Romance Fan Fiction / Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Away ❯ Enter Lancey ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: This story is an original novel and is under copyright. All rights are reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 13

Enter Lancey

 

 

Several hours after they departed Washington, they arrived at the Hamdell estate in the country. The estate was on several acres of hills, illuminated by several torches positioned around it. And in all reality, this house was hardly just a house. It was at least 3 times bigger than the house in Washington, but still had a cozy feel to it. The lights inside had already been turned on. The house itself was made of a light tan stone, and the landscaping was immaculate; tastefully lining the driveway from what she could see in the torchlight. Naomi had fallen asleep once again when they had finished fixing the broken wheel on the coach and re-boarded. They had worked surprisingly fast in the dark. Breagan woke her up for their approach to the manor.

 

They piled out of the coach, Naomi's hood up over her long sandy hair. Both to hide her identity from anyone who may be watching, and to shelter her from the rain that had started falling again just after the coach had been repaired. Breagan discreetly looked around to see if there was anything out of the ordinary, even though he didn't expect there to be. He was pretty sure they had made it. Not seeing anything that had caught his eye, he started to relax and enjoy the country air and seclusion as he usually did when he came out here. They reached the front door and someone from inside opened it before they had a chance to announce their arrival.

 

Breagan smiled at the man who had opened the door. He has got to be a Tyler, too, she thought, seeing the strong face.

 

“Hey Lancey. You got our message, I take it,” Breagan said.

 

“Yes, I received the message personally from your driver on horseback yesterday,” he said, looking over at Naomi with clear male appreciation, and then turning his accusing eyes back to Breagan, “Where have you been? I was expecting you some time ago.”

 

“We ran into a little obstacle, but all is well now. Lancey, I'd like you to meet Naomi Foster. She is the woman we have been hiding from Cokrain,” Breagan turned to Naomi, “Naomi, this is Lancey Fields, the manager and co-owner of our branch here,” he told her; contradicting her first impression that he was a Tyler.

 

“Hello, Naomi. I must say, it's been a while since I've seen such a comely lady like yourself,” he winked at her, “I'd just love to show you around the house,” Lancey flirted while gauging Breagan's reaction.

 

“Nice try, Lancey but that will be my job. And keep your hands off, because I found her first,” Breagan said, even though he knew his friend was just being himself.

 

“Hey, it never hurts to look, right?” Lancey shrugged.

 

“It will if you're not careful,” Breagan warned back at him with a grin as they went inside out of the rain.

 

Jake listened to his son and Lancey ridicule each other as they had done since they were children. They had grown up together in Washington when Lancey's grandmother had died, and he moved in with them since he had no other family. Lancey was a bit older than Breagan, closer to Margaret's age, which was only two years more than Breagan's twenty-seven. Noting the possessiveness of his son over Naomi, Jake's mouth curved in a smug smile that he tried his best to keep hidden. This wouldn't take long at all. Jake one, Minna zero.

 

Naomi was not listening anymore; she was awestruck by the interior architecture of this house. There was a huge staircase to her right that split three ways at the top. One direction was to a walkway that acted as a bridge, crossing over the huge foyer to the left wing of the house. The second path disappeared into a hallway that went toward the back of the house, the third wrapped around to the front of the house. That part was a loft, so one could see doors to various rooms from their position in the foyer. Straight at the back of the house, she saw a wall of windows leading out to the deck and she could see nothing but hills and a small section of water beyond that.

 

“So, I take it you weren't followed then?” Lancey asked Breagan when their banter had ended.

 

“Oh, we were followed, all right. By The Problem himself. We lost him in the storm, and we haven't noticed any followers since then, but that doesn't mean we weren't followed. Cokrain has surprised us a few times. We need to assume that we were followed, just to be safe,” Breagan answered him.

 

“Why don't you go and show Naomi to her room, Breagan? I'm sure she's very tired,” Jake suggested, still up trying hard to suppress his smile, but failing, “Lancey and I will handle the unloading of the luggage.”

 

Breagan eyed his father suspiciously, knowing he was up to his tricks again, but it no longer bothered him. Breagan had long ago admitted to himself of his love for this woman who had sought refuge in his care. His Naomi. He had every intention of marrying her once this ordeal was over.

 

The group separated and Breagan placed a hand at Naomi's back to usher her up the staircase and across the foyer to the left wing where they would be staying.

