Chapter 33

Charlie

Lucy and I turned up for the meeting with her dad and the estate manager, John. I began by pointing out the changing patterns of leisure. Now, I informed them, people are beginning to fly off to Spain and other foreign parts for their holidays instead of the traditional British seaside resorts and I think this is just the beginning of a huge change in how people are going to use their leisure time.

In fact the working week will shorten giving people more leisure time and people will become more health conscious and become aware that exercise is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. This will lead to a vast increase in pursuits like walking, running and cycling. All of this will lead to people exploring the countryside in much the same way as they did between the wars.

Another factor we are subconsciously aware of is the fact that people are beginning to facing the ever-increasing price of things at this time, and especially houses and the cost of maintaining them. This will be increasingly true for the maintenance of stately homes. The money we are spending to restore the house to its former glory proves this, So we need to take steps to make provision for its upkeep in the future if we are to avoid facing the same situation at some stage in the future. In doing this I hope we will make the estate, not only profitable, but one of the vital employers in our rural community.

This forms the background to the proposals I want to put forward to you today. I want us to be able to take advantage of the leisure trends and find in them a means of meeting the increasing costs, which assuredly fall upon us. In order to take advantage of this, I want us to plan ahead and open up things to the public. The first things I want to do when the restoration is complete is to open the mansion house and gardens to the public and charge an entrance fee for both.

Along side this we open up a café to sell snacks and even meals to our visitors. Another source of revenue would be a shop selling souvenirs of their trip, also pictures and postcards of the house and grounds. Not only will this raise money to help with the upkeep it will also provide jobs for the local people. I went on to outline other ways we could attract visitors by opening up trails for walkers and cyclists within the forested parts of the estate and possibly even hire out bikes to them.

Lord William immediately pointed out this would require a considerable amount of capital outlay which he did not have.

"There is an easy solution to that problem," I told him. "I will put up the money and you will pledge the house and the estate as surety for the loan but that is a matter we can discuss later. I think they are better left until we have some idea what the whole project will cost.

"I think what matters now," Lucy chipped in, "Is to see the direction in which Charlie wants to take us in order to increase the income which the estate earns. We have to turn it into a business so that it supports the cost of its upkeep.

There was a lot of discussion about the whys and wherefores of the way ahead. Our Estate Manager was generally pleased and supportive of my way forward. He also pointed out we could do a lot more with our fishing and shooting rights if we had the staff to promote them. I think that his support together with Lucy's input meant that Lord William decided he should go with the flow. After all we were the ones who were going to be responsible for the running of the schemes we were about to initiate and I was the one putting up the cash

Later that evening we got down to discussing the financing. I assured him that as Lucy's husband I was prepared to bear the initial cost of setting up the scheme and that these would be substantial even if we got help from grants. I pointed out the reasons why I was asking for the estate to be surety against this expenditure and assured him that this was a mere technicality for the sake of the tax man and the accountants. Since Lucy was his daughter and heir everything would pass to her anyway.

I let him know that as her husband I was part of the family anyway and I believed that in her I had met my soul mate there was no way I could foresee anything coming between us which would ever lead to a divorce. This meant it would also pass to me and eventually to our son.

I said with a smile, that this being the case, and since I also regarded myself already as part of his family, it was right that part of my fortune should go towards ensuring the future for all of us.

Lucy.

I was glad that Charlie had agreed with me that we should wait until Calum was about to start school before starting a new baby. It was my carelessness, which caused the mistake in the first place. Having said that, though, I would not want to change what happened. Our son is a joy to both of us and I am glad we had him. I was also glad to support him in his proposals for the running of the estate

What he said at the meeting today, while flattering and hopefully true, but it worried me, because I have been thinking a great deal about our relationship since the birth of my son. I have not discussed these thoughts with Charlie because I am afraid of how he will react to what I have to say.

The matter I want to bring up with Charlie concerns the nature of our relationship and this is what is scary. The deal I made in return for him marrying me was to be his submissive and obey him in all things. I am his submissive and I am happy in that role since he meets my needs and has helped me to accept and even be comfortable with what I am, despite the fact that many people would think my sexual desires and masochistic tendencies were abnormal.

Well they are, I suppose, and I accept that. It is how I am wired, and he has helped me to come to terms with it. I am also a very clever little submissive, as Charlie has often pointed out, and I am often capable of engineering situations so that things go the way I want them to without seeming to be disobedient. But there is no way I can subtly engineer this situation