Sadie's Mate (14 page)

“Good
point. I don’t see that giving Cecilia trouble, the not large credit account,
that is. She’s not like them. She’s a studious young woman who has been delving
into our people’s pasts. She’s terribly interested in what has caused the rift
between our people and the
Imarian
people. I think a
lot of that has to do with the general and
Adira
.”

“Likely.
I’m sure I could talk her into meeting them and asking them both questions. I
know
Fintan’s
been digging into it more, and with his
clearance he has access Cecilia will never have. Plus there’s
Adira
and her point of view on it all. I know she was
always interested in her people’s history so I’m sure she has the
Imarian
history to add to the conversation.”

“I
have a feeling that would be Cecilia’s heaven right there. She would want to
travel with them for a while on the off chance she could talk to any other
Imarians
. She’s a free spirit, under all the
downtroddenness
that the poor girl has been experiencing. I
feel for her, a lot.”

“I
may be able to talk
Fintan
into that. Or maybe I
should say I can likely talk
Adira
into it, and
she’ll talk the general into it.” Laughing softly, he squeezed her closer.
“But one step at a time.
Let’s take a look at the available
properties within my necessary restrictions, get a list together, and then I’ll
contact Cecilia and get an idea if she’d be open to even leaving the house to
live with us.”

“Agreed.
We also need to let
her come to us with questions instead of me just guessing or going off the top
of my head and whatnot, right?” She hoped his sister would be willing to come
to them and ask them questions.

“You
are likely right there.” Turning her around, he gave her a nudge toward the
video console. At one of the large overstuffed chairs he sat down,
then
pulled her into his lap. Reaching out, he grabbed a
throw and wrapped it around her before handing her the data pad for the
monitor. “All right, Doctor. Do your thing and find us what fits within our
search criteria for a city dwelling.”

That
had her grinning and she nodded. She began to go through everything that they
had. “How many bedrooms?” she asked. “And bathrooms? I’m assuming we’ll need as
many bathrooms as bedrooms, at least.
Right?”

“With
at least two females living under the same roof, yes,” he said. Bracken smiled
when she shot him a look. “I lived with five for a time, Sadie. I know what I
am speaking of on this matter. Even with one a man is still outnumbered in his
own home and is lucky to find a bathroom to use at any given time.
Usually the smallest and most useless one around.
Let’s say
at least three bedrooms, four if possible. A den or office space too that is
separate from the other rooms.
And a decent-sized kitchen.
Might as well make use of the lessons Mother insisted I have so I wouldn’t be a
burden on whatever poor soul got stuck with me.”

“Okay,
so four bedrooms, five bathrooms, an office with a half bath.” She keyed it all
up and laughed. “Look.” The house in question was actually five bedrooms, seven
bathrooms, a den, living room, office and library, the office having a personal
half bathroom attached to it. “It’s also surrounded by a privacy wall for
security.”

The
grounds were large without being so grandiose that you felt lost in a hall. The
home actually seemed to fit them perfectly with two massive master suites on
opposite ends of the home and a nursery off the side of each master suite that
didn’t factor into the bedroom counts.

He
did a map search to get the distance to the port. “It’s within the
range,
it’s private, and looks good so far. We’d have to do
a walk through. Only trouble is we’ll be off planet so often that we’ll need to
hire someone to handle all the day-to-day maintenance. Otherwise all we’ll be
doing when we are
planetside
is yard work and
housekeeping. Even if Cecilia wished to remain here when we leave, she couldn’t
handle it alone.”

“I
would feel better having someone there with her anyway. She shouldn’t be alone.
She’s a beautiful, titled and wealthy young woman that should have a protection
detail as well.” She continued to look at the property and grinned. “It has a
caretaker’s home as well as a staff and security house. I think this is too
good to be true. There has to be something wrong with it.
Right?”

“One
would think.” He shook his head before passing her the pad back. “See if you
can schedule a viewing for tomorrow or the following day. I’ll see if Cecilia
is looking to leave the house, and if she is maybe have her come to meet us out
there for the viewing. Get her take on it as well.”

“Deal.”
She keyed up the
seller of the home and paled. “Shit,” she grumbled. “Well, good and bad. Good,
we don’t have to purchase the home. Bad is,
it’s
part
of my family’s holdings.” The fact that it was up for sale was bothering her, a
lot. Her mother didn’t have the right to put any properties in the Monterey
estate up for sale. When her father passed, her mother was left with a stipend
and two homes. She would never have to worry about money, so to have her doing
this bothered Sadie a great deal.

“What
are you talking about, Sadie? What’s going on here that
I’m
not understanding
, little one?” He brushed her hair back to bare her
neck, pressing a kiss to the exposed skin.
“Talk to me,
wife.”

She
was now shaking. “My mother, she put this property up for sale. This is a
Monterey home from several generations back. I never have been there before but
it states clearly here that it’s from the original family’s line of Monterey
and there is only one of those. I’m the executor of the entire estate. Mother
is only able to have the monies that Daddy left for her and the two homes he
left for her. Neither would be this one. This is an ancestral home.” Their
ancestral homes were very unique. They were the ones that had been created when
they first settled their home world. The homes were much sought after but had
to be approved for sale and purchase so how her mother was doing this was
beyond her. “I can’t believe that woman is doing this. She has to be stopped.”

“Who
do you need to contact to stop her from proceeding with the sale? Does she have
any of your other properties up for sale?” he asked. “Check for them, Sadie.
Make sure they aren’t also listed. And then you need to contact whoever it is
you need to speak to and ensure they are removed from the listing sites.
After you put on at least a shirt.
I’m not letting you do a
vid conference topless.”