 

“There is a set of service stairs down the main hallway that leads to the kitchen, if you ever have any reason to use them,” he said in her ear as he pointed to the end of the hallway. He took her down a hallway that branched off of the first and went toward the back of the house. They went through double doors at the end of the hallway into a room that was the perfect marriage of masculine and feminine décor. Naomi walked forward into the room when they crossed the threshold.

 

The bed was to her right, parallel with the double doors to the hall, about 10 feet away from them. It was a huge, high-profile bed with a canopy made of mirrors, sitting on top of a carpeted platform of two tiers. There was a door, probably to the washroom, on this side of the bed. In front of the bed was a seating area with plush seating, and a set of French doors were next to it, leading to the balcony. Another set of French doors to the balcony was on the other side of the bed from the front doors, telling her that the room was in a corner of the house. The colors of the room matched the navy and cream of Breagan's room in Washington. In fact, she noticed that the décor of this entire house matched the décor of the house she had been living in for the past two weeks.

 

After her long study of the room, she felt Breagan's eyes on her as he stood next to her. She looked at him to discover that he had been studying her, and she suddenly felt too warm. He always seemed to have that effect on her, she thought. Breagan's mouth broke out into a sensuous smile as he closed the door behind them. They didn't open the door again that night.

 

 

Margaret took another bite of her muffin over breakfast with Minna the next morning, “Naomi Foster is such a lovely girl, isn't she? I'm surprised that Breagan hasn't already claimed her for himself!”

 

Minna cackled giddily, “Oh, `e `as. `e just don't know it yet,” she replied, smiling ear to ear.

 

“And I'd bet that you had something to do with that, didn't you, Minna?” Margaret accused with one elegant black brow arched.

 

Looking quite proud of herself with her head held high, Minna answered truthfully, “O' course I did! I didn'a put Naomi in th' room next ta Breagan by accident, ye know. It did'na take much ta push `im in th' right direction, ye know, but ev'ry bit `elps.”

 

“You sneaky, sneaky woman. You know your ploys would never work on me, right? I know how you think,” Margaret warned, shaking her fork at Minna.

 

“Just wait an' see, Marge. I'll get ye married yet, an' ye won't know I did anathin',” Minna predicted. Margaret got up from her seat to put away the dishes with an `I-don't-think-so' look on her face. Walking back to her seat, Margaret heard a knock at the door, and turned to look at Minna with worried surprise.

 

“I'd better get th' door, dearie. No one needs ta know th't ye still be here,” Minna said, moving to go to the front door. Opening the door confirmed their suspicions that someone had indeed been watching the house, because Caldwell Cokrain himself stood at the door in his entire splendor.

 

“I must speak with Mr. Tyler,” he said deeply, implanting just the right amount of urgency into his tone.

 

“I'm sorry, sir. Ye missed th' master `o' the `ouse'old,” Minna clipped out overly politely, hardly keeping herself from tearing him to pieces where he stood.

 

“Do you think you could tell me where I might send him a message? It's an urgent matter,” he informed her, sounding very much the business man.

 

“If ye be needin' ta talk business, ye'll `ave ta go see th' contractors. `e's gone fer a few weeks with `is family,” she said, closing the door before she lost her willpower entirely.

 

“Thank you,” Cokrain said to the door, satisfied with the old woman's answer. The old woman wasn't very happy with him, he noticed, snickering to himself. He turned back and walked slowly to his waiting carriage, the one Naomi had been retrieved in when she'd first arrived in the States. He knew that he would soon find out where she had been taken. He would finally be able to have her to himself.

 

 

When Naomi awoke that morning, the day was well underway. She had the passing thought that the night had gone by far too quickly. She looked outside through the balcony doors to see by the abundant sunlight that it was close to noon. She had the passing thought that the night had gone by far too quickly, which was odd because she hadn't slept in since she could remember. Even at the late hour, she almost didn't want to get up. Unfortunately, she thought to herself, her hunger wouldn't simply disappear. She had to eat. Naomi climbed out of the giant bed only to remember that they hadn't unpacked any clothes yet. She walked over to put on her robe and decided she could make a run for it to the kitchen using the service stairs that Breagan had pointed out when they arrived. She only hoped nobody else would be around to see her state of undress.

