Chapter 36

Charlie

We had been back in St Andrews for a few weeks when Heather contacted Lucy. She informed her that she had booked a slot for her exhibition in the second weekend in October. The exhibition would open on the Friday Evening and run all day Saturday and Sunday. She asked if she could come through and make a final selection of which paintings would be on show.

Lucy had arranged for all the paintings framed and so we had brought all of them down to St Andrews and arranged for a local picture framer to do the necessary work on the ones that hadn't been done already. Fortunately, I had also had work done on one of the small barns on our property with the idea of storing things that we didn't have room for in the house.

When Lucy informed me that she needed a place to paint I had a builder come and put in several Velux windows in the roof to let daylight into the building. I also had plaster board the walls so that if needed she could hang paintings she wanted to display. When it was finished it turned out to be a light and airy studio for her. It was large enough to hang to hang all the pictures which they had provisionally selected for the exhibition and would enable her to show them off to Heather when the final selection had to be made.

All told, when the final selection was made, this included some of her earlier work, which had been done as her portfolio when she had thought of going to art school. In all she would have twenty-two paintings on display. Since we were students and busy with our studies, it was agreed that Heather would be responsible for the layout in the gallery and that we came through to Edinburgh after classes on the Friday afternoon. If Lucy wanted anything changed, she could suggest it then.

When Heather left, Lucy was as high as a kite. She was thrilled at the prospect of a new career opening up.

"Does this put paid to the career you originally intended," I asked with a grin.

"Not right away," she said. "I will go on as planned, but if things take off

I will consider making it my full time career. It would certainly make raising a family much easier. I will also be available to help you get the project at Hereford up and running."

"There will also be the prospect of creating a studio for you there, and an outlet for selling your paintings. It might also be possible to create an outlet for other artists in the area and have them exhibit their work for sale alongside your own," I suggested.

Lucy agreed that this would be a good idea and was quite excited by it. She thought that it would be another way of involving our local community with the estate and make others more aware of what we were seeking to do to encourage jobs in the community.

When we arrived In Edinburgh we tried to book into the Carlton Hotel but the were almost fully booked and could only offer us one single bedroom for the nanny and a suite for Lucy and I. I was in no mood to phone around for other places at short notice, so I took what they had to offer. There is no use having money if you are not prepared to spend it in order to make life a bit easier after all.

Lucy was a bit more parsimonious when it came tom spending money since she had learned about the family's beleaguered financial state. However, I had no such reservations and she was coming round to accepting the advantages of having a rich husband. Besides this, it meant that Calum could have a separate bedroom and the nanny could make use of the suite's facilities when he had gone to sleep

Lucy.

When we arrived at the hotel Charlie had chosen they could only offer us a suite. Despite the additional expense He took what they had to offer despite the fact that it cost a great deal more. He looked at me as if to say don't you dare suggest we look for something cheaper. I just smiled sweetly at him. I am coming around to see the advantages of having money.

We had an early meal and then proceeded to the gallery to meet Heather. Lucy was pleased with the way so we made our way to area that she had set aside for meeting those whom she had invited. A wine bar had been set up and two waitresses were in attendance. Heather had suggested that the first glass of wine would be free, but if people wanted any more they could purchase it for themselves.

Charlie had suggested that we should just have a free bar for the evening, but she said that we should limit them to one free glass since we didn't want them over indulging until they had viewed the pictures. A compromise was reached when it was decided that waiters would top up the first drinks as the people conversed and that a second drink would be served towards the end of the viewing.

It was a fairly successful evening as six paintings were sold and a good number of limited edition prints, both framed and unframed. It seemed that Lucy's artistic career was getting off to a good star. My mother and I were pleased for her, while Lucy herself was as high as a kite by the end of the night.

Lucy

The fact that people were willing to spend several thousand pounds to purchase one on my painting and that I had sold six amazed me. It also made me very excited as I could see an unexpected future opening up for me. This was also emphasized by the fact that those who could not afford or were unwilling to buy a painting, were nevertheless prepared to fork out a three figure sum to purchase limited edition framed prints of those paintings and of others which were not on display. Even those that were unframed sold for sums between fifty and one hundred pounds.

By the end of the night I wasn't only excited I was also feeing quite horny and I knew that Charlie was going to get lucky when we reached our bedroom. However, I think he sensed this because at one stage during the course of the evening he came across to me and whispered to me that if I did not calm down there would be another result in store for me. I would in fact receive a good spanking.

This was hardly likely to help me to calm down. In fact, it just gave me further grounds to become more excited as it had been some time since he had given me a really good spanking. I felt that this was something I would look forward to since the castle walls were so thick that I would be able to express my appreciation without worrying too much about others hearing me.

There was an unexpected side effect to this threat by Charlie. Neither of us had been aware that Heather was close enough to hear what Charlie's threat. When he had moved away, she came up and informed me that she had heard Charlie's warning and it was obvious that she thought he had just been joking.