A Rocky Path

A ROCKY PATH

LAURALYNN ELLIOTT

Published by Lauralynn Elliott at
Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Lauralynn Elliott

Cover Art by Anya Kelleye

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. All people,
places, and events are purely products of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is entirely
coincidental.

Chapter One

Emily Adams brushed her long, dark hair
behind her ears in a gesture that had become a habit in recent
weeks. She looked up anxiously at the huge mansion, for it couldn’t
be called just a “house”, and almost jumped back into the taxi. The
house was made of stone and was three stories tall. There was
probably a basement level, which would bring it to four stories
total. She had never set foot inside a house of that size before.
The taxi had crossed a stone bridge, which matched the house, over
a small river in order to get to the house. There were lamp posts
alongside the bridge as well as in the front of the house. The
whole property screamed rich.

‘This was a bad idea,’ she thought. ‘I can’t
do this!’

She had lost her husband six months ago in a
car accident, and now she was without any family, except assorted
aunts, uncles and cousins whom she had never seen before. Her
apartment in New York had constantly reminded her of Tom, and the
life she had before her world had come crashing down around her.
She hated her job at an accounting firm, so she was miserable
whether she was at work or at home. She was twenty-nine years old,
already widowed, and already unhappy with her life.

She had been posting her resume online,
hoping to just get away from the memories and misery, and someone
finally responded. When she got an offer from Rebecca Winslow, a
well-known author, to come to a small town in Maine and work as her
assistant, she jumped at the chance. But now, looking up at her new
residence, she suddenly felt small and inadequate, afraid she
wouldn’t be able to do the job she had come to do. She and Rebecca
had talked on the phone and corresponded by e-mail several times in
the past two months. She already felt like she knew Rebecca, but
what if she was different when they met in person? Or what if her
new employer didn’t like her after meeting her? You couldn’t pick
up body language or expressions through phone calls and e-mail.

Suddenly, out of the house burst two large
Labrador retrievers, one black and one yellow. They came bounding
up to her, their tongues hanging out, happily greeting their
visitor. Behind them, more slowly, but still seeming to “bound”,
came a tall, thin attractive woman with short, blond hair. She
looked to be in her mid-forties. Emily had to smile.

“Hi, I’m Rebecca Winslow,” the blond woman
said, extending her hand in greeting. “I’m so glad to finally meet
you, although I feel like we know each other already.” Her
handshake was firm, almost like a man’s.

“I’m Emily Adams. I’m really glad to meet
you, too. I was feeling really overwhelmed and a little scared when
I arrived, but your two friends here suddenly put me at ease!”

“Yes, sometimes people are a little
intimidated by the size of the house at first, but when they meet
Casper and Jake everything seems to be a little more down to earth.
I promise you, we aren’t the typical “rich with the great big
house” people. I just love having all the room and being able to
roam about and decorate everything as I please. And since I can
afford it, well……” She shrugged.

Emily smiled and said, “I don’t feel so
scared now. I took one look at the house and almost bolted.”

“I’m glad the boys and I could put you at
ease!” Rebecca laughed. “Let’s get you all settled in your rooms,
and then I’ll take you for a little tour before dinner. Then after
dinner, if you aren’t too tired, we can go over some of the things
I have in mind for you to do.”

Emily followed her new employer into the
house as a young man came out and went over to the taxi to retrieve
her bags. Her apartment had been furnished as part of the rent, so
she didn’t have any furniture or large items to bring with her. The
stuffy suits that she was required to wear at the accounting firm
were hanging in the cab and she almost hoped the driver would take
off with them, so she would never have to look at them again. Ugh.
But she supposed she would have to dress up when she was working
for Rebecca, so she was probably stuck with them. When Emily
dressed up, she preferred feminine, lacy things. And when she
wasn’t dressing up, her favorite clothes were t-shirts and blue
jeans. She was petite, only 5’ 3” tall, and 115 lbs. She was very
curvy and very feminine looking, but she worked out often with
weights and did aerobics every day, so there was a lot of strength
hidden beneath the deceiving helpless little girl look. She hoped
there was a gym nearby.

As soon as she walked into the house, she was
overwhelmed by the beauty of it. The walls in the foyer were deep
red with white wainscoting halfway up. There were antique brass
candleholders, converted to electric lighting, hanging on the
walls. There were also pictures of dragons, wizards and warriors in
antique brass frames. She loved the theme.

They went up the stone staircase, turned down
the hallway to the right, then to the third door on the left. She
was beginning to wonder if she would ever learn her way around this
house. Then Rebecca opened the door to her room and she was
suddenly breathless.

“I had these rooms decorated especially for
you, but I didn’t know you that well yet, so if there is anything
you want to change, or even if you want to redo the whole thing,
please let me know and I will have it done. I love to decorate and
it was so much fun to do this room, just guessing about what you
might like,” said Rebecca.

“I love it!” exclaimed Emily. She had been
expecting just a regular bedroom, but this was a suite of rooms.
The door opened into the bedroom. The bottom half of the walls were
painted a dark forest green with a cream colored chair rail
bisecting the wall and the top half was papered with English ivy.
Not plain, but not too busy, either. The bed was huge, a king size,
and the comforter also sported English ivy, and it looked so
comfortable, Emily was tempted to lie down right then amongst all
the fluffiness and go to sleep. Past the foot of the bed, there
were two steps down to a small sitting room. There was a gas
fireplace and two comfy looking armchairs, with small tables beside
each one. A perfect place to relax, read a good book, and sip a cup
of tea!