 

Trotting over to the doors to the hallway, she peeked out to see if it was clear. Naomi didn't see anyone, so she seeped out of her doorway and tip-toed to the door that hid the service stairs. She'd made it about halfway down when she was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness and stumbled, planting her hands on the wall to steady herself. Briefly, Naomi had an image of Jolie flash through her head, and she knit her brows in confusion as to why her mind would bring her up. After standing there for a minute, Naomi's stomach protested loudly again, so she decided to put the images aside for further inspection after she'd gotten something to eat. Standing back to her full height, she took care in making it the rest of the way to the kitchen in one piece.

 

 

By the time dinner had arrived later that day, the luggage had all been unpacked and put away. Naomi was in her crimson and cream gown, seated next to Breagan for dinner. They ate as they talked amongst each other. There had been nothing out of the ordinary since they had arrived that morning. Breagan was slightly more relaxed now; he felt Naomi would be able to breathe better here, as could he, now that Cokrain was further away. Though, he was half hoping that Cokrain would show his all-mighty self so that he could beat him senseless.

 

“You look like you're brooding, son. Should I try to stop you?” Jake quietly asked once Naomi had excused herself from the table to change dresses after pesto sauce had spilled on it.

 

Breagan jumped his eyes up from his drink to look over at Jake, grinning ruefully, “Sure, but that won't keep me from wanting to tear Cokrain apart if he were to show up. I can't remember being so furious at one person,” he replied as he looked his father in the eye.

 

Jake studied the look in his son's eyes and almost pitied Cokrain should he show himself, “I'm mad at him too, Breagan, but being mad at him isn't going to solve our problems. It helps, but it won't get the job done,” Jake sat back as one of the servers came to collect the used plates from the table. He looked back at his son, “I say we go to the old study and try to figure out what to do about getting this problem solved. I'll follow you.”

 

After coming down from her room in her clean dress, Naomi found the dining room empty and decided that she would probably find them in the study, since that was where Breagan usually was during the day. Walking in that direction, she began to hear their voices from in the room. She paused by the doorway when they continued their discussion.

 

“I wish I knew what had happened in the first place that indebted her uncle to Cokrain. Naomi told me that she didn't remember any kind of outside help, so I'm going to assume that whatever it was that indebted him to Cokrain happened before her parents died and when she wasn't in his care,” Breagan said, thinking out loud.

 

“How did her parents die, do you know?” Jake asked him, his mind also working to put the missing pieces together.

 

“She told me that they died in a fire. She was saved from that fire by their maid who died in childbirth about a year later. I bet I can guess who the father of that baby was,” Breagan said angrily, guessing right. Though he didn't agree with the way it had happened, he was thankful that Naomi got out of there before she met that same fate.

 

“That no-good snobby uncle of hers, that's who. He was a real ass,” Jake accused.

 

Naomi stood in the doorway listening to what they had been saying. They didn't know how right about her uncle. When she had been burying Jolie, she had been convinced that her uncle had started that fire which killed her parents. Rufus had always creeped her out when she was little, and she remembered how he was always trying to touch her mother. It was obvious to her that he'd been the cause of her altered life, having seen the way her uncle practically celebrated the death of his brother, and then spent every penny to her family's name in short time.

 

“I think I can help you a bit,” Naomi volunteered quietly from the doorway, revealing her position as an eavesdropper. She had a painfully determined look on her face as she looked past the men in the room into her memories, “My uncle was the father of Jolie's baby, but he denied it and called my only friend a whore. She'd died trying to give birth to his baby, and I buried her in our yard at the old estate we lived in. The baby was still inside her. I was only about 10 years old at that time,” she continued speaking with distant remembrance. She came the rest of the way into the room and she moved to sit down in a chair next to Jake, then looked up at Breagan, “About the time I turned 15 or so, my uncle began to look at me differently…the same way that he had looked at Jolie. I can still remember waking up to see him standing over me; watching me sleep. It happened more than once and it began to scare me, so I started trying to stay away from that hovel we lived in as much as I could. By the time I was 18, I had started to sleep in the gardening shed,” Naomi stopped suddenly, as she thought of something, “You know, I started to sleep out there the very day that he had a meeting with his boss, who I think was Cokrain at the time. He told me I needed to stay away from the house so that his boss wouldn't see me.”

 

“Why?” Breagan asked. He remembered suspecting that Cokrain had seen her before she had come to the States. Her uncle had probably meant to keep her out of sight so that he could have her for himself, sick bastard. He'd known that she would draw the attentions of any man who saw her.

