CHAPTER 55
There was no real reason to spend any more time with Elaine, and despite the fact that the Barracloughs had followed Annie’s lead in setting up a raft of tents in the back garden, the house was absolutely groaning at the seams. Blake and I still had our responsibilities to paid employment to fulfil, and to be honest, the more I watched Elaine and Siân locking soppy eyes with their children, the more I missed my own boy.

I opened the mansion's front doors wide, and got the attention of my guests. "My apologies for the wait, everyone! Please, let me introduce a friend that is staying with me." The Godmother stepped into view, and bowed for everyone. "My name is Elena, and Hailey is giving me a place to stay in exchange for some legal help with the inheritance. Please follow us to the ballroom."

Mother – and daughter too.

Auntie owned a dress-shop. Yes, I know now that’s the introduction to a whole sub-section of transvestite literature. I didn’t know it then. All I knew was that my mum had a sister in faraway Leeds and they rarely met, rarely spoke to each other and in fact mum rarely spoke of Aunt Lily. Perhaps Mum knew that working in a dress shop would be the right thing for me.

An AP-500 starter-story.

It was already a hour into my shift. When I was informed by Lily that somebody else wanted a go. A friend of hers, a girl by the name of Robin. That being said my shift had been cut from three hours down to just two. Which in all honesty was fine with me. It was pushing ten and the smell of fresh fried chicken from the deli across the street was making me hungry.

“Just one more hour girl.” Lilly called out to me. “Then you can go and enjoy the rest of the day.” She said taking a deep breath. “Man, you can smell that chicken frying. And it's really making my mouth water too.”

Fiach again moved about so all could see the entrance and exit wounds heal while they watched.

“I’m going to be totally honest with you,” Fiach declared after rolling her shirt back down after the wounds disappeared. “The Clan Corvo is expanding and we are taking over neighboring farmsteads. We will not take farmsteads by force unless they start the violence. We will loan money to farmsteads at fair terms and rates as a few of you are already aware. If the loans default, we assume ownership of the farmstead, buying it at a fair price paying the owner the difference between the loan and the value of the farmstead. If they are interested, we work out terms for the ex-owner to continue as a tenant farmer.”

Ten minutes into my three hour shift and already a line was starting to form up in front of the booth. Lily was at the table collecting the money and handing the soft, round, brown leather balls. My sister had wandered off as soon as the booth had open. Something about checking the charity shops, see Benton has little in the way of a proper bookstore, I mean of course you could always use Amazon or order online from one of the major retail chains. But, often you had to pay full price for those, and unless it was somebody’s birthday or Christmas, we rarely brought something new.

It's just a game. Right?