“I
don’t know all of the properties. I only know that this is one of them because
of it being listed as an ancestral home for the
Montereys
.
I need to send a message to the chancellors. They’re the ones that allowed me
to fully separate from her and have upheld my father’s will as well. I’ll send
them all a message so they’re aware of what’s happening. After that, I think I
need to be held.”

“Of
course, little one,” he said softly. “Do what’s necessary to prevent her from
getting away with this travesty. I’ll be right here, and I’ll hold you once
you’ve finished.” Rubbing a hand over her back, he pressed a kiss to her
shoulder.

Sadie
quickly did what she needed to do and once that was finished she leaned back
against Bracken and sighed. “That woman has gone too far. As much as I hate to
say this I have a feeling we’ll need to go see her next.”

“If
that’s what you think needs to happen,
then
we’ll see
to it.
Tomorrow, though, and only after you’ve rested.
No sense giving her any additional ammunition by not being alert when we take
her on.”

“Good
point. She would see any small thing out of place as you not taking care of me
and would file to have our marriage annulled.” Her mother was not the loving
and caring woman that so many tried to paint her as. She was a monster, pure
and simple.

“I
say all the best of luck to her with that one, especially as the marshal
personally has the file with our marriage papers.
With
Fintan’s
signature on it, no less.
Your mother may
think she can take us on, to which I ask her to please try so I can make her
life even more memorable, but she can’t take on
Fintan
or the marshal’s office.”

“She’s
insane.” That could be the one and only reason her mother was the way that she
was. “She has to be insane. There is nothing else that I can think of at this
moment in time. She’s a monster, insane or something.
Maybe
both.
Who
knows.
” All Sadie knew was that her
mother went out of her way to ensure she got ahead in life and had gotten as
close to being as high in the social chain as she could with marrying Sadie’s
father.

“
Shh
,” he whispered. Tugging the throw around her, Bracken
eased her around slightly in his lap and hugged her tight. “You can’t keep
stressing about this, Sadie. We’ll go see her, and if necessary we’ll lodge a
recommendation to have her professionally evaluated. No warnings given, though,
otherwise she could prepare. And we’ll give them anything they might be able to
use to get her to lose her composure with them so we can hopefully get a read
on what’s going on with her.”

“Sounds
like a plan. And honestly all we would have to do would be to remind her that
I’m no longer under her thumb and the family monies are all under my control.”
Which always got her mother going insane.

“Whatever
you believe will work. You know her best, Sadie. Hell, other than the time she
tried to take a shot at me, I don’t think I’ve even met her more than twice,
and only in passing, much to my mother’s annoyance. But I never could stand the
high society get-togethers they like to attend.
Too many
half-truths, outright lies, and women trying to snag any man with more than a
few credits to his name.
More often than not they only want to use him
until the monies are gone, then so are they.”

“Trust
me, I know that feeling. I hated being that bait that was dangled before men.
Daddy protected me for the longest time and then when he died I had no
protection and that woman sold me to the highest bidder. I hated it. More than
I can possibly tell you. I much prefer the quiet life, living on board the
destroyer with you. That’s what makes me happy.”

“I
don’t know about it being a quiet life, though it’s usually tedious. This last
trip out was the most excitement we’ve seen in a very long time. I prefer not
to have that much excitement, so you know. I much prefer the tedium, the
relaxation of nothingness as we do our rounds. Not that the crew doesn’t have
drills to keep them from becoming complacent, of course. But being shot at by
your own protection
satellites really was
not
something I ever dreamed would occur.”

“I’m
just happy I was with you. It really would not have been good if you had been
shot out of the skies before we had time with each other.”

“You
saved all our asses, and I’m happy to announce that to anyone we come across.
You are an amazing woman, and top in your field for a reason. Way too good for
a lowly destroyer commander.”

“And
here I’m thinking it’s you that’s way too good for me. You know me, you’re good
to me, and you always put me first. I’ve never had anyone do that for me
before. The two of us work together, and we work well.
Perfectly,
actually.”

Nodding,
he pressed a kiss to her lips. “We do at that. We were meant for one another,
after all. We couldn’t get more perfect for one another if we tried.” Slowly he
began to stroke her hair, soothing her in his way.

That
had her leaning into his touch and she pulled back to look at him. “Can we do
something more than just simply lay here watching a movie? I need to
do
something.” Finding that home had her completely off kilter.

“What
would you like to do? But remember you ordered us a meal, so we need to be here
to accept it or they’ll take it back and then I’ll starve. It’ll be truly
horrific, especially since they have one of my favorite dishes here. Actually,
if you want to keep it simple, we could go over to the dressmaker and see about
getting you measured at least.”

“Right,
good point,” she said with a grin. “The dressmaker can make me some dresses I
don’t have to turn around. After that, if you want, we can go and see the
ancestral home?”

“I’d
like that.”

“I’m
anxious to see it too. I think years ago my grandfather may have lived there
for a short time, before he was on the ruling council, but as far back as I can
remember no one has lived there. A property management company has always taken
care of the family holdings.”

“One
day I’ll retire and maybe we can call it our permanent home.
Providing,
of course, that those in the marshal’s office who want this war to reignite
don’t take us out first.
But we’re not going to let that happen. I fully
intend to retire one day and drive you absolutely batty with all my projects
that are a wild attempt to keep me from becoming horribly bored.”