“He said I would try to distract him. He never called me back to tell me that I could come in that night. I started sleeping out there because I'd slept better that night in the shed than I had in a long while,” Naomi said matter-of-factly.

 

“You said that was when you were eighteen? And how old are you now?” Breagan asked, doing the math and putting the years together.

 

“I am twenty years old now. That was two years ago,” Naomi answered. As the words left her mouth, she looked at Breagan, recognizing what he was already sure of, “Is that what he had meant that night? Could he have seen me even though I was sent away?”

 

“I think that's exactly what he meant, Naomi. It seems to me that he has been planning to have you in his possession since he'd seen you at your uncle's house two years ago. This may have turned into a full-scale obsession, I'm afraid.”

 

“Cokrain's turning out to be a real headache,” Jake said irritably, rubbing his head as if he really did have a headache. He still thought his son marrying Naomi to deter Cokrain was a fine idea, but he kept that to himself. For now.

 

 

Minna was in the parlor the next day doing the necessary upkeep when the front door burst open, and Beatrice came in heading to the study as if she lived there. She stopped short upon seeing no one in the study, and cursed ever so softly. Margaret's eyebrows went up upon hearing Beatrice from the dining room, where she was having lunch.

 

“Might I `elp ye, ev'n though ye don't seem ta know `ow ta knock upon a stranger's door?” Minna implied to the woman.

 

“Oh it's you, Millie. I wish to see your master,” she said royally.

 

“Th' master of th' house is'na here as o' now, he `as gone out o' town with `is family on vacation, not that it's any of yer business,” she added under her breath.

 

“Okay, I'll come back some other time, once he gets back. Thank you, Minnie,” she turned on her stylish heels and left quickly.

 

Margaret came out of the dining room to see Minna at the door, shaking her head and watching Beatrice boarding her carriage. “Who does that girl think she's fooling?” She asked Minna when she turned away from the door, “She may be fooling some of the men in this town, but I could guarantee that she is not fooling a single woman,” she added, shaking her head.

 

“I c'n agree wi' ye there, Margie dear. I pity th' man that she gets `er claws inta. Land sakes, at least Mr. Breagan don' buy what she's tryin' ta feed `im.”

 

“I cannot believe she persists in pursuing him, even when he has made it clear that he is not interested, or that he even buys her fake persona and dislikes her even more because of it,” Margaret sighed, “Oh well, maybe once he's gotten married, she'll stop pestering him.”

 

“Married, eh? Yer sure o' that, now?” Minna quested, her eyebrow up.

 

“Oh, come now. There is no doubt in my mind, Minna. He is besotted with that sweet creature that he took with him. Such a pretty girl, too! Did you notice how taken father is with her as well? She's already his daughter-in-law in his eyes,” she deduced prettily with a wave of her hand.

 

“That she is, dearie,” Minna replied, a slight impish grin to her lips.

 

 

Naomi found dinner just as peaceful as lunch was, even if she was having trouble getting past constant thoughts of bedtime. Shifting in her seat, Jake's voice started to break through Naomi's daydreaming as he talked to Breagan.

 

“So. Breagan, Naomi…what do you intend to name my first grandchild?” he started to say with mischievous looks toward the pair. Naomi immediately flushed red at Jake's question. She looked at Breagan, who in turn looked rather calm.

 

“Who said anything about us having a child, father?” Breagan asked his father.

 

“Come on, son, do I seem blind? You are clearly in love with each other. Do not try and convince me otherwise,” he said, already making plans in his head for a wedding. Jake continued prodding, “You know it wouldn't hurt to get married now to help get rid of the little problem of Cokrain.”

 

Breagan tried to hide his grin, “We will be married at a leisurely pace when Naomi won't have to worry about him during the ceremony,” he said, startling Naomi, “ I know you are in a hurry father, but we need to wait so that it will be more enjoyable for us all. That wouldn't stop Cokrain, anyway,” he continued, “On top of all that, we need to have Minna and Margaret present for it, don't we Naomi?” Breagan asked her to allow her a say in the matter.

 

“Of course! Minna was the one who allowed me to hide in your house, where I could meet you in the first place,” Naomi replied, trying to regain her breath for the excitement racing through her at the thought of being his. `I'm staying!'

 

“Good! Then it's settled,” Jake gleefully replied, “If you would, Breagan, start making me some grandchildren, please. You know I'm not getting any younger.”

 

Naomi nearly swallowed her champagne glass and coughed on her drink instead.