Chapter 3

Upon retaking his seat, Mr. St. Clair began to explain something that seemed to make him exceptionally uncomfortable.

“You should look over the accounting of all properties and contact me if you have questions.”

He paused for the longest time, just looking back and forth between Candice and me.

“Mick, Candice is what some might crudely referred to as ‘furniture’. She comes with the house. According to James she is a part of its atmosphere, ambiance and soul. I don’t know what he meant by that last part but he was VERY specific about Candice’s situation. I know they had a personal relationship but nothing beyond that vague knowledge.”

I looked at him like he was joking. My left eyebrow shot up. Just then, Candice moved from next to his chair towards me. When she had assumed a place next to my chair she stopped, stood by the side of my chair still looking down and remained silent while almost touching me.

“This is all going so fast,” I declared.

“I understand,” St. Clair replied. “Once you and Candice are alone and can speak uninterrupted, I am told that things should become more focused and understandable. And that, young man, as all I have. Do you have any immediate questions?” He paused to see if I would reply. Not hearing anything from me he stood. “If not. Good day.”

He shook my hand, made a very stiff, almost formal bow to Candice, and walked out the front door. The closing door made an echo around the huge foyer after which it was as quiet as could be. Not even the sound of a ticking grandfather clock.

The first thing I could think of doing was to reexamine the room I was sitting in. I’d only been in his office on one occasion before this. It was obviously an office. The shelves had many books, though not as many as his library. The library was a place where my great grandfather and I would spend considerable time reading and talking about what we read.

Everything about this room said ‘elegance’. Nothing looked second class or cheap, including the girl with the long brown hair and the floor-length green dress standing next to me. The lights on the walls and the overhead chandelier supplied enough illumination to make reading comfortable, yet dim enough to be a comfort should someone want to just sit and contemplate life and other things.

“This was his favorite room in the house,” Candice offered quietly after a long silence.

“I can understand why. Just sitting here makes the impact of the past few weeks seem less severe. It’s as if my spirit is being massaged.”

“James often said the same thing.”

“You called my great grandfather James?” I finally looked up and saw that she had her head up facing me, exposing the biggest brown eyes I had ever seen. Candice was a pretty girl, but her eyes were almost cartoonishly big, like Japanese anime or like a deer’s eyes. Big, brown, soft and yet they seemed to fit her face.

“It was his name as it is yours. I will call you James as well, unless you instruct me to do otherwise.”

“Instruct you? A unique way to say that. I have always been called Mick, even by my great grandfather. I would prefer that, unless you can give me cause to change.”

Candice looked at me for a few moments processing my request, then she nodded.

“Mick. This is going to sound strange, but ... I belong to you. You can do with me as you will. James treated me very well. In some ways I was his housekeeper. In some ways I was his intimate confidant. In some ways I was his sex toy. His final hopes were that I would fill the same office for you. I agreed with his request and remained here after his repose. Now it is just up to you to find my place.”

“Repose? That sounds like he just went to sleep and not died,” I said before the totality of her words hit my young and still immature brain. “Wait. So if I wanted to have sex with you right here and now, you would do it?”