“I don’t know what to say!”

“Say you like it,” Rebecca said, smiling.

“This is wonderful. I can’t believe you‘re
putting me in such beautiful rooms. I wasn’t expecting something so
generous. Honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing about these
rooms.”

Rebecca smiled. “I’m so glad you like it. I
wasn’t sure, but I was hoping you would. You haven’t seen the
bathroom yet.”

Emily went through the door adjoining the
bedroom. She was once again awed by what she was seeing. There was
a huge tub, big enough for four or five people. She saw that it had
jets, so it was a spa tub. It was black with stone tiles
surrounding it. There was also a huge shower, as well as the other
normal fixtures, all in black. The walls were papered with
cavorting dragons. This woman had the strangest mixture of tastes,
and yet it all somehow worked. She loved it.

“You know, when I was in my apartment, my
living room wasn’t much bigger than this bathroom. I’m not used to
all this luxury. You’re too kind.”

Rebecca laughed. “Don’t think I don’t have
ulterior motives! I plan to make you work hard for me, so I want to
keep you happy. Jamie will bring your bags up in a few moments. Why
don’t we finish the tour of the house?”

They went through so many rooms that Emily’s
head was spinning. She was going to need a map! There were numerous
guest bedrooms and baths on the second floor. On the first floor,
there was the formal living room, the more casual family room, a
library, game room, large dining room, family dining room,
kitchen….it went on and on until Emily knew she was going to have
to start leaving bread crumbs along the way.

“I know it seems overwhelming at first,” said
Rebecca, “but you’ll get used to it, I promise. We’ll wait until
after dinner to see the third floor. That’s where my offices are
and where we will do most of our work. But I do want you to see the
basement before we have dinner.”

They went down a flight of steps and walked
into a world of delight for Emily.

“A gym!” she exclaimed. She rushed to each
exercise machine, admiring the quality.

“You mentioned in your resume that one of
your hobbies is working out. This way you won’t have to go to a
gym. We have all these weight machines as well as the treadmill
over there, and here is the big screen television where you can
play exercise videos. All this equipment is brand new. We had all
this done about six months ago. We all thought we could use some
extra exercise. But it turns out, now, that Jamie is the only one
who uses this room.”

“Who’s Jamie?”

“Well, he lives here, and he does a little
bit of everything for us. You’ll meet him at dinner tonight. The
entire household will be eating together tonight.”

“I can’t wait to meet everybody. This is
great! I know I’m going to love it here.” She was overwhelmed by
this place. But she really felt good about being here.

“Emily, you may use this gym as often as you
like. As I said before, the only other person that uses it is
Jamie.”

She opened a door and went inside, turning on
the light. There was a huge screen, with a row of three sofas
facing it. A projector stood against the wall behind the sofas.

“A theater room! This is great. And look, a
popcorn popper just like they have at the movies! I feel like a kid
in a candy store.” She began to wonder if she was acting too
childish about everything.

“We all like to have fun. All work and no
play….well, you know the old saying.”

Emily smiled. She felt like she had walked
into a dream that she wanted to never wake up from.

Chapter Two

Dinner was a very enjoyable experience after
living on frozen dinners for so long. There was an abundance of
seafood, her favorite. One thing she noticed was that there was no
alcohol served at dinner. No wine, no cocktails….nothing. She
thought that was very unusual, but apparently this household just
didn’t drink. She didn’t either, so it was not a problem for
her.

Rebecca was a widow, just like Emily, with no
children. But her nephew, Sam, lived there with her. His mother,
Rebecca’s sister, had died of cancer. His father was not to be
found. She also got to meet the housekeeper and cook, Sally, and
her son, Jamie, who did odds and ends around the house, acting as
butler, chauffer and whatever else was needed. He was in his mid
twenties, like Sam, and quite handsome. His short, dark hair and
his green eyes were a contrast to Sam’s longish, blond hair and
light blue eyes. Emily was very surprised that Sally and Jamie ate
dinner with the family, but was very pleased. Her estimation of
Rebecca Winslow kept going up. This lady was no snob!

“So, Rebecca, tell me a little bit about this
house. Is it very old?” asked Emily.

Rebecca laughed. “Yes, actually it is
very
old. About 200 years old, as a matter of fact. It has
really held up well through many generations. These stone houses
are almost indestructible. The original family that lived here was
McCulloch. They were a Scottish family who came here in about 1800
and built this house. I bought it from one of the descendants. I’m
the first person to own this house who wasn’t part of that
family.”

“Wow, I would have never thought the house
was that old! It looks so new inside,” said Emily.

“When I bought it, there was still a lot of
the old furniture and odds and ends here. I totally redecorated it.
I guess you can tell I like wizards and dragons and other fantasy
creatures.”

Emily grinned. “I would have never
guessed.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “You would think she
would have grown out of those things by now. After all, she is
ancient!”

Emily could tell he was teasing his aunt. She
looked over at Jamie, but he was just sitting there with a sullen
expression on his face. She wondered what his problem was! Anyway,
Sam was pleasant enough. She hoped that she would get to know
everyone in the house a little better and that they would all like
and accept her.