up the drive. God, he was sex on legs. Very long muscular, tanned and sexy legs. She stood there blatantly taking advantage of the moment to look.
Whilst he was bent over he held up his hand as if to say wait a moment, proceeded to catch his breath than bowed with a rather breathless “Good morning, My Lady”. He noticed that there were no men and no Lilly. He had a moment of alarm. “Where’s Lilly. Nothing’s wrong, is it?” She watched his face and thought she saw sincere concern. “No, she’s fine. Agnes has taken her to school. And the men are already working, which is ridiculous.”
“Why is that ridiculous? Perhaps they are just taking some pride in their work.” he said still trying to catch his breath but not gasping for air like moments ago.
“It is insane that they put in such long days, because I am not paying them” she said as she turned to close the door.
Brandon frowned. He would never have thought that Sophia would be so ruthless as to not pay her workers. Having hundreds of people working for him and having to deal with Unions and Government agencies he knew this would only lead to trouble. He decided to broach the subject sometime during the day with the workers.
His opportunity came between lunch and afternoon tea when a man called Henry Jones was working beside Brandon. Now Henry was not a man of many words so his replies left Brandon more confused at the end of the discussion than when the conversation began. Apparently, they didn’t expect ‘The Lady’ to pay them, the men came up and felt it an honor to work on the Estate. It wasn’t making sense. He had noted that there were different men each day but this was a little community. Then a thought occurred to him. Sophia had mentioned that Archibald owned most of the properties in the two villages, people must have to pay rent to live in the properties. What if she was holding that over the men’s head? That’s extortion! There must be more to the story. He hoped.
Sophia seemed to be avoiding him or perhaps that was his imagination. She left midafternoon and went to the school to pick up Lilly. When Brandon came down from the gardens he saw Sophia standing outside Graces’ stable. He jogged over and enquired “nothing’s wrong is it?”
“I would not have thought you such a worrier” this was said with a sly smile. “No nothing is wrong, but you can add my name to yours on that list of not wanting to know you. She’s become very protective of her little man. She’s decided that no one is getting in with her. It‘s OK I don‘t really need to go in, so we‘ll leave her to it”
Just then Lilly came running over. “Hello Mister Brandon.”
“Hello Miss Lilly, how was school today?” he asked as he crouched down to her level. At this she threw her arms around his neck and started talking more at him then to him. Brandon managed to get the odd word in. But it was funny to stand and watch him being interrogated by a six year old. They were very good questions and many of them were along the lines of what Sophia herself wanted to know. She didn’t know a thing about this man except that he did seem to know his way around a garden, he was physically strong having pushed a horse around, and he had a ready laugh and good sense humor. Not quite enough information was coming out of Lilly’s questions for Sophia’s liking.
At that moment, Agnes came out “Oh, good you’re here, come in I’ve cooked an early dinner for you. If you remember I have to go to the final meeting for the Hunt Club. Last minute details before the weekends hunt”
At this Brandon stood up, which meant that he had to lift Lilly with him as she was not letting go of his neck.
“OK, Agnes. Can you please tell them that it is all the same as every other year’s event from this end. I expect them to start arriving about lunchtime Friday. If the committee needs anything tell them I’m not at home and have changed my phone number.” This was all said with a light humor.
Brandon knew he had a frown on his face but this was a very disturbing conversation. A Hunt…. this weekend? Agnes walked up and put her hand