daniel who was white as a sheet.
Telling.
And sadly for Portia, her tricks opened the door for me to test the waters of her and Daniel’s relationship to see how deep they ran.
But now…
Onward!
“And, I’ve made a decision,” I said to my sister. “I’m going to talk to Lou, and if the trustees don’t receive paystubs for six months straight, you won’t get more. And when you do, it’ll only be five thousand for six months beyond that.”
“That’s crazy!” Portia cried.
“This was all Dad’s last effort at tough love, sis,” I replied. “And since it hasn’t been working, now’s the time to get tougher.”
Portia told me something I already knew. “I can’t even pay my rent with that.”
“Then you’ll either need to get a job quickly or downsize.”
She was looking panicky. “Daphne, you can’t do that. I can’t even pay movers.”
Yup.
She’d squandered it all.
“Then you shouldn’t have blown what amounts for a normal family to about five years’ worth of income in eight months.” And just because I was in a foul mood, I remarked, “Nice riding boots, by the way.”
She didn’t even respond to my dig. She was in full-blown panic now, then suddenly her gaze dropped to Ian and her entire face flamed red.
And something else hit me then, though it’d been staring me in the face since the start.
Goddamn.
She then looked up at Daniel, hooked her arm in his, straightened her shoulders, and like a dare that I honest to God in that moment didn’t know if it was aimed at Daniel…or Ian, she declared, “I’ll move in with you.”
Now it was Daniel looking panicked.
Ian folded out of the couch saying, “How about we leave these two to wade through the aftermath of their bad decisions. I think there’s a conversation you need to have with Lou.”
It’d only been days, but the sight of Ian holding his hand to me was an endearingly familiar one.
I moved his way, accepted his offer, and he guided me to the door.
“I’m sorry about the flowers, okay? I honestly didn’t think you’d freak so badly,” Portia called to my back.
Ian stopped us as he felt me turn to her.
“You know, that hurts most of all,” I said in a voice that shared how deeply it did just that.
Portia flinched. Even Daniel looked alarmed at the tone of my voice.
I carried on, “That you haven’t bothered to pay enough attention to me over the years to know how much that would mess with me. Lou knows. My own flesh and blood doesn’t. Yes, honey, that hurts.”
After saying that, I looked to Ian.
And he guided me out the door.
Seventeen
THE TURRET
I was lounged on Lou’s bed in the Poppy Room.
Lou was packing.
I didn’t have to talk her into it, she’d made the decision herself to leave, (yes, she was that angry at Portia and that done with bending herself into pretzels for my sister). By the time Ian escorted me to her room, she was on the phone with the trustees, her laptop open in front of her, booking tickets for a train to Leeds tomorrow morning.
“The train this afternoon leaves too late,” she told me. “I don’t want you driving in the dark, and I’m just knackered, Daph. So I’ll go down and ask Bonnie if she wouldn’t mind making me a tray for dinner. I’ll take a bath tonight and have a quiet night up here. I’ll say my goodbyes and we can head out in the morning.”